A Dirty Ass Boat!

Nirvana covered in filth!

While I hate to admit it, I must tell the truth ... we've allowed Nirvana to become one dirty ass boat!  We've got a ton of good excuses ... renovating our house last summer for selling, finishing just in time to get damage from Hurricane Isaac in August, finishing repairs again right before winter, renovating our rental this past Spring, than Ken fell off a ladder ... whew!  Sounds like good justification for neglecting our boat, right?

While Nirvana's boot stripe and canvas are green, we weren't digging the green growing on the hull and in the cockpit.  The picture above and the picture below don't capture just how green and dirty Nirvana was, but that was probably intentional on my part ... so embarrassing!

Anyway, Ken's almost recovered from his injuries and after resting on Saturday he felt up to pressure-washing Nirvana on Sunday.  Yes, it was Father's Day ... call me a slave driver!  Actually, Ken was just as anxious to  get our sailboat cleaned up as I was.  Neither one of us makes a big deal out of Mother's Day or Father's Day, and we did have plans to take my dad to dinner later with our daughter and her fiancee.

We got up early Sunday, pulled out the pressure washer and soap, and Ken began working his butt off while I watched ... for just a little while!  Ken figured he'd pressure-wash our deck first and there wasn't much I could do.  Once he started on the boat, I followed behind him with a soft brush/mop.

Pressure washer and cleaning supplies ... she looks pretty good from a distance!  The trees are great for shade, but they make a mess on our boat.  Did you notice how big the frogs get here in Louisiana?

You're probably also noticing our pitiful sail cover.  We had a new sail pack made last year, and soon Ken will be making some lazy jacks and installing them with our new sail pack.  We'll also be adding our head sail and our bimini that we removed for Hurricane Isaac.  Crazy how time has gotten away from us!

About five hours later, Nirvana was so clean she seemed to be glowing!  The teak already looks much better and is now ready for another application of CWF (we missed last year's application), and our fairly new ports are polished and shiny.  I went inside the boat to wipe up any water from leaks  ... other than by the companionway there was nothing to wipe!  We're really happy with our ports and I'll be writing another post soon about some great Lexan cleaner/polish that we found.  After not being touched for over a year, they look great!

The cockpit is clean, so we look forward to hanging out here after work and listening to music while enjoying the view.  We used to do that a lot last year until ... well, you know our excuses.  Notice the places we have silver tape ... that's where our winches need to go after they're cleaned (directions here).

Oh and notice the guy on the raft ... who is he?!

I can't tell ya how good it feels to work on Nirvana and bring her back to life!   We still need to change the oil, fluids and filters before we leave the dock but we know we'll be on the water soon.  Woo hoo!

Nirvana cleans up pretty good doesn't she?

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!