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Larry's LogSunday was really tough - no day of rest for me. We got a little late start since Diane made a nice breakfast of Huevos Rancheros but by 9:30 I was working. The first thing I did was paint the prop, shaft, strut and engine grate with the hard bottom paint the yard gave us. These underwater metal pieces were already primed so they just needed some paint. I'll put a second coat on them tomorrow. After that was done, I started sanding the keel and pleasantly found that the epoxy I had put on yesterday had made the front edge pretty fair, after some more sanding. I used the palm sander with 80 grit paper and that made short work of the excess epoxy, until it started to get fairly flat, and the epoxy thickened with a lot of the colloidal silica (a very tough additive) started to make its presence felt. The keel was in good shape after some hand sanding along the bottom edge. It will still need the barrier coat but is smooth and fair now. I finally decided to count the number of blisters I had opened and then filled - a little over 1000. Almost too many to do by the drill and fill method but a gelcoat peel would have cost thousands and is a very lengthy process. The afternoon was really hard - I started sanding the filled blisters with the palm sander just to get the rough edges and ridges down, and Diane was going to help wet sand them afterward to get rid of the amine blush that develops, but it started to rain. I had some of my tools out and so we first put them under the boat to keep them dry but it kept raining so we finally brought everything up and into the cockpit to keep them dry. Just as we finished that, the rain started to let up so I decided to finish the wet sanding myself. Diane stayed inside and did some computer stuff and I wet sanded all the filled holes myself using a block and 80-grit sandpaper. It was very hard work and I could hardly raise my arms after finishing but they were finally done. I also had sanded the area just below the new boot stripe to make sure that there was no flaking paint still there from when I removed the tape after painting it. I was very wet from the wet sanding and my shirt was full of little multicolored spots where the paint colored sanding residue splashed but the hull was almost ready to paint. The next day started off very cloudy but usually this meant that it cleared a little later in the morning, unless there was a large area of cloudiness around, in which case it wouldn't (a long way of saying it will rain or not). As it turned out, it didn't rain and I got a lot done. I started out by putting a second coat of antifouling on the prop, shaft, strut and the inside of the engine grating. Later, once the paint had dried, I screwed the grating back to the seacock with some polysulphide and would finish painting the outside of it tomorrow. After that, I started with the barrier coat, Interprotect 2000 from Petit. I had used it before and was fairly pleased with it. I put a coat on the bottom of the keel and then the other spots on the keel. I had initially mixed too much so I started doing some of the filled blister holes as well. Mixing it was easy once I got the large mixer attachment for the electric drill. Bob, on Freestyle, kindly said he would lend me his since we couldn't find one and Jacque, from Dreamcatcher, brought it over from Bahia Redonda for us. Jacque had his boat at a private slip on the canals and had to go to Bahia Redonda anyway and then pass by Aqua-Vi, but he was very nice to do us the favor. (Jacque wound up going back to BR for some bread again since he forgot to get some for himself and brought us back some as well.) I finished doing the first coat of barrier by about 12:30. We ate lunch and I started doing the second coat at about 3, since it requires at least 2 hours at this temperature before applying another coat, but you can wait up to 2 weeks. The stuff then requires between 3 to 5 hours of drying time before applying antifouling so that sanding isn't required, a nice feature since I didn't relish doing anymore sanding. So timing was important - I planned to do one more barrier coat tomorrow morning and then put on the first coat of antifouling that afternoon so I didn't have any more sanding to do. Assuming that went OK, I could put another coat of antifouling on the waterline and leading edges of the keel and rudder in the morning on Wednesday and then if the paint was sufficiently dry, another full coat that afternoon. There was no specified drying time on the can so I think we may have to wait a full 24 hours before moving the jackstands to paint there. That means we would have to wait until Thursday afternoon, probably, to paint those spots but hopefully we could still splash on Friday. The end seems to be in sight. Tuesday was another tough day but at least we could see visible progress by the end of it. I started in the morning mixing another batch of barrier coat, a larger one this time since I needed to cover all the spots and areas that were done previously. The reason each had to be done again was that the barrier can overcoat itself within 2 weeks of application but if you wait more than 5 hours at this temperature before applying the antifouling paint, you must sand it. So, in order to save my shoulders more pain and us some time, all the