Wow! This year has flown by! We have taken ATB out of the water! It happened sooner than we planned but that is ok. The doc where she was sitting was destroyed by a few recent storms. Not the entire dock just the uncovered portion. So, the marina told everyone on the uncovered dock that we had to move. Since ATB nor our other boat, Braveheart does not run they had to be moved by barge and lifted out of the water. Of course, I was in class and Wes was at work when they moved them both so no video. Ugh! I really wanted to see it, but she will be out of the water again. Here are some photos of ATB out the water. I really did not comprehend how big she was until she was out on the hard dock.
ATB is a full keel boat. That is one of the reasons she is a great open ocean cruiser. Our first job is to sand and repaint the keel. Wes has taken the rudder off and we are looking for bronze housing for the propeller shaft to go through. We decided to go up to north Georgia to what I called the boat graveyard. It was a junk yard for boats. That was an interesting trip. We had one of the employees take us through the yard to see if we could find an old bronze holding. It was creepy walking through there and it went on for miles but we did not have any luck so we will just have to purchase a housing.
O dock is our new home for Braveheart. It will be ATB’s home as well when we finish working on the keel. I cannot remember if I told you about Braveheart. He is a 37-foot Hunter. One of our neighbors on our old dock who originally owned Braveheart passed away and his son sold it to us because he lives in Michigan. We have stripped him of everything that we could get out of him- a toilet, lots of navigation electronics, teak wood, the mast, and the engine. So, we have gotten out money’s worth out of him and will be installing all of that into ATB.
Enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday!
Sara & Wes