Wayward Sun Sailing

WS (on the "Hard") getting some final touches from the Capt'n after finishing the bottom

Tuesday, April 9th wasn't too bad in the morning. I wanted to see if we could get some vinegar close by so hopefully once we are hauled I can get the salt off the Algrip paint. No such luck, so we walked to Ace in town where they have a nice big gallon and I buy it. Only to find out the Capt'n had other things in mind - like going back to the Mel Fisher museum all the way at the other end to get some coins. I'm like really, had I known that I would have picked up the heavy gallon jug on the way back. Oh well, it's in the backpack now. Capt'n then spots the loop bus, it's a free bus, but we have no idea where it stops. Either way, it's hot I'm already tired so we catch it at the next stop and it literally drops us off right in front of the museum, well that's cool! We finally have a brochure with the stops on it so catch another one back only to find out we could have been doing this all along - not to mention it stopped directly in front of the Blue Macaw, where we did that long hike back on Friday and got back to the dinghy in the dark. Well it was nice that we finally figured it out a day before we were leaving. So now Capt'n wants to stop a this Thai restaurant across from the dinghy dock for lunch and a cold one. Never being one to pass up a cold one on a hot day I agree, but still wondering when those storms will hit. It's on the second floor and overlooks Garrison Bight and while the Capt'n is dilly dallying around I'm looking off to the west and see some ugly weather rolling in. Accuweather had said around 2 the storms would start; weather channel said nothing until 5 pm. It's 2:30 and I'm getting nervous to get back to the boat so Capt'n gets the check and we (I) race back to the dinghy. We get out to the area east of the mooring field where we can plane and of course, that extra gallon of vinegar set the dinghy over the edge and it wouldn't plane again, I'm like you're kidding right! Storms to the left and storms to the right and we are slowly heading back - crap! We barely made it back to the boat before it completely dumped luckily and only rain. We never did get any bad T-storms even through the entire night when they were predicted for Key West.

Wednesday - we dinghy in for the last time to turn in the key and get some ice for the trip as we won't be able to use the fridge on the hard. Capt'n asks if it's okay for us to stay on the mooring until we leave and they said no problem, which was great - it saves us from having to go anchor somewhere until we can leave for the haulout yard. The guy working there also mentions the fire in the mooring field, did we see it early Sat mooring - said it lit up the entire sky and they had water rescue, fire departments, coast guard everyone there. Uh no, we must have slept through it. Well we were tired Friday and got home late Friday night, but cannot believe neither of us heard anything. I heard sirens, but that's always like that in Key West. Turns out it was very early in the morning and the guy went to start his boat and a fire broke out in the engine room. Then one of the diesel hoses came loose and sprayed diesel all over the place making it worse. We took a dinghy ride when we got back to the boat and saw it on the way back - it is burnt all the way to the hull, but still floating. What a shame, it was a relatively new very nice 46' Beneteau, really makes you think of all the crazy things that can happen. Finally pick up anchor around 2 pm and head up to Stock Island, entrance is deep and pretty well marked so no problems going in (opps I meant let go of the mooring). We get to the haul out slip where we are supposed to tie up around 4:15 and see a boat in the travel lift. So now what, we tie up anyway and Capt'n goes and talks to him. It's a dive boat that had some problems and is going to be launched at 8:30 am, that's interesting we are to be hauled at 8:30 am, oh well. So we just stayed where we were figuring we should be able to walk the boat to the end and give him enough room to get out in the morning.

So that's exactly what we did Thursday morning, he got launched with no problems once we moved the boat and we got hauled with no problems. Picked up some supplies at the office, Capt'n got the sander and went to work and I went to work cleaning all the salt off the algrip paint. Oh, while we were waiting to get hauled out we saw one of the Mel Fisher boats go out, still looking for more treasure I guess - either way it was cool to see it. I have a couple necklace pendants from the silver on the Atocha that Capt'n had got me about 30 years ago, not long after they had found the mother lode and were not well known. People hadn't really heard of them, but they were advertising stuff in skin diver magazine years ago and we saw them at a showing at a jewelry store (I think) in Pittsburgh and got to hold one of the gold bars they brought up. They were selling stuff reasonable back then, not now though and doubt they'd let you hold a gold bar now either. You can't even wear a hat into the museum since it doesn't let the cameras see your face. Sadly times have surely changed.