prior areas had to be done again. Some spots, like the bottom of the keel needed to have 3 coats anyway but most really didn't. Diane helped with doing the barrier coating but I didn't make enough the first time for the entire boat so I had to make another small batch to finish. I still had about half of the barrier coating left in the can so maybe I'll try to sell the rest. We completed the barrier coating at about 11:30 - I started mixing at 8:30. We now had 3 to 5 hours to put on the first coat of antifouling paint. I cleaned off the drill mixer and was ready to start. After lunch, I brought down the first gallon of antifouling paint and set up everything. We had 2 paint trays and rollers and I had lots of roller covers so we should have been fine. I mixed the paint and while I did the waterline, near the boot stripe, Diane started the port side. We went along fine until the roller covers started to disintegrate. It had also gotten cloudy and finally started to rain. Fortunately the rain stayed pretty light and only lasted about an hour but the roller covers presented a more difficult problem. I don't understand why but it seems that only the ones that are red hold up. I had lots of others that said they were for marine finishes, epoxy, etc. but they also just started to fall apart. In desperation, Diane went to the marina office to see if they had any we could use and got some from Victor, the marina manager. Victor had been very nice since we hauled and he said that if we just replaced them, there would be no extra charge. As it happened, I found that I had one of the red covers and I finally used that one on my roller and it held up. I had continued painting - luckily the wind was from the east and because we faced north, the starboard side was out of the rain unless it rained hard, which it didn't today. I painted until Diane came back with 2 red covers but for a smaller (7") roller that she had also gotten from the office. Since I was already about half way done with the starboard side anyway, I told Diane I would finish up; there was no use in using up a new cover for just 30 minutes of work. So I completed rolling the antifouling paint and then used a disposable brush for the detail stuff around the rudder, strut, depth transducer, etc. We finally finished a little after 5 - it had stopped raining and the boat now had a new bottom color - black. Our friends on Quietly, Cynthia and Dalton had come by and commented on the new color and then checked on the progress of their hard top. Their boat was across from us and Dalton had just come back from the States while Cynthia stayed on a rented houseboat in Bahia Redonda. He had brought back a lot of boat parts (a normal thing for any cruiser coming back from their home country) but this time there was a problem in Caracas with Customs. All their stuff was still in Caracas and Dalton was going back tomorrow morning to try to get it straightened out. He was meeting a customs agent that Victor, the marina manager, had kindly made arrangements with after the problem happened and hopefully could retrieve everything without too much hassle or cost. We had brought many things in several times in the past and never had any problems. It seems that the Customs agents had inspected every bag on 3 flights coming from the States. They had looked at all the passengers, not just the Americans, but it was still a bit suspect considering the 'strained' relations between the US and Venezuela right now. Hopefully, Dalton could resolve his situation. Wednesday we woke up late but, even with starting at 9:30 instead of 8:30, had enough time to finish everything. While I put another coat of antifouling on the waterline (the area of highest wear) Diane made some phone calls and then went to a local chandlery to get the rollers and covers that would stand up to the solvents in the paint. By the time she came back I had finished and was putting the zinc on the prop, a special one made specifically for the MaxProp. The old one was actually in pretty good shape so I kept it as a spare. Diane bought some of the good roller covers (camisas rolleras in Spanish) but they were the 7 inch ones. So she bought another 7 inch roller as well. We ate lunch, I flushed the watermaker again and we went down to go to work. While I got things setup again, Diane asked the yard supervisor to move the jackstands so we could paint in those spots. About 10 minutes later, 2 guys came over and did that for us. They had used 4 on each side and one in the front, more than we generally had but that was fine. I had made up some plastic sheets to put between the hull and the stands but the yard supervisor said not to use them, although I couldn't quite understand why - I think he said they would stick to the paint. Perhaps the pieces of rug they had used let the paint dry better. Well, the first coat of antifouling had now dried for 24 hours so I guess we'll see what happens when we launch. I sanded the spots where the supports had been, Diane wiped them off with a damp rag to get rid of the dust and I wiped them off again to make sure we had gotten as much off as possible. Diane and I put on another full coat of paint and then I did the detail again; around the depth transducer, inside the skeg where the rudder fits, inside the through hulls, etc. The hull now looked pretty good with