Still in La Libertad, Ecuador with Limbo hauled out receiving some exterior painting and interior woodwork. The yard we were in was also the yard preferred by the local fishing vessels. They are mostly wood and look massively heavy. We had one hauled out next to us and since I couldn't walk with my sprained ankle, I took to spying on the neighbors.
They start with chainsaws and cut huge pieces of the wood hull away. They move onto sanders that sound like jet engines stripping the paint to bare wood. They send in a professional crew to strip, patch, and paint. Before caulking is done, they use coconut fiber (the hair that covers the interior nut) and twist it into a rope then hammer that in between the new planks. The wood used is "al camphor" which is brought in as logs that they cut into planks the size needed for replacement. It is amazing that the boats were floating with what they do.
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| coming in for a haul out. |
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weighted down with nets
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chain saws finish the removal of rotten planks
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making cuts for the chainsaw
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| no more stern! |
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twisting coconut fiber
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| hammering coconut fiber in between the planks |
Amazing work and quite fast. The boat was stripped and repaired within two weeks. It took a month for ours. Maybe we should have used a chainsaw.....
For us, living on the hard was a little like living in a house under construction. There are certain areas that can't be used, and when you only have a few hundred feet every little bit can add up to ALOT of space. There is dust everywhere, water can't be used because of paint, so you wash dishes in a bucket outside. Showering and toilets are used elsewhere so you try not to wait too long. And like a house, when the work is finished you can't wait to clean up and move back in to all the new beautiful space.
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wood trim for windows, fishing pole rack & table top using the same
camphor wood
Work done, back in the water and ready to leave Ecuador. Next up in our South American circumnavigation, PERU.
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