Panama - Linton Bay Marina - Repair of Bulkheads

We detected considerable movement of internal furniture panels, and suspected that we had a major problem with our Main Bulkhead.

Nicholas removed all the furniture and wall cladding in the Starboard Forward Cabin, and our fears were confirmed.

Inside the Starboard Forward Cabin:

Main Bulkhead looking aft - Vertical crack 

Tabbing no longer attached to the bulkhead

Main Bulkhead, aft side looking forward - tabbing has separated from the bridge deck

Main Bulkhead Aft Side - Vertical tear

More cracks in the Main Bulkhead

Main Bulkhead looking aft, outboard side

Tear-out on underfloor hull half bulkhead

Secondary Bulkhead - Cabin Forward Wall - cracked with tabbing tear out

Secondary Bulkhead - Cabin Forard Wall Outboard side - and deck delaminating

Secondary Bulkhead - in Heads Area looking aft - tabbing delaminating and cracking

Secondary Bulkhead - in Exterior Locker - view of the crack and continuation of tear in the locker

We then Hauled Meshugga out of the water on the Travel-lift, and loosened the rigging. Meshugga was set down on bridge deck stands to straighten and parallel the hulls.

Nicholas and Matthew using a water level to ensure the hulls are exactly level and parallel

Sandbags to prevent damage to underside

Grinding off the tabbing, sanding all surfaces and repping the area for repair

Additional support structures - 1” marine ply

Plastic sheeting protecting the boat from fiberglass dust

All surfaces sanded. Clean all dust and triple acetone scrub before glassing.

Epoxy and biaxial glass only. All tabbing = progressive layers.

Main bulkhead additional 4 layers each side.

Secondary bulkhead plus all other wall an additional 2 layers.

Building Fort Knox!

Installing a 6 biaxial layer “plate” using Sparbond (super strong epoxy glue) to the relatively inaccessible aft side of the Main Bulkhead crack.

Using screws to clamp the plate to the Main Bulkhead - later removed before applying glass.

Plate glassed to Main Bulkhead aft side to tie everything together

Applying additional layers to Main Bulkhead forward side, plus tabbing to tie the plate to that skin

Glassing complete

Sand all surfaces and finish with epoxy paint

Now time to re-install all the wall cladding and furniture.

Panama - Linton Bay Marina - 5 weeks Living on the Hard

The weather is hot and humid. 32-35 deg C (90-95 deg F) daily, with humidity above 80%.

Thankfully we have our small aircon working 24/7 bringing the temps inside Meshugga down to a manageable 25 deg C.

Living and Working on the Hard as any sailor knows, has its hardships amid constant work, noise, dust and dirt.

I’ve added below compilation of photos of life aboard on the Hard.

Access into our Starboard Front Cabin from the Salon, covered with heavy duty plastic so that the fiberglass grinding does not contaminate the entire boat. The contractors access the cabin from the cabin bathroom hatch.

Our cockpit which looks like a workshop and parts storeroom

Starboard view from Meshugga includes our neighbor Luis, a local Panamanian who runs a Welding Shop

Port view across other boats on the hard to Nancy’s Resturant

The Vege man who arrives every Tuesday and Friday, with Nancy’s in the background

Looking aft, you can see we are ‘blocked’ in as we’ll be on the hard longer than the yachts behind us

Our Flybridge on Laundry Days

Between our hulls, are tables and pallets of materials

At 12 noon, the whole yard comes to a standstill as all the workers and contractors take a 1 hour lunch

Polishing of the hull of the yacht behind us

Dulcinea our neighbor and good friends from South Africa, Ally and Matt Thomas

We have a large extractor in the Starboard Front Cabin, to extract all the Fibreglass Dust, via this big orange outlet tube

The Tube goes into an old Duvet cover, with slots cut into the cover to breathe and the dust into a large Dustbin

Repairs and improvements, a new boarding ladder for our dinghy

One of our Contractors is removing all the old Antifouling and Primer from the Hulls as we are changing the type of Antifouling Paint we’ll apply. He wears full body suit and full face mask. It’s such an awful job, holding a sander for 8 hours a day, and being covered in paint dust in 35 degree C temperature. Worth every penny we pay him.