the 2 coats of bottom paint and the topsides compounded and waxed but I saw some more small blisters now that they had moved the jackstands - well, they would be there for the next haulout. I also noticed that the keel wasn't completely fair - not at the bottom where I had faired it pretty well, but on the spots where I had sanded off some flaking paint. The keel's integrity wasn't compromised and the slight imperfections weren't going to affect our speed to any noticeable degree so I let it pass. In past years, I suppose I would have been more particular but we had been in the yard for over three weeks and wanted to get launched and get on our way, first to see Merida and then back the offshore islands and Bonaire. It seems we're definitely launching tomorrow. Thursday morning I did the final antifouling coat around the waterline and leading edges of the keel and skeg, as well as put some more inside the skeg where the rudder fits and the through hull openings. Then I started to clean up. I used the lacquer thinner that Diane bought and it worked really well - I don't know what's in it but it must be pretty powerful - it cleaned up all the paint on the mixer, the heavy gloves I used and anything else. Diane went to pay our bill so we could be launched tomorrow morning and then went over to see her friend Janice, the woman we met at the Ambassador's meeting some months ago. Victor was nice enough to have the launch driver bring Diane over (her house was right on one of the canals) so she could drop off a list of things and some money. Janice was going to try to pick up some things in the US on her upcoming trip home. That afternoon, I took off the blue masking tape from the bottom and the boat looked pretty good. The black of the antifouling set off the sapphire blue boot stripe and the newly waxed topsides looked good. I got everything ready and put most things away, at least so they wouldn't go flying when the boat was launched. I brought up the water hose after cleaning it from being in the mud and dirt for almost 4 weeks and then took some pictures of the boat and of Aqua Vi itself. I got some nice shots of the canals and some of the colorful little houses just across from the marina. The only things left to do tomorrow morning were to bring up the electrical cable, Take up the little rug we used at the bottom of the ladder to wipe our feet and, finally, to paint the bottom of the keel. I left some paint and a brush below just for that. In the evening, we went to the Syrian Club one last time. We had a nice meal and just relaxed afterward. Friday, May 20th, and we launched - hurray!! We were scheduled for about 9:30 but when I went to say goodbye to Victor, he said the boat scheduled before us was a little delayed so we went in the slings at about 9. I took some pictures and wound up on the boat while we were moving. I had never done that before. They stopped just before the launching pit and got a ladder so I could come down and paint the bottom of the keel. That was the only place left unpainted. The spots where the jackstands supported the hull were not too bad - the paint there had dried for 24 hours before they were moved. I also found out why they didn't want me to use plastic against the hull where the supports had been - they once had a boat that supposedly slipped off the supports from using plastic so now they didn't allow it. Anyway, they paint was alright and I painted the keel's base and we waited a little bit for the paint to dry. After about 45 minutes, I went back on the boat while they lowered it into the water. The launching went fine but after the boat was in the water, I had to re-attach the forestay. It had needed to be removed to make room for the Travelift to raise the boat. Diane tried helping but she wasn't strong enough so 2 of the yard guys came on. They pulled the forestay a little forward and down but I still couldn't get the clevis pin in place. I eventually loosened the backstay even more, almost to the point of coming apart, and the 3 of us finally managed it. The yard manager, Jacko, wanted us to leave without attaching the forestay, something I didn't hear, but Diane told him it wasn't safe to move the boat that way (although in the canals it probably would have been OK if I had attached a halyard to the deck). Anyway, I tightened the backstay a bit, so it wouldn't flop around and we motored out of the slipway. Diane called ahead and the new Bahia Redonda dockmaster, Potter (real name - Jesus - but he likes the Harry Potter stories) said to come over slowly since they had some 'maneuvering' to do first. We went over slowly and they were ready for us by the time we arrived. We got in our slip easily with Edgar's (the assistant dockmaster) help in the chase boat. We arrived about 11, straightened up the lines and then attached the electricity, water hose and cable TV. We got the boat a little organized and while Diane brought in the laundry, which we had a lot of, and ran some errands, I rinsed off the boat from 3 weeks of accumulated boatyard dirt. After that, I just collapsed. We got the wireless Internet running and did some updates, checked email and some other stuff - it was nice to be back. I still had some boat things to do, like change the hot water heater element, change the engine intake hose, etc. but that would wait for a little while. |