Clean and Exhausted...

Wild Blue is clean, I am exhausted. I decided to try sanding and compounding the color stripe on the boat. First, the wet sanding...


I am a "wax it twice a year" kinda guy. This was a new tack for me: wet sanding with 400 grit, then 600. Buffing it back to a shine with a 2,000 grit compounding and a buffer. Notice the brown stain at the lower bow - sometimes called "a mustache". Frankly, a pretty girl like Wild Blue should not have a mustache.

I worked in small sections along the color: sanding, sanding, buffing...

Yeah, that is shiny - you can see my reflection in the blue stripe!

Atwood Hull Cleaner on the white part eliminated the brown stain...


It's potent stuff: you have to wear rubber gloves and be careful to not let it drip on the trailer or tires... but, it does a great job! I wanted to get that task done because, Monday morning, Wild Blue goes to the boat yard to get fresh bottom paint... and this stuff is not good on the ablative paint that I use.

It was a cool morning (for here), and a perfect afternoon: low 70s, gentle breeze, lots of sunshine, and low humidity - a good day to get this done. It would have been a great day to launch and go play on the water, but I am trying to be patient. The boat yard is telling me 3 to 4 days to get the bottom sanded and painted... weather permitting... and the weather is supposed to be decent.

After buffing out the boat, I can see why my friend with the boat shop told me 3 hours to do the job: it took me 3 1/2, and I was working hard at it the whole time. What I didn't expect: by the end of that session I could hardly lift my arms! I thought I was in pretty decent shape... but I was using some muscles that apparently weren't used to this kind of work. Rubber arms when it came time to work on the brown stain on the hull... after a needed break.