Yes, we have indeed been spending hours each day in the blistering heat of Stones Boat Yard in Nanaimo. Without boring you with the history I can tell you we have switched our allegiance to this Nanaimo boat yard and severed our desire to stay close to home for haul-outs at the Maple Bay Boat Yard, currently being run by Valet Yacht Services. Enough said for now.
Stones Boat Yard provides all the services we need, with friendly respectful management and staff. SSpirit was lifted out of the water and placed in their yard a few days ago and, since then, they have cleaned up her bronze prop shaft and propeller, sprayed the works with zinc and replaced the actual zincs. They have also pressure washed her bottom and applied new bottom paint. Hand polishing of her hull sides was completed Saturday and she is a shiny, spiffy, much younger than her age looking lady. All this work is in preparation for our upcoming summer cruise. I've included a few 'before and after' photos fyi.
There's also a photo of the SS Minnow. The name should be familiar to most of you as I'm sure we all used to enjoy the 'skipper’ and Gilligan's antics on our old black and white TVs. Yes, the owner of this vessel is quite certain it was the one used for the initial clips in the show. Who knows... but it could be. It's the right age and has the same general outline.
That's it for now... will check in once we're underway and, hopefully, share a few interesting tidbits with you. Take good care.. Bye for now... CJ
