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.
 

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…

The Inevitable

In Belgium there is an expression “Na regen komt zonneschijn”, which literally translated means “After rain follows sunshine”. It’s a good thought when things don’t go so well and the realization that nothing lasts forever, not even negative experiences, leads to the sunshine thought. I wonder whether there is an expression for the reverse as well. After sun comes rain? It can’t always be sunny, right? Something good doesn’t last forever either.  Well, that’s kind of what happened to us recently. After one or even two fantastic weekends with friends, good food and fun experiences, the following week was spent doing something entirely different and unplanned…

Read more »

Grenada Marine Boat Yard: A Painful Experience

Our return to Grenada on December 5^th 2010 wasn’t in the least bit fun or comfortable. Not only were we extremely sad to return without Darwin, but the plane arrived with a delay and Mark and I were the last ones off and, consequently, through immigration. Luckily, our cab driver Mandoo was still around and brought us back to Irie at Grenada Marine boat yard in St. David’s. His friendliness and courtesy are always appreciated and fit the welcoming and kind attitude of most Grenadians. It was past 11pm by then and we had to cross a soggy swamp before we could board our boat with eight pieces of luggage. By the time our cockpit was cleared of dangerous lines, a loose solar panel and a friend’s outboard engine, the next day had started.

Life in a boat yard is never fun, but most of the time we manage and try to get used to the sweat on our faces and bodies, the heaps of mosquitoes, the dirt and grime, the manual labor and the busy schedule. It’s a part of boat ownership. Grenada Marine proved to be more challenging than any of the other handful of boat yards we have stayed before, however. Our friends from SV Imagine had noticed that Irie was surrounded by water and had basically been put in “a swamp with lots of frogs and mosquitoes”. Upon hearing this, we asked the yard manager to move Irie to higher and drier ground, so we could work in relative comfort for a week. Obviously, that request had been denied or never got through…

Instead, our bare feet were exposed to water and chemicals the whole time, we dragged and kicked up mud everywhere we went, the power supply was inefficient and unreliable (no air conditioning for us, let alone decent use of power tools) and the water pressure was VERY sporadic, especially when needed most. After a long day of heavy, dirty and sweaty labor, Mark and I would walk to the showers for a serious clean-up, only to find a trickle of (cold) water emerging from the shower heads and full toilet bowls with no water to flush them. The psychological pain of loosing Darwin was soon augmented by physical pain from having to squat many times a day (the wet ground did not allow us to sit or kneel in hard to reach places) and strained muscles.

Mark and I pushed through, worked around the rainstorms and managed to complete a lot of projects while on the hard. We meticulously prepped Irie’s bottom – scraping hundreds of calcium deposits (we removed the barnacles before we left in September), sanding the two hulls, washing everything down and taping the borders – before we applied a barrier coat in the worst places and painted the area 2.5 times. Mark did the same with our sail drives and we managed to fix some dinghy leaks and install a new cooling system for the fridge. That required a newly drilled hole under the waterline, a scary but successful endeavor.

After a little over a week, we needed to pay our bill. All the employees and workers in the boat yard are very friendly, but we counted on the unprofessionalism of the office staff to miscalculate the bill in our advantage. That would have made up for some of our “suffering”. The bill did come back with an error in every department. In our disadvantage, of course. It took another half an hour to set a few things straight, while Irie was hanging in the travel lift. Then, we chased the remaining frogs away, took a few fat mosquitoes with us and sailed away from St. David’s Harbour with a new looking Irie. Under the waterline anyway…

New Pants for Irie

It’s Thursday, November 5^th 2009. Irie is hanging in the slings of the Travelift at Spice Island Marine Boat Yard in Grenada. While I look at her, dangling above my head, I feel a bit nervous. Imagine something goes wrong and she falls down to the ground… That would be the end of our cruising, the end of our home, the end of many things and the beginning of a mental catastrophe. I can’t wait until she is safely settled on blocks.

Our friend Angie joins me for a few minutes and says, “Irie is looking good up there! Hopefully she stays there, unlike that other boat!’ I’m dumb founded. “What other boat?” “Haven’t you heard?” she continues “Yesterday, a sailboat fell out of the lift because one of the straps broke!” I swallow and realize the meaning of her words. The day before, the last boat of the day to be put back into the water had fallen out. She is badly damaged, but luckily nobody got injured. This day, we were the first boat to be handled by the Travelift. It could have been us… We did notice brand new straps on the machine. Experiences like this wake you up and make you see things in perspective.

We never look forward to a stay in a boat yard. It is hot, dirty and very tiring, but it has to happen. About once a year, the bottom of Irie needs some extra care and attention. Mark and I have to clean, scrape, sand and paint the two hulls and the sail drives. This year, we took our jobs very seriously and in five days time, we managed to do what was required. Right in time for our arriving guests!

During the day we needed an extra fresh water wash or two to keep going in the beating heat and headaches were a reoccurring event for me. No wind on land! Every night, the cold, clean shower was exactly what we needed and it took only seconds to fall asleep.

Doing your own work in a boat yard in the hot Caribbean teaches one the real meaning of manual labor! But, happy Irie is now “as good as new” and we hope she can stay that way for a bit. “No more lagoons for months at a time!” was her only request when she got splashed again!