S/V Mandolin: Life in the boat yard. La Paz, Mexico

Life in the boat yard. La Paz, Mexico

The following is our project to complete a new barrier coat also known as a blister job since that is what we are repairing on Mandolin. Blisters are one of the problems that can occur in fiberglass boats when there is uncured resin or voids in the hull. When water seeps in they build pressure in these areas and cause bubbles or blisters to form. The solution in a nutshell is to grind out the existing blisters, fill them so the hull is fair again, and then apply a barrier coat to prevent them from happening in the future.

Day 1: Make the boat livable.

Mandolin is happy to see us. Life is chaos here, but we are making progress. Since we have no food on the boat yet we go out to breakfast at the local marina. I call Tim in Cabo to let him know we forgot 3 gallons of bottom paint aboard Triumph. He says he we will get it for us. Then I drill some holes in the keel on Tim's suggestion and 2 gallons of water drain out. Not a good thing since this could slow down the drying process. The shopping trip begins as we take the shuttle into town. After fish tacos and Jamiaca we are ready. At the market we get fruits and vegetables, bolillos and tortillas. Once we finish the hike back to the marina we get a 5 gallon jug of purified water for drinking. We collapse in the V-berth for siesta. Upon awakening we check the batteries which we think are toasted. They do in fact have fluid in them, a good thing, but the plates are warped, a bad thing. So we attempt to charge them and see what happens. I suspect we need now ones. Ellen turns on the stereo, but the CD player doesn't work. Will look at that later. Ellen has been cleaning the boat most of the day to get rid of the layer of dust that has formed. At least now we have food, water and light. The stove isn't yet clean or hooked up to its propane tanks, so luckily our friends on Cutter Jones, who are also in the boat yard, invited us to dinner. Mandolin is a little more organized, but we have lots more left before we can even sit down together in the main cabin. One thing at a time, one day at a time and eventually we'll be back in the water sailing Mandolin.

Day 2:

Todd: Today we celebrate the first meal aboard Mandolin since we returned. Bolillios for breakfast and Macaroni and cheese for lunch. I spent the morning on the phone with Interlux getting some questions answered before we proceed ahead. Ellen is still making good progress on organizing the boat. Get this, we now have not one but two places to sit down around the table.

Ellen: I also had fun unpacking our new silverware. Imagine playing house while the house is under construction and you'll get an idea of what it's like to move back into Mandolin. I also fixed the CD player. Neither of us know how, but it works today.

Todd: This afternoon I removed two of our eight thru hulls below the waterline. These two we are going to patch since they are no longer needed. I also cleaned and scrubbed the bare fiberglass bottom of Mandolin today. (We had the bottom paint and gelcoat ground off last June.) While it may not sound like much, this was a big accomplishment for the day. Now its time to get cleaned up and go over to our friends aboard Shadow for some dinner.

Day 3:

Todd: This morning I removed 4 thru hulls. All that remain in the afternoon are the aft two that drain the cockpit. Of course they won't come off so we will need to get the proper wrenches. I filled the water tanks only to find out that the bladder tank has developed a leak in a seam. So I have to disconnect it by emptying it into the bilge. But the bilge pump won't work since the hose barb has broken off the pump. We will need a new one of those too. Great news, Our friends Chris and Kim of Jasmine Isle come over to visit bearing cold sodas and beer. We have them stay for dinner after I clean out the cockpit so there is room to sit. Ellen cooked a wonderful stir fry. Wondering if the workers are going to show up for grinding tomorrow as promised.

Day 4:

Todd: Since we removed the water tank yesterday we have opened up new areas of the bilge that we can clean. Ellen worked on those while I removed the broken bilge pump that we noticed the other day. The power boat that was hauled out next to us yesterday is getting its boot strip spray painted on with Imron paint. We have to wait for their paint to dry before we can start grinding today. After siesta Lalo starts grinding out the blisters on Mandolin. He is very careful and takes his time, which is fine with me. I supervised the whole time and was very happy with his work. Washing the boat with water was the next step before I applied acetone to the newly ground out blisters to draw out more contaminants. The powerboat next to us has blisters also, but they are just grinding them and filling without letting anything dry. We are betting that they will have to do another blister job in the future.

