Posted by Annie Scott

New bottom paint


SO even though Secret Water had new bottom paint in April of 2016, the warmer waters she now resides in has caused a lot more growth and the paint is wearing very thin and in some places non-existent. The plan was to wait until Chiapas in June, but once we got out of La Paz into the clearer waters it became obvious to us we had a problem on our hand and had to make a new timeline. Knowing ver our Christmas trip to the States, Chris was able to purchase all our paint, and with the cost of a gallon of paint, that's a huge savings considering the 16% tax we'd pay if we had to get it while in Mexico. Then there's the question of where to pull the boat out. Most people do major boat work farther up the Sea in Guyamas or Puerto Peñansco since prices tend to be more affordable. Sailing that far north wasn't really in our plans for this season, so after pricing it out, we determined we'd get the job done here in Puerto Escondido since the boat yard was nice, and the lift was large enough.

Our boat was definitely the largest (not heaviest) one they'd ever lifted. By the looks on their faces and confirming it afterward, Chris and I were relieved to see her nestled on the stands. It's kinda nuts to see your home suspended in mid air, especially when it belongs in the water. It's just unnatural. They didn't expect our keel, which is rather large, and they had to change plans mid haul to put us in a trench space because they didn't have tall enough stands to acomodate us. Javier and all the marina staff there are so professional nice, and we really enjoyed our time on the hard, which by nature is hard....

The job itself was handled by Greg and Mary of Puerto Escondido Marine. Their guys did good work on the boat, but due to personal circumstances on both our end and theirs, there was definitely a lapse in communication that could have been better. All in all we were satisfied with our bottom job and able to splash back in the water as soon as possible. Total time for the work to get done was a week, bute had to wait out a Norther, so we had an extra week on the hard.