2024-08-11 Boatyard blues

Busy week for us.  On Tuesday we hauled the boat at Spice Island in Grenada for our insurance survey.

All went smoothy, and the surveyor only found two  items - that our flares were expired, and one spot in the hull that went thud instead of thunk.  He was not worried about it, as it showed no delamination, but something we will check out when hauling again.

Shelvin Thomas, our surveyor, checking moisture readings on hull

Boat looks pretty good

In the slings - always a nervous time.

Survey complete, we went to the local budget marine, bought new flares, and then were on our way, sailing to Trinidad.  Pretty nice sail, and lucked out and found a mooring ball in the main harbor.  The balls are only $7 per night.

View from the anchorage/mooring field.  Some large cable ships

Looking towards the haul out yard.  Many more boats hauled than in the water.

Photo of area we found online, 

Next was check in.  First you have to go the the marina/haul out yard office.  They then take your paperwork and submit an email to Immigration.  After a while, Immigration gets back to them, and approves a health certificate.  The marina/yard then types up a cover letter, with copies of your papers (boat documents and passports), and gets it to you.   That took 1.5 hours.

Then off to Immigration, where you fill out forms in triplicate, or even 5 copies of some, and only 1 copy of others.  7 different forms, but a total of 15 pieces of paper.  Then they are stamped, signed and copied.  Your passports are stamped, and you are given some copies to take to Customs.   At Customs you fill out one form in triplicate, and give them the copies from Immigration and then you are done.  

We started at 8:30, and by 11:30 we were done, so had a nice lunch out to celebrate.

Our haulout got delayed one day, so Thursday we took the sails off the boat, and did some cleaning inside.

Friday we hauled out at 7:00 a.m. to time it with high tide. They haul with a custom made trailer. The bows go in slings, and the sterns are supported by a padded block

Trailer in the water ready for us to motor up.

There are 3 guys in the water guiding the boat in.

Stern view of trailer under water.  We are just starting to lift out

Pretty tight ride through the yard, boats on either side only a couple feet away

6 people making sure it is blocked and to our liking.

Everyone at the Powerboats yard has been very helpful and friendly.  They take a lot of time to make sure everything is done right, and make sure you are happy with it as well.   So far really good experience.

Now the boat was hauled the work began.  1st item was to remove our above water thru hulls, that are the sink drains, bilge pump drains, and watermaker brine drain.   They are original to the boat, and we suspect some leakage, so are replacing them.

The port side drains are easy to get at, but the starboard is much more difficult.

The hoses we are accessing are above the horizontal white hose, and below the red horizontal water line.  

Another thru hull to reach.  Dean doing a good contortionist job.

We got them all out fairly easy, except for the two sink drains, which we both worked on.  On sawing from the inside and one sawing from the outside - but we got them out.

Some of the removed thru hulls - still in good shape, but sealant starting to fail on a couple

We will leave the holes from the thru hulls open while we are gone, to let everything dry out.  Kris sealed up the holes on the inside, so no bugs will get in.

Next step is marking the new water line, as we want to raise the bottom paint a bit.  We had taken some reference measurements when Charm was in the water and it was calm.  So we transferred the measurements and marked off where the bottom paint will go.  

Tape marks are reference marks, won't put the bottom paint that high.

Next on list was to remove all the old vinyl striping on the boat.   It has held on well, so getting it off was quite the job.  Dean did all that work, with a plastic scraper and a razor blade when needed. 

Taking off vinyl striping.

Kris taking off old sealant round thru hulls.

We need to take off the props and repaint them as well.  You can see the marine growth really liked the zincs we have between the prop hub and saildrive.

The marine growth was dying, and made for a stinky job getting them all off.

Props and hubs from both sides off and soaking in vinegar water to remove the remaining marine life.

We rented an A/C unit to keep the inside of the boat cool, since we have no breeze in the boatyard.  It has been great, to have somewhere cool to go to.

The yard has decent baths and showers, but the water heater is broken, so only cold showers.  So far the days are hot enough you don't mind, but today is supposed to be cooler and rainy, so Kris might be a bit chilly in the shower after the days work.

We fly out late Wednesday night to Boise, Idaho, so got more work to get done before we leave.