3 Days Before We Splash Agápe

This is Agápe

Sometimes I wonder what I’d be doing if I wasn’t doing this...but my mind is broken or something because I just can’t seem to find one thing to better fill my time, energy & soul. So, I digress. 

Agápe with a bare bottom and 500+ ground out blisters.

Today has officially been one year since we pulled a dirty, hairy, swamp monster of a boat, loaded with blisters out of the water. I’m seriously at a loss for more words here when I say it’s been a project. That’s fo sho! We came into this very new, we’ve both done a few boat projects before, half way anyways. So this one, took us for surprise at every corner. We really wanted to do it right and we didn’t want to cut any corners. So we didn’t. 

This is after 5 months of hard work & barrier coat on the bottom

It has been interesting to experience all of the emotions of a refit. Everything from pure ecstasy and excitement to pure stress and hopelessness and everything in between. The worst of those emotions were probably during the first phase of our project. We were fixing over 600 blisters on the bottom of the hull. Grinding, sanding, fiberglass, epoxy, rinse and repeat. We did this every day for 5 months. If you can imagine the worst Groundhog Day ever, this would be it. 

Meet the silver bullet, primer all over the boat.

On the flip side, the best of these emotions would have to be seeing the new Awlgrip color being sprayed on the boat, the newly reworked motor going in, and getting the bottom paint on. I’m writing this a couple days before we splash her back in the water. So I know that will sure be a moment of pure joy!

Finally!! Our beautiful Stars & Stripes Awlgrip paint job!

I don’t think I realistically thought about how much sanding was involved in this project. Every time I turned around it seemed like we were sanding the entirety of the boat again. Tired doesn’t begin to explain it. Countless number of nights we came in so exhausted we took our clothes off and just passed out. Time management is key to these kinds of projects, but I still haven’t figured out half of what that means yet. So many early mornings and late nights. And yes, blood, sweat and tears went into this dream. 

Night time sanding to avoid 98^F during the day

But it is our dream and so no matter how many days, bruises and broken backs it took to get here, we can look back at it all and be so proud of our accomplishment. All the hard work is finally starting to pay off. 

Agápe as a new, old boat!!

The insanity has calmed a bit in the fact that we now have smaller, more manageable micro projects to finish up. And then we can go sailing. That right there my friends is what makes all of this worth every second of pain. And if any of you have sailed before, then you know what I mean. Pure bliss of the open water, there’s nothing else like it. 

Agápe has a clipper bow and we love the wood scroll traditional look.

So we need to remember, during large projects, we could’ve done better at maintaining a healthier existence. We slacked on self care, food, sleep, & laundry. Let that be a lesson learned. Just one of so many, past, present, and future. Looking back we could’ve done so many things different, but no matter, we did learn a ton. Most of all we learned how much it actually takes to refit a boat. While it was a great experience, I don’t know if either of us would willingly take on another large project all at once. 

We are sooo grateful for all you wonderful people!

At the end of the day I wouldn’t change anything for the world. We have met the most wonderful people along the way. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us along this journey, we couldn’t have done it without you. We had some amazing people come into our lives right when we needed them to. We are eternally grateful. 

We can’t wait to see Agápe splash in a few more days. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly. 

Much peace & love to everyone

✌️❤️