ANOTHER WEEKS RECAP

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Mindanao, Philippines

Another week of life on the hard and here is the recap. Kathy has had help in her projects from Miss Bing a local Filipina who Kathy has trained in cleaning the boats interior, exterior and most recently all the stainless hardware that came off the mast. Using polish, rags and bronze wool all the parts are getting clean.

POLISHING AWAY

My first two days of the week were trips to the city for supplies. I was not organized enough on what I needed on Mondays trip requiring a second trip on Tuesday. Our workers Do- Do and Yo- Yo finished the sanding of the bottom on Monday and then moved on to sanding the old paint off the mast, boom and other painted parts. Ta-Ta continued with taking the various fittings off the mast and boom.

Once again we had the arrival of a box of stuff that had been shipped from the states. Lots of boat parts and things that we just cannot buy here in the Philippines. Kathy had spent Tuesday unloading the box and then on Wednesday we both managed to sort and get things put away. It would be so much easier if you could just drive on down to the local hardware store but that would ruin the adventure.

Thursday Kathy was off on here big shopping trip to the Costco like store and I started on my project of filling the numerous but unnecessary holes that were in the mast and boom. Previously those holes were just filled with stainless machine screws. The dissimilar metals causing corrosion and not truly looking good. After doing some internet research I felt the best approach was to use threaded aluminum plugs epoxied in to the holes. After priming and painting the mast and boom hopefully would look new,

THESE ARE ONLY A FEW OF THE HOLES

TAPPING FOR THE PLUG

THREADING THE ALUMINUM ROD

METAL EPOXY

A FEW TURNS INTO THE BOOM

READY TO GRIND OFF

FINISHED

 Counting up the old unnecessary holes in the mast and boom and then filling them required higher math but I knew in the end would be worth the time and effort. That's when disaster struck! A cutting wheel on the angle grinder came apart and caused a nasty cut to my left hand.

OUCH !!!!

No real harm but enough to cause a lot of swelling and the inability to do much for the last few days.
Now Ta-Ta is finishing the plugging of holes.

The mast, boom and other miscellaneous parts have been stripped and are now ready for paint. Today I finally managed to to remove the mast head sheaves. Tomorrow it's another trip to the city to see about having new sheaves made and a doctors visit as for the past month my left knee has been swollen and stiff.

Getting old is the S--t's but better than the alternative.

PROGRESS -ALL FORWARD

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Mindanao, Philippines

We got an early start Monday morning. We hoped all was ready for the removal of the mast. We had fellow yachties to help. Rob of Summer Wind, Lorenzo of Flaneur and Kevin of Moonrise. The yard boys were busy with the launching of another boat. First on the list was several checks by our helpers that Kathy and I had gotten things such as the electrical disconnected, turnbuckles loosened, cotter pins pulled etc.. It's always good to have lots of checks before moving on. As I have said this was a new experience for Kathy and I.  

Before the crane arrived on scene I made a trip up the mast to remove the stay sail furler, Just an additional piece of rigging not to have to worry about. The crane was here in the yard and the operator was here about 0845. Once the crane was moved off our bow it was another trip up the mast to attach the lifting sling. Under the direction of Rob who has had quite a bit of experience doing this I got the sling in the proper location along with lines also running down to the mast base and we were ready to take up tension on the sling and then release all the shrouds. Once the shrouds and stays were undone the crane applied a little upward lift and the mast popped up twelve inches just like a champagne cork. A check was made below for any problems. All the loose wires were tied to the mast and then up it went. The mast was on the ground and we were done with the crane by 0930.
The cost for the crane and operator was about $135 US.

ALL BALANCED AND HANGING STRAIGHT DOWN

LORENZO WITH THE TAG LINE

CRANE OPERATOR

    Next the mast was set down for removal of the spreaders and wires before moving to the area where all the hardware could be taken off before it's painting.

