We arrived, without incident, at the dock in Manzanillo Marina Club...not sure why they call it a club? We were given way points for the entry into the channel as it is very shallow. The points were very poor as at one point we saw one foot below the keel...a little too shallow for us! Since they only have one foot tides, there's not going to be much water coming in to float you off if you ground out.
At the dock, after much confusion about where/how we were going to tie up. We thought we'd go right into the travel lift dock, but that was not to be. We had to fit in between two boats on their dock (one boat left shortly after...maybe we scared him off? It didn't look like a lot of space, but turned out just fine...except for the "crew" who got their shirt in a knot about where/how many/how high the fenders had to be and where/and how the dock lines were to work! Maybe I'm too old for this or??
This is the travel lift area. It is a very small lift, and the dock is quite questionable, in Ralph's opinion.
They maintain they have repaired it, underneath. It was difficult to see, so that may be true. But, on the surface, the steel looks in pretty bad shape.
Here we are ready to be lifted. Unfortunately, we ran out of batteries in the camera when they were removing the mizzen. One fellow went up on the forks of the fork-lift as it came up to the mizzen. He tied a rope around the mizzen, below the spreaders, and then to the forks. Then they lifted it off Fortuitous. Never in Canada!!
I get to watch it all from a distance...just what I like to do best!
Ralph inspects Fortutious' bottom as they are adjusting the blocks and stands to support Fortuitous on the hard.
We have removed the bow decoration in preparation for gel coat and painting. You can see the colour difference since 30 years ago.
This is the tail end of Greg, as he has crawled in the lazarette to undo the bolts for the side boarding ladder. Nothing is easy! He's left Fortuitous now...so not sure who's putting those back on?
Flavit's crew is meticulous about fixing possible problems. We have the best of the best for all the jobs being done on Fortuitous. We decided to stick around now to do all the jobs as, in the fall, they are all super busy and it is much harder to get the workers you want.
Here, they are looking for blister damage but it was all quite minimal.
One of the fellows is grinding off all the bottom antifouling and old barrier coat. What a job...wonder what the life expectancy is of one of those fellows?
Here we are having our dinner at our "diningroom table". It must be all of 2' square! These are not the best of accommodations, but at least we have air conditioning and we are in the boatyard. It would be so much more difficult and expensive if we had to live in town, eat out, and take taxis every day. One downside is we're not sure how many ants we have eaten so far! We get rid of some, and they materialize somewhere else! had to throw out my entire stock of basmati rice...can't get that here either!
A little cramped for three.
We have bits and pieces of Fortuitous everywhere.
Ahhh, nothing like the high life!
Meanwhile, back in the yard...one of the first jobs almost accomplished! Gel coat being applied.
Fortuitous' stern coat...no more stripes there. That was tricky, making sure we had all the measurements to repaint the lines as they were.
Flavit applying gel coat to Fortuitous' starboard side.
He and his crew are amazing workers! They work 8 till 5, with a one hour break for lunch, five days a week...and a half day on Saturday.
Sanding her and shining up the gel coat. It's amazing how good it looks so quickly.
All finished the sanding of the gel coat! Wow, what a shine! She looks brand new!
Cleaning and washing off the ever-present dust.
What do we do next??
Here are the doors from our cockpit into our aft cabin. We decided to remove these as we don't use them, except for ventilation. We have a walk through down below, so they're really not necessary. We also wanted to remove the tiny port in the head and put a hatch, on top, instead. We'll also put a hatch in the deck where the old one is above the doors.
This is what it looked like when the closed it all in.
This is inside, above the nav station. We will have the carpenter build us some shelves in here.
A few days later, they've extended the seating on the starboard side and around where the doors used to be.
This area is also undergoing changes. The combi (the large instrument to the right of our companionway doors) is useless, so we are removing it too.
Here we are in the process of that...notice, just a bit of dust!
Flavit taping up to paint the stripes. It is a very difficult job to get them just right...not just one stripe but 5 along the sides of Fortuitous.
"Gato" working hard too!
Epoxy has been applied and we have a new barrier coat!
Last of the taping and plastic protection being applied, before painting.
Meanwhile, others in the crew are prepping the mizzen for painting. We had some dry rot under this mast, so we had to remove it. We decided to paint it since it was down anyway.
The new paint job! Old paint stripped, one coat of etching primer, another of regular primer, and then the topcoat! They also are cleaning the mast steps.
OK! Almost ready to paint.
Greg has been working hard on sanding and varnishing the grab rails. We removed them for ease of gel coating the top deck and to rebed them for any leaks we've had.
Inside, all the headliner has been removed and we've been cutting insulation and cementing it to the ceiling.
Tutti, our carpenter, has been re-doing the ceiling framing that had rotted out with various leaks over the last 30 years.
He has cut the panels for the ceiling and has tacked them in place. These panels will be covered with thin foam and then vinyl. They will be held in place with teak strips. This will make it much easier to take apart if, God forbid, we have any more leaks!
Here we are all painted! They did a beautiful job! However, there is one problem...I'm not sure I like the colour of the main stripes. It was supposed to be mocha, but seems a little too pink for my liking. Greg and I had the same reaction upon seeing it for the first time, "It's just a tad pink, isn't it?"
The jury is still out, but we are investigating repainting. We don't think it's their fault as I OK'd the paint. I haven't had a chance to look at the samples again, but we'll see.
It looks even more pink in these photos...really depends on the lighting. I'd like it more beige. Ralph's colour blind, so no help there.
To be continued...
