Splashing tomorrow!!

9th May 2006
Splashing tomorrow!!

As of 5:30 this evening, the yard manager claims that we will be launched tomorrow. I think he feels so bad about the delays that he offered to let us spend tomorrow night at the work dock if we want to.

Bill is handling this nonsense much better than Judy. We had made 4 phone calls to previous owner, previous boat yard, previous marina manager, and to the Amel agent who assisted in the sale of this boat back in October 2003 in Ft. Lauderdale. All this to determine which type of bottom paint was last used. The Amel agent looked up his records for this boat and determined that the paint was Micron. So the yard here in St. Thomas planned to use Micron.

For those of you reading this who don't know about boats, they pressure wash off the worst of the marine growth and then sand down the existing paint. Then they apply another coat of the same type paint. It is important that you use the same paint so there isn't some compatibility issue.

So, last Thursday the painter started applying the Micron paint. After about 10 feet down the first side of the boat, the paint started to bubble up; so the yard manager immediately told him to stop. Then the painter started applying a primer coat; and that first 10 feet had to be re-sanded and then primed. That took until closing time on Friday; the yard does not work on weekends. BUT, the painter showed up on Saturday and started to apply the Micron again. Same bubbles started appearing again!! Even though it was over a primer. Made no sense. Judy was not happy. This paint is not inexpensive; costs about $250 per gallon. The labor rate is supposed to be $10 per foot for paint, plus additional $4 per foot for primer, plus all product used. So Judy was definitely not happy.

On Monday, Bill told the yard manager that he thought that these are just air bubbles -- possibly because the painter is rolling too fast or using too thick a roller pad. They called in another painter and the consensus of opinion agreed with Bill. So now Judy thinks that we just wasted about $500 priming when it wasn't necessary, plus the additional hotel day.

By noon Monday they had called in another painter to help the idiot painter that is assigned to our boat. With two of them working, they have managed to apply two coats of bottom paint and have waxed and buffed the hull. Looks great -- finally. This afternoon they moved the chocks, primed the original chock spots, and applied the first coat of bottom paint to those spots. The autoprop was reinstalled late today. Looks fantastic. Had no idea it would clean up that polished.

So all that should need to be done tomorrow is to apply the second coat of bottom paint to the original chock spots, and to add the 8 liters of oil for the U-drive that we had to drain in order to clean and service the autoprop. Then we should be able to launch. Need to remember to contact the liferaft service company to have the liferaft delivered back to the travel lift area when we launch. That liferaft is way too heavy to deal with in a dinghy, so we want to get it back aboard when we launch.

Then we need to find a rigger to climb the mast and replace the anchor light. We have a bosun's chair and Bill could do this chore, but Judy would prefer that Bill not climb that mast right now. We are both stiff and sore from all the work we have been doing. Let someone younger and more limber climb 60 feet above the deck of the boat to replace a light bulb.

One good thing did happen because of all these delays. We had dropped the bow thruster and replaced the shaft seals over the weekend. The bow thruster seemed fine, so we did not pull the prop on it. However, today the bow thruster started dripping tiny amounts of water. This is a bad, bad thing because it means that sea water has penetrated the shaft and that the oil is now floating on top of that water. So we dropped the bow thruster again (Bill is getting pretty good at doing this chore), and this time we pulled the prop off and drained the oil. The oil was nasty black instead of a nice amber color, but even that was a good thing. If it had been milky, that would have been a bad thing. We had a spare prop and oil seal for the bow thruster, so that is now done. Good for us that it happened while the boat was still hauled. Made doing that maintenance much easier on land than it would be to do it in the water. Bill also replaced the impeller on the Yanmar engine. Didn't need it, but figured it was a good idea to do it now rather than take a chance on a 3-year old impeller failing while we are at sea. Those things can fail at any time; we were afraid that the original one might have hardened with age; no way to tell except to replace it.

