Summer Project–Polishing the Hull

 

Our hull is painted with AWLGrip paint over black gel coat. The color is a mix of AWLGrip dark green and black and you can only see the green if it’s in direct sun light. Over the last 5 years in Mexico the hull had developed a grey smear on it from the hard water, particularly in Ensenada where they have the most brackish dock water we have ever seen. You might as well be washing your boat with sea water. We’ve tried scrubbing the hull with no luck and were afraid that the only solution might be to have it repainted. You can’t wax the paint, the wax will turn yellow over time.

I started searching the internet for help and found a thread on the Cruisers Forum on AWLGrip paint and it was recommended to use AWLCare polish on the paint to seal and restore it. I ordered some, at $60 per quart, but when we used it it only seemed to make it worse. Smearing the grey rather than removing it. After that I contacted the AWLGrip rep in California and sent him some pictures of the hull. He suggested that we polish the hull first with 3M Perfect-It rubbing compound to remove the water spots and dirt and then apply the AWLCare to seal the paint. We hired a local young man in the marina, Luis, to do the job and the results were fantastic. It looks like new paint! Here’s some before and after pictures.

 

Before -

 

 

Half and Half -

 

 

After -

 

 

Hopefully from now on all we’ll need to do is apply the sealer every 6 months to keep it looking this good.

 

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Another Tucson Road Trip

Technorati Tags: Mazatlan,Tucson,road trip

Another road trip to Tucson to pick up project supplies and parts. This was a big haul with 26 packages for us at the UPS mailbox store and another 10 items waiting at West Marine in Tempe. This time we house sat in Tucson at a very nice and comfortable home of some friends who were travelling up north. It was nice to stay in a house rather than a motel. It's like really living on land like everyone else and gives you a taste of what your missing. Love that high speed internet.

I guess you can tell you're not ready to move off of the boat when you are in a hurry to return to your home on the water after spending a week in a nice house. We're still boat people.

It's 850 miles from Maz to Tucson and another 175 to Phoenix so it's over a two thousand mile trip up and back. Going north we stayed in San Carlos at the Best Western, like last time, but I don't think we'll do it again. They've got a new "boss" and we had to make a 500 peso deposit because we paid in cash and they put us on the second floor and the a/c was located right next, like 6 inches, from the bed and blasted cold air on Linda all night despite her efforts to build a barrier out of a luggage rack and bath towels. We also had dinner at Tequila's restaurant that we used to like a lot when we had the boat here 4 years ago but now that place didn't seem so good. Maybe it's us. When we had the boat here we were newbies and enjoyed the place. Now after 4 years in Mexico San Carlos seems like a gringo town and not like the rest of Mexico. It's all a matter of perspective.

On the whole it was a good trip. The roads up north seemed beat up and the tolls get higher as you go south but they are working on the roads so maybe the money is going to a good cause.

Now that we have a boat load of parts the real work begins just as the hot weather kicks in.