Taking the plunge!

[ludacrous999b]

Here is a step by step of what I did today, my last two posts were kinda jumbled.

1. Used a lemon and salt combination to try to remove some oxidation on the aluminium frame of the drivers side windshield, some success but it will take FOREVER to try to do it with this natural kind of cleaner, not to mention a lemon trees worth of lemons. Worked the drivers side and started washing it down and...

2. Crawled into the cuddy and sprayed that down, then decided shag carped is prolly holding a little tiny itty butty bit of mold... Started ripping it out, found 9 abandoned mud dobber nestes and a lot of collected dirt under the carpet. Got from the bow to starboard side. As I was ripping it out i noticed a goodly amount of dust flying out. Then some insane itching. Well crap, so I abandoned the carpet pull and started....

3. I removed the wood trip in the cuddy and the guide rails on top of the bow. Worked on removing the deck cleats, nav lights and old bow railing bases. They started crumbling as I tried to remove them. Pain to remove the screws with those little stop tabs on the bottom side when its just me there...

4. Decided to remove the dust and dirt from the cuddy and spray it down the bilges. Noticed the anchor storage bin does not have a bilge drain in it... Smart. Sprayed from the front to the back working all the dirt down, past the live well bins, into the engine bilge.

5. Mechanic needs me to clean the grease out of the bilge area so I started spraying down the area and noticed my drain plug kept getting clogged so I let it finish draining and pulled 12-15 big handfuls of dirt and debris (all slimy and oily) from the area under the engine and tossed it into the garbage (environmentalism and all) then started spraying down the bilge and using the old oil dip stick with it's curvy bottom to dig the blockages out. It's still a little dirty down there but I'll get some dawn, plug up the drain plug hole and fill her up to the bottom of the engine to eat some of that grease.

6. Noticed the poor drainage design from the deck drain holes, to the aft area bilge, the port sides drain hole from the aft to the engine transom drain has been eaten away, there must be 4 inches of scum under that hole. I am going to have to cut through the decking and see the extent of the damage. The starboard side seems to drain well still and has not gone through to the lower bilges. Seems good and solid too.

7. And as stated in the previous post polished the hull some and worked on oxidation removal. Still don't know how I'm going to get the underside of the boat. I'm not lucky as some of you fine folks. This is a town-home and I'm lucky enough to be able to do it in the driveway without the neighbors going bonkers. Heck thats why I don't want to do any sanding or grinding if I can help it. The dust would end up on all the neighbors cars. So I have no room to lift the boat, nor a tree to do it from etc. etc. etc.

Questions comments greetings of the season?