The Haul Out - Feb 2-10, 2007 - Port Antonio, Jamaica
On February 2, we rose early, unmoored, and motored across the harbor to the dockyard. A big marine lift plucked Sea Quill out of the water, and the Jamaican crew got to work scraping barnacles from her hull.
Soon we were set down on stilts in the yard for an overhaul.
Over the next several days, while the Jamaican crew scraped and sanded, Ulf and I read and reread the manuals for our SSB radio and Cap Horn windvane, fretting over both installations which, frighteningly, involved drilling holes through our boat. For two former “office/city kids,” these were not simple issues. We checked and rechecked our calculations, pushing the envelope of our grasp of geometry, physics and math (er, okay, common sense). Whew.
The week in the yard was a trial… hot and dirty, climbing up and down a 10-foot ladder to reach our treehouse. The first night in the air, we climbed into the v-berth very cautiously, afraid that we might “tip her over.” After the impressive display of the high-tech lift-out in the enormous crane, the work mode became a little too laid-back and low-tech, mon... but always friendly.
We persevered, and learned a couple things about geometry and mechanics and Jamaican time. Then, finally, Ulf powered up the drill, sawed through the hull, and installed this nice piece of bling – the copper grounding plate for our SSB marine radio. Fancy!
We still had to find a solution for the antenna. The fancy backstay insulators we bought from West Marine when we were still in NY were too big for our stay wires. It’s nearly impossible to buy marine parts in Jamaica or to ship them here (more on that topic later). Luckily for us, we met Lorenzo Troop, a HAM radio operator, who expertly wired our tuner and radio, and helped us come up with a cheap, locally available solution for the antenna: common, insulated 12-gauge wire, tied all the way up the backstay.
The only hitch was that Jen had to climb the mast to install it.
Ulf pushed, prodded and bribed the crew, and by late Friday night the last coat of paint was drying. Saturday morning, bright and early, Sea Quill was back on the crane, hovering over the water… fresh “Bikini Blue” waterline, dark blue hull, smooth as a baby’s bottom….
And then, she was back in her element.
