Friday, October 30, 2009

Out of the water 10.30.09

Just four short days back at the boat and we pulled the boat out of the water into the boatyard for some repairs under the waterline. We scheduled the haul out last year before we left as the boatyard fills up quickly when everyone is back. Michael had identified some sloughing of paint near the dynaplate and was concerned about a few other spots that seemed to have issues, we had two thru-hulls that were weeping, & we needed to look at the forward bobstay chainplate as we brought new bolts for it. There was even a concern that we were burning ‘hot’ somewhere. So we pulled to take a look.

Leaving the slip for the first time of the season is always a little nerve wracking so most of the dock was up & available if we needed any assistance. Since we have been in Marina Mazatlan there has been a huge space between dock 6 and dock 4 as dock 5 was never put in….well, that changed this summer. Not only was dock 5 put in but also dock 2, which is very close to the lift dock. So now that Dock 5 was new, we were even more nervous. But thankfully, Mike & Julie from S/V Slacker was in their snazzy new dinghy and on hand to give any assistance needed, as well as Rick from Cape Star, who has worked on the boat this summer.

Mike & Julie in their new snazzy dinghy ready to help us out!

Turned out that Michael did a fantastic job navigating and we cleared dock 5 with ease. Now getting to the boatyard/lift dock was another story! When Marina Mazatlan put in dock 2, it was put in at an angle that is not conducive to getting into the boatyard lift dock….in fact if you are sitting in the lift area and motor straight out of the lift dock, you will run into dock 2. It’s….interesting! So we got to test out our nerves. Again, Michael navigated the space like a pro and Rick on his dinghy acted as our bow thruster to push our big ‘ol heavy boat around and we backed directly into the spot. I’m usually not the ‘worrier’ but I was nearly scared to death! Whew! I was glad when we were in our spot and tied up safely awaiting haul out.

We had an 8:30 haul out appointment and she came out of the water with no problem.

Ahea Kali coming out of the water

She swung in the sling for a few hours while another crew was working on a boat beside where we were heading. That was OK too as we had everyone come by and check out the spots and determine the cause before we were even blocked. Once that crew was done, the boat was blocked up, boat stands in place….at a 10 degree angle leaning forward (the boatyards never get us blocked right)….by about 1pm.

Michael found a shady spot while we waited for our spot to open up

It wasn’t nearly as bad as was expected. It has been 2 years since we last pulled and the bottom paint looked very good. The ‘hot spots’ that we saw turned out to be an over-zincing problem, not a stray current problem. When there is a zinc that doesn’t have anything else eroding it, it will eat the paint around it, which is what was going on.

This is what over-zinced looks like!

There were 3 over-zinced spots – two on the rudder and one on the underside of the hull. The spots were sanded & repainted and the small zinc from the rudder was removed. The bobstay chainplate was removed and sent to be welded as there was some surface corrosion going on – from dissimilar metals. We had some new bolts made by Bob at Total Yacht Works, some super duper mega costly ones machined out of an old rudder post, so hopefully it will prevent the dissimilar metal issue and we ran an 8 gauge wire from the bobstay chainplate to a zinc which we hope will help the corrosion. Michael and one of the workers from Total Yacht Works pulled one of the weeping thru-hulls but damaged it in the process so we had to replace that one. And while we’re in the boatyard we had the damage that was done to the side of the hull during Tropical Storm Rick repaired.

The fresh paint where the hull was repaired

We’re also re-insulating our refrigerator this season so we had the bottom pan sawed out and all of the insulation ripped out. The burning of paint around the dynaplate is still a head scratcher. The speculation is that the bottom paint was touching the dynaplate and shouldn’t have been. The dynaplate was removed, the area around it was sanded, and a new one will be re-installed with a rubber backing behind it, hopefully preventing the dynaplate from energizing the paint. Whew! It’s all a little over my head!

Of course Michael has done a million other things while we’ve been waiting for our thru-hull – serviced all of the other thru-hulls, cleaned all of the wheels on the transducers, ran some halyards, greased the propeller, etc. I can’t begin to tell you everything but he’s been super busy. I have been working on getting our new computer up & running and all of the data moved. I haven’t done a ‘clean install’ for over 8 years so it was time and I’m taking my time to ensure it’s as clean as possible. So far so good!

We have been living on the boat while it’s in the boatyard which is no small feat! The boatyard is very dusty & dirty and we are without water as all of our sinks go overboard…which means they would drain right to the ground. Not good when there are workers below! So any dishes must be bagged up & taken to the sink in the bathroom, the showers have no hot water, we have to climb a vertical ladder to get on and off the boat, and it’s hot!

Ahea Kali in the Marina Mazatlan boatyard

We took all of the sails out to the van as they were in the way every time we turned around which is nice as we have room now! I’m ready to be back in the water…. :-) Just a couple more days…

Rene

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