At the dock, after much confusion about where/how we were going to tie up. We thought we'd go right into the travel lift dock, but that was not to be. We had to fit in between two boats on their dock (one boat left shortly after...maybe we scared him off? It didn't look like a lot of space, but turned out just fine...except for the "crew" who got their shirt in a knot about where/how many/how high the fenders had to be and where/and how the dock lines were to work! Maybe I'm too old for this or??
This is the travel lift area. It is a very small lift, and the dock is quite questionable, in Ralph's opinion.
They maintain they have repaired it, underneath. It was difficult to see, so that may be true. But, on the surface, the steel looks in pretty bad shape.
Here we are ready to be lifted. Unfortunately, we ran out of batteries in the camera when they were removing the mizzen. One fellow went up on the forks of the fork-lift as it came up to the mizzen. He tied a rope around the mizzen, below the spreaders, and then to the forks. Then they lifted it off Fortuitous. Never in Canada!!
I get to watch it all from a distance...just what I like to do best!
Ralph inspects Fortutious' bottom as they are adjusting the blocks and stands to support Fortuitous on the hard.
We have removed the bow decoration in preparation for gel coat and painting. You can see the colour difference since 30 years ago.
This is the tail end of Greg, as he has crawled in the lazarette to undo the bolts for the side boarding ladder. Nothing is easy! He's left Fortuitous now...so not sure who's putting those back on?
Flavit's crew is meticulous about fixing possible problems. We have the best of the best for all the jobs being done on Fortuitous. We decided to stick around now to do all the jobs as, in the fall, they are all super busy and it is much harder to get the workers you want.
Here, they are looking for blister damage but it was all quite minimal.
One of the fellows is grinding off all the bottom antifouling and old barrier coat. What a job...wonder what the life expectancy is of one of those fellows?
Here we are having our dinner at our "diningroom table". It must be all of 2' square! These are not the best of accommodations, but at least we have air conditioning and we are in the boatyard. It would be so much more difficult and expensive if we had to live in town, eat out, and take taxis every day. One downside is we're not sure how many ants we have eaten so far! We get rid of some, and they materialize somewhere else! had to throw out my entire stock of basmati rice...can't get that here either!
A little cramped for three.
We have bits and pieces of Fortuitous everywhere.
Ahhh, nothing like the high life!
Meanwhile, back in the yard...one of the first jobs almost accomplished! Gel coat being applied.
Fortuitous' stern coat...no more stripes there. That was tricky, making sure we had all the measurements to repaint the lines as they were.
Flavit applying gel coat to Fortuitous' starboard side.
He and his crew are amazing workers! They work 8 till 5, with a one hour break for lunch, five days a week...and a half day on Saturday.
Sanding her and shining up the gel coat. It's amazing how good it looks so quickly.
All finished the sanding of the gel coat! Wow, what a shine! She looks brand new!
Cleaning and washing off the ever-present dust.
What do we do next??
Here are the doors from our cockpit into our aft cabin. We decided to remove these as we don't use them, except for ventilation. We have a walk through down below, so they're really not necessary. We also wanted to remove the tiny port in the head and put a hatch, on top, instead. We'll also put a hatch in the deck where the old one is above the doors.
This is what it looked like when the closed it all in.
This is inside, above the nav station. We will have the carpenter build us some shelves in here.
A few days later, they've extended the seating on the starboard side and around where the doors used to be.
This area is also undergoing changes. The combi (the large instrument to the right of our companionway doors) is useless, so we are removing it too.
Here we are in the process of that...notice, just a bit of dust!
Flavit taping up to paint the stripes. It is a very difficult job to get them just right...not just one stripe but 5 along the sides of Fortuitous.
"Gato" working hard too!
Epoxy has been applied and we have a new barrier coat!
Last of the taping and plastic protection being applied, before painting.
Meanwhile, others in the crew are prepping the mizzen for painting. We had some dry rot under this mast, so we had to remove it. We decided to paint it since it was down anyway.
The new paint job! Old paint stripped, one coat of etching primer, another of regular primer, and then the topcoat! They also are cleaning the mast steps.
OK! Almost ready to paint.
Greg has been working hard on sanding and varnishing the grab rails. We removed them for ease of gel coating the top deck and to rebed them for any leaks we've had.
Inside, all the headliner has been removed and we've been cutting insulation and cementing it to the ceiling.
Tutti, our carpenter, has been re-doing the ceiling framing that had rotted out with various leaks over the last 30 years.
He has cut the panels for the ceiling and has tacked them in place. These panels will be covered with thin foam and then vinyl. They will be held in place with teak strips. This will make it much easier to take apart if, God forbid, we have any more leaks!
Here we are all painted! They did a beautiful job! However, there is one problem...I'm not sure I like the colour of the main stripes. It was supposed to be mocha, but seems a little too pink for my liking. Greg and I had the same reaction upon seeing it for the first time, "It's just a tad pink, isn't it?"
The jury is still out, but we are investigating repainting. We don't think it's their fault as I OK'd the paint. I haven't had a chance to look at the samples again, but we'll see.
It looks even more pink in these photos...really depends on the lighting. I'd like it more beige. Ralph's colour blind, so no help there.
To be continued...
1 comment:
Dear S/V Fortuitous,
Just enjoyed a good read of your blog. I am currently in Panama at BYC and looking for best place to haul and paint hull and topsides, refresh varnish and do some canvas work. Would you recommend Manzanillo in Cartagena?
Thanks,
Geoff Hemwall
s/v Un Mundo
sailingunmundo@me.com
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