New Paint Job

April 7th we started painting the hull of Splendid Isolation.  

We had been discussing colors for a long while now and decided that we want to go lighter than the original blue she was.  At $30 a day on the hard, we needed to work fast.  With our extremely tight budget and time frame, our only option was Interlux Brightside.  Which is a polyurethane, we wanted to go for a harder epoxy, but that was out of the question.

 We mixed one quart of Largo Blue, one quart of Yellow, and one pint of White which came out to be the exact color we wanted! And, just enough for 2 coats on the whole boat! 

we were told to roll the paint on with extra fine foam rollers.

which for some reason bubbled and ran. 

so we ended up painting the whole boat, two coats, with 3 inch foam brushes by hand!

Claire and I are both impressed and extremely pleased with our new paint job.

the sunflower yellow will be getting buffed as soon as we get the time.

we raised the water line

I removed the outboard mount.

We will be using the motor well in the aft lazaratte from now on. (that rectangle hole you see there)

I will be constructing a swim step platform with a flip-down ladder off of the brackets left behind.

April 8th I hand drafted stencils.  The font is based off of Captain Howdy. 

We carefully cut them out and traced them onto the hull.

Claire insisted be use 1 Shot lettering enamel for our new logo.

Our friend Juanita recommended this paint and it worked really well.

We went with Vermillion.

Everything we own.

Even though we have not sailed our vessel to North Carolina yet, we thought it was appropriate to put our home town as our hailing port.

We plan to register the boat through the Coast Guard in the future, instead of by state.

Our new paint job was based around their requirements.

Marc and I noticed that the VHF antenna fell off during highway transit, so a new one was installed

our old one may look beat, but at one point we were communicating over 85 miles!

let’s hope this bad boy can perform to our standards

we put our longshaft 4 stroke Mercury 5HP in the motor well

with the outboard in here it is hidden from theft, lower in the water so less bogging out in choppy conditions, and closer to the rudder for snappier turns.

April 9th, Wednesday we were ready to launch!

We came from Guaymas, Mexico.  Stranded in the middle of Texas.  Knocked out new bottom paint, new hull paint, stepped the mast, cleaned the interior, and launched; all in a weeks time!

Claire getting the last bottom paint on where the stands were

After almost a whole year, she is back in the water!

we spent the night tied off at Clear Lake Marine Center

our new home is that tiny island at the very bottom center of this photo

Claire took the helm and led us to our new home

here we are!

we have had countless visitors stop by, asking our story and complimenting our home!

we sure are glad we aren’t “that white boat”.