Last updated 02/01/2010

October 14 - November 4: TabbyCat is on the HARD (...thud!)

...It is not all sunsets and cool drinks in the shade...

In the cruising life we have chosen there are certain events that must occur. Some are quite pleasant, like being anchored in a quiet cove under a full moon, or finding a nice secluded sandy beach with the sun being shaded by a palm tree. Others can be exciting, like sailing to your next destination in a good breeze, just on the edge of too much wind, the boat enjoying the ability to play in the elements she was designed for. Still other events can be frightening even terrifying, caught in a storm or avoiding bridges, big ships in the night, or the real and imagined pirates that are all out there. Others are just a pain in the A__, or dream killers. One of the most insidious killers of the dream to sail away and live a carefree life afloat in a tropical paradise is the requirement and reality of "living on the hard!"

"Living on the hard" is shorthand for having your boat on the hard, rigid and (generally) unmoving land while living on her, as opposed to living on the soft inviting water, gently swaying in the breeze with the wind always in front of you. "Living on the hard" is usually done because you are performing one or more maintenance project like painting the bottom with the aptly named "bottom paint" (aka - anti-fouling paint). For cruisers like us, "living on the hard" is a part of leaving the boat during hurricane season (June 1 - Nov 1 in the North Atlantic) on jack-stands. This season, we "lived on the hard" for about 10 days before flying to the US to visit family and friends. Then when we returned to Trinidad, we "lived on the hard" for another 3 weeks. UGH!

"Living on the hard" is also just hard...you have to climb on and off the boat using a ladder or a couple of huge wood blocks just below the "swim" ladder; you cannot use the head at any time, but especially not @ 3AM (!), so you stumble down the ladder, across the boatyard to the bathrooms and then realize you forgot the bathroom key (quick, where is a bush?); you don't "swing" at anchor, so the rain comes in any open window/hatch and there is no breeze, so you are hot; you gave away all your food, so there are no midnight snacks or even a proper cup of tea and a few biscuits. Our eager hope to get back to the boat did not include any mental images like this (or even the photgraphic ones below).

"Living on the hard" is also dirty, buggy and leafy. The pleasant little pink flowers we saw when we arrived have turned into a transport method for dirt and bugs to attack the boat. It is hard to get rid of all the dirt and leaves since they keep coming back - could the dirt be alive? No, we just track it on even though we remove our dirty footwear. And then there are the ANTS and ROACHES -  YUCK! There are big ones and small ones everywhere. We opened up the locker where we keep a canvas bucket with the courtesy flags for each country we plan on visiting. When we lifted the bucket, these big ants came pouring out like water that is black with LEGS and big PINCERS - OUCH! After cleaning the locker and the flags (we had to throw the bucket away since the ants ate most of it), we tackled another project - releading the schreacher sheets (ropes for you landlubbers). When we threaded the line under a portion of the deck that is mostly sealed from the world except for three "tubes", guess what came pouring out like black water with legs?

When we first returned to TabbyCat and climbed up the ladder there were huge piles of leaves everywhere. It was like fall in the US. The cockpit was nearly black - okay, maybe that was because we returned at night, but the next morning it was still pretty disgusting. Yes, we knew we would have some "spring cleaning" to do, but this is ridiculous. Then there are the "boat projects". 

The Boat Projects (actually a never ending list)

First among these is the previously mentioned "bottom painting". Many cruisers contract this job out, but we have found that while it seems to make some economic sense, we never like the results from the bottom-painting "pros", so we do it ourselves. This means sanding, finding "bad spots" where the barnacles have really attached themselves - um - "hard" to the bottom, re-evaluating where to re-apply a "barrier coat", sort of like primer between the boat bottom and the bottom paint, fixing cracks in the rudders and/or daggerboards and then cleaning the bottom of all the dust and yard dirt before painting. Oh, and did I mention that you cannot just go to the store and buy the paint? No, you have to order it and it is shipped from the US on a supply ship and then has to sit in Trinidad & Tobago Customs for a few days - so just to get the paint takes two weeks! Painting, as many of you know, is dirty work, especially the prep part. Mike has sacrificed several pieces of clothing to the cause and Susan has a couple of red shirts that are looking very Christmas-like with their cute green speckles all over. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Next, is cleaning and waxing the hull. Before we left, several of the yard workers convinced us to leave a layer of wax on the boat while we were gone. Then when we returned all we would have to do is remove the wax with our buffer and the hull would look fabulous! There was a voice in the back of my head that said waxing the boat and leaving it on the hull during the hottest months of the year is wrong, but every boat in the yard had done it. Surely they must know something I don't, right? Wrong! The wax was absolutely baked on in many places. Our plan of removing the wax in one day, turned into a 3+ day ordeal that was never completed and there are spots on the boat that just look wretched.

