Saturday 20 October: Herrington Harbor North, yard day #4 – antifouling not stripped off, hardly any progress on polishing the hull, but at least the dinghy is clean!
Heavy rain last night, and Cloudy Bay’s deck is rather wet. Due to the way she slopes on the stands the rain water can’t drain from some areas.
Glen starts today’s outdoors activities with the bowthruster propellers. Removing the bars, anode (singular, because we lost one somewhere) and then the blades. A very dirty and time consuming job to sand off the old layer of antifouling. And once clean, he applies a coat of epoxy primer.
Mid-morning Mike shows up and starts working on the hull, sanding the antifouling – old layers of which are now flaking after we’ve been in brackish/fresh water. But the sanding disks instantly get clogged with the paint, and it looks like this approach on the job is not going to work. After a chat, we abandon the plan. Sadly. We really hoped we will see the bottom cleaned this weekend.
The other solution to strip the antifouling off is the soda blasting. For which we have been quoted a ridiculous amount ($3,000) to which more costs will be added (travel lift to move us again and epoxy coating to protect the gelcoat after blasting). And this amount is even more ridiculous when we know another boat just slightly smaller than us who had the soda blast done here by the same company for a third of the price we were quoted.
We sadly take our issue up in the cabin to discuss it and regroup. We make a phone call to Jolly Harbor yard in Antigua, where we were originally booked for haul out and antifouling. Jessie gives us a quote for chemical cleaning of the hull, which is less than half the price of soda blasting here. Then we call Budget Marine in Antigua to investigate on the differences between various types of antifouling paint which are available only in the Caribbean. There is a hard antifouling which sounds very good, but we prefer ablative rather than hard. And after adding all the costs together, it will still be a lot less expensive to have the strip off and antifouling done in Antigua. And it will be warmer!
To cheer ourselves up, we encourage ourselves that at least we don’t have to worry about bashing our bottom at the exit of the channel as we leave this place.
Ray comes by and we have a nice chat, with yet more helpful suggestions from him.
Ellis finished the gelcoat repair on the bow, and looks pretty good. We are pleased with his work, he is a serious guy who doesn’t mind actually working!
Next, Glen tackles the dinghy. We have a minor leak in it somewhere, and once a week Glen has to pump it up a bit. Now he tries to identify where that leak comes from and patch it. Foamy water didn’t do the trick, so looks like we will have to live with pumping it regularly. The sunbrella cover we made for it last year was certainly worth it, as the rubber tubes look very good after 10 months under this cover. On the “beautify the dinghy” front, Glen gives the bottom a good wash with hull cleaner. And now it’s white and shiny again, no more water marks. On the little scratches we made on it while lifting on beaches, he puts some epoxy to seal it off.
Earlier in the year, when we were in St. Vincent and had some issues and investigations done on the fridges, we noticed that the fridge box is not insulated properly under the day fridge. It only has a thin layer of insulation, instead of the proper thickness. And in warm climate it creates a lot of condensation on the surface above it, especially under the day fridge. Glen cut out a swimming float to insulate the missing insulation. Now that we have this fridge box shut off, we will let it dry nicely for few days and glue the insulation to it. We had it in dry run for the last six months and seems to be making a bit of a difference.
As it’s going to be the last warm day for a while, Glen tackles the waterline blue stripe on the bow. The blue paint on the edges was completely gone, thanks to the thick sargasso weed rafts we sailed through so many times in the Atlantic. We ordered the 2 pack blue paint from Hallberg Rassy, and it can only be applied above 15degC. Not a big job, but tricky. Luckily, Glen is very good with paint brushes too. I just hope he had the eyeglasses clean while he did it! We don’t want any blue drips into the white.
Polishing: Since antifouling job is not going to happen, late morning Mike starts working on the upper part of the hull, cleaning and then compounding. It’s all very slow. But mid-afternoon our hired help leaves. We don’t exactly see much progress on the polishing front. Maybe an eighth of one side of the boat. And even that is not compounded very well, it still has the yellow-brown sheen from all the dirt we collected on the rivers. Certainly this bit will need re-buffering. Hm, at this rate, the polishing will only be finished by the end of November! And Monday afternoon, Buddy (Ceramic Pro installer) comes with the materials and the product to apply the ceramic coat on a fully polished hull. We certainly don’t want this expensive ceramic coating to go on a yellow hull.
As it gets dark, cold and starts raining, the thought of finishing the boat in Antigua is even more appealing. Plus, these birds here are driving us nuts, pooping purple fruits and stones all over the deck, canvas and sails. Purple stains on everything. Aggrrrhhh.
Not a great day. We are disappointed and frustrated, and got interrupted few times from our jobs by yard neighbors. Definitely lost the working mojo for the evening and we are in need for a drink and comfort food. So we head to the nearby bar to cheer ourselves up.
Conclusion of the day is that we want to leave as fast as possible. We don’t even care about cruising in the Chesapeake anymore. Just want we go back in the water and head straight for Bermuda. To blue water, warmth, decent yard and labor rates.