July 8 to 21

Aylings Boatyard, Merrickville

44°55′7″ N 75°50′5″ W

After the fiberglass repairs were completed Santosha was filthy & covered in dust. It was time for a major cleanup & some detailing.

The hull was also in bad need of a thorough cleaning & wax job. Just doing the hull alone is roughly the equivalent of washing & waxing 10 cars – too much for an old guy like me, so I recruited Jaden, my grand-nephew from Ottawa to lend me a hand. Tall, young, strong & enthusiastic, he was exactly the kind of help that I needed!

Jay, the fiberglass guy was kind enough to give Jaden & I a tutorial on compounding & waxing a heavily oxidized hull. Then Jaden was off & running.

The results speak for themselves. Look at his reflection in that shiny hull! It was a lot of hard work! Jaden made a few extra bucks for his efforts & that will help him out as he heads off to his first year at Brock University in late August.

I attended to a variety of other projects while Jaden was focused on the hull. Top of the list was installing a new bow thruster because the original one had quit working at the end of the season last fall.

Finally Santosha was ready to go back in the water. I must confess that there were times when I never thought I would see the day….

Cheers!