One of the projects we had to get accomplished while in La Paz was getting the boat hauled out and a survey completed for the insurance. They are such picky devils, you know! Our surveyor, Cecil, was recommended by a cruiser we met in Los Muertos who lives here year round. His recommendation was "he has forgotten more about boats than most people will ever know". Sold! He was right. As it turns out, Cecil built boats for many years in Port Townsend and when he stopped doing that he started cruising. He spent 30 years in the Sea of Cortez before he finally sold his boat and moved to La Paz permanently with his current wife, Carmen. He is a great guy with many fascinating tales to tell and it takes no more than a sit down at his table at The Dock restaurant to set the stories in motion.
We arranged for the haul out before we took Hank to the Islands for a week and the big day was yesterday. I awoke at 4:30 am to the sound of howling wind and my stress level pegged just knowing the very restricted maneuvering area I'd be negotiating at 9:00. Besides the wind, there are very strong, bizarre currents here so it is a double whammy. As it turned, out the line handlers at the boatyard are beyond compare and the crew on "Faith" were perfect so I got her into the tiny (my view) space between the lift and the catamaran tied up on the dock like I was using a shoehorn and looking like a pro to boot! As an added bonus, the line handlers turned her around so that when she went back into the water I could just drive straight out and not have to try to back up and turn around. Wonderful!As she was lifted out of the water we got our first look at the junk growing on the bottom and it was certainly impressive. Since we have the bottom cleaned about every 2 months (divers are very reasonable here) it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but still it was quite apparent that we were supporting an entire ecosystem!
While the young man at the boatyard fired up the pressure washer to begin the job of cleaning the bottom, Cecil, Kevin (his apprentice) and I climbed the ladder to the cockpit to start tearing the inside apart and going through everything. And I mean everything! It was reminiscent of Alison's 9-hour survey before I purchased "Faith". Yikes! I was pretty nervous to begin with but I kept hearing "excellent, excellent, beautiful..." and answered a million questions and was finally able to relax. Then, when Kevin was inspecting every screw and cotter pin in the steering system there came a "Cecil, can you come and take a look at this?". Uh-oh! I began to sweat and thought, "Now what? Is it something awful? Are we going to have to leave her on the hard? Oh no. Oh no. The world is coming to an end." Well...maybe that is a bit more melodramatic that it was but still there was an element in that as I asked Kevin what he was seeing. It seems there is a pin that goes through a shiv on each side of the steering quadrant and the cable that turns the boat goes through those. Both pins had lost the their cotter pins and were in the process of falling out! Needless to say, this would NOT have been fun to discover in big seas! That was the only issue that was found and Chris already has it fixed and it is better than new.
As an added bonus, the steering feels much better now - not nearly as "loose".While the three of us were inside the boat, the guy from the boatyard was busy pressure washing and scraping barnacles and gungy stuff off the bottom. Chris was checking the prop, shaft, stern tube and all that stuff as well as putting new zincs on. This environment eats zincs like crazy and for the 2nd time the collar zinc on the prop shaft was totally gone (we replaced it in December). We anchor out much of the time and when in marinas throw a sacrificial zinc over the side but still the high salinity and warm water really makes critters and plants grow on the bottom and zincs shrink.
Finally, after 2-1/2 hours, the survey was completed, the bottom was cleaned and it was time to dunk "Faith" and "Elvis" back into the water.
From the boatyard we made the short trip to our waiting slip at Marina de La Paz and, after a picture perfect landing, we WALKED up to The Dock for lunch and some cold Pacifico before Hank had to leave for the airport. A successful day with a perfect ending.Next stop...the Sea of Cortez!!
