Readying to Leave - At Abel’s Boatyard for Paint, Etc

November 15 – 18, 2008
At Abel’s Boatyard for Paint, Etc

Back in June, Bryan and I had scouted out the boatyard and made a date for a November 10th haul out for bottom painting and other out-of-the-water projects. On the 12th, there was space for one boat so Bryan drove S/V Pearl S. Buck up to the trolley and got hauled out. He has found enough work so that he has been out of the water for ten days and counting.

Jupiter’s Smile waited until Saturday, the 15th to haul out. We were a half-hour early for our appointed 10 AM date. I dinghyed ashore to see what we needed to do and it was clear that the boat that was supposed to be launched, so that we could haul out, was not ready at all. We were told that it would be mañana for us. We had already learned that mañana doesn’t necessarily mean, “tomorrow.” It just means, ‘not today.’ From the look of the boat they were trying to prepare, I had my doubts. I hated to be hauled out on a Saturday and then sit idle, but still paying for the yard time, on a Sunday. So this was the upside to this scenario – which was, they would be working on Sunday to launch one boat and haul us out at least.

Not to let this turn of events rain on our parade, we decided to proceed up river, past the old Castillo into Lago Izabal to sail for a while. We only had the main sail mounted and didn’t want to rig the other sails if we were headed for the yard mañana. The wind was light and with one sail and a dirty hull we didn’t even make two knots of headway in six knots of wind off the port beam. I turned on the engine and motored, deciding on the destination of Denny’s Beach. The wind all but died. Two hours from the boatyard Barb snagged a mooring ball in front of Denny’s Beach and we dinghyed ashore where we were greeted by Denny, a friendly Canadian. He said that it was going to get loud around there because he had about seventy people coming in that afternoon and staying through the night. He wanted to know if the weather was going to be as bad as was expected the next day, because he had to return this crowd to the other end of the lake and three foot waves would make the trip pretty nasty. I said that I thought it wouldn’t get too bad too early, that we were there just for lunch and would probably be gone before the seventy arrived. We enjoyed the setting and the end of a so, so lunch and walked around the beautiful grounds. We hopped back in the dinghy and got Jupiter’s Smile underway across the mirror-like lake. Our bilge pump was running much too often, reminding me that our stuffing box needed service and that this is done better out of the water – in a boatyard…please, let it be tomorrow.

At about 8 AM I ran the dinghy to the boatyard to check on things. The yard workers were polishing and waxing the boat that, once launched, would give way to us on the trolley. I was given affirmation that we would haul out today at 10 AM. I rushed back to our boat and we cast off arriving at about 0930. While we waited, I got an hour and a half of chrome polishing accomplished before we entered the trolley cradle.

The yard personnel hauled the boat, power washed the hull and left for their remainder-of -Sunday off. Meanwhile, Barb and I scurried around outside the boat removing old sacrificial zinc anodes from the propeller, the propeller shaft, the rudder skeg and the bow thruster propellers. I fitted the grease fitting to the propeller and filled our three-bladed, feathering MaxProp with grease. Inside the boat, I opened the stuffing box and extracted the old flax while I hung upside down through the access opening above the propeller shaft and stuffing box, with my blood rushing into my head and hands.

Those of you uninterested in mechanical stuff should skip this paragraph. The aforementioned stuffing box is a simple device that allows the propeller shaft to turn while keeping seawater from leaking into the boat. About 10-12 drops of water should leak past the stuffing box and into the bilge every minute that the propeller shaft turns to keep the shaft and stuffing box lubricated and cool. When the shaft is not turning, no water should drip inside the boat. If water does drip when the shaft is not turning, or water runs in too fast when the propeller is turning, the stuffing box nut should be tightened slightly to stop the drip, but not too tightly so as to maintain a slow drip while the propeller shaft turns. If the packing nut is too tight the packing material will heat up from the friction produced and that could cause expansion that might result in a scored propeller shaft. I had adjusted this nut over the years until I was no longer confident in the flax packing material’s ability to keep water out. Our bilge pump had been running much too often and I felt uncomfortable in tightening the packing nut any farther and damaging the propeller shaft, so I decided it was time to change the packing with an upgraded product. This process required lots of Liquid Wrench®, work with a pair of special crescent wrenches to loosen the lock nut and packing nut, work with a pick to extract an end of the three rings of flax packing material, work with needle nosed pliers to pull the compressed rings of flax packing material from their snug fitting home of four years one by one, lots of sweat, several skinned knuckles and many words that are only appropriately used while hanging upside down in the privacy of the access opening above the shaft/stuffing box assembly.

