Getting Ready to Launch after 2 Years

We arrived here Sunday. Met by the usual tribe of goats - thank you very much.

Baaaaa

Had a quick look at the boat, lying on the hard at North Sound Marina. Didn't look that bad from the outside. Kind of lonely sitting in a mostly deserted storage area.

The boat is dirty inside and out. But what would you expect after 2 years of neglect. The ouside teak is destroyed and will require a re-do. Good thing Pam brought her varnish clothes. An initial look inside didn't reveal much. It always looks like a wreck after a lay-up with sails, canvas and other things stored in available places.

We dumped off some things and headed to our quaint little AirBNB 6 km away. Nice place to recover from travel fatigue.

Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in the distance.

Over the past few days we've begun the damage discovery and launch process. 

Canvas went on OK. Now we've got some shade for the heat of the day. Our batteries are tired... show full capacity but then die after minimal use. That's going to be an issue. Propane fittings have dissolved and we will have to eat raw or find a way to repair. 

Propane.

Anchor chain was rusted link to link. Needed a hammer to bust links apart to pull out of the anchor locker. Once the chain was out we scooped a half a bucket of anchor chain rust from the locker. Not sure what weighed more - the chain rust or the remaining chain. We pulled in 60 meters (200 feet) of new chain into a cleaned out locker. That was a win!

Old rusty chain over the anchor

New chain!!!

Stopped for the occasional soft drink or 3 beers for 10 EC (about 5 CAN)

Occasional swearing...

Dropped a damn screwdriver - need longer arms.

Canvas on and dinghy loaded!

Ready to launch?

The last thing before launch was to make sure the engine would start. So, lubed up the impeller so it wouldn't tear apart searching for water and turned the key and ... nothing. Argh. So disappointing. The batteries have deteriorated so significantly over the last 2 years that the engine, which normally starts in an instant grunts without success. We have kept the batteries "floated" with our solar panels over the past 2 years but without them having a load and then recharging they have turned to mush. 

Each battery costs about $400US in the US - significantly more here. And we were thinking about changing our battery profile to Lithium Phosphate which last longer, charge and discharge better and cost an arm and a leg. But we won't be doing that down here.

We borrowed a starting battery and launched the boat. It's sitting in "the well" waiting for us to decide whether we head out or haul out and go home. Connected up to power to try to charge our tired batteries.

In we go.

Watch your toes!

So today was a soul-searching day. We can't anchor and wonder if the engine will start. So do we buy some interim $$$ batteries? Do we haul back out and come home to lick our wounds and figure out a new strategy? 

Can hardly wait to find out!!!