I was particularly surprised at how long it takes to paint a rounded pipe ladder. Everytime I thought I had gone around an entire section, I’d check another angle and find two or three places I’d missed. So there’s a lot of head-bobbing involved.

This was taken after my daily bath in mineral spirits. Missed a spot…again.

And just so we may immortalize the gallon-of-paint-on-the-deck episode, I marked a memorial site on the ladder down into the lazarette:

and his lovely wife, Michelle, were in town this week and got to come play on the boat with us. He may be 6’2″, but he’ll always be my little cousin. He and his brother were the closest thing I had to brothers growing up ~ I spent summers with them in the Midwest. It was awesome seeing him again and I simply adore Michelle.

We anchored out overnight and enjoyed good wine, good food, and a few stars. Captain B provided us with a lovely cruise back into Lake Union in which we lounged on the top deck. I was ordered to kick back and relax with my family, which I gladly did. It’s a good life…

Back to sanding, painting, and varnishing now as there’s less than a week until the Wooden Boat Festival. Look for new adventures starring Kyle and the Boyz during that weekend! Plus repeat appearances by my fave crew buddy Greg and of course, Industrial Strength Dean.

Our very dear friends Patrick and Karen were married aboard Katherine Jane last night. After days of frightful rain and winds (and fretting on everyone’s part), we timed it perfectly with sunbreaks and dramatic clouds for the sunset ceremony. Their children were involved in the ceremony and the pastor had the marvelous idea that he would sit on the windlass and have the bride & groom facing everyone, which was really neat. It was beautiful.

There were 30 people onboard and I was shocked at how uncrowded that felt. I thought that number would be on the high end of comfortable and that we might be packed shoulder-to-shoulder for the ceremony, but there was lots of extra room. After the ceremony, we cruised around and had a great party. Congratulations to the newlyweds!!!

And I seriously considered it. But Brock was off to work, it’s a glorious day, and I have a boat to make perfect before the Wooden Boat Festival. So I hopped out of bed at 8, got showered up (thinking to myself, “why are you showering before you work all day?” Bit of foreshadowing there, I should pay more attention to myself), and got the sides of the deck taped up so that I could paint.

Brock had brought home a brand new gallon of Interlux High Gloss White last night, so I was ready to go. He mentioned that while he was at the store, the clerk shook the paint and they had messed with it a bit. Did they take the lid off? We’ll never know. I certainly hadn’t removed it. Do you see where we’re going with this yet? Me? Gravity? Lids not secure?

Yeah. An entire gallon. Upside down. Photo taken halfway through cleanup as my brain thinks “Yeah, wow, this is bloggable.” Stupid brain. I think it was just taking a holiday from the shock. Running around hyperventilating, finding rags, swabbing what I could, keeping it OUT of the river. Down to the lazarette, only to discover the empty bottle of paint thinner. Who the hell keeps empty bottles??? Man, I hate that! I got it mopped as best I could, ran to the hardware store for thinner, and scooted back to the boat as fast as I could, leaving little toe and hand prints wherever I went. I swear, I try to clean without getting into what I’m cleaning, but it’s just not a skill I have. My flip-flops are toast.

On the plus side, it all came up without much fuss, just a lot of rags and spirits. I absolutely adore the Top Secret coating that we put on the decks over the CPES. The paint literally wiped right off. Whew! We have a few toe prints that dried and we’ll have to sand lightly, but overall, it’s fine. All’s well that ends well, but it is now 1:00, I have no paint, and I should have just slept in…