She is out of the water, being inspected, the welder has cut the steel out of the hull on both sides, so that the large steel tube can be installed for the thruster.    All is going well, we were there yesterday , and the tube is in, Vaughan and Isaac are painting the primer on the new steel, and over the primer goes a black bottom paint.       All the zincs have been replaced, Vaughan is fixing some spots here and there, sanding them down to the steel and repainting.   She is looking very good, ready for a large cruise to the North!!!!

WordPress played tricks on me again, now the format of my blog has changed again, so the photos ended up in the wrong place, but, even so, it will give you an idea about the size of the boat and how hard it is to leave her slip, its a very, very tight spot!!

Baraka Bashad at her dock.Our friends, Vaughan and Rita ,own a marvelous steel boat, i have been writing about her before, she is a ketch, 56′, Phyl Rhodes design, hull #782.   She was built in Holland and has a wonderful feel about her, her interior is all teak and mahogany woods, and in the main cabin , she boasts a wonderful , very dutch looking wood stove!!!         Anyways, she is big, and heavy, very heavy, and its an enormous challenge to move her out of her slip, leave alone back into it!!!          They plan to take her to Alaska this summer , and Vaughan decided to make life easier for himself and Rita.          He is installing a thruster, in the bow.    To do this, he has hauled the boat out, and (BIG) holes will be cut into the hull.   I have started with taking photos of her haul out, Both Bert and Vaughan brought the boat in, at Westport marina.        Later this week, the hull will be prepared for installing the big steel tube , which has to run, VERY level, from one side of the hull to the other.    But first, here are some photos…..

This way of taking photos has become a lot of fun for me.    i have the right lens for it;a Tamron SP, 90 mm 1:2.8    MACRO1:1.         it is a nice little lens, not expensive but it does the job.       i noticed a lot of photos in Bokeh on Pinterest, and became interested. Bokeh is a Japanese word, and it basically states that it is the aesthetic quality of the blur which is produced by images out of focus.   Bokeh has been defines as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”       I have been practicing on the water droplets on the pansies standing in front of my galley porthole.    It is not easy…….   you figure, well, just aim ,focus and shoot, but this Tamron lens is so sensitive that the slightest movement, and your idea is gone, and yes, remember , i live on a boat……..