Ship's Log s/v Uliad
March 2 :
After our fabulous tours of New Zealand for the past 6 weeks, it is now time to get back to work. We were scheduled to haul out Uliad today for a fresh coat of bottom paint, but the weather and a lack of room in the boat yard meant we'd have to wait a few more days. We took the opportunity to do laundry instead and get to work on my tax filing paperwork. Yes, I still can't ignore the long arm of the IRS down here.
March 4:
Uliad has taken to the dirt again. Our haulout involved casting off our lines and motoring all of 30 yards to the slipway where Karl and Shane were ready to hoist us up. Hauling out always causes me anxiety for a whole bunch of reasons. Tops on the list is the fear that one of those big slings is just going to snap. But on a more realistic note, you never quite know what you'll find when you're hauled out. Barnacles, for sure. A pressure wash took care of most of them, but then they leave behind this tiny calcified dot that has to be scraped away to get down to bare paint. So the whole family spent a good couple of hours on this unpleasant task. No holes were found in the bottom, but I did notice that the cutless bearing needs to be replaced.
The cutless bearing is a grooved rubber tube that the propeller shaft goes through as it comes out of the boat. They are designed to be replaced when the rubber wears out and the shaft starts to get a little play. But for something designed to be replaced, they're usually really really hard to get out. So I immediately went over to the office of the local marine mechanics to see if they could come and help me with that chore.
The final anxiety is, I suppose, the pending unpleasantness of life on the hard. Boat yards are always dirty, dusty, and noisy. Then there's the fact that you now have to climb down a 10 foot high ladder every time you need to use the toilet. Sinks and showers can no longer be used at will. Time in a boat yard is like purgatory...a time of punishment that is necessary to get you to the heaven that is cruising. Kathleen always approaches haulouts with an eye roll and dreams of checking into a hotel. Me, I just put my head down and plow ahead--working as long and as hard as possible to get it over with as quickly as we can. And for all her threats, Kathleen always ends up there too, with a roller full of toxic bottom paint in her hand. So let's see how quickly we can get this over with!
March 9:
Safely tucked in our steel cradle, we started in on Uliad's bottom paint. Now bottom paint is also called "anti-fouling" because it's designed to prevent slime, weeds, barnacles and any other living thing from setting up residence on the wet part of a yacht and "fouling" the surface. The smoother, the better when it comes to gliding through the water. Anti-fouling paint is thick and gooey with all sorts of toxic sludge to prevent this marine growth, so I've always had a healthy respect for the stuff.
So when it comes to preparing the bottom--by sanding the hull and stirring up a bunch of toxic paint dust in the surrounding air--I've always been more than happy to hire that job out to someone who has less concern for their brain cells than I do mine. In fact, I'd pay someone to do it all, except for the fact that bottom-painting tends to be a job given to some dim-witted guy (and this is probably one of those "did the chicken or egg come first" conundrums) who forgets to paint some parts and gets paint on other parts that were supposed to be left bare. So I've learned from experience that I'm usually better off actually applying the bottom paint myself. Much to the chagrin of the boat painter who ran right over to give me his quote while Uliad's hull was still dripping.
Between rain showers, we spent the first day chipping off a few areas of loose paint, then priming and fairing where necessary. Oh, and a good scrubbing and waxing along the waterline where it's always hard to do while in the water. By day 2, I had my masking tape along the waterline, ready to start applying that toxic sludge. Then a coat to the leading edges of the hull, keel, and rudder, and along the waterline, These areas wear paint faster so they get an extra coat. By day 3, the whole bottom had its first coat. Having covered up the crusty bits, our bottom was looking smooth again. Day 4, the second coat of paint went on and by day 5, we use up the rest of our paint to get a third coat on. And have the yard guys come and move the jack stands to get paint on those places where they were covered before. By now our hull is looking smooth and sweet again--ready to slice through the water like a knife!
During these days, I've also been making an attempt at some finish work on the bowsprit--the paint job that we had done 3 years ago has chipped off there and needed some touch up. So this has involved chipping away all the loose paint, priming all the bare metal, filling in with fairing putty, then sanding it all smooth so the old chip edges won't show up when I spray on the topcoat paint. The paint shop manager just ignores me now as he walks around the yard... but I sure hope that bowsprit ends up looking nice as it will be pretty embarassing to come back to him and admit that I should have hired him before.
March 10:
The cutless bearing came out pretty nicely as follows: First I removed our Max prop--which has given me a chance to take it apart, clean & polish the blades, and grease the gears. Then the mechanics came by with a big pipe and a sledgehammer and drove it back in the stern tube about a centimeter before it jammed and wouldn't go in any further. This led to a discussion of removing the prop shaft, but after measuring it carefully, it was decided that the shaft wouldn't come out of the stern tube before hitting the rudder--and removing the rudder from the boat would be another huge job.
The stern tube has a little slot on each side, which I always presumed was to allow us to put in some sort of long bar and tap out the cutless bearing, but when the mechanics made up just such a bar, they couldn't get the bearing to move before their tool started bending from the sledgehammer blows. I was starting to feel panicked. This was spiralling into a huge job. But just then, one of the mechanics came up with the idea to cut out a small portion of the stern tube, which would then allow them to put in a steel half-pipe above the bearing and tap it out while leaving the stern tube in place. 10 minutes later they were hacking at my beloved boat with a grinding wheel and an hour later they were back with the new half-pipe tool they had welded up and just like that, the cutless bearing popped right out with a few hammer blows.
This morning they were back with the new bearing which tapped right into place, followed by the welder with his MIG machine to weld back on the section of stern tube that had been removed. As soon as it had cooled, I was there slapping on primer and tomorrow morning the affected area will start getting its coats of bottom paint. Looking like we'll be back in the water in a couple more days...right on schedule!
March 14:
Back in the water today! We can use our sinks, empty our grey water, flush our toilets! We no longer have to climb ladders or walk through a muddy yard to get home again! And best of all, after completely disassembling then reassembling our feathering prop, I put the engine in gear to find that I actually did it right. I was really sweating that I'd hit reverse only to have the boat start moving forward or something.
So my instincts say to stop and celebrate, but my mind knows that there is an equally big job before us now: getting Uliad ready to go to sea. After over a year at the dock, we need to repack our lockers, provision with groceries, and get rid of a bunch of stuff that we've accumulated but won't need anymore now that we're not land-dwellers any more. So to start that process, today I'm putting the "for sale" sign on our car.
Graphic Design by Round the Bend Wizards