Judy spent the afternoon doing more provisioning. Having the freezer in the hotel room has been wonderful. Able to use the vacuum sealer and freeze foods and will deliver everything to the boat tomorrow already frozen. Great convenience for initial provisioning. Never had this luxury before.

And we will be so glad to get out of this hotel room. The water keeps going out. Really pisses you off when you return to the room at the end of a hot working day and find that you have no water. Has happened four times during the past week. Nice to have HBO on tv and nice to have the freezer and sleep with cold A/C; but we are ready to get back on the boat.

Hopefully, tomorrow afternoon we are out of here! Just plan to time our exit with high tide. Do not want a repeat of our entry groundings.

Still hauled out

6th May 2006
Still hauled out

It is definitely island time in the islands. The 3-day haul-out that was estimated by the boat yard manager will stretch to about one week. Not that we are really surprised by that. He now says that earliest possible splash will be late Tuesday. Bottom is now primed and they will paint Monday. The prop has been pulled so we could change the wearing bearing (routine maintenance at 800 hours and we currently have 761 engine hours); and prop is supposed to be reinstalled as soon as the paint is dry enough. We will see how that goes.

We have been working our butts off doing various interior projects. We have become Budget Marine's most frequent customers. Everytime Bill starts a new project, it entails several trips for tools or fasteners or something. We are very fortunate that there is a limited chandlery located within 300 feet of where Security sits on chocks. But climbing up and down that 12-foot ladder (only method of egress to the boat) is a little tiresome. Neither Bill nor Judy have climbed stairs or ladders much in the past few years. If we haven't lost at least 5-lbs each this week, then we don't know why not.

Today's project was to replace the seals on the bow thruster. That was interesting. Took most of the day because we did not have the two little set screws that were supposed to be with the bow thruster removal tool provided by Amel. But we imporvised and the job is now complete. We are also the proud new owners of a metric tap and die set. A good thing to have on a boat.

Today we also put up the bow section and the beam section of our new Shade Tree Awnings. We could not put up the back section that goes behind the mizzen mast because the the back stays have been removed and the mizzen boom lowered in order for the boat to be put on the travel lift to haul out. Since the back section of the shade awnings require connections to the back stays, we can't use that section until we are back in the water and everything gets reconnected. We think we will enjoy these awnings. Temperature was noticeably cooler with the shade -- still hot as hell, but definitely cooler that having direct sun on the deck all day long.

Bill says that this retirement thing is a lot of hard work! We are very much looking forward to calm anchorages instead of all this boat yard work.

We visited the supermarket across the street and bought a selection of steaks, ground beef, pork chops and chicken pieces. Judy then separated all the meat pieces and put them into the freezer in our little hotel room kitchenette for a few hours; then used the vacuum sealer to seal everything into one-meal size portions. So we will be able to fill one of our freezers on the boat with proper portioned frozen meats. Very, very convenient. Hope to make a few small provisioning trips tomorrow if the store is open on Sunday.

Main two projects left to do during this haul out are to replace a cracked button on the anchor windlass (we had ordered this part from Amel), and to install an additional drinking water filter. We already have a filter between the watermaker and the storage tank, but we want to install another filter between the storage tank and the galley sink. We hope that this will remove the tank taste from the water so we can stop wasting money buying drinking water at these ridiculously high prices -- not to mention not having to haul gallon jugs of water from the stores to the dinghy to the boat.

The remaining 6 boxes of our books are now at the mailing service in St. John. Guess they will have to hold them until our boat gets back in the water next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Note to John: We will eventually get some photos of the interior. Not much to see right now since there are boat parts and tools strewn everywhere. We have been working and havn't thought about using the camera except to take photos to document everything about the removal of the propeller for the next time we need to do that job.

First haul out

3rd May 2006
Hauled out

Made our way early this morning from Red Hook Bay to the Independent Boat Yard at Lavida Marine Center. Our boat draft is 6-ft 9-in. Depth of the entrance channel is supposed to be 7-ft. We couldn't discern the location of the channel entry and Judy put the boat into a very shallow area before Bill realized that we were headed the wrong way. Quickly turned around and retraced our way back to deeper water; then located the correct channel and wove our way through that. Really nerve-racking. Our depth guage is displayed in meters rather than feet. It was pegged at zero depth the entire way into the boat yard. WE DON'T LIKE THAT!

