….can remind sailors very quickly that not everything about sailing is fun. And some of the worst jobs and outcomes seem to be associated with being “on the hard”. Even the festive atmosphere in Marina del Palmar, one of the Abaroa family yards, in which very loud mariachi music prevails all day, doesn’t make it much pleasanter. Marathon needed new bottom paint despite having been painted in the Bercovich yard only a year earlier. Hopefully this job will last longer given the expense and hassle involved.

The good news is that no blisters were discovered and the crew did a great job of sanding the bottom and applying two coats of new paint. The bad news is that it took five days, cost a lot of $$$ and we left the yard with a really filthy boat because of the very large mega-yacht that had all of its bottom paint removed right next to us. The black dust was into everything.

The captain was able to complete a number of jobs over the five days, perhaps the most important of which was cleaning and lubricating all 6 of the sheet winches. The first, second and third of these was actually interesting and provided a sense of accomplishment. By the time number 6 was done, it was just a chore.

Back in Marina Palmira, we have lots of interesting things to do and one last major project. The standing rigging will be replaced over the next several days because it is just over ten years old and insurance companies prefer that it be younger than that.

Flashy new blue bottom paint – Hopefully good for 2 years or 5000 miles?