Five Islands - Five Islands Haul out

Five Islands Haul out

Five Islands

John & Sue

Fri 9 Mar 2012 18:55

We have now been back in Shelter Bay Marina for 7 weeks and are finally getting to the end of the list of maintenance jobs. Our shade/rain catcher is finally here. It works well as a shade but we're not too sure how efficient the rain catcher will be (it hasn't rained enough to try it out). We hauled the boat out of the water a couple of weeks ago to do some maintenance. We motored around to the haul out dock where Victor and his boys proceeded to position 2 large slings under the hulls. Victor then dives in to do the final positioning of the slings. He then climbs out of the water and operates the travel-lift, lifting the slings and our boat. Once the bottom of the boat hulls are high enough to clear the dock, the travel-lift moves forward and carries the boat. We paid for the bottom (hulls) to be scraped and pressure washed prior to being set up in our haul out spot, which was $50 well spent, as it reduced the amount of scraping and sanding we had to do. The boat had been sitting in the same spot in the water for over 4 months, so thousands of creatures had decided it was a good place to set up home. Once we had been blocked and propped the work began. We scraped and sanded in between servicing props, changing anodes, checking & changing seacocks & checking through hulls all with the help of our Director of maintenance, Terry. We then painted her bottom a nice red (only colour we could get the Jotun anti foul paint in) and were launched back into the water 10 days later. It was fairly windy and we had a few problems getting back into our berth but thanks to Terry no damage done. We had been told that "being on the hard" was generally not too much fun. We had several positives to make our stint on the hard more than bearable including a million dollar view over looking the marina entrance and out into the harbour, cool breezy/windy conditions and not too many bugs. However it did take several days to get our fingernails clean afterwards.

Since returning to the water, John has been up the mast twice to fit a new LED anchor light, so we now have a working anchor light for the first time. I hand winched him up the first time to make sure i could do it (I found muscles I didn't know i had). The second day Gene (US yachty friend) took pity on me and did the winching. We have changed service kits and pump assemblies in the heads, had the tender outboard motor serviced, changed fuel & oil filters, washed the storm covers, serviced the windless (anchor winch) and several other jobs. John & Terry are now working on the leak in the air conditioning. We are also waiting for our dinghy to be returned as we are having a dinghy cover made for it in Colon. The basil continues to grow and is now nearly 2 ft tall. We have also planted some herb seeds we brought back from Australia, but they are a little slow in getting going.

Marina life continues to see people come and go. Many boats come in to prepare for their canal transit. The current wait is 2 weeks. We will be going through as line handlers for Terry & Elaine (Virgo's Child) on the 14th March. They have been told that the transit will be done all at once, that is no stopping over night at the mooring buoys in the Gatun Lake. The transit will take about 12 hrs. We have met many Aussies who are either delivering boats back to Australia for the owner or are taking their boat home. A lot have bought their boats in the Caribbean. We also befriended a German couple (Corinna & Wolfgang) who are planning to do a circumnavigation in 3.5 yrs before they go back to work. They had major issues with the agent ("Matchship") they initially contracted to organise their canal transit. After days of emails backwards & forwards (with copies sent to the Canal Authority & the German Embassy) they finally changed agents and made the canal transit yesterday and will be heading for Australia shortly.

The "Pot Luck Dinner" tonight is a Chilli cookoff. Chilli is a major dish (almost a religion) in the US and is similar to Chilli Con Carne (I think) & generally not too hot, although there appears to be lots of different varieties. Knowing nothing about how to cook Chilli and letting the Americans have their night (how would it be if an Aussie beat them) i have decided that I will make cornbread instead.

So we are coming to the end of our stay at Shelter Bay and as soon as we finish the canal crossing with Virgo's Child we intend to spend a day or two in the Chagres River which is not too far from here and then head for Bocas del Toro which will be a 24 hour or so sail. We will wait until we get a decent weather window as the last week has been blowing like crazy and we can see the waves crashing on the canal breakwall so we may have to wait for a few days before we go.

Hauling out in travel-lift slings. Slings are wrapped in glad wrap to protect gelcoat. Victor in the water after placing slings under the hulls. Barnacles galour!!!