NZ: Before and After

Whangerei is a mecca for cruisers waiting out the cyclone season because absolutely every maintenance and repair project can be completed with the vast array of professional boat services and supplies available here.  In addition, marinas allow owners to do major work on site (not common in U.S. marinas), and electrical connections are accessible for the first time since Mexico. The air is filled with sounds of sawing, drilling and sanding; cockpits are filled with tools and parts; support and camaraderie abound.

No need for details, but here is a photo gallery with before & after shots of some of our more visible projects:

Rusty anchor chain

Same chain, regalvanized

Even caulked chain plate covers can let water
inside the boat, so Art re-bedded them with tar worms
and heavy-duty marine sealant

Now looking shiny & new on top;
more important is the improved seal below

We checked and cleaned chain plate bolts
throughout the interior...

...and I refinished the wood below them

...to top, where Art replaced a bushing

Checking the furling system from bottom..

It's a luxury to cross tasks off the To Do List faster than they get added. Not only did our stay in Whangarei allow for that, it also enabled us to complete a long-desired upgrade: remodeling both heads (mariner-speak for bathrooms).

Old counter & faucets

Paint peeling off walls

Step 1: Forward head, before

Step 2: Slice leg while using foreign grinder
to cut granite

Steps 3 & 4: Complete cutting granite
with tried-and-true grinder,
and find plumbing solutions that don't leak

Steps 5-10: Scrape, sand,
prime & paint walls;
wood panel (cut & varnished) added in some places

Step 11a: Forward head, after

Step 11b: Aft head, after

Step 12, not pictured:
A Head Warming Party, in which everyone agreed                    
(including Art) that the granite was worth the gash!

Step 13: Leg gradually heals

Another multi-step process was a haulout for bottom paint and inspections. We lived "on the hard"--when the boat is on a stand rather than in the water--for two weeks. Environmental regulations require that licensed professionals do the power washing & bottom sanding, but we could do everything else (tape along the water line, fill sanded areas with epoxy and grind them smooth, apply specialized primer and two coats of anti-fouling paint that helps keep marine growth from attaching to the hull).
A few of those steps are here:

Alien Art,
sanding epoxied areas

Nancie painting the keel

I didn't get a photo of Art replacing a through-hull
(one of the many holes necessary in the bottom of the boat),
but here he is after a cleaning operation on the propeller

A week later, bottom paint was done.
What a beauty!

Living on the hard
means having to climb a ladder
to get on/off the boat

We were sure glad to get back in the water!

And here are some single photos, for projects that didn't have visible before/after changes--or for which I simply forgot to take a 'before' shot!

New engine room insulation
(too bad I forgot a before picture of this one!

Rerouting battery cables

                           

The engine alternator hadn't given us any problems,

but to ward off potential issues, 

we had it inspected & rebuilt

Replacing the watermaker's
booster pump

Old solar panels (left) were okay,
but new ones (right)
made a huge improvement

Art & Bill Grimm wrangling a larger panel
(one of three) onto the deck

New regulator for the solar panels installed

Old running backstays (left) were wire,
and possibly not okay; new ones (right)
are a high strength rope called Dyneema

Projects are never over, of course, but we feel great about getting so many major ones completed.

Now it's time to do more sight-seeing! Our good friends Marilee & Bill Grimm are visiting from Oregon, so we'll take time off to do some inland touring with them. (Luckily for readers, the next blog post will have pretty pictures again.)