Time has come for the yearly "rendez-vous" in the shipyard. All boats get out every year here.
That's it, on November 11, we arrived at Ratanachai.
We are very pleased , as always, with the way they checked our position on the craddle and got us out of the water.
It's when we are on the hard that things tend to go wrong.
First, then prices went up obviously with a worker sanding with a machine at the price of 30 euros instead of 17,50 like last year. Well, we had little if no choice so we hired 4 of them for the next day to sand the hull.
After 5 days of hard work, they finished sanding the layers of tar epoxy that we used last year. As far as the anti-fouling is concerned, there was none left, the hull was covered with green seaweeds and we reckon that the barnacles really enjoy the through-hulls. The waters in South-East Asia are known for this due to the high temperature of the water and the pollution.
During that time, we took care of the work inside the boat with the help of "Victor", our fan which helps somehow to "fight" the 35°C inside the boat on a permanent basis and "fights back" the horrid smell coming from the surrounding factories. These factories process dried fish to produce animal feed mainly for chickens. If chickens eat fish, what do the fish eat? Chicken?
What have we done inside: install the watermaker which will prevent us from carrying drinking water at all times and will allow us to have constant access to fresh water wherever we will be, revision of the engine, paint retouching, etc., etc.
At the end of the first week, it's time to paint the hull: 5 coats of epoxy (to prevent potential osmosis), 2 coats of a special paint to make the epoxy look like a smooth coat, 1 coat of primer and 3 coats of anti-fouling, to make it is a total of 11 coats!
Then came the time to change the location of the lateral supports of the hull to start the 11 coats again on the spots where the supports were previously. On the 14th day, we were ready to go back in the water but we had to wait for the next day due to the heavy "traffic" of boats coming out and going in the water during this dry season.
Why did we say that "Minuit" looks better than ever: it's because we "dressed" her with a nice teak lining across the top of the hull to prevent the black streaks of pollution from making the hull look ugly after the rain (well, the pollution is everywhere in the world those days!).
Here we are, back in the water for a new year in Thailand, the country with a smile by excellence; except in one location: the shipyard.
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Hauling out
5 days of hard sanding
Instructions of the capitain
Paint retouchings
Watermaker installation
Teak wood lining
More sanding