Pilots’ Discretion being prepped for bottom paint in the Travel Lift

With literally days to go before our departure, we still have a few open items on our list of preparations. The largest of those items is to have our boat hauled out of the water to have a new coat of bottom paint applied. The bottom paint protects the hull and running gear from barnacle buildup which in turn can have a dramatic effect on overall boat efficiency ( think 33% reduction in fuel mileage in extreme cases.) It also provides us one final opportunity to go over all of our engineering systems prior to departure so it is an effort worth the cost and labor. Yesterday morning, Theresa and I were at the marina early to get underway for Pittman Yacht Services, a dry dock facility that is equipped with a travel lift crane of suitable capacity to literally pick up our 45000 lb boat and place it on a set of blocks out of the water to facilitate our maintenance efforts.

It was a beautiful morning on the river and although the trip was brief, we enjoyed the opportunity to take Pilots’ Discretion out for a quick trip.