Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Mexico, sun and a dirty boat

After two nights in Mazatlan (a treat before the work) we have arrived in San Carlos where Gypsywind has been brought to the work yard for us.We are staying down the road in a nice hotel with a pool and a view of the sunsets over the ocean. we were warned that the boat will be in rough shape, so we braced ourselves,only to be surprised she was not all that bad. the canopy was in tact. No roaches living on board, though we found two tiny dead ones, no food I guess. The bad news was the tiny gravel all over the decks and the green stains on the fiberglass both on deck and on the upper haul. We washed and scrubbed all 6 of us but the stains were not coming out. Our neighbours had the same problem but theirs was slowly coming out. Their boat was left only for 4 months , Gypsywind 22 months. We hired the yard to polish out, the guy gave up after an hour.Our last day in the yard we installed all new batteries actually 6, 2 were delivered next day to the dock. We also fired up the Volvo Penta 10 sec. of cranking, stop, three more and she started,what a relief. Nikita had the hose in the intake for cooling.Shane took charge of the top side. In the mean time, Kim had stripped all the bedding,and sail covers, and rewashed them in the hotel(free laundry) and put the place into beautiful order. Kiya and her wiped down the entire inside. the boys had the top side decks booms and ropes clean as well. all done with a 12ft ladder as access to the boat We lost the day for cleaning the stains and next morning we had an 8am splash time. After paying our invoice for the dry storage, the loader/ trailer hauled Gypsywind down the road a 1/2 KM, we eased Gypsywind into her more natural state (floating), going below checking all the trough hauls, no leaks, this is good, this was exiting. Engine turned over, like she can and we backed off the dock, watching the prop walk that pulls to starboard we put her in forward. The girls ran to our slip to receive us. We eased into the slip like we had done it before, no boats damaged and the dock in tact. Gypsywind has got her dignity back.After moving the stored equipment to the deck, we cleaned some more. The crew celebrated, as we settled in for our first night on board. An adventure begins. Gypsywind and Crew reunited.

1 comment:

Darrell said...

Gypsy Wind - This is Darrell on SV WIZ. We also put in on the 27th at marina real and will be over in the bay on the 4th. We have been gone for 2 years also. We have a 8yr old son on board and I see you may have some kids aboard also. We'll watch for you and listen on the nets to see if we can find you guys.