A clean bottom (not Miles)

Well, actually it's not about changing diapers, but cleaning and painting the bottom of the boat. And after the last few weeks, I'll take a dirty diaper any day! It's a process that needs to be done every one to two years and we hadn't done it since we launched the boat in July 2009, so it was more than due. Levi and I and Josh (Maggie's boyfriend) came down to the boat and camped out on it while we worked.



The process involves lifting the boat out of the water with a huge crane, and pressure washing the bottom. We found a virtual 'Red Lobster' underneath with crabs, mussels, barnacles, clams, and even found a few shrimp! It took a few hours of scraping all the debris off and letting the boat dry out a bit. The next few days Levi and Josh and I were busy sanding the boat prepping it for new 'anti-fouling' paint. It's a layer of paint that's supposed to take the buildup of barnacles instead of them attaching directly to the Epoxy paint or worse, the fiberglass.

Once it was ready for new paint, we had a team of our friends that wanted to help paint, come down from Jerusalem and had a paint party, well actually more party than paint, because as soon as they finished, everyone was at the beach! It was a great help!
Emma and I painted a new red stripe at the waterline on Mehari, so now the 'station wagon of the seas' has a little more racy look. We'll see if it make us go any faster!

Speaking of which, our visas are up at the end of April, so our plans are to head north to Cyprus, so we'll be very busy moving back from Jerusalem and getting the boat ready to go, and anxious to see if we remember how to sail!

~Hems