We've had a slight glitch in getting out of here. It took 8 days to get the bottom of the boat scraped of it's paint. By far, the slowest we have ever experienced. We even increased the crew up to two to try and get it done faster. It's costing us about $33US a day to stay here in the yard. Labor runs about $20 per person per day. It made sense to increase the workers to get it done faster. Still, it took 8 days. In Fiji, we had it done in two with Tracy and a local scraping it. Better scrapers? These guys use wood chisels to do the job. Scrape for a while then sharpen the scraper--over and over again. They start at 0730 and take a break at 0939 and stop for a 90 minute lunch at 1200. Another break at 1530 and quit at 1700 or there abouts. Now when I was down at the prop working on it, they seemed to get more done but the second man we hired would scrape for a while, then play with his phone, then text a friend then take another brake. over and over. Not the fastest worker. He's now moved to Azizah.
Our bottom is in it's final stages but we've hit a glitch. We have water ipping from the bottom of our keel. That means we have water up inside the fiberglass. We need to get it drained out of there before we put on the keel sealant and the new bottom paint. We don't want to seal in the water. So, I've drilled a few holes in the side of the keel near where the water is dripping but nothing came out of those holes. Now I get to fill them with fiberglass once the drip stops. It may take a couple of days, or it might take a month. We have no idea. Last time we had this was after we went up on a reef in British Columbia 4 years ago. It took a couple of weeks to get it all dried out. So, here we sit getting other jobs done while we wait.
We've popped several of the blisters on the hull so they can dry out and be ground down and re fiberglassed.
This morning, we brought the anchor and chain back on board. It's rained more than enough to get the mud, sand, and salt water off it. As our chain comes up when we are at anchor, it spins at the bow making it kink up later as we try and let the anchor out or bring it back up. There are times that we have had to take the chain out of the locker and lay it on deck as slowly rotate it till it has a straight run. Well, getting it all out cleans it and lets us get all the kinks out of it. We should be good for a while once we hit the water again.
This afternoon, do a service check on the DuoGen to make sure all the assorted screws in the gear head are tight. I've had it come loose before. Then on the our Hydrovane and check all it's joints and gears. It's done such a wonderful job since we left the US, it's time to check it's health.
Tracy is still under the weather so she is good for one task a day outside in the heat and humidity. Today was guiding the chain up while I flaked it in the locker.
More jobs still to do so we won't be bored as we wait for the water to stop dripping.
Hope you enjoyed the new photo albums.