Patched up and heading north

Sorry this has been a long time coming. It has been a doozy of a couple weeks.

I am currently in Victoria doing some work and Kevin is at the boat with the kids taking it to Florida and the boatyard in preparation for our haul out date on March 12th.

After my last post, we had the exciting/nerve wracking experience of beaching our boat so that we could do some repairs to the outside cracks that went below the water line. Once we realized that two of the larger cracks inside were actually weeping water, we knew it was necessary for us to patch the outside as well. In order to do this for the cracks that go to the water line, we had to get our boat partially out of the water. Since, Georgetown doesn’t have a boatyard, especially one that can haul out a boat our size, this meant we had to beach the boat purposely. Luckily, the Bahamas is the place to do this, because there is a bounty of all sand beaches. We selected the best day to do this based on the timing of the highest tides and the weather. We managed to beach it at a beach just north of our current anchorage, that provided protection from the wind. The day we picked meant the low tide would be around 11am and the high tide would take us back out around 1pm. We would be able to beach it at middling tide as it was heading out around 9am. We were very fortunate that we had the help of four men from other kid boats to help us do the job quickly in the 3 or 4 hours we had.

The men arrived with grinders and personal protective gear in hand and helped us to navigate our boat to a part of the beach that was clear of rock and likely to allow us to get off the beach again when the tide came back in. We actually got it pretty far in too! The little kids and Halyna took the paddle board to shore and played on the beach and in the water during the repair.

The rest of us worked like a pretty well oil machine. We quickly got the dinghy around to the damaged area and as soon as the tide was low enough, they started sanding and grinding down the cracks. When we initially pulled the boat up, we had to keep the engines running to help keep the boat on the beach because it wanted to bob and wander a little in the waves. It took about an hour (around 10:30am) before the boat was fully settled on the sand and we could turn the engines off. We thought we would be using step stools to get to the area that needed sanding, but the dinghy ended up being a good work surface, once it was tied off well. Kevin and another guy sanded and placed the fiberglass pieces, and the rest of us were up on deck preparing the fiberglass and epoxies and handing tools or fiberglass down to them. For some of the sections that were below the water line we actually ended up attaching the fiberglass with a water proof epoxy putty. We put only two layers of fiberglass on the repairs. Later, Kevin wished he had done three, however, the repair did well during the move up to Florida, so I guess it was sufficient.

We finished the repairs in good time and then prepared to unbeach while the tide was coming in. It was so interesting feeling our boat settle on the sand and then start to bob around again when the tide came back. With some help from our engines we got ourselves off the beach, but then got stuck again not far from the beach in the shallow anchorage. Our friends drove their 25-foot center console sport fisher boat near by to create a wave, hoping to bounce us off the bottom, but it wasn’t enough. Eventually they had to give us a little tug. We did get free though, and drove the boat over to anchor again. The spot we had been in was taken, so we anchored south with many other boats. There was a regatta starting a few days later and it meant there were a lot of boats coming into the harbour! We were so pleased with how smoothly the beaching and patching of our boat went.

Once back at the anchorage we had one more excitement for the day. Our dinghy escape! We were all doing chores and schooling on the boat when we heard a commotion outside. Simon discovered that our dinghy had broken loose and drifted off. Luckily, there were people that knew us and our dinghy. So, they caught it and brought it back to us. I had tied it up as I always have but there were pretty rough waves in the busy anchorage and I guess that is all it took. We tied it back up with a second line to make sure it wouldn’t escape again. I will probably be checking on it every night now when I wake up in the middle of the night . We have decided we should call our dinghy ‘Houdinghi’.

The following days we completed the patching of the inside jobs and re-inforcement of the bulkhead. We also put Owen’s bed back together as best we could. We were all tired of making and unmaking his bed every day. Kevin and Owen also drilled some holes in the areas of the hull on the outside that were delaminated and filled them with epoxy. It was one more step that we could take to strengthen the hull at the sight of the damage. And since repair damage from an accident doesn’t preclude other problems from arising on the boat, we also had to defrost and repair the fridge and freezer and replace the switch on our toilet that decided to stop working.

After two more days of preparations we finally took a couple hours for a final visit to Chat N’ Chill, the beach hang-out location, to say good-bye to our friends before heading back to Florida. We truly hope it won’t be too long before we see them again.

We left Georgetown with just two days to get me to Nassau and on a flight back to Victoria for work. It meant we had to motor two very long days to get there in time. The first day was pretty straight forward, but we pulled into Big Majors Spot anchorage just as the sun was setting. The second day was very rough waves and rainy squalls all the way up to Nassau. We didn’t do very much on the passage because the rough seas didn’t allow us to easily move around the boat. Fortunately, the boat and the repairs held up very well. I am thankful that Kevin knows what he is doing when it comes to maintaining our boat.

The second day was also Simon’s birthday! We were determined to get to Nassau in time for a pizza dinner out (his birthday request). We got to the anchorage in Nassau again just as the sun was setting but in time to get ourselves to shore at a reasonable hour. We also made sure to anchor far way from the pipes that had tangled our anchor before. Owen is now very stressed when boats get too close to us and looks forward to being in anchorages that are less busy. Simon was happy with his pizza and small birthday celebration at the end of the day. His request for his cake was for it to look like a palm tree and have minimal icing on it. I think it turned out okay given those requests and we certainly enjoyed eating it.

I got up at 5 am the next morning to catch an 8am plane out of Nassau and on route to Victoria. It was a long day of travel but I was welcomed at the end of my day by my wonderful in-laws and even Kevin’s sister. It was great to see family faces.

I have since been thrown into the thick of work and work-related issues since arriving back in Victoria. Therefore, I don’t have much time to report on things over the next few weeks. However, when I connect with the family again, I will be sure to get Halyna’s help in catching up on what they were doing while I was away. I will say, they have successfully gotten themselves and Seasura back to the U.S.. We have a date to haul out the boat in Port Canaveral on March 12th and hope to start the official repairs as soon as we can.