Day 5:

Todd: Lalo and the two other workers showed up to grind this morning. Lalo did the grinding while the others went at the hull with sandpaper. Needless to say they had blisters on their fingers by the afternoon. I was able fair the rudder some this morning. It needs to have some more layers of fiberglass added for strength and to seal the foam core. I supervised more grinding this afternoon. We are almost done with one side. Ellen went to a meeting this morning with a group of people that are headed for the South Pacific this year. We are trading information and charts. She also bought a bike today for $35 that works. This will help for getting into town for supplies. I am pretty tired and feeling overwhelmed. Our friends on Cutter Jones say this is normal. Things keep getting worse and going wrong, but after a while things start to come together. At least Ellen is still in a good mood.

Day 6:

Todd: Feeling a bit more encouraged today. The workers finished grinding the blisters on Starboard side of the boat today. The powerboat next to us went in the water after 4 days in the yard. In a way I am jealous, but I suspect they will be out again soon redoing their work. After the workers left today I got out the 7 inch grinder the Grampa let me borrow to try my hand at this stuff. I finished grinding out the 4 thruhulls that we are going to patch. I did pretty good, but have a new respect for the guys that can wield one of these all day long. I spent a half hour looking for a cable to lock up the bike today but never found it. Eventually I unlocked the cable we use to lock our solar panels to the stern rail so Ellen can go to town and lock her bike. One of the frustrating things about being in project mode is that everything is so unorganized. It seems like we spend so much time just looking for stuff. Ellen composed emails and after tuning up the bike she purchased rode into town to send and receive email. The yard workers were impressed that Ellen fixed up her bike herself. We had homemade pasta dinner with Stephanie from Cutter Jones. Ellen: The bike I bought gives me a new respect for good gear. Usually, I'm quite a good bicyclist. This bike is a girl's frame and is a bit small for me, which makes it a bit precarious. I felt like a klutz riding it around town. People don't know what to make of my helmet. Well, it sure gets me into town a lot faster.

Day 7:

Todd: I went into town the Gypsy Dolphin and Francesca who lives in La Paz. Francesca and her family are interested in our old printer so I helped them install the drivers and showed them how to use it since all the manuals are in English.
Back at the boat I borrowed a 5 inch grinder from Cutter Jones and the shop vac. The smaller grinder was useful for the inside of boat where we are grinding the insides of the thru hull holes that we are patching. Our large 7 inch grinder wouldn't even fit into some of the places I needed to grind. What a mess. I was dressed in a bunny suit (white tyvek material) from head to toe, goggles and cartridge face mask. When I was done grinding the boat was full of fiberglass dust that stuck and settled on just about everything. Fortunately I covered the computer and put away most things that don't want to get dirty. Out comes the shop vac. Still fully dressed I vacuum as much of the boat as I can before Ellen gets back from town. After a bite to eat we get out the fiberglass and epoxy and start patching these holes. We epoxy three layers of 6 oz cloth on the inside of the boat over the holes. This will provide a good backing for the rest of the patch which will come tomorrow. Again we will use fiberglass but we have ground out the hole to look like a shallow dish, which we will fill with many layers of fiberglass cloth. Once the epoxy cured I was able to get most things back in their places so Ellen could cook a wonderful taco dinner. We are both stuffed. It feels good to finally be adding something to the hull after so much taking away. We are both somewhat itchy from the fiberglass shards on our skin even though we put baby powder on before we started working. The baby powder is supposed to fill the pores in the skin so the fiberglass cannot get in, but I guess I sweated it all out.

Day 8:

Todd: This was a business morning. Called the bank and Mom to take care of couple of things. Also talked with Interlux again about whether their 1000 product is enough to penetrate the dry mat or if we need to grind it off before starting the barrier coat. They think the 1000 will work fine, which is good news for us. We fixed Ellen's almost flat tire on her bike so she could ride into town to get more epoxy, gloves and mixing containers. I spent the time cutting circles of fiberglass cloth and roving to finish the patches of the thruhulls we have started. Lalo started on the second side of the boat today. Looks like a couple more days of grinding and we will be ready for the barrier coat primer then filling all the blisters. As soon as Lalo was done grinding for the day, Ellen and I mixed up epoxy and started laying up the fiberglass patches. We can only do so much at one time or it will get too hot as the epoxy cures. So we hope to finish tomorrow.

Day 9:

Todd: After getting Lalo started on Mandolin I got to ride Ellen's bike into town to meet her at Marina de La Paz where she took the 8:00 shuttle. I helped Hamish who owns Lopez Marine out with his computer in trade for a place to check our email while we are here. The Internet Cafes run from $4 to $6 per hour so this will help out. Once back at the boat we took a siesta then worked some more one the thru hull patches. We almost finished them today. It looks like a few more layers of fiberglass then some filling to make them fair with the hull. Lalo says he should finish grinding the blisters out of the hull tomorrow. That is good news.

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