This photo is of a painting/relief that our lovely niece Emily made for us. It looks great on the bulkhead above the sink where our old puffin painting was.
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We spent the last few days painting her bottom. "Who's bottom?” you might ask. Well HER bottom, of course. We stripped her, roughed her up, popped her blisters, applied makeup, and rolled her 'til she was wet.
We were dismayed to see so many blisters, but we got after them like ferrets in a prairie dog town, and by the end we had a pretty smooth hull.
Tom, our winter boat-minder stopped by to see the progress and lend moral support. His son Brennan stopped by to stomp in the mud puddles.
The dust from the bottom paint and all the epoxies probably set the planet back a few eons, but she's black and she's beautiful - and she's done.
Note the blue face on the astronaut.
Throughout the three days work, we splurged on a hotel stay since Blain probably would end up with extra broken bones if he'd tried the ladder. Chance was reunited with carpet, too. And he was happy.
Once safely back in the water, Blain took off for Bellingham to drop off the car and see the Dr., and Mo cleaned and waxed the deck until her arms almost fell off. We're shipping the car to Juneau in late July, so we can have ground transportation. It'll be bikes until then.
Blain is waddling around sans crutches and can walk the dog some. The ankle is stiff, and the muscles are, well, missing, so it will be a long road to full blast again. But he can get around on deck and up and down.
He took the down time to write up an article to a sailing magazine on inflatable kayaks. If published, it would be his first. Fingers are crossed.
It's exciting to look northward again. We might head to Alaska this week.
