Honokohau Harbor Splash 2012

Tao's on-the-hard view

Chris in Hawi with King
 Kamehameha Statue

After deliriously landing in Kona on Monday afternoon March 19, we picked up our reserved rental car, and with a quick stop to peek in on Tao, made our way to the Kona Seaside Hotel. Although we likely could have descended upon friends couches in Kona, it was a great decision to spend the extra money to have a space to transition and catch up on sleep. With one full day of car rental, the next morning we got organized for a road trip. First stop, Honokohau Harbor to check for transient slip space with DLNR. After walking the docks to check for space, we found one and started to pay for it on the spot, even though we were not yet in the water. Having a place to keep Tao in the safety of the harbor while readying her for our next passage is a huge relief! The road trip continued up to Hawi on the north end of the island, where family friends and fellow sailors, Toni and Tye, had graciously accepted several important packages that we had mailed to Hawaii over the past two months. Although the VOG from the active volcano has been quite thick creating hazy skies, views were still expansive and as we drove along the shore on the “low” road. We even saw several of the season's last whales breaching. Welcome back to Hawaii!

Kohala view

We had an enjoyable visit at Toni and Tye’s old North Kohala plantation ranch home, talking sailing and life over excellent cups of coffee. After collecting our packages (including items such as all of our standing rigging hardware and sail covers) we pushed off, via the “high” road through Waimea, with a bag full of fresh picked citrus to keep us going through the next few days. Around 1800 HST, we got back to Tao and spent 2-hrs prepping her for the next days move. After one more cozy night at the hotel and taking excessive showers to stock up, the next morning at 0730 we checked out and made our way to Tao. Kona’s Gentry Marine was right on time and brought the travel lift at 0830 to move Tao for a one day pitstop in the work yard. We had decided to do a quick bottom job- just one coat of paint over the still beautiful bottom job that we had Sergio do at Marina San Carlos a mere year and a half ago. Chris immediately started the light bottom sanding, while Shawn, to utilize the last few hours of our rented car,  ran to town to food provision for the next few weeks. Back at Tao, Chris finished prepping the bottom and talked Kona Marine Supply into letting us use their paint can shaker, while Shawn blue-taped the water line. We tag teamed the one-can-one-layer painting with Chris using the big roller and Shawn doing the detail spots, saving just a little paint for the final touches. At 0800 the next morning, the Gentry folks moved the jack stands supporting Tao so we could paint the squares underneath in time for them to dry before hitting the water. Finally, we inflated our fenders, dug out our dock lines, and Chris used the final spare moments to do some detailed reconditioning under our rudder zincs- so much easier when not under water!

seconds before splashing

At 1030, again right on time, the travel lift showed up to move us the final yards to the water. Half and hour later, SPLASH!!! We were finally floating again. Luckily, the dock was clear for the next few hours, which allowed us time to get Yannie back into service from the “on-the-hard” state (that included checking the oil, transmission fluid, and reinstalling the impeller with the added bonus of changing the impeller case’s gasket). At 1320 we motored off the dock, took a traffic-filled spin down the fairway only to turn around near the harbor entrance, so Tao was heading the other direction when we got back to where we’d been splashed, now lined up appropriately to back upwind in the general direction of our designated I-36 slip. With no float on the mooring, we got the stern lines to the dock, held on to a power boat next to us, and Chris swam to grab the chain. By 1340 we were again moored Mediterranean Style. We took a deep breath and celebrated with a nice cold Coke and some store bought poke before starting to chip away at getting Tao back to “sailing” condition. Since that point, our “short” To-Do list seems only to get longer...

Week two on-the-hard, Check!

Another long dusty week gone by and so much has been done. Our decision to go big on the bottom relegated us to a very dusty environment. Since we were going to be wearing our ventilator masks anyway we figured it was a good time for a little sole sanding. Two days of Sergio throwing up old toxic bottom paint dust, Chris stripping what was left of the sole varnish with his drill and Shawn following with a random orbital sander (thanks to Caleb of La Cadencia since our sander pad gave up after several revivals). We survived and relished blowing all of it out of the cabin and off the deck with compressed air for a slightly cleaner environment.

We have continued to trudge forward with the projects. Chris finished plumbing the anchor locker and cockpit allowing us to reassemble the windlass, get Rocky ready for launching, load up the V-berth with our sails, and now after a couple days of drying we'll soon be able to reload the rest of the gear on our cabin top into the lazarettes. While waiting, we've been reattaching gear to the stern pulpit. This included a basic monitor wind vane repair (replacing a bushing) which turned a little bigger when one of the stainless bolts sheered, and became even bigger upon reinstallation of the gear linkage, some of the bearings came out... Another black box revealed. We're very grateful to have had Moni ashore for the improvements and that Moni is back in action; better than ever attached to the transom and and ready to steer.

"Slight" detours happen during every project, and we're trying to take advantage of our power-rich environment, so while loading more gear onto the stern pulpit, Shawn has been using the drill to buff clean our rusting cowl vents and Chris has been cutting stainless tubing to the correct lengths for new cockpit lifeline bars as well as the stern arch that he is creating (all will be revealed as that comes together). As always, more epoxy is flowing, this time into new holes in the cabin top created for our two new-to-us Lewmar 25 2-speed winches that are replacing the original four Barient 10 one-speeds.

