Sanding

My sister and I arrived this Sunday to boat suspended fifteen feet in the air. Dan had hauled it to check out the hull and decided it needed a paint job. Now, three days later, every muscle in my body hurts from power sanding ten hours a day. But it's the good kind of hurt.

The first morning, Monday, Alice and I both promptly woke up to the sound of Dan grinding on the keel of the Leeway with a rotational grinder. After we came out, he immediately put me to work on sanding down the hull. The Leeway had four layers of paint that had to be sanded through to get to the original gel coat it came out of the factory with: two thick white ones, a gray one, and a “baby puke yellow” one (credit to Dan). My task was to be sanding the starboard side, along with murdering the tacky dolphin on it:



Here's me at the start:



And here's me the next day with my task completed:



After a long day of hard work we each take our turn taking a shower and usually go out to eat. When the night is complete, we wearily climb up a fifteen foot ladder to sleep until the next morning. The ladder can be a bit daunting when all your muscles ache:



Today, we completed all the touch sanding around areas where the power sanders couldn't reach and rinsed the boat down. Tomorrow morning, we'll be getting up bright and early to wipe her down so she'll be ready to paint. Here's a nice picture of our living quarters (in shambles) to finish off the night: