Boatyard, No Fun – DistantSeas

Every time I leave my boat unattended for a prolonged period of time something bad seems to happen to it.

Back in April of 2022 I left Raindancer at Linton Bay Marina, on the Caribbean side of Panama for about a month and a half. When I came back there was a small ecosystem of mold and insects living in both the interior and exterior of the boat. EVERYTHING was covered in mold. Tools, cutlery, clothing, upholstery, mattresses, walls. You name it, and it was covered in mold. Its moments like those when you go down the rabbit hole of all the decisions you’ve made in your life that have led you here, cleaning mold on a 40 year old boat for 5 days with a strange German backpacker in the brutal panama heat. “Fuck this” and “I’m done with this shit” were the phrases that kept running through my head. In order to live this life, the great moments need to outweigh the unpleasantries of sailing.

January 2nd, 2023 I returned back to Raindancer after being home for a month during the holidays. I left her on the hard at Shelter Bay Marina, Colon. For those that don’t know, this marina and boatyard is located right at the entrance to the Panama Canal (Caribbean Side). I learned my lesson in Linton Bay and this time I left the boat extra clean with an air conditioning running to keep things cool and dry on the inside. When I returned, all she needed was a quick wash, vacuum and flushing of the water tanks. Bob’s your uncle, she’s livable again.

I was planning on splashing the boat back in the water on January 10th, 2 days before Simon and Amy arrive. My to do list for the next week included:

sanding and painting the bottom
minor keel repair with epoxy
replacing two thru-hulls
removing the forward holding tank along with all the plumbing
installing new plumbing without the holding tank
servicing the paddlewheel for boat speed
structural reinforcement of the windlass area

Looking at it from this angle, it seems like a fair amount for one person.

The next morning I woke up with a stinging sore throat, and since the best medicine for that is sanding a 44ft sailboat by yourself, that’s what I did. Over the next week I battled being sick and continued plugging away at the list, and to my surprise, I was on schedule. Within a few days I had sanded, repaired and painted the bottom. I swapped out two thru hulls and began tackling the forward holding tank.

Why are you removing the holding tank you may ask? Well, for a few reasons. First, the vent for the tank happens to be just outside the cockpit combing, and when the boat is underway it is virtually impossible to get rid of the horrid smell that makes its way into our main hangout spot. Also, if and when the tank overflows, all the shit water flows out of that vent onto the deck creating a death puddle of black water. I’m tired of it happening, I’ve had enough of this shit. The added benefit of removing the forward holding tank is that it opens up a massive storage area in the salon settee, which we will definitely need for our 3000 nautical mile passage to French Polynesia. Finally, for those who are concerned, there is another holding tank on board (aft holding tank) that we use for both toilets when we are in port. So don’t worry, we’re still legal. The holding tank project took me an entire day. I had to wrestle off all of the 1-1/2 inch hoses (there was a lot), remove cabinetry in order to lift out the holding tank, shimmy all of the hoses through very small holes that ran the entire length of the boat, sanitize everything, re-plumb the forward toilet, and put the cabinetry back together.

I’d now completed everything on my list except for the one item I was least looking forward to, the reinforcement / repair of the foredeck area where the anchor windlass is located. With my launch date being pushed backed to the morning of Wednesday, January 11th, I had three full days to tackle that project.

Three days wasn’t enough.

I began by opening up some “exploratory” holes in the foredeck, and to my dismay, the core was wet like a sponge. I just added “re-core” foredeck to the list. I began by removing the remaining hardware in the area and covering up any holes with masking tape so that fiberglass dust couldn’t make its way to my interior sanctuary. I was also planning on adding some 1.5” x 1.5” stringers underneath the foredeck, which means that in order to gain better access to that area, I had to empty out all the contents of the chain locker. This includes the 200ft of 3/8” anchor chain as well as the 100ft of 5/16” chain. My advice to anyone with back issues: don’t become a sailor.

Once preparations were done I drew out the area that needed to be repaired and began cutting away at the upper fiberglass skin of the foredeck. For the non-mechanically minded people that have made it this far into the story of my boatyard struggles this week, I’d like to explain that most decks on boats are of sandwich construction. One bottom layer of fiberglass and one top layer of fiberglass, with marine plywood or something similar sandwiched in between.

Once cut, I pryed off the upper layer of fiberglass and exposed the wet mess of scrap wood underneath. In the past it wasn’t uncommon for boat yards to use cut up pieces of leftover material as core for their decks as a way to cut cost. Definitely not what I would have chosen for an area of the boat that needs to be strong like bull.

As timing would have it, the day I needed to buy some plywood to use for my new core just happened to be Martyrs’ Day in Panama. On January 9th, 1964 anti-American protests broke out over Panama Canal sovereignty. The canal zone police alone could not control the riots and that’s when US Army troops intervened. A total of 22 Panamanians and 4 US soldiers were killed in the incident. This day is considered to be a significant factor that lead to the United States handing over control of the Panama Canal.

Because of those riots, 59 years later poor little Rick couldn’t buy his building materials on time.

The next day I ended up getting the materials I needed and was able to glue in a new plywood core, along with the outer skin on top. My short time in the boatyard has come to an end and I’ll finish up the foredeck project in the water, where this boat belongs.

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