Refit #2. Hauling Out & Work Begins!

This week started a bit funny because I had to go back to the UK for a couple of days. I’m in the process of becoming a UK citizen, and some of the steps are out of my control from a timing perspective. So even though I’d only been in Croatia for about 10 days, I had to turn around and head back. The plus side was it gave me an opportunity to bring another couple of suitcases full of our belongs out!

Since I was away for the first part of the week, Alec has stepped in for a guest spot. I’ll let him explain the exciting story of getting Serenity First out of the water:

Hauling Out – as told by Alec

We hadn’t been able to get Serenity lifted when we arrived at MCI as it was too windy for them to use the crane. The yard was then closed for the weekend, but that wasn’t a real loss since the weather worsened over the next couple of days. All this meant that I was really glad when Monday arrived with a lull in the weather, especially after I was able to confirm that Serenity First had survived the weekend storms unscathed on MCI’s somewhat precarious mooring arrangements (she was tied off to a wide assortment of concrete blocks, hauled out boats and random scrap metal…).

The owner of the yard confirmed that he would be able to lift Serenity later in the morning, once they had made some space for her on the land. This turned out to be a bit more complicated than he described, as the yard was at capacity and they ended up playing tetris with the other boats in the yard to try to free up some space. A few hours later they had a temporary space available in the front yard and decided that we could live there for a few days until space could be found in our permanent bay in the back yard. I then stepped back and watched as the team from the yard quickly fitted the slings around Serenity’s hull and before I knew it she was suspended above me in the air. Thirty minutes later they had transferred her to a crawler with pneumatic lifts and then slowly backed her up into the narrow gap that afforded two feet of space either side. I spent the entire time watching nervously and breathing in.

Unfortunately our new space was without a spot to plug in for power, which meant we had to be careful with the batteries for a few days – not the end of the world. More problematic was the challenging access to get aboard since the boat was suspended high off the ground and the yard didn’t have any spare ladders left. The yard owner assured me a ladder would be available tomorrow, which was fine until we had the same conversation for the next three days – Croatians have a similar mindset to ‘mañana’ as South Americans. I managed to devise a temporary climbing frame that I thought was fine in the interim; however, Laura gave it the label of “classic Alec death trap” upon her return and insisted on different approach that leveraged the swim ladder. On reflection, neither method was sustainable, and we were therefore very glad when we were moved on day four, and given a spot with a power point and a ladder.

The rest of the week – as told by Laura

I arrived back in Split mid-way through the process of getting Serenity First from her temporary spot to her long term spot in the yard. This meant I got to enjoy a few days of trying to get onto the boat while it was waiting on the crawler (see above!). Look mom and dad – all that gymnastics came in handy after all!

Even though it was hard to do work on the boat while it was in its temporary spot, we got cracking on a few projects. We took down the headsail that we’d put up in the first week, and started working through the boat to figure out where everything was. We had a lovely time digging around under the floorboards and behind the panelling! This also gave me the honour of opening the first of the many, many holes we would make in the boat (more on that in couple of weeks). I removed the log (a little wheel under the boat that measures your speed) to inspect it. Much like the rest of the underside of the boat, an impressive amount of sealife had made its home on the wheel – definitely time for a clean! One of these creatures was a muscle, which at the time I thought was cool. Little did I know how many of these suckers I would find hiding in and clogging up pipes and inlets around the boat over the coming weeks!

Those who are familiar with spending time on boats (or in RVs or other similarly small living spaces) will know that one constant is accidentally whacking yourself on things. There are lots of places where the ceiling is low in the boat, and lots of awkward little spaces that one invariably has to contort oneself into in order to reach a cable or pipe or something of the sort. Getting back out of such a space very regularly leads to a crack on the head and the shouting of many four letter words. To lighten the mood a bit when this happens, Alec and I have started counting these instances each day in the style of How I Met Your Mother’s “Slapsgiving” – i.e. “That’s one!” and so on. It helps us to laugh it off in the moment, and to generally view our copious quantities of bruises with a bit more of a smile.

I’d like to leave you with my favourite story of the week, which is the story of Mr. Blue. Oh poor Mr. Blue.

One day, while Serenity First was in her temporary spot on land, we noticed that the owner of the little powerboat next door had come to the yard and had started doing some work on the underside of the hull of his boat. We still can’t be sure whether he was just prepping the surface for antifouling or if it was a more extensive task, but he was definitely getting down and dirty with a power sander.

This wouldn’t have been that notable, but for the saga we watched unfold over the course of the morning. There was a water tap right behind where our boat was parked, and not long into the morning, Alec noticed the owner of the boat next door stood at the tap frantically scrubbing at his face with a series of rags. It quickly became clear that he’d had some sort of disagreement with his power sander, which had exploded blue paint dust all over him. Literally this poor mans entire face, head and body was 100% blue. I’m not sure what that paint is made of but it was NOT coming off, despite Mr. Blue’s very best efforts. If anything he was just making it worse.

We watched Mr. Blue go through all the stages of grief over the next couple of hours, but most notable was when the depression set in. About 11am, we saw him slumped on a pallet, head in hands, drinking an enormous beer. Apparently this revived him and soon he’d reached acceptance, striding around the yard with a grin on his face that said life was beautiful (and doing a great job of enjoying the snickers of everyone else in the yard)! By early afternoon he was back at the sander, and, much like a sunworshipper works on their tan, he honed his shade of blue through the day.