The Finishing Touches on Libra II

Editor’s Note: This blog was originally written on October 30, 2017. I hesitated to post it then because the name change on the boat was not complete. I didn’t want to jinx the process, or “ripple the water” if you will, so I resisted posting this blog until the name change was complete. Well, the name change became complete, which ironically opened a whole new can of worms. After many hoops to jump through and several deadlines narrowly completed, I’m happy to report that I am now at ease to publish this blog because everything is complete. I finally learned last week that everything was finalized, and then recently remembered I had this blog in queue. For those keeping track at home, that is a 15 month delay on publishing. So without further delay… 

As I type this the finishing touches should be complete on the Libra II. It’s a Sunday night (actually Monday morning) and the weather was perfect all Sunday afternoon. As such the boat should have received its final paint job and be ready for the water in the morning. We shall soon find out. But, wow, looking back at the day we pulled the Libra II out of the harbor – we’ve come a long way!

Ready to see the completed makeover? 

Finishing Touches

Before that final paint job the guys at the boatyard had a few last projects to complete. Here you can seem them installing a durable vinyl coating to the gunwale of the boat. This is the high-impact area where divers backroll into the water. Without the vinyl it would begin to look quite beat up in short order. And we surely don’t want this to look beat up anytime soon. Ladies and Gentleman, meet our newly remodeled boat – 

Oh man, doesn’t that look good?! 

After the redo on the paint job we enlisted our neighbor Willy to put his vinyl graphics expertise to work. I was quite pleased with the way this option turned out. It looks far better than that paint job did… Oh my that was rough! 

With the boat complete and ready for water we begin to head for ocean blue. But wait… This is Mexico, it cannot possibly be that easy…right?!

Ah yes, the dreaded flat tire. By the looks of it the boatyard had moved the boat on the flat tire – the tire was destroyed and it wasn’t repairable. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s an oddball size and proved to be very difficult to locate a new one.

Oh you thought the flat tire was the only slowdown? Hardly. It seems our boat painter didn’t feel like putting the boat squarely back on the trailer. Just a minor hassle I suppose. Once we gathered enough of the nearby labor we were able to lift the boat and place it properly onto the trailer. But really take a look closely at those above images. If I hadn’t noticed that I wonder how far down the road I would have made it before the boat fell off the trailer. But also look how nicely finished the boat is in those images. Corners painted and sealed quite nicely. 

Despite the trailer hassles we made it with a completed boat safely back to the water.

And we renamed it…

Mental Floss

For those curious, Mental Floss comes from the Jimmy Buffett song of the same title on the Banana Wind album. Naturally it is a song about cleaning about the brain and how it is often needed. I thought that was rather fitting for scuba diving with Salty Endeavors. 

Don’t forget to floss everyday!