Do Over, or more aptly ‘Blinded by the White…’

s/v Alchemy with her new cloak of W-H-I-T-E

Well yesterday was THE Day we had been counting down to for two and a half or three weeks, the big unveiling of the work so far, and rolling s/v Alchemy back into the light…I can’t even remember at this point how long we have been in the paint shed.  s/v Alchemy originally landed in the paint shed when Turtle, a.k.a most incredible fiberglass artist/cookie baker, was in the midst of repairing our fiberglass on the rail after the rail had been sawed off.  It was raining every day and leaving the boat vulnerable to moisture and not leaving Turtle the time to work so into the shed she went.  This allowed us after Turtle’s work was complete to paint the entire topsides and deck without having to worry that the daily rains would put our work at risk or leave us unable to paint all together.  What a blessing that pop tent painting shed has been!

We finished the nonskid on Sunday…

We scrambled to finish replacing our port lights that we had started and actually been working on the morning before the storm that damaged s/v Alchemy.  We had three to replace yesterday and we completed them all.

Prior to lunch while we were still working the employees of the yard started to stage for our roll out. It included getting the appropriate jack stands and chains in place, prepping the tow bar and clearing the space for the roller dolly that was under us to be towed out by Alan, the owner of the yard’s, diesel pick up.

When they returned from lunch the process began.  It is so much fun to watch them move around thousands of pounds, tons, so carefully and efficiently.  At one point I would get butterflies whenever our boat was lifted from the water and put on the hard, but at this point, when the guys at Sailcraft, Inc. are doing it I am completely relaxed and just enjoy the show.

Burt and Alan have been working together forever.  When they move boats Alan drives the travel lift and Burt directs him where to go, waving his hands like the guys at the airport who direct the airplanes, but Burt interjects his slow and steady low octave voice, giving Alan pointers and verbal cues…I have a video and will have to edit it and post at a future time.

The move went with out a hitch (other than to the back of Alan’s truck) and then we were out in the light again.

So now we have the stripe on the hull, the boot stripe and the bottom to paint and we will be complete with the cosmetic work.  The projects we had planned for the summer have been all put on hold.  So as soon as we are finished with painting we will pick up the original list and start prioritizing again.

It was kind of a surreal day in that we started right back up where we left off with our port light replacement.  We had replaced three of the six port lights that Sunday right before the storm hit and while it has been many weeks since July 1st, with tons of hours of work and some amount of stress, yesterday it was if a time warp and magic had occurred…here we were right back from where we started but with a completely freshly painted boat and a set of new experiences that have forever changed our perspective.   We named our boat s/v Alchemy because it can be translated to refer to ‘transformation’.  She is living by her name.   While it hasn’t always been fun, and has been down right stressful at times, we have felt support from so many people and from Sailcraft, and there is so much to be grateful for.