6 -12 April Diary of a haul out – Week 1

Day 1

We come out of the water at Tyrell Bay Marina in a 150T lift using four straps - Jackster weighs about 20T so there's plenty of capacity. First job is a high pressure wash by the yard staff to remove what's left of the algae we didn't scrape off in the water yesterday. Considering it has been two years and five months since we last antifouled we are in good condition.

Our 'home' for the next three weeks is in front of the shower block. Handy for me to go to the loo, conveniently situated as a wind break from the easterlies and a barrier to dust particles when we're painting.  

We are quickly hooked up to electricity with a long extension. Tyrell Bay Marina (TBM) is a project in construction and power towers are yet to be built. A plus for those with a European boat is that the default power in 220v and the plugs are the same as British ones. We have power to switch on the electric kettle at any time of the day, or night, and to run the microwave, run the fans. The down side to living on board in the yard is having to climb down the ladder when you want to go to the bathroom and no AC because it needs water for cooling.

Polly is wearing her collar and an expectant grin; she's going hunting for geckos, for frogs, anything she can find. There are herds of goats and wild sheep wandering through which we've never encountered in any other yard.

What do we achieve today?

Anchor and chain are lowered to the floor and fresh water washed

Bow thruster out and drained of oil

Sail leg drained of oil

Antifoul paint is delivered

algae under the sugar scoop

Started removing the silver tape from the rub rail

Day 2

We are settling in to our of waking at 6am to begin work in the cool of the day, breaking for breakfast, working until midday and then a couple of hours out of the sun before beginning the afternoon session. We try to keep going until the sun sets at around 6.30pm. The no-see ums are a nuisance early morning and around sunset. And then it is shower time, not the most wonderful shower facilities we've seen. Until the permanent shower block is built we have to make do with a temporary set up in a converted container. And the water is cold.

trestles are set up

Today's progress

Trestles set up all around Jackster

Continue removing the old rub rail tape with a hot gun – hard work

Dinghy cover and seat cover sewing repairs

removing the old silver tape

Sunshade and bimini re-stitched

Day 3

More cleaning of the rub rail in ahead of painting

Acid wash the topsides

Further sewing repairs on sunshades

cleaning rub rail

Day 4

Completed acid washing of topsides

Completed prep of rub rail

Lowered dinghy to ground and scrubbed the outside clean.

Today La Soufriere volcano on St Vincent to the north of us erupted.

Day 5

A passing cruiser remarked that our anchor chain was wearing thin on some links. It has been slipping on the gypsy for a while and it is more rusty...Is it time to replace? We bought this Italian chain when we were in Waikawa, NZ. It was double dipped galvanized in Malaysia 5 years ago so has served us well. The clincher was that the Budget Marine here next to the yard stocks exactly the same make and size.  

old chain

What die we achieve on day 5?

Ordered 100mts of Maggi 10mm, short link chain from Budget Marine to be shipped from St Martin.

Scrubbed clean the inside of the dinghy

Filled holes and nicks in the rub rail with epoxy

Freshwater washed the topsides

ash on the deck

Began buffing topsides with compound

let the buffing begin

Day 6

During the night the ash cloud from St Vincent passed over Carriacou and we awoke to find our deck covered with a layer of grey dust. The first job of the day was to wash the decks because the ash is caustic on fibre glass. The gritty ash found it's way inside the boat too. What I thought was sand from Polly's feet on my pillow was ash which had fallen through the open hatch.

Pats on the back at the end of the day for

Compounding the port side hull

Started top waxing the port side

Rubbing down the epoxy filler in the tow rail

Advertised the old chain for sale

Day 7

A full week out of the water and we feel we're making faster progress then on other haul outs. It helps that the temperature is cooler and less humid – in Trinidad in September 2018 it rained constantly and the dust under the boat became a muddy lake.

Today we (David) continued with the buffer and compound removing the chalky oxidisation from the hull.

from dull to glossy

I followed behind with the wax and polishing cloths.

And I cleaned the barnacles off the bowthruster.

end of week one

ladder climbing cat