Recommissioning Utopia, Post 26-35
Updated: Sep 4
After two months away we need to do get the boat livable again while we get back into the swing of marina life in Guatemala.
This should be a short post regarding what we need to do to get the boat back in order to live after leaving the boat in a tropical rainforest for two months. The work should have been more involved expect for the VIP for the day: Oscar the Dock Master!
Before returned to our marina at Hacienda Tijax, Oscar did a lot of the work that we would have otherwise had to have done upon arrival.
He washed and scrubbed the outside and inside of the boat
He took bedding off the boat and had it laundered
He delivered 5 gallons of drinking water to the boat
He removed the very heavy dehumidifier that we had running for the two months away
He said that if we did not arrive home a day early, he would have made the bed for us too (which is an aerobic yoga feat inself). It was awesome! In comparing our experience with another couple who left their boat during the same two month period, it sounds like this is a thing Oscar does for his clients. We all agreed that the inside of the boat was cleaner than how we had left it.
Food
After the very pleasant surprise on the condition of Utopia, we had lunch in the resort restaurant since there was very little onboard. That evening I was able to whip something up for dinner by using some dry goods left on board along with a few things we picked up at the store when the shuttle dropped us off in town on. The next day we walked into town to purchase some groceries, like perishables, veggies and other cold items, then requested the marina to pick us up in a launcha. We've repeated this effort a few times since and now have a halfway decent pantry to work with.
Water System
The biggest immediate task was to get our water system in order. Before we left, we emptied the water tanks out, but two months of a dark moist tank can grow some critters. So, to clean the two tanks out (160 gallons total) we did the following step:
Put 2 oz of bleach per 15 gallons of water in the tanks and top the tanks off.
Run water through all the faucets till you smell a slight bleach smell. Let sit overnight.
Empty tank, refill tank with freshwater, empty that and then refill one more time.
If you can’t smell anymore bleach then your are Done!
With the system cleaned and the bleach removed, changed out all of the water system filters.
In the meantime, it is hot and we need to drink a lot of water. We were provided a 5-gallon jug of water, but not a way to dispense it. What we did was to pour from the jug into a wide container that was used to fill up a drinking water bottle. This was repeated over and over for several days until the jug was empty. Once it was empty, it was so nice to get clean drinking water from our faucet once again.
Other Things Completed
Set up refrigerators - Since we had the fridge off for two months, we had to start those up again and start making ice. We still have the little portable fridge also and we used it for a few days while we got things in order with the main fridge.
Unpacked - We needed to sort our clothes and miscellaneous objects (e.g. stuff for boat) from our two month trip away and place them in proper lockers. This may or may not been the last thing we did.
Remove Damp Rids buckets - These were placed around the boat in locations that the dehumidifier may not have had an optimal effect.
Make bed - Our laundry wasn't ready until the late afternoon on the day we returned to the marina. The mattress cover and the comforter were not quite dry, so Sondra made the bed with just the sheets on the first day, then had the joy of fully remaking the bed the following day.
Laundry - Were able to do laundry while visiting Tracy's sister in Oregon. By the time we returned to the Rio Dulce, we had were in need of washing those items again, along with a few other items on the boat after a few months in a musty environment. The resort was jam packed with guests and needed a couple of days to get to wash our laundry. Luckily we had just enough clean clothing on the boat to get us by.
Reacquaint ourselves with boat - There were a few moments of trying to remember where we stored items. Plus several items were moved around before leaving for better storage conditions while we were away, causing us to play the "where is it now?" game.
Chat with fellow cruisers - We made sure to find time to visit the resort pool, show up once or twice to the morning cruisers coffee hour, and attend the weekly marina cookout on Saturday night.
Things Still To Do
A few more things are needed for living at the marina for the rest of the year. (We will have more recommissioning items before leaving the marina in January to become a proper sailboat again).
Recommission dingy - In the next few days we want to drop our dinghy back in the water, so we don’t have to rely on the resort launcha since it does not go everywhere we want to go. This means obtaining gasoline from across the river, hauling the dinghy from the deck and to the water, blowing up the pontoons, maneuvering it between tightly packed sailboats to lower the outboard onto to the dinghy. We also need to find a place to store the dinghy once recommissioned. The davits and not available since we are ingressing and egressing Utopia from the stern.
Additional deck shading (and rain protection) - Since Utopia is sitting still, we put a tarp over the boom to shade the deck to keep the boat from heating up to quickly during the day. The dinghy is sort of serving as a shade for the forward portion of the deck, so will need to purchase and place a second tarp over Utopia. Also, with all of the rain here, the forward covering will keep water from coming through the leaky hatch over our bed.
Other Activities
This week there were no big excursions, just general activities around the marina such as: pool time, Saturday BBQ at Cruiser’s lounge, general projects and fixing things around the boat, walks to town to find needed items for said projects, hikes around the resort property and Sondra went to a ladies’ cruiser lunch.
Also, it has been raining pretty much every night and into the morning where it clears up for late morning and afternoon. It’s as if we live in a tropical rain forest…
Post 26-35
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