The Secret We've Been Keeping 😧 (Calico Skies Sailing, Ep.176)

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This episode starts with a sweet recap of the bottom progress we’ve made on Calico Skies and the steps it took to get us here: Multiple rounds of fairing, sanding, glassing – then more sanding and fairing. We take viewers back to the beginning with all 71 blisters to present day where we’ve got several coats of barrier paint on and she already looks like a completely different boat.

The next step is to give the keel some more attention which Bill does by applying 5200 which will bridge the gap between the led keel and fiberglass hull. This permanent type of seal will fill the gap but also provide flexibility between the led and fiberglass which move differently. Then he fairs and sands it to prepare it for barrier coat.

Next we head back to the States for Grace to attend a doctors appointment and to pick up a new 420 amp solar panel from SunPowered Yachts. Upon arrival to Mexico we unload our new panel then take a quick walk to the OXO for water. We can’t drink the water in Penasco and Bill forgot that we were on empty before heading up to the US.

We’ve mentioned that Grace has been up in the US quite a lot recently attending doctors appointments and we flash back to one week ago while up in AZ. Grace discusses a diagnosis she received about a month ago that she hasn’t shared yet publicly for various reasons (mainly that things moved quickly and one thing led to another and all of it was unexpected). While the good news is we caught DCIS at a very early stage the bad news is Grace will need surgery and boat work and cruising plans will take a big back seat to her health. Surgery date and recovery time are unknown but the estimate is 1 to 1.5 months to recover from the mastectomy taking us into April.

Back in Penasco on the drive to the boat yard we discuss the complications of expected medical issues while cruising. Thankfully because Calico Skies is hauled out that makes travel much simpler since systems are offline. It means we can drive up and down at a moments notice and of all the places we’ve cruised in 7 years we are in a great position. Proximity to the states, family living in Scottsdale these are huge benefits.

At the yard we work on fitting our 3 new solar panels with the help of Super Ryan who steps in. We are interrupted for a brief early morning tequila tasting with the yard Manager Sal. Then its back to Bill and Ricky our welder bantering and discussing next steps.

Bill then gives viewers, and Grace who’s been away, an update on the the progress that has been made to the arch in the last week plus. The big improvement is reduction of side by side play which was achieved by installing cross bars and welding the feet to the stern. We show viewers how much movement the arch initially had when we stress tested it and how little it has now. Then we discuss all of the other improvements which are bars for our paddle board and a welded D ring for the ratchet straps for the dinghy to name a couple.

0:00 Intro
0:10 Recap of Prepping for Bottom Paint
2:02 5200 at the Keel Joint & Fairing the Keel
5:21 Sun Powered Yacht Solar Panel Delivery
6:55 Late Night Water Run
9:39 Grace Health Update
16:40 Drive to Yard
18:52 3 New 410w SunPowered Yachts Solar Panels
20:40 Tequila Tasting at Cabrale’s Boat Yard
21:32 Arch Update
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