{"id":11049,"date":"2022-06-03T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T05:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=11049"},"modified":"2022-06-03T10:19:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T07:19:22","slug":"in-the-buff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2022\/06\/03\/in-the-buff\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Buff"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 36\u00b049\u201911\u2033N 28\u00b018\u201925\u2033E<\/a><\/h6>\n

With Carol back from swanning around Europe with friends and family, and my return from the hardscrabble world of consulting in the United States, it is time to grease our elbows and get down to the work of prepping Aleta for the season.<\/p>\n

The benefit of doing the work ourselves is we save money, and we get to keep any new tools we purchase. There is a rule of jobs on the boat. A rule mirrored by jobs on the land. That is, any project requires every tool you own – and then some. And, as my buddy Mark points out, every project demands a new tool. This time we invested in a Bosch GPO 14CE Professional Polisher<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flinging<\/h6>\n

\"Mike<\/a><\/p>\n

This 220V monster of a buffer took at least five YouTube viewings to fully understand. Friendly guys in the videos (all boat detailers are guys, apparently) teach you the finer points of slapping on compound and machine polish, setting the right RPM and getting the perfect finish without \u2018hologramming\u2019. See? Once you nail the lingo, you\u2019re legit!. Strikes me that an enterprising group of young women could probably corner this market, assuming they were willing to pander to some baser male instincts. A career in boat buffing builds upper body strength and offers lots of fresh air and sunshine in warm, exotic places like Florida. I digress.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Carol huffily ignored my suggestion she don a bikini, fire up the buffer and polish Aleta while I videoed her for our next vlog post. \u2018We could pay someone to do this, you know.\u2019 Yeah, but then we wouldn\u2019t have an excuse for a new tool. Left to get on with it in a pair of torn cargo shorts and an old t-shirt I soon learned the joys of flinging off machine polish and splattering everything in a 10\u2019 radius.<\/p>\n

By the time I\u2019d reached Aleta\u2019s stern I was feeling more confident, and she was showing the benefits. Where her paint had been a dull, lacklustre greyed red, she shone brilliantly enough for me to read my wristwatch in her reflection. Five years of hard sailing dialled back to fresh Vivid Red in less than a full day\u2019s effort. Not bad. More importantly, I turned a nice shade of bronze after all those hours in the sun. While up there, I took the opportunity to change our hailing port lettering. Carol kept herself occupied by cleaning the stainless steel and waxing lyrically – with a microfibre cloth.<\/p>\n

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