Then there is the ever popular cleaning of the inside of the boat. Think spring cleaning on steroids where everything comes out of the little nooks and crannies on the boat and each nook and cranny is cleaned. Now you may recall that the boat has a limited amount of space to put things to begin with, so where do all these things go while their storage area is cleaned? Wherever there is any available space. At the end of every day, no matter how much we have cleaned and restowed things the boat looks like the remains of a yard sale where everything was looked at but nothing sold.

We also had to re-install the autopilot control unit repaired in Canada while we were in the US. After the initial "uh-oh" when I hooked it up and none of the instruments worked. I checked and rechecked and rechecked the connections and the third time saw where I had misconnected one of the wires. Whew!

After we re-installed the Chartplotter/GPS, we noticed the date was either way wrong, or we were involved in time travel to the LAST CENTURY. We were getting a date of March 20, 1990(!) WOW! After spending some days trying to figure out how the date, which is supposed to be provided by the GPS satellite cluster, could be that far off, we fired off an email to Garmin tech support who straightened that one out.

We also contracted out for two projects. One is designed to free us from scraping barnacles and other grabby-types of sea life from attaching to the props and the saildrive leg. It also may make us just a bit faster under power by reducing drag. This project is the PropSpeed Project, using a product called PropSpeed. The first step is to thoroughly clean the areas to be treated, followed by the application of of metal ecthing primer. This step is crucial because you have to apply the primer and avoid runs, bubbles, etc. Then, you have to apply the PropSpeed final coat which is a super slippery surface that nothing can stick to. What follows is a few pics that show from start to finish. Of course, they are taken at different times of the day, at different angles and using different exposures that result in the "AFTER" picture looking the best, just like they do with "Slim Fast"!

Project Two continues and is turning into a never-ending one, it is the installation of a wind generator (it generates power, not wind!). The actual generator is made by an English firm called Eclectic Energy, the unit is the model D-400 (also available in the US from Southeast Marine). It is the quietest and most powerful one we could find. One of the bad things about cruising is the amount of NOISE POLLUTION generated by wind generators - ugh!

Since TabbyCat is such a special boat, her wind generator and wind generator pole have to be special as well. The good thing about the D400 is that it is very quiet. The bad thing is that it is very heavy, about 37 pounds on the end of a 10 foot (3.3 meter) pole, creates a pretty good lever arm. Most boats have a pole that is secured in at least two other directions. Those "standard" solutions don't work on TabbyCat's non-standard design. We initially thought a pole with stainless steel arches would work, but everyone thought the curved arches wouldn't provide enough support. Then when Mike was walking around the Peake's yard one day he spotted the answer - an unstayed pole! He saw it on a Chris White catamaran. The pole was MASSIVE compared to the "standard" designs. A discussion with our pole contractor made Mike abandon all lever arm concerns and the deal was struck. A 3.5" diameter lightweight aluminum pole, 10 feet in length, mounted on a rear step away from the arc of the boom and secured vertically by two tabs would solve the problem. Each point of attachment would receive a large aluminum backing plate. Our contractor was familiar with the Chris White design and was certain it would work (HA!). The pole would be painted in a high gloss white. Everything was set...

...but remember it is "Life on the Hard" and we are also on "Island Time".

By the time we got to our original launch date, 30 October, the pole wasn't ready. Mike had completed most of the electrical work. Rain showers were intermittent enough that Mitch, our contractor, couldn't get the pole out of the shop and over to the boat to figure out the "exact" placement of the tabs. Then, days before

December 17: TabbyCat has ESCAPED from Trinidad!!!

Yes, it is really true! Trinidad, which is also known by the name of "Hotel California" - think, "you can check out any time you like, but you can NEVER leave," - is a great place to provision and has some truly wonderful people, but it has a way a sucking boats in and keeping them in port WAAAY beyond their original intentions. TabbyCat is no exception, since we were scheduled to leave on November 4, but "enjoyed" an extra 6 weeks waiting for a wind generator pole to be "ready for installation tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...", you get the picture, right?

We finally accepted the pole, even though it was not truly ready. Here's why - In the Hotel California nightmare, the pole was finally re-painted and looked nearly perfect on Friday afternoon. We arranged to get the pole to the boat @ 8AM Monday, giving the gremlins an entire weekend to wreck our plans. The painter delivered the pole to the West Coast Fabricators shop late Friday and then, since there was no one in the shop to receive it, he left the pole STANDING on its 7" base in the middle of the shop, AND WALKED AWAY!! After the pole got tired of standing, it decided to lay down, leaving chips and gouges in the paint as it hit workbenches and tools on its way to a more comfortable and stable resting place. AARRGGHH!!!

My response after biting my tongue was, "We are taking it and will find some way to touch up the pole later." So, to that end, some pictures are in order. I may post a more detalied description of this project later, but I am running out of time for today's internet access. Fair Winds!

Here is the Pole @ Sunset just before leaving Trinidad