Boatyard life

Since my last post we have moved out of the Airbnb’s and onto the boat again. I wish I could say that it was because our boat was almost ready and we were going back in the water, but that is far from the case. It has been challenging to be on the boat while on the hard, but there are still many benefits. The kids have rolled with all the challenges. We are able to use much of the functions of our boat, including the electricity (for lighting and cooking), the starlink for internet, and some running water. However, the sinks drain into either the gray water tanks (that can’t fill up because we have no easy way to empty them) or directly out the boat and onto the ground below so, we have to limit how much water flows out of the boat and instead catch the water in buckets and then carry the buckets down to the drains. It makes washing dishes even more time consuming. This lack of water drainage also means we can’t run our washing machine. And finally, we don’t have the use of our toilets. As a result we have to use the boatyard toilets and showers. These are okay, but not ideal when you have to use the toilet in the middle of the night. Or more specifically in my case, when your kids have also have to use the toilet in the middle of the night and need you to take them there!

All that said, I think we are all happy to be in our familiar environment with our own beds. The beds in the Airbnbs weren’t always ideal. Owen might be sleeping our a dining table again, but at least he is using his own mattress instead of a couch. Plus we have access to all our stuff. We have curated a very specific selection of kitchen utenils and dishes on the boat that we missed having in the Airbnbs (we even took some of our frying pans to the Airbnbs because we didn’t like being with out them. And why doesn’t any Airbnb ever have a salad spinner?). The other good think about being on the boat is that we can get to the boat work quickly and easily in the morning because we don’t have to gather all our stuff and all the kids together before heading out to the boatyard.

Finally, one of the nicest things about being in the boatyard, is that we have met some of the other boaters here. More specifically, there are other people working on their boats and they have come by to introduce themselves and see what we are up to. I really do love the boating community. One guy got his boat hauled out overnight to replace his sail drive. However, he remove a bolt that held the cover together and found the threading on the bolt had been ruined by the previous owner, and the coil that had been used to fix it fell out. So, he needed a new coil to help put the bolt back in, and he needed the tool to insert the new coil. This was at 6pm Friday night and he had to complete the work before 8am the next morning when his boat was going back in the water because the boatyard had no room for him. He was therefore on a very tight time line. Kevin, having amassed a ‘small’ collection of tools and parts, was actually able to provide him with the right coil and the tool to insert it. The man was so thankful that he bought us breakfast the next morning! We enjoyed experiencing what we felt was a ‘very American’ breakfast of crispy chicken and buscuit sandwiches!

The following day, a couple had their boat hauled out to have their engines replaced. They will be in the boatyard for 1-2 months. The man has plenty of experience with fiberglass building and resin work, and was able to give us some suggestion with our mold and repair job. He also lent us a hand a few times. Then, he provided us with a better set of stairs up to our boat than the ladder we were provied by the boatyard. Plus, he offered to set us up with a 50 gallon drum so that we could hook up one of our toilets (we declined this since it would be some work), he brought over a connector to hook up a hose to our kitchen sink so it would empty into the nearby drain (eliminating the use of the bucket), and picked up some funnels for us from the hardware store to make our infusion run more quickly. Boaters really are so generous, helpful and friendly, and I will miss this community when we are home. I just haven’t had a similar experience from my housing neighbourhoods.

The kids have also enjoyed seeing the many different types of boats that get hauled out. Yesterday, a fire boat was hauled out. Owen did a report on it as part of his schoolwork and Simon was able to watch as the fire crew took apart the water jets for some maintenance.

We are continuing to make progress on our boat repair daily. We ran the practice piece and learned how best to set up for the vacuum infusion. We discoverered how far the resin travels during the infusion and how close together we will have to have the ports when we do our actual piece. We also learned how finicky it is to get the vacuum bag on with all the layers and how to make the vacuum equipement work. It was good that we practiced this. Then, we moved onto actually building up the replacement piece. We originally were going to build the piece in place, but have since decided to build it on the mold and then insert it in the hole in the hull after, then scarf (or shave down) around the edges and applying a border both inside and outside the boat. So, we cut out all the layers that go into making the replacement piece to match those that were found in the original hull. There are six on the outside, then the foam core and three more layers on the inside. Plus there are a few extra layers at the point where the foam core ends. It took us four hours to cut out all the layers and another four hours to get the foam ready (we had to drill in a regular array of holes to ensure the resin travels through it). We then set up the vacuum to get the piece ready for infusion, but ran into a problem. Somewhere in the system is a leak, preventing us from getting a good enough vacuum to do the infusion, and we can’t find it! We have spent the last few days looking, rebuilding parts of the system and still no luck. Kevin is suspicous that the mold itself is letting in some air because when we built it up, there were some pockets of air in the top layer. He applied a thin layer of thickened polyester resin before we applied the wax and started building, but he worries that it didn’t get all the spots (and the extra wax didn’t seem to either). So next, we will see about getting something else (or just more resin) to cover these areas better. It has been so frustrating trouble shooting this vacuum again and again because we are otherwise so close to actually getting our replacement piece done to plug the hole in our boat! Hopefully by the time I write again, we will be there.