This may be Aldebaran’s fifth (!) haul out in five years, but it is the first when we have a big trip imminently possible — with a potential March departure, the stakes are high to get things done fast!
It is a Love-Hate relationship with the yard. It is fantastic to get so much done, but it is so much gruelling work, in such a rough environment. On top of it all, Sabrina and I are living at the yard, to compound the fun!
Termites be-gone!
Our first task was to tent the boat to rid of termites. It’s super common for boats in Oxnard (where Aldebaran lived for many years) to have termites — it never was a terrible problem because most of the wood is too hard & treated for termites, but in areas they were doing damage and it had to be stopped.. We used Ventura Pest Control and it was $750, 3 days of tenting. The hardest part was packing all the “ingestibles” (food, medicine) into special double bags — our storage in Aldebaran is in deep corners and hard to reach!
The great shelf building frenzy!
Which brings us to our next items:
The problem of where to put stuff… ah. We are building shelves at a furious pace to organize gear; increasing access to storage areas in the amas; and generally customizing everything to have its own special home. Which takes awhile when you have no clue about carpentry!
Removing all the hardwear from the foredeck
Finally, one of the big jobs we have during this haul out: re-furbishing our whole foredeck area. The windlass needs to get re-machined and re-painted, the bow rollers need new support, and the forestay chainplate needs to get removed (god knows how that’ll happen). One step at a time, we are making her like new again, and stronger than ever…
Green Coconut Run 