It has been a pretty quite fall sailing season. We seemed to be paying the piper for the the absolutely stunning weather that we had in May and June. September and October seemed to be a cycle of light and variable winds with interludes of strong stormy winds. After a nice 40 kt storm blew through the anchorage it became readily apparent that the fall haul out was well past due.
With a Saturday afternoon haul out appointment the weather was, of course, gorgeous. But since we were between storms I elected to get out to the boat around 8 am and we had a quite, gentle row to the haul out dock.
But it was very tempting to go sailing on such a great fall day.
But today was a preview of what, hopefully, all fall haul out days will look like in the future. We arrived at the haul out dock 4 hours before our appointment. This left plenty of time to take everything off the boat and clean and prep it for haul out. Which I think saves us money in the long run since we use less of the lift operators time.
The haul out went flawlessly as usual. Mitch, our lift guy, was his usual professional self and made quick work of our small, light boat. He did however elect to drop our mast in the water which we hadn't done before. Still quick and easy.
There were two thing that I was anxious to see as we were lifted from the water. The condition of the ePaint EP-ZO bottom paint after a full season. And a clearer view (you can read about my underwater inspection here) of the keel damage from my encounter with the Yellow Island reef.
Here are the photos of the bottom paint as we were lifted clear of the water.
I won't go into great detail on the bottom paint since already posted a bit about it on Tim's Plastic Classic forum here, but I was hoping for a bit cleaner bottom than this after a full season of sailing.
The very good news was getting to see the keel damage (or incredible lack of) after Mitch pressure washed the slime away.
I know that I have said it before, but we were very, very lucky to get off this easy after hitting a nasty reef at 4 kts. Tough old boat.
And one last picture with Bolero ready to strap down and drive home.
All in all it was a great season of sailing with Bolero. Unfortunately it was also a bit hard on the ole girl. But she is tucked into her boat shed for the winter and come March or April I plan to go at it hard to repair and refresh as needed.
Now I just need to finish cleaning and storing the piles of gear.
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