Kai O'hana
08/15/2006-Slogging On…
-A word from Captain Bach
Work seems to have stalled out a bit since we’ve “splashed” Kai Ohana. Not that we haven’t been working on her – we are still putting in at least 8 to 12 hour days, seven days a week. However, our container has yet to be moved to our new location because there is a large catamaran that is being repaired in the path of the crane. We are told, “When they are finished, you get your container.” As a result, we are working both without a shop or a close storage area so every time it rains (which is almost everyday), we have to roll up all our tools and materials until it stops, then roll everything back out and work in the mud (unless you’re fortunate enough to be working in the boat).
Chad is one of those. He has been 100% focused on tearing down and rebuilding the heart of the boat – in his meticulous and perfectionist style, our 43-year-old Mercedes V-10 is looking like a brand new engine. His shop is in the stripped-out galley where he de-greases or de-rusts every part he removes and paints them in his color-coded theme – silver for the engine and exhaust, yellow for diesel, blue for freshwater, green for saltwater, red for transmission. He has also been managing the rebuilding of the hydraulic steering components, the windlass, and many of the engine parts that have literally dissolved from over 40 years of use in the marine environment.
Because Chad had been spending so much time in the engine room, the new paint in the bilge had completely lifted off the oil-soaked frames and planking. So Lauren and Sara stripped the bilge once again and sealed and painted it while Chad focused on the steering and windlass.
Preston has been working on sealing the topsides. Pretty much all the teak decks would have had to have been replaced, so we opted to fiberglass over the old teak on the fore and aft decks as well as the walkways, but keep and seal/non-skid the teak over the coach roof. Again, the leaking topsides caused the majority of the original water damage, so we didn’t want duplicate those problems.
As I initially wrote this, Tropical Storm Chris was wreaking havoc "on island". It’s been a very quiet season to date, but they forecast things to pick up significantly in August and beyond. Chad and I spent the night on the boat just as she was supposed to pass just to the north of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin -- my first, his second (he slept on her on launch day to make sure she didn’t spring a leak and sink at the dock).
Chris was forecast to produce winds out of the north at 25-45 knots, then to clock out of the west, then south by morning, but the north wind never happened -- we had one of the calmest nights I’ve seen in 6 months -- it was very eerie. I didn’t know what to think when I woke up at 11:00pm, then at 2:00am, then at 4:00am and every time it was like glass on the lagoon. But at 7:00am when I finally got out of bed the wind jumped up out of the south at 20-30 and it started pouring down rain so we scrambled into the dingy and sped home (they don't serve or eat breakfast on the French side).
So that’s it for now. Until we get the container near the boat and the shop built around it, it will continue to be a slog, but we will forge on regardless…
