Boat Yard Pictures

And here are some pictures of our December stay in the boat yard of Shelter Bay marina, to capture the atmosphere and the work ethic... :-)

Irie getting hauled out of the water, a once a year event. This time, however, she needed to be transported onto and with this narrow - built for monohulls - device pulled by a fork lift. A bit scary and definitely not our most favorite part of the process...

Irie on her way to the "picturesque" work boat yard area, via the potholed "road". One time, we saw this trailer being stuck in a big hole, unable to get out by itself, and the day after, one of its wheels rolled off after getting stuck in the same hole. Both times, there was a sailboat on the trailer!

Step one (after the pressure wash): scraping all the white barnacle deposits (hundreds) off

Step two: scrubbing and cleaning the waterline and underside of the bridge deck with a very strong and unhealthy product

Step three: sanding the whole bottom; me by hand, and Mark the worst spots with a machine - with "home made" glue on sanding disks (unavailable in Panama)

Five minute break for me, under our home. We threw our boat yard chairs out after barely using them this time and wanting to create more space inside the boat.

Mark preparing to take the saildrive out of the boat, for the first of two times

Painting the props and cones - part of our saildrives

We removed the starboard saildrive out of the boat one to many times and created a rip in the boot. Mark is surgically stitching the rip up...

Stitched up saildrive boot! (Approved by our surgeon neighbor John)

Fixing a "cut" at the back of one of our hulls, and covering it up for the rain. This stand is un-strategically placed by the boat yard workers.

Big project number umpteen: removing all the anti-slip material of all six bottom steps, cleaning the surfaces, taping the surfaces - in the meantime doing some gelcoat repairs that need drying out - and ... waiting for the anti-slip paint to show up, while keeping the area dry!

Greg, the fridge and engine specialist - and rare expert at Shelter Bay - fixes our fridge problem in a timely and professional manner; he comes highly recommended!

The most fun part during a boat yard stay: removing the tape after the painting (2.5 coats) is done!

We bought our three gallons of paint from Arturo (Marine Warehouse) in Panama City. Two gallons were four (!) years old and the third one was a year old... The tint of blue has changed over the years, so Irie's bottom looks a bit funny... Nothing we could do about it; it was the only paint he had and it is extremely expensive.

Our surgeon (and helpful) neighbor John from "Sara Jane" after dry sanding his boat's bottom

With all our back steps slippery - and later covered in wet paint - we needed to get on board a different way, via a longer ladder... Careful, Mark!!!

Better safe than sorry and needed during all the rainstorms: tarps to cover the steps and to work underneath. When the Kiwi Grip paint - ordered through Marine Warehouse - finally arrived, the rain did as well.

Irie's back yard. We had a tough time with it. Luckily it was not windy at all (which of course also meant a hot boat and many bugs)

The "end of the world" party corresponded with our last night in the boat yard. We were splashing the next day, when the world would end - according to the Mayan calendar. Should we not have gone through all the trouble??

Having drinks with Red from "Shiver" and Sue and John from "Five Islands", our helpers and friends.

The first smiles since being in the boat yard - trying not to think about all the heavy rain seeping into possible tarp and bag holes that night... Everything stayed dry!

Irie on her way to get back in the water. The beautiful days in Panama are far and few in between.

This is where she belongs... in the water!

The new look of our back steps: anti-slip paint. We are still getting used to it.
 

Heavy Haulout

From December 10^th to December 21^st, 2012, Irie was hauled out of the water in Shelter Bay Marina, near Colon. This is the place where many cruisers leave their boat over the summer when they go home, where they do boat projects or have work done, where they store their boat in the yard or where they have their floating home hauled, prepped, polished and painted. Mark and I first visited this secluded area in the jungle in 2005, when we needed a place to spend the night in our camper. Back then, the boat yard was being built and the marina only counted a few boats. The modern, roomy showers were a highlight and they still are…

Irie being a catamaran does not leave us any alternatives for being hauled in Panama, so we had to go for the recommended, but pricey Shelter Bay marina. Just the use of the travelift cost twice as much as in the Eastern Caribbean and every night Irie spent on the stands, $55 left our bank account. Needless to say, Mark and I were determined and committed to work hard and to spend as little time as possible in the boat yard. It was a time of emotional rollercoasters and physical exhaustion. Our fridge turned into an ice box and our toilet was unusable. Biting bugs were taken in stride and trips to the bathrooms were quick. The niceties of the place - like pool, gym, lounge room and jungle walks - were never utilized, because of our lack of time, energy or dry weather.

