Stap Isi resting on its mooring again.
On Monday I re-installed the prop shaft and reconnected all the bits and pieces. Everything went back together about as easily as it had come out. Then I sanded the areas that had been patched and gave those areas a coat of bottom paint. The next day I and two of the PBT workmen gave the bottom a final coat of paint and lastly we let the rudder down so that we could give the rudder shaft a nice coat of grease. At last, one week after we hauled out, Stap Isi was ready for the water.
Unfortunately the water was not ready for Stap Isi. By the time everything was done on Tuesday the tide had gone out and rather than take the chance of not having enough water to launch, we decided to wait until Wednesday morning when tide was scheduled to be much higher.
Wednesday I got to the boat and clambered aboard. The manager said that going down was much easier and faster than going up – that they just lowered the boat into the water and eventually all the blocks holding it up would just float free. And that is exactly how it went. The slip operator reversed the drum holding the spool of 1 inch wire and the cart on which the boat sat slid freely into the water. Eventually I heard the sound of large blocks of timber bumping along the side and we were once again floating. A couple of guys swam out and herded the blocks to shore, I fired up the engine, and motored gently back over to our mooring.
I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally have been able to make these repairs. For awhile it looked like we were going to just end up with a derelict boat, one that we could live on but not much else. But now, as an answer to many prayers, we have a functional sail boat, ready to take us back out to the Ramu or anywhere else we might need to go.