Better late than never...

 Well, folks, I'm finally getting around to telling you about the 2011 Annapolis Sailboat Show. It was a LOT of fun!

I don't have a whole lot of pictures because it seemed more important to use my hands for my Pusser's Painkiller. For those of you not in the know, a Painkiller is a very tasty rum drink that includes pineapple juice, orange juice, maraschino cherries, an orange slice and.... some other stuff. Coconut I think. Anyway it's the breakfast of champions. I'm sure it was 5 o'clock somewhere.

I bought ONE THING all day: a discounted Henri Lloyd rain shell. Because my old one is from high school and the sleeves are a little short.

But the boat show isn't about buying stuff -- it's about walking around and seeing everything there is to see!

The one thing I was dying to see all day was a nice selection of ranges -- too bad none of the vendors brought any ranges. Seriously. I even confronted the people from Defender about it. And they said if I wanted to see ranges, I should have to experience unpacking them because they're very heavy.

But there were heads everywhere! And refrigerating units and anchors, oh my! Really? Not a range in sight?

I had to comfort myself with a lunch at Davis Pub in Eastport. It was the only thing to do. Greg had never been there. Did I mention Greg came to the boat show with me? He is pictured here with the post-lunch painkiller.

I found lots of interesting things, including a new way to have a door to the cabin, a self-setting anchor (not so sure if THAT works), stand-up paddle boards (you all know my obsession with that!), Lonseal floors, nesting cooking pots, custom-made latex mattresses (I wish!) and just about everything else you can imagine.

Oh yeah, there are boats there, too. But who looks at those?

We also saw this super cool line-making machine. Isn't that neat? We must have watched it for nearly 10 minutes. All those spools of line are doing a sort of maypole dance underneath the block in the top of the photo. Very cool. Especially when you're two painkillers in.

And finally toward the end of the day, we sat on the dock and watched the ducks. Just because we could and because Annapolis is fun.

I highly recommend a visit to the boat show -- it's a great day of entertainment.See you there in October 2012!

I'm floored...

Picture post to come from the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis -- I went with Greg and had a fabulous time. I looked all over for ranges, but I didn't see a single one.

What I did find was flooring.

Ladies and gentlemen, the beautiful Burmese teak interior of my boat is marred by a rotting faux teak and holly floor. It's.. well it's disgusting.

Sometimes when I step on said floor if I've spilled water or it's been raining and I've left a hatch open (yes, OK, I have occasional bouts of stupidity.)

I tripped last week and popped up a piece of said faux nightmare flooring and discovered that the subfloor is quite wet and nasty.

Fabulous.

Now, I will say that my father and I agree that teak and holly flooring looks like it belongs in a bowling alley. You can see mine below the table (a bad laminate-covered disaster):

You can also see in the photo below the aluminum outline around a hatch cover. Um, ew. (Sorry for the poor picture, I couldn't find a recent one).

Now that up there is what I want... lovely hatches inlaid with wood. Pretty teak and holly that isn't rotting.

But you'll never believe what the above photo is. It's Lonseal. Yes. Faux teak and holly. You may be stunned. It's not a real surprise that faux flooring looks better now than it did in 1983 when Misty was built. It's also antimicrobial. And you know I am totally down to the ground with anything antimicrobial on Misty. That girl is a mold factory.

Anyway, I ordered some Lonseal samples to check out. I was super impressed with their product at the boat show. My dad is working on ordering marine plywood we can use to re-do the sub-flooring and is investigating a way to inlay my hatches so that they don't stick up several millimeters from the floor. We need about two sheets of the plywood (which is more dense than regular plywood), some Lonseal (which needs to be ordered from Defender after we pick a color), something to seal the side of the sub-floor that touches the bilge. I also want to re-paint the bilge while I'm down there. Why not, right?

I'll let you know when I get the samples, but I'm pretty excited at the prospect of a new floor and I hope to get one in before winter. Cross your fingers!