Houston, we have a problem!

Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

Just once, it would be nice to get a pleasant surprise.  But that was not to be!

The haul out on Wednesday morning went well, in spite of my usual embarrassing display of boat handling skills as I backed us into the travel lift.  While the workers scrubbed off some of the accumulated green slime from Sine Timore’s hull, we watched from the comfort of the BAOS restaurant next door, enjoying a delicious lunch.  By the time we were done, the boat was whisked off and deposited in the work yard.  Everything was going according to plan at this point.

The plan was to be on the hard for no more than 2 or 3 days, just time enough for the bottom to get a light sanding and a couple of coats of anti fouling paint, while I was going to tackle removing and cleaning out the head discharge hose and make another attempt at freeing up the seized valve for same.

As soon as I took a close look at the bottom, the first problem became apparent.  Near the back of the boat there is an old, unused through hull fitting that was once a depth sounder.  This had been disused long before we owed the boat, probably because the back of the boat is not the ideal place to have a depth sounder - as a result, we have basically ignored this fitting up till now.  Now however, it has suddenly started to disintegrate, possibly leaving a boat-sinking sort of hole in the boat.  I removed most of the residue from the hull, leaving a few screw holes and the remainder of the plastic appliance sticking out of the big hole.  After some discussion, I decided to just have the plastic piece cut off flush and the whole area coated in a thick layer of epoxy to seal it off forever - problem solved!

Later came the real bad news,  While sanding the bottom, an incredible number off bleeding blisters were discovered.  This is especially disappointing since we had spent a lot of time and money to solve this issue just 6 years ago, in San Carlos - obviously not money well spent.  We really have very little choice right now - we have to try and fix it.  Henry, one of the yard workers here, assured me he can remove the old primer, repair each and every one of the hundreds of blisters and re-prime the entire hull, all in 1 week - he has just finished doing the same for one of the other boats beside us, and it looks pretty good.  It will cost a lot, but on the positive side, it will cost a lot less than anywhere else we can think of.  He started on the project today.  If he is done in under 2 weeks I will be surprised.

So here we sit, ensconced in probably the nicest hotel in the area, the Holiday Inn Express, just on the outskirts of the city of Tapachula.  We have rented the marina managers old car so we can make to 25 km commute back and forth from the marina whenever we need to.  The hotel is connected to the Walmart anchored mall where we have a food court and a couple of nearby restaurants so we won’t starve.

There may be a slight delay before we are able to continue our journey north.

{GMST}14|52.4833|N|92|17.0833|W|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico|Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico{GEND}