Well, it happens to all cruisers every year or two - you are sentenced to a week in the boatyard. Most boatyards are dirty and noisy with toxic dust blowing around and people with filthy boots clomping all over the boat. And worst of all, our home is out of the water, so we have to move out. This year we managed to get hauled at a marina only about 2 miles from our home base in Barcelona but it still threw our lives into a whirl. We had planned on having the majority of the work done while we visited friends in France, after which we would spend a day or two fixing up our own little projects under the waterline.

Well, of course that didn't work out, since everyone was running late, so we returned from France and booked a small hotel near the marina. Long hot showers are nice but with all four of us crammed in a small room, we quickly got homesick for Zia. We brought the girls' school supplies and lunch-making stuff from the boat, and set up a makeshift kitchen on a coffee table.

We had the bottom painted with two coats of antifouling recommended for Mediterranean waters. Then the saildrives were drained of oil and primed and painted. We also pressure-tested the seals to be sure that water cannot enter. We changed the prop and saildrive zincs. The last and biggest job is a polish and wax of the hulls. We try to do this once a year to preserve the finish on Zia. It is a big job with two hulls and a bridgedeck to deal with, but Zia should come out of it looking as good as new. In the past we have done the work ourselves but this time we paid the big bucks to have it done by local contractors. It is just about worth the price to keep the bottom paint out of our hair.

A Bridge too Low

Port Forum is divided into two sections separated by a 45-foot bridge. Smaller boats dock on the far side of the bridge and boats with larger rigs dock on the outside. While I was standing on the quay, I witnessed a poor schmuck hop into a brand new 39-foot Jeanneau and go blasting towards the inner marina. He seemed to be going at full speed and did not even look up to see if he would clear the bridge - Wham! He missed clearing the bridge by about a foot. The bridge slants downward and has a higher clearance on the port side - if he had been paying attention, he might have made it by hugging the port side.

His crewman was on the bow and was hurled into the water by the collision. He promptly thrashed his way to the stern ladder and climbed dripping onto the boat. Then the mast got stuck between some girders under the bridge and began grinding away as the boat moved in the surge. A boatyard crew quickly got them out of the jam by taking a halyard to a motorboat and heeling him over while dragging him out from under. His antenna, light and wind transducer seemed to be the only casualty of the collision - he was lucky that he didn't lose the rig at the speed that he was traveling.