Boatyards

Boatyards are a slice of life…an ugly one…but still a part of this world.  Last weekend, we spent three days in the Nanny Cay Boatyard, working on cleaning projects and watching a new keel being installed.  We left Monday late morning and went straight to a favorite anchorage to de-tox.

So… here’s the story:

We left the East End of Tortola at 6:15am on Friday April 1^st as the sun was coming up over the horizon.  Originally scheduled for a 7:00am haul out, the time was pushed back to 7:30, which meant our 75 minutes of motoring was done in early daylight.  It rained and a nice gift was the rainbow that greeted us as we neared our destination halfway down (westward) the island.

A nice early morning rainbow!

Nanny Cay is the only boatyard in Tortola able to lift our wide-body catamaran.  It has a monopoly and takes advantage of it.  We arrived at 7:35 and discovered that there was a boat already in the haul out slip.  It was tied up, with no battery, and no way to motor.  We waited for the staff to move this boat off to the side.  Then we waited for the staff to bring a boat for the 7:00am launch.  It is one, we found out later, that had been sitting “on the hard” for nearly two years.  They lowered the boat into the water…and…couldn’t get the engines started.  Two new batteries and an hour and a half later, we wished the owners well as they left with their newly refurbished boat.

Looking into the haul out slip where another cat was trying to start its engines

Then it was our turn to back into the slip, toss docking lines to the staff, step ashore and watch as Azure Wind was raised by the rather huge lift.  They power-wash the grunge at the haulout area.  Then move the boat to its spot.  Placed four stacks of wood blocks and lowered “our baby” down.   Azure Wind sat about six feet off the ground, just enough to be able to work on the keel.  

Coming out of the haul out slip

The powerwash

Driving around the yard

Being lowered onto the blocks

The good news was that our contract workers came Friday afternoon around 2:00pm to deliver the new keel and remove the old one.  The bad news was that it rained most of the day and so the yard was a soupy mess of gray-blue sludge.  In two hours time, the old keel was on the ground.

You dig out sealant to expose five bolts.  Then you remove the bolts and the keel drops.  Mohamed Yonnas, the boatyard manager from another yard, and the one with whom we contracted this project, supervised the unbolting process.

Mohamed, removing the old keel

Saturday around 10am, the three workers returned:  Oly Smith (age 44) from the Dominican Republic, Rahul Paltooram (24) from Guyana, and Ikweaz Ali (19) also from Guyana.  The two boys grew up on opposite sides of a river there.  They were a great team and had done this many times before.  They finished scraping off the old sealant along the hull, hoisted the new keel into position and waited for Mohamed to return.  When he arrived, he drilled the new bolt holes, secured the bolts in place, and added the high-powered sealant around the bolts and along the lines where keel and hull meet.

Ikweaz, Oly, Rahul

 Mohamed then left and the work crew spent the rest of the day alternating between applying a coat of primer and then paint, and waiting about 30-45 minutes between coats for it to dry (it needs to be tacky to the touch to make sure that the chemical bond between the coats).  The crew  left around 4:00 pm, job done.

And, our new keel had a full 40 hours of drying time before we launched. 

While all this was going on, we didn’t just sit around.  We cleaned the bottom of the dinghy, scrubbed rust stains off the bottom of the gelcoat (underside of the cockpit), changed out a part of one toilet, added sealant to the thru hull for the watermaker, ran errands, climbed the ladder many times to reach the cockpit, and tiptoed around the soupy mess below… We spent each evening with our Methodist Pastor friends, Helen and Jeanty, at their manse.  Their guest room was a great retreat.  And their friendship encouraging.  And Helen’s cooking delicious!

Boat yards are messy.  The owners seldom pick up after themselves or their hired workers, so you walk around in a junkyard.  I thought that if there’s someone who is a compulsive cleaner and picker-upper, I know a boatyard or two that would be a great place to spend his/her retirement. 

Boat yards are dangerous.  One of the routine jobs done is to paint the bottoms of the boats.  The paint is expensive and poisonous.  In the US, anti-fouling paint contains copper to keep the algae from attaching and growing on the hull.  In the British Virgin Islands, the paint also contains tin.  It provides greater protection.  And…we’re talking about $300 a gallon (for a catamaran you need four gallons to repaint your bottom).  Well, this noxious stuff seeps into the ground and after years of collecting…  you get the picture.  You wear gloves and you watch where you walk and what you touch. 

Boat yards are magnificent.  Every boat spends some time in a yard.  So, you see some pretty amazing sailing vessels and motor launches.  They tell of the great imagination of boat designers and builders and as you walk around you wish you could climb up the ladders and take a tour below…how the rooms are laid out, what kind of interiors were used, and to see the personal touches the owner has made. 

Boat yards offer perspective.  We walked around and saw several other boats with missing keels and one motor launch that had pretty well lost the forward part of its hull.  Boats waiting for the owners to repair, replace, or find the funds to pay others to repair and place.  With that perspective, we left grateful – for what we faced, and nothing more.

There is no keel, only a hull that will require a major overhaul

Messy, dangerous, magnificent, perspective-giving.   It helps when the haul out and launch staff are welcoming, encouraging humorous and helpful.  They gave gracious gifts we will remember from our weekend visit. 

About to Launch

Think of an auto junkyard where you can bring your car, and in the open air, tear it apart, fix it and drive off.  Like the junkyard, the boatyard reveals a slice of this life and part of God’s world.

Fair Winds, Calm Seas

Dave

PS:  And now, the rest of the story.  When we arrived and had to wait an hour and a half for another boat to fix its engines, I (as many of you might suspect) became a “little” impatient.  After motoring – slowly back and forth – for an hour, the staff kindly agreed to tie us off at the front edge of the haul out area.  Meanwhile, the waiting became irritating.  What I didn’t know is that we were “bumped” back from 7:00 to 7:30, because this other boat’s repair space was where the staff had decided to place Azure Wind. 

So, when it came time to launch, one of our engines did not work properly!  What goes around comes around.  The water cooling system was failing.  I was embarrassed and scrambled to problem solve while everyone watched…and another boat waited for its turn to be hauled out.  While we only needed 25 minutes to get going again, the staff decided not to wait that long before they moved us out of the way.  The experience was more than a little unsettling.  Fifty dollars to a fast working mechanic from unbudgeted funds was well spent!

We both left exhaling into God’s peace.

And, at some time over the weekend, walking around the marina, hotel, slips and boatyard, I came across this sign posted by one of the garbage areas.  I love the British sense of humor and enjoyed this “polite” reminder: