Yep, it’s that time again, to pull Andiamo out of the water and tend to her undersides. As much as I dread the idea of hauling my boat out of the water, I also understand that it’s a necessary round of maintenance. Nonetheless, I look at it with complete and utter dread each time.
This time around, I decided to try to do it myself. It seems like both previous times I’ve hauled Andiamo to have the work done by the yard, things weren’t quite done up to par. Nevermind that lots of money was paid for substandard work.
At first, the mere thought of doing the bottom job on my own seemed daunting. Then I figured, that I really SHOULD be able to do this kind of job myself. My decision was also helped by the fact that the new owners of La Ceiba shipyard gave me a HORRIFIC quote to haul out my boat and do the bottom job. I had talked to a few boaters who’d done it on their own using a navy yard in Puerto Cortes. Despite a couple of unsubstantiated horror stories circulating these waters, most of the accounts I got were favorable, and the cost could not be beat. The haulout cost alone was less than HALF of what La Ceiba shipyard wanted to charge me. So, I figured, I’d give it a shot.
I got to Puerto Cortes last Monday. Mitzy, who was on Utila most of the previous week, came along for the ride. Getting to Guatemala from there was a much easier proposition than doing it from La Ceiba. So we left on Sunday night so we can arrive in Puerto Cortes on Monday morning. Winds were light, so we had to motor most of the way.
Getting into Puerto Cortes was far easier than I imagined. I was worried that I’d have to dodge a lot of shipping traffic going in and out of there, being that Puerto Cortes is a major seaport for Honduras. Most of the shipping traffic was restricted to a channel that followed the harbor. So all I had to do was enter the bay outside the channel and head straight for the Navy yard. It was a piece of cake.
Getting tied to the dock was a bit of a feat though. Despite the fact that lots of guys on the yard saw us coming in, not one person came up to the dock to grab our lines. We had to abort our first try and back out of the dock, because Andiamo started angling away from the dock because of the current. Finally a couple of guys ran up to get our lines and we tied up safely.
Of course, it was getting close to lunchtime, so the lift operator told me they’d pull me out after lunch, about one pm. But as always, it was closer to two when they actually got around to hauling Andiamo out. The haulout went well, and despite my nervousness to see Andiamo propped up on pieces of railroad ties and PHONE POLES, I eventually became at ease with the situation.
Work started early the next morning. Mitzy had already headed off to Guatemala City, and I had a job to do. I was lucky enough to get chief engineer at the yard to arrange to have my hull pressured cleaned the previous evening. So that worked out nicely. I had to first do the preparation of the keel and other metal parts. The keel, which is iron, had accumulated quite a bit of rust. This took me most of the first day.
There were a few gringos on the yard, some whom had been there for the past few years working on their boats. One guy, an old Jewish guy named Ben, kept things… er… interesting. Ben was a retired businessman, pushing 80, who had a hobby of asking people on the yard some serious philosophical questions, and then discussing the answers, at great length. In fact, Ben’s first conversation with Mitzy and me took off on a huge deep and philosophical tangent that left us nearly exhausted, only after about 20 minutes. Mitzy, who was leaving early the next morning, joked that it was going to be a long week for me.
Since then, Ben made sure to pay his daily visit over to me to hit me with some more philosophical stuff. Suffice it to say, the guy’s pretty damn wise. But nonetheless, I got a bit of a kick out of derailing him with some crazy answers, just to see his reaction. But he made the best of my answers, not catching on right away that I was yanking his chain.
The next two days involved nothing but sanding, sanding and more sanding. This was by far the most dreadful part of the job. I found myself covered head to toe in blue dust (from the previous bottom paint). The stuff got EVERYWHERE and was hard as hell to wash out. Luckily, I used a dust filter so I wasn’t breathing this stuff in. To add to the drama, my sander DIED. So I had to go back to the hotel, wash up, and go into town to get another one. After hitting a couple of hardware stores, I found one, and I was back in business. But that little debacle cost me a half day. Oh well…
After the sanding, the hard part was for the most part over. I then had to apply an epoxy primer, which was in two parts and had to be mixed just right. After the primer, came the pretty blue bottom paint, which I put two coats of on in one day. That was a breeze, except for the part where I dripped blue paint pretty much everywhere around the boat and on myself. This paint is an antifouling paint, it’s designed to stop marine growth on the hull of my boat. In other words, this shit is toxic, and it was ALL OVER ME. It took half a gallon of mineral spirits to get the paint off me. Not sure if mineral spirits are any better for me, but at least I’m not blue anymore.
Anyway, the painting was done yesterday. Now there’s the matter of getting Andiamo back on the lift, so I can take the poles off and sand, prime and paint those areas. Hopefully, that should only take a few hours tomorrow morning, and I should be back in the water by lunchtime. Or maybe just after lunchtime, according to the status quo. We’ll see.
Because of all the work, I’ve found myself utterly exhausted at the end of each day. I was lucky to have a nice hotel, a short walk outside of the navy yard, where I can relax, get caught up on US tv, and bask in the AC. I did manage to get out a couple of nights into the town and the beach right outside the base (called Coca Cola Beach, don’t ask me why). There was also a fun party right on the base that I was able to check out. Most nights though, I was happy to just be lying on my hotel bed watching TV, and/or reading my Dan Brown book.
So hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to Utila, to pick up the cats, who are being graciously hosted by Moni during this ordeal. I also have a batch of bamboo to deliver to some friends who are building a dive resort on Utila. Then, it’s off to La Ceiba asap to pick up some of the GC gang for a sail around the Bay Islands over easter weekend.
Hope I can keep the schedule…