It felt good to begin installing the running rigging as Tao has started to look like a sailboat again. The anchor was connected to the bow, the lifelines went up, the boom was installed, all of the plastic deck hardware that was removed for dry storage has been reinstalled, and halyards were hung by the mast with care in hopes that sailing soon will be near (anyone get the Christmas reference there?). We cleared the cockpit to check the fit of our new (ala Noah of Scheherazade) teak cockpit grate/outdoor bed and only minor adjustments had to be made for it to fit- though we realized we should get on staining it and decided also to start layering varnish on the 7-ft wooden oars we brought down for Eeyore.

Through all of this, Sergio has been diligently continuing the 9-day bottom job which included stripping the bottom down to the gel coat, followed by epoxy touch-ups when down to the fiberglass, then sanding with a finer grain and detailing (5-days) plus a half day on Saturday to tape everything and work on the propeller to finish the sanding. Monday was a big day with 3 coats of epoxy barrier, 1 coat of primer, and 1 coat of bottom paint. Tuesday the Lowboy showed up to move us so he could get underneath the keel and stands and repeat the same treatment there as well as apply a second full coat of bottom paint. Today is the final day with the third coat everywhere, all the detail work, blue tape pulled and voila, a beautiful new bottom!

For us today, we started with a hearty steak, egg and potato breakfast and we're now in high gear focused on getting Yannie up to speed and organizing everything that has been on the cabin top for the past weeks, maybe even bending sails; basic minimum preparation for life afloat. Spirits were lagging for a brief period in there, but we were reinvigorated by the full lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. And although a heavy marine layer has been hanging around for the last two days, we are fired up to splash tomorrow! Back to work...

Week one on-the-hard, Check!

Shawn and Griz taking a much needed break

Hey Crew! We have survived our first week on-the-hard. What have we been doing, you might dare to ask? We've been focused on everything "bottom," getting all work ready for handing over the bottom job to Marina Seca here in San Carlos. That means we've pulled everything out of our bow and the stern lazarettes in order to access points of improvement. (Where does all the stuff go? On deck of course...)

One of our main goals is to improve drainage and to do this we have:

(1) closed the original anchor locker drain (now below water line) which required Chris to do his first epoxy hull repair (he reglassed with 24 layers of fiberglass!), add added a new 1 1/2" through-hull much higher to drain from the anchor locker above it, which also got a new bigger drain

Chris in the V-berth, accessing underneath the anchor locker

(2) added two new 1 1/2" cockpit drains to the after portion of the cockpit

Chris doing crazy yoga moves to fit into the lazarette

(3) moved the engine exhaust from the bottom of the hull transom to the back of the transom to improve drainage and reduce the possibility of back flow, which required one new through-hull and some replumbing (still to do).

This is looking into the aftermost lazarette and obviously still needs to be plumbed, but the new engine exhaust is at the top (2"), the three on the bottom (all 1.5") are the automatic bilge pump, both cockpit drains, and the manual bilge pump T'd in.

At the same time, we have been chipping away at other projects. Most important to have ready when we splash is our anchoring system, so we have flipped the chain over and re-marked it for easy annual flipping. Another project that has been hanging over us, we have done everything possible to rebed the toe rail without actually removing it- i.e. removed all old caulking material on outside edge and inside edge, sanded, cleaned, taped, and recaulked with black Sika-Flex along both sides of the entire boat. We have also removed and rebed the few deck fittings that we had not yet done, epoxied numerous small areas, and have spent an inordinate amount of time reviving an old random orbital sander pad as there are apparently none available in all of Guaymas without purchasing a new sander. Currently, there is dust everywhere as Shawn decided to sand down the weather worn sole, Chris (sporting two different shoes as he managed to lose one of each along the trek down here) is on deck reattaching our windlass since the anchor locker improvements are done, Sergio from Marina Seca, is sanding the bottom, and Grizzly is trying to find a quiet dustless area (pretty much only happens at night, sorry 'niz).

Chris' work shoes

Any recommendations on what to seal our cabin sole with once we're done sanding? Most natural looking option possible while still protecting the wood...

During this year's bottom job, in addition to covering the boot stripe with bottom paint, we have decided to go all out and have the bottom resealed to avoid any possible blister problems and hopefully any big bottom work over the next years of cruising. Translated that means we will be in the yard (drum roll please...) another 10 days, that's until Christmas Eve. But don't worry, amid this work zone, we have tried to have a semblance of normal life by

organizing all of the food stores to enable easy cooking and designating the main salon a "safe" zone that is always easily transformable into a comfortable home. We've been eating okay, getting to bed early with the sun, and getting to work each morning by 8am. And it is nice to have a reliable and strong internet connection while here. That's it for now, time to get back to work!

Close up of very early stage blisters

What you're seeing is last years blue paint, previous red paint, and minuscule almost green blisters just possibly starting in the gelcoat underneath.

The Princess and her new pillow