Passport's Adventures: On Dry Land

It comes around every few years, like it or not. We procrastinate, push back deadlines, and scrape the bottom to get by for just a few more months, but inevitably in the life of every cruiser comes the day that the boat must be hauled out of the water. A year ago we were forced to switch to a new insurance company while in Georgetown, Exumas, when we discovered our current company did not insure the Caribbean. We were fortunate to find a company that would insure us for one year before requiring a new survey, a very good thing since Georgetown was not known as somewhere you wanted your boat hauled out unless absolutely necessary. A year sounded like plenty of time … that was a year ago. Last fall, while in Grenada, we were supposed to complete our haul out for our survey, install a new transducer and inspect for lightning damage after our strike. We managed to put it off till Colombia. We almost tried to extend it for another few months and go to Panama first, but finally bit the bullet and hauled out two weeks shy of our one-year deadline.

Cartagena, Colombia has three options for haul out yards: Manzanillo Marina Club, Todomar CHL Marina, and Ferroalquimar. We had several very high recommendations on hauling out at Manzanillo and they have a couple of rooms to rent, so we decided to go with them since we really don’t want to live on the boat for a month on land. A boat on land means, no refrigerator, no toilet, and climbing a ladder to get on and off. Generally not a fun experience, and add some messy dirty work to the mix and you get the picture. Our initial plan to paint the bottom, maintenance that needs done every couple of years to prevent the bottom of the boat from becoming a reef, and survey has grown and taken on a life of it’s own. Somewhere way down on our project list was to repaint the decks. The nonskid was worn off in places, most of the rest is very oxidized, and a few fiberglass repairs need done. Even though this is expected to be a very expensive job, we had a quote of over $20,000 in the US on our last (smaller) boat, we figured why not just get a quote and see. Well, when the quote came back for about $4000, to have the decks gel-coated it was hard to say no. Gel-coat is usually harder to apply and often found just on new boats, but it’s something they do here and do relatively well. So we are taking stuff off the decks, taping things up and getting it done. The bottom paint is getting done, but going one step farther and stripping all the old paint off, adding some barrier coat and new toxic paint to keep the marine life in the sea and off our boat. Inside the boat, we have a great opportunity to refresh the interior wood with a nice coat of varnish while we don’t have to sleep in the boat; as well as some other small projects.

We are getting settled into our apt, it’s no 5-star resort, but it does have A/C, a small kitchenette, and enough space I can get some sewing projects done out of the heat.