Going Back Together

Last week we said they are moving too fast and true enough they are now in construction mode.  Whereas we are still in the destruction phase.  The main thing is progress is happening.  

Last night we found out the surveyor was leaving today and would be out of town for about five weeks.  Luckily he was nice enough to take some time out this morning and come and inspect the underwater section of the boat and grab all the info he needed for that before his busy day of travel. 

 Interesting side note is we had met the surveyor a few months back.  He spends his time between here and Florida.  During his last trip down I told him we would need a survey in the July August timeframe and could he give us a card.  He dropped it off with Pauline who promptly passed it to Mark.  When Mark saw the name he said that he thought it was the Kevin who used to run Magic Dragon in Singapore back in the late eighties early nineties.  A quick message off to him confirmed it.  Interesting because during all of our previous conversations it never came up.  Anyway he was impressed with the work so far.  So that is a good sign.

Mark continued with his work but finally conceded that if we were going to get all we needed all accomplished we would need help.  So off he went to find one of the yard managers to ask for quotes on help with the remaining projects.  A blow to our ego that we couldn’t keep ahead of the game but good news in knowing that the end is nearing.

One of the guys performing his magic 

Repairing the topside blistering

Some of the repaired blisters 

Did we say we had blisters

The destruction on the inside gunnel wall is Mark’s job

Closer views

This is the crap he is peeling off the inside wall to get back to bare glass

Yard Update the First 10 Days

After ten days on the hard, things are going well.  Maybe a little too well.  They are moving incredibly quickly and if we are not careful, they will finish their projects before we finish ours.  However, we keep hammering away at our projects and making progress.

So far they have removed all the bottom paint back to bare glass. They have identified all of the blisters below the waterline and have opened up most of them already.  They have also begun removing the topside paint and are most of the way through that.  

We have thru bolted the forward life stanchions and are waiting for the workers to break for the weekend in order to waterproof the new holes.  We have also begun taking all the paint and filler that has been applied to the inside of the forward gunnels.  This has been an eyesore on Sari Timur for as long as we have owned her, as most of it has cracked and flaked off.  It has always been fixed by using more bog and paint.  Some of it is nearly a half inch thick in places.  We are grinding it back to bare glass and will put two new layers of epoxy glass on using peel ply.  This should not only strengthen the gunnels but should leave a much better surface to hold the paint. 

We are also tackling some interior varnish work in the main salon while we are off the boat. 

At first we were bummed that we didn’t make it to Peñesco or San Carlos to do this work.  However, looking back now we are getting very professional work done and not experiencing the heat wave that is hitting the mainland.  Temps there are plus 100 where here they are pretty much sub 80.  Plus we have the added bonus that San Diego is only about two hours away so we can get supplies pretty easily.

We will keep you informed as work progresses.

On the Hard

We are now up on the hard and the yard people have seen the way forward.  We did wipe out a solar panel in the process today.  It could have been worse.  The real work begins tomorrow.  Tonight we are staying on board to get rested before the chaos begins.

Moving into the yard

The damaged solar panel 

Tomorrow is the Day

We are back in Ensenada.  The trip up to Alaska went well.  Since Mark was going to be in Seward he could see his doctor and get his prescription renewed.  Another plus is it timed in perfectly with Father Tero’s 50th anniversary celebration.  So Pauline climbed on a plane and joined Mark in Seward.  We got to see a bunch of friends from Seward and spend some time with the Fish Hawk crew.  On the way back we spent the night with the Skerritts and picked up a bunch of stuff we had shipped there.  

We got back to the boat Friday afternoon.  And Saturday we both woke up feeling under the weather.  But it appears to be a 72 hour bug and Mark is already almost back to normal.  Pauline is peaking now and we hope she is up to scratch tomorrow.  

Tomorrow is the day we lift Sari Timur for her big dry dock.  We have been wanting to do this dry dock for many years.  However it required us getting to a place like this with a dry climate in order to do it.  It is mostly cosmetic but it should restore Sari Timur back to her former glory and get rid of all her poxes that have plagued her for years.  The best part of it is that the yard will work with us and teach us to do these repairs so if in the future we find we missed one or didn’t do it well enough we can attack it again by ourselves.

The Priests that attended the celebration 

Us with Father Tero

Us with Steve and Jan Skerritt