Garbage galore

The Contractor who is sanding the Hulls, works on different parts, all depending on the Sun/ Shade, and whether it’s raining, so it currently is a patchwork of where he has cleaned.

A general view from the car park over the yachts on the hard

The Marina’s new Security Gate House, still to be painted

Customs Office

You might recall a few posts back that I went to the Dermatologist in Guatemala. In addition to the Lesion on my Face, (Actinic Keratosis) Pre-Cancerous patches on the Face, I had/have a problem with my lips. The Dermatologist diagnosed it as Actinic Cheilitis, which is Pre-Cancer of the Lips aka Sailors Lips. The Dermatologist prescribed a course of HydroCortisone crème for 14 days. Unfortunately the damage is too severe, and so I have had to further do the next course of treatment, which is a Topical Chemotherapy Crème for 15 days, which creates blisters and Lesions. I have completed the Treatment, but full Repair of the Lips will take a further 4-6 months. My lips (especially the lower lip where most of the damage is) are swollen and incredibly painful to the touch especially when eating, brushing teeth or showering. Hopefully I’ve caught it early enough 🤞 A further negative of the Topical Chemotherapy treatment is loosing hair, and the past 3 weeks has been awful every time I brush or comb my hair, I loose a lot of full strands of hair. I hope that as I’ve now stopped the treatment, that the loss of hair will abate too.

Panama - Linton Bay Marina - 2 weeks on the Hard

So it’s been two weeks since we Hauled out. News is that my toe is definitely broken…. Treatment remains the same - RICE. I limp around and go/do things more slowly, but that’s okay. My toe is well strapped to the toes on either side.

Saturday was Ally’s birthday, but due to boat stuff, both Dulcinea and Meshugga decided it’ll be better to celebrate on Sunday, so we all piled into our rental vehicle and set off for El Castillo Restuarant about a 40 min drive away.

Not as though we don’t see the sea every day…. Just saying….

Nicholas has selected a Contractor (he had three quotes). Our Contractor works with two chaps, so it a party of three. They have cordoned off the Starboard Front Cabin with heavy duty plastic and duct tape, and enter the cabin via the forward Heads (bathroom) hatch (ceiling window), with a ladder to get down. Inside the cabin there is a huge extractor and an air conditioner. The contractors work in full suits (like Hazmat) and with full face covers with breathers, so that they don’t breathe in fiberglass or get itchy. It’s been a very noisy two weeks with the Contractors cutting out the Tabs and all areas where the fiberglass has ‘let go’ and where we have tears in the bulkheads.

By end of day, I need a few Tylenol due to headaches from the constant grinding noise and vacuum cleaner and extractor fan going flat out.

Nicholas is taking photographs and I’ll get those from him in due course and post a blog on the repairs.

Here at Linton Bay Marina we are about 3 miles away from a small convenience / hardware store which stocks basic stuff. However, the vege man, Charlie who I met two years ago, and who used to come to the Marina with his truck with fruits and vegetables each day, now has a store on the grounds which is a Refrigerated Container with loads of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses and dairy products, and a few freezers with meats. In addition, another weekly truck arrives with great fresh produce as well as coolers with prawns/shrimp and fish on ice. I look out for him as he does not seem to come on the same day each week, and I buy 2-3 pounds of Camorones (prawns/shrimp) for a pig-out.

Camorones sauted in butter, garlic, chillie and ginger with brown rice.

Thankfully we have Aircon running 24/7 inside Meshugga as outside temps are 35 Deg with 80% humidity. It’s great to be able to sleep in relative (to us) coolth - as our Aircon only gets the temperature inside down to 25-27 deg C. At night (for us) it gets positively chilly inside with the Aircon running and the nighttime drop in heat, and in the early hours we need a light blanket over our top sheet :-) Nicholas has linked up drainage hoses to lead out from our kitchen sink as well as our shower and basins -  so we live aboard comfortably.