By the time this was accomplished, it was dark. We had accepted “Viva Bob’s” (Bob on S/V Viva) kind invitation to sleep on his big catamaran about a fifteen-minute dinghy dash down river at Catamaran Marina. Viva is docked right next to M/V Sueño Dulce, where Bryan and Dorothy had accepted Pat and Susan’s invitation to stay while Pearl S. Buck was being worked on. Barb and I found our dinghy’s navigation lights and even though the stern light would not stay lit, we set out down river. We got about fifty yards, before our trusty two-stroke, five-horsepower motor started to gag. Barb said, “Turn around. We’re staying on our boat tonight.” I turned around! I called Viva Bob on the hand held radio and told him of our situation. Bless his heart, he offered to come and pick us up, but I said that if I couldn’t get the dinghy motor running we were tired enough that we could sleep anywhere and would stay put in the boatyard. I got our headlamp and returned to the motor with tools and a new spark plug accompanied by the Labrador Retriever guard dog. I drained the float bowl for the carburetor, suspecting that water had accumulated there (oh, if only the motor could run on water instead of gas!) and changed the spark plug just in case. In just five minutes, then a few squeezes on the gas line bulb and pulls on the starter cord later I had all five horses happy to give us a ride again. I also got the stern light to cooperate. So we arrived at Viva around 9 pm, exhausted. After a wonderful, hot shower, we crawled into our berth.

Arising a little after dawn, we set out to put in another day at the boat yard. We had our usual breakfast and then went to work. The yard workers prepped and repaired a slight blemish on the leading edge of the bottom of the keel, sanded and masked the hull and applied two coats of bottom paint. The measuring, cutting of the W.L. Gore and graphite fiber, PTFE impregnated, stuffing box packing material and the restuffing and tightening of the packing nut was accomplished with much less fuss than yesterday’s ordeal. . Barb scraped growth from the propeller, the shaft and through hulls. I scraped growth from the bow thruster tunnel and propellers and greased the outside surfaces of the through hull seacocks. We were able to quit at a reasonable time and arrived in time for a happy hour aboard Sueño Dulce. Barb cooked dinner for the three of us aboard Viva. We went to bed with thoughts that we would be able to be back in the water tomorrow, if all went well, and my stuffing box maintenance would be tested.
The yard still needed to polish and wax the topsides (from the water line to the cap rail or “top of the hull”), while I needed to put on the new zinc anodes. With this accomplished, the launch process was begun and we were floating by 1030 AM. With Barb at the helm, I went below to check the stuffing box and it wasn’t dripping while underway (at least we weren’t sinking), so I loosened the packing nut just enough for the slow drip to start. With the propeller shaft not rotating, there was no drip—perfect. As we returned to the dock at Nana Juana, I successfully tested the bow thruster (to avoid crashing into the dock) and came to a perfect stop along side as our fenders lightly kissed the dock boards, squeaking as if to say, ‘hi we’re back.’ This haul out, once begun, took almost exactly forty-eight hours and was as good as one could hope for anywhere. Abel Ramirez, phone 5200 7941, E-mail: astillerorio@yahoo.com.

Gene and Valeria Marry - Nov 8, 2008

November 8, 2008
Gene and Valeria Marry

Gene is a smart gringo from Texas who fell in love with Iliana’s older daughter, Valeria. Remember please, that Dr. Iliana is our Spanish teacher. Last Saturday, Gene and Valeria were married and Iliana’s students were invited to the wedding and reception. Pam from S/V Tisha Baby did eight heads of hair for the bride, her attendants and mothers and had fashioned the bride’s veil as well. Pam worked aboard Gene’s boat, S/V Aurora, as the bridal party and Gene’s parents were brought by Gene’s best man at the helm. The disembarkation along a red carpet was a dramatic entrance to the site of the ceremony, the Hotel Mansion del Rio. The ceremony was in Spanish, of course, so I understood some of it. The context was pretty obvious so that helped my understanding. The reception was wonderful with a varied buffet offering and entertainment by a rousing Garifuna band and dance team. They had many members of the audience join their dancing and it was a jovial scene. Valeria’s selection of recorded music was nice and old and there was much dancing after the paid entertainment had ended. Everyone agreed that the day was a success.