KATHY AND ROB LOOKING THINGS OVER

READY TO BE MOVED TO THE SHOP AREA

It was a long day by the time the wire and spreaders were removed and the mast was laid up in a shady spot for the continued work of removing all the parts before painting. Prior to removing all the hardware for painting I went from top to bottom taking photos of everything and writing a list in my note pad. Next we did a video top to bottom so everything can go back in the proper place

ALL THIS COMES OFF TO PAINT

MAST TOP

MY NOTEPAD AS I WROTE DOWN WHERE ITEMS WERE

BY SATURDAY TA-TA HAS MOST EVERYTHING REMOVED

 The rest of the week continued with forward progress. Tuesday I continued on the heavy grinding off of the bottom paint. Wednesday I had a helper Do-Do to sand with the small orbital sander and #80 paper. Wednesday Do-Do was joined by Yo-Yo sanding away.It seems most of the Filipinos come with various nicknames that make little sense but both turned out to be hard workers, especially when told for hard work they would receive a 100 peso bonus at the end of the day. That's substantial when their wages are 350 pesos a day. I finished the heavy grinding on Friday afternoon and the Boys have only a small bit of sanding to finish up tomorrow.

CLEAN TO THE GEL COAT

Other things were also accomplished during the week. Kathy had a Filipina helper Bing, come and clean out a very dirty mast step and bilge area

THE MAST SITS ON THIS

A STORAGE BOX FOR ALL THE BITS AND PIECES

Tomorrow starts a new week. I will be off to Davao to buy some supplies as Kathy supervises the Boys and once again has Bing here to clean. The thing we are most looking forward to is giving the boat a proper wash and riding ourselves of all the grinding dust.

The work list for the upcoming week has the Boys sanding the mast and boom as I start on seacock rebuilding and thru hull removal. Kathy will supervise and keep everything moving forward.

NOT TO BUSY, BUT

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Philippines

The past week was not overly productive!! I caught Kathy's sickness and was down for the count on Monday and Tuesday. I was required to make a recovery on Wednesday as I needed to go to the big city to renew our visa's for another two month period. A bit of rum in the evening seemed to help and on Wednesday I got the visa's done, we're set for another two months.

During this time we had again changed our minds and decided to go ahead and have the mast pulled first for painting and to make it a bit easier for me in installing the new standing rigging. The rest of the week was our normal routine things that need to be done along with preparing to have the mast removed. That is scheduled for tomorrow at 0900, hopefully all goes well. We've not done this before in the 15 years that we have owned the boat and don't really know if it has ever been done. We'll know lots more by tomorrow night.

OUR WORK WEEK

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Philippines

Today was our quiet day. No workers in the yard and for most of us here in the marina or on the hard it's a day off. Kathy and I spent the day catching up on paperwork jobs, insurance renewal, sailmail renewal, printing papers for this weeks upcoming immigration visa renewal. Computer stuff. Kathy though she has been sick this last week managed to do several loads of laundry and give the boat a rinse off. The rinse off was much needed after my week of sanding bottom paint.

MY TOOLS READY TO START

It's a good thing that I am still a bit fit as my job for the last week was stripping off the accumulated layers of anti-fouling paint. I managed to finish the starboard side. Tomorrow I start on the port. Depending on the area of the hull I used either a large 7" or small 4" grinder with 36 grit paper. The object was to get the anti-foul paint off and down to the old barrier coat. Tomorrow I have workers again to take off the barrier coat down to the original gel coat using orbital sanders. I just did not trust the workers with the grinders going to far into the fiberglass. It's tolerable if I do it but not if they make the same mistake, I did in act go a bit to far a few times. Just more spots to fill and fair. Once the paint and barrier coat have been removed we'll let the hull dry out, repair any osmotic blisters and then re-apply barrier coat and anti-foul paint.

READY TO START ON THURSDAY

CLOSE TO THE FINISH

THE STARBOARD SIDE IS DONE

AN OLD GUY SELFIE

Some other tidbits from the boat yard. We have some yard cats with feral beginnings but now a bit domesticated. First was "Jack" tamed and fed first by Philip and Leslie of the S/V Corina. They had Jack fixed to stop the proliferation of kittens. Next came "Brouhita"[sp] little witch in Spanish, tamed once again by S/V Corina, Suzie of S/V Sidewinder and Kathy. Before we could catch and have "Brouhita" spayed she became pregnant resulting in four little ones.

A LITTLE ONE WITH A FIERCE YARD DOG TOO

PLAYFUL

MOM AND A LOOK ALIKE

The vet was here yesterday and we will have mom and kittens spayed and then the vet said she could find homes for the kittens. "Brouhita" will remain along with "Jack" here in the yard keeping us free of rats.

Just another week living the dream after untying the dock lines.