A Month on the Hard
Author: Shirlz
February, 2022
Since leaving New Zealand at the end of April last year, Speedwell had been through some rough weather and was looking a little the worse for wear. I had been putting off the thought of hauling out and doing a serious bit of maintenance but the move was forced on me after noticing a rather ominous looking hairline crack in the middle of the yard, where the halyard attaches. Something had to be done. I contacted Pete Hill who had made the yard for me back in 2005 and he suggested that a replacement might be in order. The lazyjacks also needed replacing and the anchor light at the masthead had stopped working. If I hauled out to repaint the topsides I could lower the mast and get all these jobs done quite easily. And so it happened.
Medana Bay Marina on the Northwest corner of Lombok has a haulout facility and had been recommended to me. It seemed like a good place to try. I needed to arrive there on a day when the wind was not blowing on shore as this creates problems with waves on the slipway. I waited a week or so for favourable weather before heading north from Gili Gede.
While I was waiting for the wind to change to a convenient southerly blow, I took a day to do a walk all the way around the island, something that I had been meaning to do ever since I first arrived. It was an interesting day. There are no cars or horse-drawn carts on the island and for most of the way there is a footpath. The path is also used by scooters and bikes and in some places the beach made a more enjoyable way to go. I love just paddling along the shore but have to restrain myself from collecting too many shells and pretty stones. Storage on board is very limited. The path goes through a few small scattered villages and some closed-up and empty tourist resorts. Lots of outrigger fishing boats are hauled up on the beaches, ready to head out to sea in the evenings.
At one point my path was cut off by a river that was too deep for me to wade through. A pont made of some planks of wood lashed to barrels was floating at the bank, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to operate it myself. Some friendly picnickers gave me a hand and hauled me safely across.
A few days later the wind changed and I set off early to do the 30nm trip to Medana Bay. It was a slow day with a 1 knot current running against us which created an uncomfortable chop and really slowed us down. On top of which, I was a little concerned that the yard might choose this little trip to collapse. But all went well and we picked up a mooring off the Medana Bay Marina at about 5pm.
The next morning workmen were out early clearing the slipway of sand which gets washed ashore by the wave action. Soon all was ready and I was guided on to a long trailer hauled by a massive tractor. It took a bit of work to get the supporting arms of the trailer correctly positioned to safely hold Speedwell’s narrow hull.
All went smoothly and I left the team to give the hull a thorough pressure-wash while I went for lunch at the marina’s Sail Fish restaurant. Eating at the restaurant was to become one of my almost daily treats as the food was delicious and very reasonably priced. Much easier than walking to the village to go shopping and cooking on my hot little boat. Not to mention the icy cold Bintang!
The marina is owned and run by Peter Cranfield and his wife Ibu Ace. A rather lovely park-like garden and restaurant make the agonies of living aboard a small boat on the hard in a tropical boatyard reasonably bearable. Speedwell was given a site on a grassy field close to the security guards at the entrance. I was happy there and there was always someone ready to help when needed. Thank you everyone!
One of the first jobs to tackle was to lower the mast. A fairly easy job as the mast hinges in a tabernacle and can be lowered using a line attached to the base of the mast and another to the top and led back to the sheet winches. I have done this a few times now and it is almost becoming routine. Helpers were readily available and all went smoothly. Pete Hill did a wonderful job when he built the mast and tabernacle for me back in 2004/5 when I converted Speedwell to junk rig.
Peter put me in touch with a skilled carpenter who was able to make me a new yard using teak. We decided on an exact copy of the original but I did not replace the stainless steel U-bolt which I had used before to attach the halyard block, but opted to use a strop constrained by ‘thumb cleats’, or really just a little block of wood either side to prevent the strop from slipping out of position. The yard hauling parrel is also connected directly to this strop. I was tempted to varnish the new teak yard, but finally decided to paint it white as the old one had been.
While waiting for the yard to be made I kept myself busy sanding down the topsides ready for repainting. I was using my handy battery operated orbital sander which does a very good job and isn’t too heavy for my ancient old arms. I only have one rechargeable battery for it which will do about 40 minutes sanding before it dies. A recharge takes about an hour and a half which is just enough time for me also to recover for the next round.
Before putting on the new yellow paint I hired a man to do the awful job of sanding the old antifouling on the underwater part of the hull. A truly horrible job that I had no wish to do myself. It needed to be done before the topsides got their new coat of paint as it makes a dreadful mess of everything.
Work progressed steadily. Before long I was able to finish off the yard and fit it to the sail. All looked good. The mast was hauled back up, yellow paint and green stripe applied, two coats of antifouling rollered on. There were many, many more jobs that I could have tackled, but I could do those while afloat and was longing to get back on the water. I re-attached the battens to the sail while spreading it out on the grass and then hauled the rolled up sail-bundle aboard using the halyard.
The weather was kind and on 23rd February, after just over a month, Speedwell was relaunched. The trailer was carefully backed down the slipway until we were in water deep enough for me to test the engine and to my great relief it started without any problems. Many thanks to Peter and his competent staff!
After spending a day at Gili Air to do some shopping I had a really lovely fast sail back to Marina del Ray. The new yard seems just fine and the patched up old sail was looking rather handsome.
March 6th, 2022 at 15:04
Thanks for the update!
March 8th, 2022 at 20:02
So great to keep up with your travels. I feel so landbound reading your blog. Our only claim to some excitement is we ride a Harley pretending to be young! Happy cruising. Helena
April 9th, 2022 at 14:31
Hi Shirley!,
My name is Daniel, Im a chilean sailor and we met briefly some 7 or 8 years ago in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Is great to see that you keep sailing the globe. We,ve also sailed a lot since then, and we have a bigger boat now (Back then we had a Bristol 27).
I wanted to askyou about your weather reception system, with an SSB receiver and a decoding software on your laptop.
Could you please send me an email to stablish contact?
Thanks so much! Cheers!.
Daniel.
June 29th, 2022 at 06:38
Hi Shirley,
Well done on the haul out and repairs. Look forward to reading your next post.
Best wishes,
Bob
July 6th, 2022 at 18:32
Hi Shirl – would love to read your next post! Maybe one of these days you’ll sail the west coast of the US and we can visit you onboard. Best – Helena