Once we got past the channel and into the marina area, we proceeded to run aground 4 times. Each time we were able to back up and use the bow thruster to turn the boat. Judy was ready to just blow-off this haul-out and get it done in Trinidad. Boats don't handle well when sitting on sand rather than floating in water. Eventually, the guys at the travel lift motioned for us to hug the left side. We managed for the 4th time to extricate ourselves from the grounding and then moved as far left as we could without hitting docked boats. Bill finally got the boat up to the travel lift area, turned her around and backed up under the travel lift.

We removed the back stays and lowered the mizzen boom and manuevered into place. Dug out the life raft from its deck locker and got it ashore before the boat was lifted. Man, that thing is heavy. Judy went below and literally threw a few things into a small duffle bag. We will be staying at a small hotel nearby while the boat is hauled. We had to get off the boat so it could be hauled right then, so there is no telling what got thrown into that duffle bag. Nice thing that it doesn't matter in the least what you wear around here. As long as it isn't too sweaty, it doesn't matter what it looks like. After all, this is a boat yard full of workers; not a fashion show.

Bill stayed with the boat while they began to wash her down, and Judy traisped off to find Caribbean Inflatible Service. Found a short-cut path through the mangroves along shore. Climbed a few flights of stairs to find the life raft service business that encompassed the entire third floor. This is the only authorized service facility for our Zodiac life raft in the entire Caribbean. Very convenient that they are located literally 1/2 block from the boat yard. They agreed that they would open the life raft and let us watch it inflate and inventory the contents if we could do it right away. A driver brought Judy back to the travel lift and picked up the life raft (it is much too heavy to carry). Then he drove her to the hotel to check in, and then back to the life raft service facility. They used a craine to raise the raft up to the 3rd floor.

During this time Bill located Budget Marine and purchased a couple of padlocks and a 23-ft cable so he could secure the dinghy to the dinghy dock. If it isn't locked up tight in St. Thomas, then it will be stolen. Not like the BVI where you never need to lock anything.

Judy walked back and showed Bill how to find the life raft place. We watched a guy inflate the raft and remove the contents. All the flares were out-of-date, and the med kit had expired. The raft will be pressure tested for 24-hrs and then repacked with replacement contents. This should be done once a year, but this is the first time that this life raft has been serviced; and it is at least 3 1/2 years old. So every piece of equipment that had an expiration date is now expired and must be replaced.

Our hotel room overlooks the harbor and we can see our dinghy from our deck. Can also see the boat yard office and the masts of our boat parked right next to the office. This haul-out might take a few days longer than we anticipated. The boat has been hauled, pressure washed, and moved over right next to the boat yard office. The bow is only about 3 feet from the office building wall. Scary how close they place the boats in the boat yard. The boat is chocked and we have moved a ladder up to her stern. We climbed up to look for something and it really feels funny to walk around up there. Boat has been sitting there now for 4 hours and no work has been started yet, so that is the reason that we are thinking that there is no way they will be finished by Friday at 5:00 p.m. when they shut down for the weekend.

Guess we better get on "island time" and slow down a bit. We are both beat and need a few days to recuperate. Tonight is Mexican night down at the little harbor bar that serves as a restaurant for our tiny hotel. Live country/rock band that will probably keep us up late. Maybe we will sit out on our patio and look down on them.

Surprising how many Texans live down here.

We both have already stopped wearing a watch. Time of the day doesn't mean much around here; it is either daylight or it is dark, what more do you need to know. Bill has already forgotten what day of the week it is. Judy hasn't reached that point yet.

First day on the boat full-time

2nd May 2006
First day on the boat full-time

We arrived yesterday; and you wouldn't believe the name of the pilot for our flight from Miami to St. Thomas -- Captain Ron. And when we anchored tonight in Red Hook Bay, the boat anchored next to us is also named Captain Ron. We need a copy of that movie for this boat!

