With the eternal passion of a thousand fiery suns...

Those who know me know a simple truth: I hate painting. And not in the simple "I hate doing laundry but when I'm out of socks I'll suck it up" kind of way. I really really hate painting. It's messy, tedious, and never turns out the way I want it to. With the eternal passion of a thousand fiery suns, that is how much I hate and loath painting. This may be why I married a scenic artist. She loves it so I'll never have to touch a brush.

When this project started Rachele got excited about the prospect of painting the Phantom in bright shiney new colors. And I was more than willing to let her own that step entirely. Then fate stepped in. Much to the benefit of her career and our lives she received a long over due call from her union to go to Portland and work as an artist on the new NBC series "Grimm." How could anyone pass up such an amazing opportunity? The only problem was that it was time to paint the bottom of the boat. We are already a week past when I promised to be finished with the stands. I needed to be done under it and get the whole jobby back on the trailer. With the family painter gone that only left one option: I have to pick up that cursed brush.

So I picked Rachele's brain about what I needed to do to slather on the bottom paint. I got the brush, drop cloths, thinner, acetone, mask, everything.

Fancy new high end brushes
After sanding the whole boat I taped off the edge of the waterline along the sides, stern, and bow prepping the whole jobby. From there I had the paint shaken at the local Home Despot and began slapping it on. I figured out quickly that anti fouling bottom paint is sticky, gooey, and quick to make a mess. I used the old bow seat foam as a cushion and crawled under to get the whole bottom coated.

While the paint dried our friend the Unsinkable Kate Jordan Rivera came over and helped finish the interior wood and get the keel guard installed. We also mixed up the new topside paint and threw some on to test. It's a much deeper blue than the old. I like it.

The bottom paint curing. Tape will come off tomorrow

The new blue.

I finished the second coat of the bottom paint today. Saturday we'll be able to get the boat back on the trailer and finish the inside and fire up the new fuel tanks and batteries.

Soon.......