Friday, April 12th, Capt'n still sanding I'm still working on piece of the paint that the stubborn salt won't come off and doing odd jobs for the Capt'n. Ran over (well not really) to Stock Island Marina to get more ice and it was a nice short trip. Decided to put one coat of paint on before calling it a day once the Capt'n finished sanding and turned in the sander before the yard closed for the weekend. Paint rolled on okay to start, but was awfully thick and told the Capt'n something was wrong. We can normally knock out painting the boat quickly, but this paint was odd and wouldn't spread and was a major nightmare trying to get it on. It's now 2 hours past and I finally finish just the port side - and the paint is chunking up on the hull. So, we call it a night and we'll try again in the morning. Took a walk up to El Siboney a Cuban restaurant just a couple blocks away for dinner and their food was awesome. Capt'n was able to get his whole fried fish that he loves and I got some excellently cooked grilled Mahi, really unbelievable food.

Saturday morning we are back at it trying again with the paint. The can says do not use more than a 3/16 nap roller and we had used 3/8 so I walked up to West Marine to get some 3/16's hoping that was the problem. No such luck, those nice expensive rollers did nothing to help our situation. We couldn't get more than one roller of paint on the hull before it turned into chunks. One of the local painters had stopped by the day before and stopped by again. Another painter that works at the yard stopped by and everyone agreed they had seen nothing like it something was wrong with the paint. We tried another can and used one of their paint stirrers on a drill to stir it up more. We had mechanically shaken them all on Friday, but it was worth a shot. Well the new can was the same deal, just extremely thick and just gunked up when we tried to roll it on the hull. I added some water (fact sheet says you can) and it would work for a little then go back to thick almost like it was evaporating out of the paint as it is a water based paint. So, Jason the one painter told us about the paint they use here most and he took the Capt'n up to get 3 cans of it. It's oil based, but from what everyone says it should be fine to put over water based, but not vice versa. So we're back in business and back on track for getting launched on Monday thanks to some very nice people at the yard! Everyone is super friendly here and very helpful. The actual yard office is closed on the weekends, but these guys work 7 days a week during the busy season. We ended up getting 3 coats on by the end of the day Saturday and the hull is just about done except for moving the stands and doing touch up work to the paint stripe. Seems as when the guy was blasting the hull he blasted some of our paint off too - not good, but fixable.

So it's Sunday, April 14th and I'm finally able to sit down and type this a bit. After walking to get ice, then walking to West Marine and a little convenience store to pick up a 12-pack for Jason as he wouldn't take any money for helping us. Capt'n is finishing up the boot stripe and doing the paint where the stands were, which he moved this morning. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get hauled at 1, but we've heard from others it's really up to them and it sounds like a lot of boats are going in the water on Monday. Thank goodness we got on the schedule last week to be launched on Monday at 1, hopefully we do! Tuesday is still a good weather window and we really don't want to miss it. We only have a short sail to Key West where we will anchor Monday night so as long as they get us in that's fine. We did talk to someone for a long time yesterday and he offered us his slip close by if we wanted it (which is really nice since slips here go for $5 a foot), but unfortunately it's further north than we want to be and would add on more time to our trip the next day.

So now we have to deal with the yard tomorrow, we have 3 cans of paint that is unusable, one unopened at almost $200 per can. We had to purchase new paint and not from them since they were closed and it was a little cheaper, but not much. The yard charges $50 per can if you bring in paint from the outside, we are hoping that is not the case since the paint we got from them was unusable, but we'll see. We also called Petit on Saturday, since that is the paint manufacturer, but have heard nothing back yet. This would have been the third time using this brand of paint, we had no problems in the past, but this time it was just garbage. I'm thinking it was sitting on the shelf somewhere in the keys and was way too old. They don't seem to sell much red here of that brand only black and blue so not sure where they got it from as the West Marine here had none in stock nor did any in the keys. We'll just hope for the best and if not it is what it is...

Well that's it - life on the hard is, well, hard and we'll be very happy to get back in the water ASAP! As we can't use our fridge (it's water cooled), nor our heads, shower or sinks while on the hard... Not to mention the ladder trip up and down for everything 😕