SV Mach 5 and her people are doing hard time. We motored to Napa Valley Marina over two days. It was cold, windy–sometimes wet. We had new experiences including the first time ever being hailed on the VHF! A large container ship hailed us to make sure we were down to pass port-to-port. We were! But I got to talk to a big ship!
Once at the marina, we had to wait for the next day to haul out. With our 5′ draw, we have to be hauled out during high tide. Thursday after lunch and during a nice drizzle, out she came! Napa Valley Marina uses a tractor instead of a hanging crane. Then she is driven to her home on land. We watched her drive by us as we sat in the van out of the cold rain.
Once in her spot, the expert crew placed her on stands and let us at it! Our refit plan includes:
- Reconfig the Max Prop to match the settings that the Yanmar engine wants. In this relationship, the engine rules which means we do what Bill, the only Yanmar-certified mechanic says.
- Change the prop shaft so the dripless can truly be dripless. (I might be saying this incorrectly and Mark will tell me if I am.)
- Add a very sharp, aptly named Pirhana rope cutter to the prop.
- Touch up the bottom paint.
- Replace at least two seacocks (valves on the hull, under water that allow controlled water in for various machine cooling).
- Check and potentially replace thru-holes (actual holes in the hull that allow water out of the boat and have a check valve that does not let water in). This is like on the galley sink and draining gray water.
How are we living you ask? Well, we have upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs on the boat, where we don’t have facilities that use water and we can’t sleep. The inside rudder and prop bits reside under our bed, which means it is disassembled. Then we have downstairs which is land and the van.
Our day in the life–four days in–looks like sleeping in the van, using the van urinal for nighttime potty breaks, and watching TV on the iPad. The marina has a shower and toilet for us to use. So far, we tend to eat upstairs on the boat. So far, it’s been mostly fruit, sandwiches, and homemade lunchables.
To get upstairs, we climb a ladder somewhere between 15and 20 feet. Mark devised a pulley system to transport materials up and down. The big blue bucket–not aptly named Red Gorilla–is my future laundry machine.
Work is accomplished mainly downstairs under the boat. We try hard not to freeze. Napa so far runs upper 30s/low 40s to mid-to-upper 60s. The winds pick up each night and try to freeze me as I walk between bathroom and van/boat.
I’m looking forward to a hot meal soon!
Fun fact: if you run an electric space heater in the van, even a super tiny one, you’ll be warm–too hot even. But you will also drain the 400 amp hour batteries in about five hours. Now we know!