Our hope was to stay “out’ for about 5-7 days, but in the end, we needed eleven to get all the work done and to deal with a bunch of unexpected events. Our work schedule ran from about 7am to 6pm every day, with a few projects to be done at 9pm some days. In between, I needed to do many loads of laundry, we had to fit in an emergency room visit and a couple of bus trips to the store, and do our cooking and washing up. Being exhausted, I messed up our fridge system – which was not hooked up - by turning the breaker on, thinking it was the water pump. After taking one of the engines apart – and removing and re-installing the saildrive (with help from our Aussie friend John from “Five Islands”) – Mark put a part back the wrong way… Figuring out what the newly appeared engine problem was, going through the removal and repositioning of the saildrive once again (thank you John – again - and Red from “Shiver”) and fixing the problem took a lot of extra time and strain on Mark’s bad wrist.

New problems kept showing up and our “splash” date postponed. The Kiwi Grip paint for our back steps, to make them anti-slip, finally showed up after ordering it months ago and Marine Warehouse messing up the order each and every time. When we wanted to apply the (water based) paint during our last stretch on the hard, it rained another two days in a row. Mark and I rigged up tarps and got the job done. The paint needed sunlight to dry, but all we got was humidity and rain showers during the day and heavy rain at night – us worrying about leaks in the plastic bags and tarps. Fingers crossed, we finished up the other projects and managed to get back in the water before the weekend. It was our longest, most frustrating, stressful and expensive haulout ever.

Once floating, more issues arose, which we are now dealing with: day by day, project by project. Owning a boat is not always a joy, but we will try to make the best of it – as always – and hope a short vacation in the San Blas islands will be the reward!

(Pictures will follow later. Impossible to do from where we are right now... :-))

ER visit in Panama

Every two years, in the month of December, pain arrives in our shrinking household. In 2008 we lost our dear dog Kali in Puerto Rico, while at the vet. A malicious and very developed cancer made us put her down after an unsuccessful operation and the knowledge she would never be healthy again. In 2010 it was Darwin’s turn, who –unbeknownst to us- was suffering from internal bleeding as a result of a rare and nasty cancer. We had to put him to sleep in the USA, right before returning home to Irie. With no dogs left (other than our toy dog Clarke, who was given to us by UK friend Matt to “replace” our sweet puppies) this year, something had to happen to Mark or me.

It was Tuesday, December 11^th, when the ladder to board Irie in the boatyard of Shelter Bay marina, slipped away. Mark was starting to descend when it happened, and instead tumbled seven feet down to the gravel ground. It was one of those moments we were happy to own a catamaran instead of an even taller monohull. He fell hard and besides a few bloody scrape marks and cuts, hurt his left wrist. Initially, he seemed shocked, but OK, until the evening progressed. The pain became unbearable and we suspected his wrist was broken. While trying to figure out how to get a cab at night from remote Shelter Bay to an emergency room in Colon, our yard neighbor – a doctor – came over to offer medical advice. Upon inspecting Mark’s hand, he made a diagnosis which required a cast… for at least six weeks; a procedure that would take place in a western country.

Our plans, dreams and hopes shattered instantaneously. This would change everything: our time on the dry (which is very expensive, dirty and uncomfortable), our planned three week vacation in the San Blas, our Panama Canal transit, Mark’s upcoming one week visit to the States and even our plans to spend time in the Pacific. We were extremely close to giving up the boat life all together… We hit rock bottom.

The following morning, on 12-12-12, we took the marina shuttle into Colon and were dropped off at the emergency room of the Cuatro Altos hospital. In typical Panamanian style, we were “welcomed” at the check-in desk by three women doing each other’s nails without looking up. One was the secretary, one happened to be the nurse and the third proved to be the doctor on duty. After the nail polish was dry enough, we registered and were helped. The air conditioning was not working and everybody was fanning themselves. The nurse did the rudimentary check-ups and Mark disappeared in the “radiation” zone. A hospital employee took four X-rays of his left hand and then it was nervously waiting for the results. We were called into the doctor’s office, who spoke some English, helped by her tablet translator. The X-rays were lit up and she explained the important verdict: no fractures, “just” a sprained wrist. The news also lit up our faces! What a relief!

The cleaning lady entered the small room and pointed a fan at the doctor’s desk. When she turned it on, papers flew all over the place. Saw that coming a mile away… We received a note with necessary items needed from the pharmacy on site: stronger painkillers and an immobilizer for Mark’s injured hand. They had the pills, but no immobilizer. Really? Before we set off on a hunt for other pharmacies in the area, we paid our ER bill: $95. The secretary handed us a small receipt and we left. When realizing a more detailed invoice might be necessary in the future if the problem appeared to be more serious after a few days, we returned to the desk. The woman was on a little break and when she returned and found out why we were back, she just grabbed the printed sheet in front of her and gave it to us.

For the first time in a long while, Mark and I felt somewhat happier realizing that the situation could have been so much worse. The coming days and weeks in the boatyard and on the boat would be difficult. It is impossible to do most jobs we have planned with one hand, but I’m sure we will manage. I don’t mind being Mark’s left hand for a while, if it means we can get back in the water and start enjoying our lives again…