Boatyard Blues Part 2

baot-work2 

Applying primer in style

 

boat-work-21 

Tessa keeps us entertained by reading

 

 Has it really been a month since we got back from the US? It seems impossible that we can still be here. How could it be taking us so long??

Well, the first few days back were spent unpacking and trying to put away the 8 plus bags of luggage. Dan installed a car kit for our satellite phone, which basically is an external antennae to the Globalstar SAT Phone and a handset/speaker phone. Before to use the satellite phone you had to take the phone outside, set it somewhere, wait for a satellite and hope you happen to be looking at the phone when it connected. Now, the phone stays inside, the antennae is outside and it beeps to let you know when it has connected. Very nice. Also that first week Dan installed a new fan for the refrigerator and worked on it with Louis the refrigeration guy. Also, I think we threw in a few trips to the grocery store on the free shuttle bus. We needed to build back up our inventory since we got rid of nearly everything before we left.

The next week Dan started buffing the boat, waiting to hear back from Sea Hawk paint on what they were going to do on the bottom paint. We paid for one of the boatyard workers to scrape the spots and he turned up quite a few. More calls to Sea Hawk and finally Dan talked to the CEO and he agreed to get us more paint. The other hull had only a few spots, but a lot of barnacles, so we took over the scraping ourselves. All of us! I think we also threw in a walk or two downtown to break up the work.

The next week, Dan was still scraping, Tristan and I were waxing the sides of the boat (they look awesome). Dan started sanding and sanding. He was really working hard. We finally got smart and started working the Latin America way. Work some in the morning, break for siesta in the heat of the day, then back to work around 4pm. Dan scraped and scraped. Tessa and Tristan helped scrape. I helped scrape and wax. A visit to the museum, a couple of shoe shopping trips and a visit to the movie theater rounded out our week. Dan applies the last of the primer on starboard hull and he and Tristan finish the week with an excellent bottom paint job on the starboard hull. I really give Dan so much credit for all the hard work sanding, scraping and painting. He’s really made me proud!

Week 4. We are tired, spirits are low. There are still lots of barnacles on the port hull to be scraped. On the plus side, we do have two awesome new leather cushions! The primer is painted and in a whirlwind afternoon, Tristan, Dan and I paint the port hull!!! We are so excited. It’s like a burden has been lifted from our shoulders! I would really like to finish buffing the topsides of the boat but I’ve really lost interest. Besides, I still have lots of cleaning work to do inside. The kids have been great about doing schoolwork and working on the boat. I’m really proud of them. We’ve all really reached our patience with boat work and the boatyard. Again, it’s a nice yard, but the mosquitoes are something else. We try to keep the windows covered, but they still get in and make for a very restless night. We could all use a really good night sleep! Our plans now are to do a little fiberglass work (Dan), clean thoroughly inside (me), maybe wax outside (me and kids) and be out of here on Monday/Tuesday after another big provisioning run. Keep your fingers crossed. We are so ready to go!

Curacao Marine

christmas-2008  I think we finally have everything stowed and the freezer is now working, though the verdict is still out on the refrigerator.  Dan has been polishing the sides of the boat and it looks great.  We are still waiting to hear from Sea Hawk paints as to what they are going to do about the bottom paint peeling off.  The bottom was done in Nanny Cay BVI in May and by July we had noticed some blistering.  We contacted them and they were supposed to take a look at it in Grenada and never did.  Then we had to leave for Venezuela and they promised us an answer here and we are still waiting.  Life on the hard isn’t too bad though.  Four days a week a free shuttle will take you to a grocery store.  The grocery stores are nice, with a good prices and a good selection of fruits and vegetables and a big selection of fresh herbs.  The yard is clean and fortunately the facilities are good.  We lucked out being right outside the office.  If we were any closer to the restrooms we would be inside them!!!  That helps on those late night bathroom runs with the kids!!

In the meantime, we are getting reacquainted with living on the boat again.  It was funny, the first time I walked back into the boat it felt small.   Well, not really small.  The word that really comes to mind is miniaturized.  It was weird!  But the feeling soon passed, and we are back to normal. 

We don’t miss the cold, but for those of you feeling hot, I included some pictures from Chicago.  It will cool you off!

chicago-1  chicago-41  chicago-at-night  Adler Planetarium in Chicago

cold  ice-2 ice-3  Ice storm right after we arrived!!!

friends     friends-31    clarke-and-tessa  FRIENDS

 

ear-piercing  Tessa got the courage to pierce her ears!