The Haul Out

As I mentioned before, we had the boat hauled out, the bottom cleaned and painted, and some fiberglass repair work done.  This is in addition to the fumigation. 

This is what the travel lift that hauls us out looks like, along with the area they pull you out of.

Here is Magda Jean in the sling, on her way into the boat yard.  I was really nervous, afraid they'd screw it up and drop her.  But of course there were no problems.  As you can see, the bottom is dirty.  

Next, here is what happens when you end up going through a gill net.  I can't remember if I wrote about it earlier, but we got tangled in a gill net off the coast here.  Of course it about 4 am, it was still dark, and the water was really rough.  Mike had to put on a snorkel and mask and go in - he got his foot tangled in the net and damn near got pulled under.  He had to cut the net away, which he did, while losing a flipper in the process.  When he surfaced, I truly have never seen him look so frightened.  His eyes looked like the proverbial saucers under the glass in the mask.  The boat was rocking up and down so hard that he could hardly get back in the boat.  We were able to cut ourselves free, but some of the net remained wrapped around the prop.  We were lucky the engine and prop still worked, although our speed was considerably diminished.  Pretty scary when I actually saw it.  It is also a good picture of the growth on the bottom.

 

Here is Magda Jean after her cleaning, but before being painted.  There is hardly any bottom paint left, the purpose of which is to keep growth down.  No wonder our bottom was so dirty after being cleaned only a month before.  It has been three years since she was hauled out and painted.  you can see all the different paint colors from over the years.

 

Now you see her in all her glory, just before going back in the water. 

 





So now, as I write this, we have taken up residence at Isla Contadora, part of the Las Perlas islands in the Bay of Panama.  It is gorgeous here - clear water and all.  We left Panama City Sunday at about 8 am, and had dropped anchor here by 5 pm.  We had to motor too much as there was no wind, but we got about three good hours of really nice sailing, so all was well.

The reason we made the decision to motor, instead of just drifting along and playing with the sails to eke out whatever forward motion we can was because this trip was only 30-35 miles.   At 4 to 5 knots per hour, that is a seven hour trip at best.  We never enter a strange anchorage at night, unless in an emergency.  When you are on a long, multi-day sail, you can poke along as much as you want to, and until you are a day or so out, you don't have to worry about your timing.  But when it is a day sail, you have to think about when you will get there, because if you end up there at night, you have to fool around until it gets light, just sailing pointlessly around.  So that is why we motored - make sure we got in by dark.

Yesterday I did some general cleaning and what was the first in three bucketfuls of laundry.  Luckily it did not rain yesterday until late last night (actually early this morning).  Mike fixed our AIS system, and now the only thing remaining is for him to fix the watermaker.  It is not a huge priority for us now, because we are collecting rainwater.  So today we decided to take it easy and just kick back.  We are considering taking the dinghy to the island and having dinner in a restaurant across from where we are anchored.  Who knows?  We don't have to make plans if we don't want to!

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."  (Khalil Gibran)