It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s ZTC!
We just spent our first night sleeping in a boatyard. If living on a boat was like this all the time, I doubt that I’d continue to do it. It was hot (and then cool) and we were plagued with mosquitos and noseeums. I miss my cooling breeze and my water bed! Fortunately it’s only for a few days.
While always a nervous proposition to see one’s boat flying through the air, our haulout went without a hitch. The guys at Grenada Marine have obviously done this a time or two, and the huge travel lift sure beats the crane that hauled our boat back in Canada.
The last time our boat was taken out of the water was back in Kingston and she has had no antifouling paint added to her bottom since 2009, just before we purchased her. As you can see in the pic below where she is being pressure washed, there are numerous bare spots. In spite of that, the lack of adhering to the common practice of hauling out annually did not seem to adversely affect her. At approximately $2000.00 for a haulout and application of bottom paint, I think we’re ahead of the game on that front.
We asked the lift operators to place ZTC in a spot near the back where she would not likely need to be moved again, and once she was in place, Rebecca and I immediately set to work to strip her down. Both the headsail and mainsail were removed, flaked and stored in their bags. All lines and blocks that could easily be removed were taken off, the hardware cleaned and lubricated before being labeled and stowed. Rebecca even went up the mast to take down our lazy jacks and remove our masthead wind instrument. While this type of dismantling is not super common, it is better to have it all stored below safely in the event of a big blow. We continue to work under the philosophy that we have more time to do these things than we have money to repair damages caused by our failure to do so!
Want to see a huge disappointment in marine products? This is the helm seat which was installed on ZTC when we bought her. This is not an original PDQ item. Rather, it was added on either by our boat’s previous owners or whoever had her before that. Take a look at the rusty state of the swiveling base. It has been leaking rust, marking up our bulkheads for ages. Now it is in the trash! I can’t imagine this base was designed for marine use but if it was, this kind of deterioration is shameful.
Today’s tasks will center around servicing our three outboard engines. They will be cleaned up, flushed with fresh water, the engine and gear oil will be changed, and the fuel will be drained from the carbs. I’m not certain how long all this will take but I suspect a good chunk of the day. If we do get it done early, we’ll start cleaning and waxing our hulls. Anyone in Grenada reading this who is bored today, feel free to come and join the party! 😉
Wow that sure looks like fun. Sorry, I am in Ma. too far away to help .
Preventive maint. is always a good thing. Too bad more people like you folks did not take that into consideration instead of just stowing it away.
Atleast all this work will keep ya out of trouble?? yeah right
take care
John
@brocktonjar (twitter)
You’re right. Time invested now saves headaches later.
Haven’t hauled since 2009? That’s amazing.
It’s nice to cool off after a hard day’s work in the yard by wading in the water in front of the bar at about 5pm.
Eric
Haven’t done that yet.
The seat looks salvageable, not the base of course. Hopefully a local fisherman will dumpster dive and find some use for it. Life on the hard is so different than afloat even more so at that latitude. Soon you’ll be in the mountains and the dusty boatyard will become a distant memory!
It’s been a lot of fun being along for the ride. I only caught up to you guys around the SE States and have been following since. You’ve told a great story of the whole learning curve of full time cruising. Now get to work!!!!! hahaha 🙂
(Boatyard) work sucks!
It’s been wonderful reading about all your adventures on ZTC, a bit bittersweet to see her being put on the hard. Looking forward to reading about your upcoming adventure. Good luck, I’m sure you’ll do well.
Thanks, Mike. I am confident that we will too. I appreciate the vote of confidence though.
Interestingly, it looks like cats down one side of the storage area and monos down the other. That shows how much cats have increased in popularity from a few years ago.
It seems that place is famous for it’s mosquitos and no-see-ums.
Well done, she looks good.
Mike
There is more to the yard than what you can see in this pic. There are definitely more monos here than cats. They do tend to put the long term cats in one spot though. That way we avoid the domino effect if one tippy boat topples over in a storm.
Flush all the engines with fresh water! Just making sure it is on the list… 🙂
Done. All three.
Nice job guys! Your work will make recommissioning so much easier whenever that happens. Do you do anything special to keep things dry inside (no mold) while ZTC is closed up in long term storage?
We are wiping down every surface with vinegar. We also purchased two mega sized bags of Damprid which we plan to put in custom dispensers.
Hi Rebecca and Mike
First I would live to say that I truly enjoy your blog and enthusiasm for sailing and keeping fit. I was very impressed at how Rebecca got your dinghy so cleaned and was wondering what she used to clean it.
I wish you all best on your new endeavour.
Angela
Well, for the record, Rebecca had a bit of help there, namely ME! 🙂
We used bleach, toilet bowl cleaner, scrub brushes and sand. All those and a lot of elbow grease.
Hi, so how long will you guys stay there? I mean when do you fly out?
Just a general breathout for tuatua would do her good.. I have no idea how often our guy been there and checked..
Thanks m8
Hey Pontus
We hope to only be here in the yard a couple more days. ZTC will be here a bit longer. We’ll try to check Tua Tua for you. I first need to figure out how you monohullers actually get on board those things when they’re on the hard. 🙂
Hard work and sweat will pay off! I have slightly mixed feelings looking at those pictures.
End of an era.
Can’t wait to read about you two on the new boat.
Evolution. 🙂
Your seat swivel base is a dead ringer for the standard kitchen top type of swivel purchased in all the sheds here in the UK for use where a TV , table top or counter top needs to swivel? poorly galvanised pressed mild steel with chromium plated ball bearings?running in ring seat depressions on either side pressing?
I wouldn’t doubt it.