Hull ceramic coating complete… Or is it?

Monday 8 Nov, re-launch 2021, HHN day 40: Ceramic coating on hull continues. Challenges with FedEx. Car swap. Gift of Bourbon. Outboard bracket installed. Possible change-of-mind regarding ceramic.

Monday morning and we were hoping to see some movement on the status of our shipments from Sweden. Both the HR-Part shipment and the new Nardi dive compressor are waiting on more information for customs clearance, one in Memphis, one in New Jersey. The last days of last week we had tried every which way possible to communicate with FedEx, asking what additional info they needed. Each time we connect to a support person (probably in India by the sounds of it) we get a different story. And this morning is no different. The agent tells us one is on the way (which it turns out not to be) and the other needs a toxic chemical certification. Whatever, it’s seriously annoying they don’t communicate proactively with us.

With the status of the shipments unknown we call the marina office and defer our launch date to next week. Once afloat in the marina, the cost is triple than being in the yard. So, we really need to ensure we are ready to go within a few days of launching. The way FexEx is playing, it could be at least a week before our shipment gets released from customs.

Early morning, Ray is here varnishing the outboard bracket he installed yesterday. And we have a chat while I am next to him finishing re-installing the conductor wire that links the backstay HF antenna to the radio equipment inside the boat.

Later in the morning, Alison arrives to pickup her car (that she loaned us) and drop off her husband Ken’s car. Thanks to them we have had use of a car all the time we have been here. They are such a nice couple and so very generous. We chat for a while. They had been heading to Antigua with their catamaran, but a crew member had not arrived from UK. Hence, they changed plans to hop down the US coast instead, and spend most of the winter in Bahamas. So it’s quite possible we will meet up with them along the way somewhere.

Talking of generous, another fan of our YouTube channel, Steve, arrives to pay his compliments and gifts us a bottle of bourbon. You know, anyone who says Americans are not friendly or generous clearly have never lived here. There is no way we would get strangers coming to the boat or to talk to us, let alone bring gifts, in Europe, or anywhere else in the world come to that, like we do in the USA. We feel quite humbled.
Steve has an interesting story. He is just getting a new mast, rigging and sails. I ask what happened. He tells us a story of hitting the lifting bridge in East River (east side of Manhattan) last year. The bridge operator insisted it was 100ft clearance, and it ended up being only 64ft! This sent shivers down my spine because we also passed under that same lifting bridge in 2018 and we were also worried about the height. Especially with 5 kts of current pushing us towards it.
What is more shocking is that Steve tells me the guy you speak to on the VHF is not actually at the bridge. In fact, he cannot even see boats as they wait for it to lift, nor as boats pass under it. Anyway, he got a new rig and sails, but lost a year’s worth of sailing and probably some hair over the incident!

For the rest of the afternoon I am still toiling on the hull and by 4pm I declare it done. Polished and ceramiced. That was some marathon!

The ceramic I’m using this year is one that I bought off EBay for $7 per small bottle. Designed for use on car detailing. But for the transom, given is gets so much UV light on it, I decided to use the last few drops of the very expensive Ceramic Pro which I had left over from 2 years ago. Big mistake! It goes on soooo much smoother than the cheap Ebay stuff, and it leaves a hardened surface that looks like glass. I cannot believe the difference.
So I decide to call Karen from RedSky Detailing, who applied the Ceramic Pro 2 years ago, to see if she has any product she can sell us. Because I really want this stuff on the cabin tops, not the cheapy Ebay ceramic. She tells me she no longer uses Ceramic Pro and has changed to using UndrDog ceramic from Texas. She will look and let me know in the morning if she can spare me some.
So, no sooner have I celebrated finishing the hull, than 1 hour later I’m considering doing it all over again with this new product. I know, I know, I’m stark raving bonkers!

In the evening we head to Edgewater for Amazon returns. And at the same time do some shopping in Weis supermarket. We haven’t really shopped for 2 weeks now. Oana has been doing an amazing job using up all the previous provisioning, most of which is just out of date, or about to be.