So we hauled out at Vuda Point Marina just a few miles south of Lautoka. The hauled out itself went quite well as the Mo and George who run the travel lift did an excellent job as the dove on the boat to make sure the straps holding the boat did not damage our skeg rudder. They showed considerable attention to detail. This after the Frenchman in Riatea warned us that "every in Fiji are cowboys".
Throughout the entire process we asked advice of many people in the Yard who were working on their boats. One guy thought we should fill the gaps in our ablative paint with epoxy filler. We didn't bother asking him what to do when the rest of the bottom paint where off (as ablative paint is supposed to do). He also thought that bottom paint should be bright yellow so when a boat rolls over the coast guard can spot them easily. Sailboats generally roll back over as they are designed to do. Again this is not a situation we care to think about and obviously not something anyone plans on as such paint does not exist. People also frequently commented on how the bottom "looked good" after being in the water for almost two years. We didn't quite know how to take this comment. When you hauled you generally have the bottom powerwash so all boat bottoms should look clean. I think it is just a nice thing to say to people in order to make conversation.
Even after a few hours of feeble attempts at scraping the paint we thought maybe 6 days at most. We very quickly learned what we had gotten ourselves into. We stripped half the boat using scrapers and chemical stripper (so nasty we had to be fully covered lest the chemical burn ones skin and wear respirators). The local contracting company said they would be happy to do the job plus take off all the gel coat for a mere $3500 Fiji. We decided that one we didn't want them taking off the gel coat and that we didn't feel like handing them over that much money. They seemed to know what they were doing as they had just done a similar job on a Canadian boat (who couldn't stop saying how wonderful and cheap it all was). Our major concern was that every time we asked the owner of the other boat what they had done his story changed slightly and when we asked the contractor what they told us another story. They also seemed to lack an interest in subtly, i.e. they wanted to take off all the gelcoat. I think they like things in terms of all or nothing. It is much simpler for the workers to understand as we learned later.
So we stripped the boat with the help if various local workers. We hired the guy in the yard who is the cheapest and very quickly learned why his price is so low, as you get what you pay for. Needless to say that JP was much better than anyone we hired, but for the sake of his hand we got helpers. This is not to say I didn't help, but JP did excel in paint removal. So for a week we started working at 6 (as it's cooler then) and worked until dark. Finally we realized that we did need the help of the professionals. Our little palm sander was a joke in comparison to the powerful orbital hand sanders. They did in one day what would have taken us a week.
Then we had them spray the barrier coat on. Zaya looked very nice with a white bottom. Then we finally put the paint on which after taking the old paint off seemed like a breeze. We raised the water line so we will not have to do nearly as much scrubbing in the future.
All in all we spent 16 days on the hard. Then one in the marina to clean all the dirt Zaya acquired during her time on land. Then we were finally free of the Marina! We felt a bit stranded there as the bus takes an hour each way and only runs a few times a day. So our dining It is nice to be closer to town. Though the we are anchored near an island with a hotel so we take the hotel ferry to town. This saves us a long dinghy ride, but puts us on a funny schedule.
I PROMISE WHEN WE GET TO NOUMEA TO POST PICTURES. THERE I SHOULD HAVE A BETTER ACCESS TO INTERNET.