Flew over parts of the Bahamas that we have never seen from the air before. Absolutely gorgeous! Looked like desert sand dunes but under very shallow, clear, turquoise water. Really beautiful.

Checked out of the BVI this morning--that was our shortest visit there ever: only about 16 hours. Got to St. John is the hottest part of the day to pick up all the boxes that we had shipped down here. Two dinghy rides to carry all the boxes to the boat and we still don't have everything. Six boxes haven't arrived yet; but the spare parts from Amel in France did arrive and that was the most important thing. We need those parts for our haul-out tomorrow morning.

We ate ashore for lunch/dinner/whatever you want to call our only meal of the day about 5:00 and then came back to the boat and sprayed all the boxes with roach poison before unpacking them in the cockpit. Don't want to take the chance of getting bugs on the boat, and we are sure these boxes were exposed to roaches while in transit down here in the islands. Then we brought everything below decks and started to stow. What a chore!!! Hard to get organized, but we'll get there eventually.

Bill found out this evening that the shareholders meeting has been rescheduled for June 15. SO THAT GIVES US ANOTHER WEEK TO REACH GRENADA! That is great news.

Better get off this computer. I'm using someone's WiFi here in the harbor and it is now pouring rain. Might lose the connection at any time

Life is great in tropical paradise, even in the rain.

Judy

Final weekend at home & trip down to boat

1st May 2006
Final weekend at home & trip down to boat

On Friday, Bill's employer gave him a surprise "Sail Away" lunch, which was very nice. It was held at Sam's Boat with an island theme. Great food and many gifts which we will use on the boat. Thanks, Sandy for all your work in putting together that retirement celebration for Bill. It meant a lot to him to have the send-off.


We had a hectic weekend moving out of the house and getting away. Sold Judy's car to her sister-in-law, Cheryl. (Sorry we didn't get to see you two to say goodbye.) Had a marvelous "last supper" at Fr./brother John's condo--smoked salmon appetizer and heavenly beef fillets; a couple of our favorite foods. Slept there Saturday night on the mattress which we have given/loaned to John. Just like being at home. Spent all day Sunday cleaning the empty house and final packing items. Did the final walk-thru with the landlord. So had a very nice deposit of the proceeds from selling the car and the house rental deposit refund. Spent our final night in Houston at Aaron's house; Lynn cooked a great pasta and stir-fry vegetable dinner. Got to say bye to a very sleepy Be-Be extremely early Monday morning.

We were worn out by the time we got on the plane. We did have 2 overweight bags but worth every bit of the $50 to be done with it. Surprisingly, airport security didn't even give us a hassle about the huge bag of prescription drugs Judy carried on. She did not want to put all these scripts in checked baggage; this is all for our offshore med kit. BTW, thanks very much to Donna for all her work in helping us put the med kit together. Looks like we are well-set in the department for just about any medical needs. Also thanks to Donna and Bruce for the flatware set with the little sailboats and line design. Very nice and we appreciate it.

Arrived in St. Thomas right on schedule and were able to catch the final ferry of the day to BVI West End. Found that our boat really was not damaged from the recent fuel truck explosion -- just had to see for ourselves; couldn't take the marina manager's word for it. Also learned that there have been two serious fires there in Soper's Hole within the past 2 months. About a month prior to the fuel truck explosion, there was a fire in Pusser's 2nd-floor kitchen. The truck driver is still in critical care but the woman cook at Pusser's has recovered from her burns and is already back at work. Pusser's kitchen was destroyed, so they have set up a temporary kitchen outside on the docks under a canvas awning. Bet you wouldn't see that happen back in the States; health dept would never allow it. But works just fine down here.

Got all our bags unpacked and stowed away. Now, finding something will be another story; but we have plenty of time to re-organize.

Checking out of the BVI first thing in the morning, as soon as the marina manager tallies our final tab and Customs opens so we can leave the country legally.