Is this where things start to fall apart ?!?

The stripped decks on Amelie's foredeck

More stripped decks

Saturday September 20th 2014

 ***Warning :  If you are looking for a happy-go-lucky blog, do not read any further! Instead go to any of our previous blogs, and just skip this one.

However for those of you who have been secretly cursing us and wishing our blogs would  stop being so freakishly happy all the time, rejoice !  This one’s for you ! 

Have you ever had that experience of someone coming into your home to do a small job, just a routine maintenance, and then they go: “Whoa, lady, I hate to be the one to tell you this but, you have the worst case of__(Insert your worst house renovation story here: like “termites”, “black mold”etc..) _ that I have ever seen, um, this is going to cost you, alot more than we'd talked about! ”

You have ? Us too, just a few days ago in fact. Our new reality is that we will most likely NOT be able to leave Grenada for quite a few MONTHS now, and we are going to have to move OFF AMELIE  for at least a couple of weeks (maybe more), and this is going to have a MAJOR impact on the travel budget.

We hope that this is just a bump in the road, but as I write this today it feels more like an abyss has just opened up on this cool highway we had been cruising on, and we’ve had to hit the brakes pretty abruptly !

“So, what’s up ?” , you ask. Well, if you have been keeping up with the blog you already know that, last week, Cpt. Mark had tackled the decks on Amelie. Wanting to remove the layer of faux teak and and have it painted instead....He and a local guy had been working on removing the Nu teak stuff for two full days, scraping away the glue and sanding everything down to get back to the original layer. Things had been going well enough...and Mark had found some good contacts to get the job done in a few week.He was finally feeling optimistic about it on Monday. But when I returned from an errand later that same evening, Mark was waiting for me, standing on deck & looking very grim. My first thought was that Hurricane Matthew might have gotten himself in trouble somehow, but no, Mark did not waste any time to tell me the news: His worst fears about the decks were becoming a reality !  There is water in between the layers of fiberglass on the decks! Mark says that they feel spongy in many spots...which would mean that the wood underneath the fiberglass could have water damage. This in turn means that we need to sand down all of the layers of fiber glass, & replace the wood where needed and re do all those spots. The original deck resurfacing plan of sanding some cracks out of the gel coat, gel coat repairs and putting anti-skid on, wasn't going to work.  The original brown gel coat that Amel used to simulate the teak has debonded extensively from the white gel coat underneath, so is a much more extensive repair than expected.  The gel coat on the side decks will have to be sanded off basically down to the fiberglass, faired, then re-gel coated or epoxied and Awlgrip'd.  Yup, it’s bad, really bad and its going to cost, alot of money and keep us here for another few months at least ! 

Mark also delivered the news that the family will not be able to stay on board while these major repairs are done. The boat will have to be tarped over, and closed up. Having to live on land again after our two weeks in August was NOT in the plan or the budget. And after nearly three months in the same place at a time when we were just getting our engines revved up, excited about the prospect of new adventures and sights to see, the new reality of not being able to go anywhere and perhaps skipping some of our planned destinations is a hard pill to swallow.

"It’s okay" I tell myself over and over,"breathe!" In through the nose, out through the mouth. There has GOT to be a way to get our head around this .

First step :Denial “Are you sure Mark? Can it be ANYTHING else ?” “Can those blue/green spongy spots you have uncovered be something else ?  Algae ? No ?”  Ok.

Next step: Anger (at oneself) 

Kicking oneself over and over and getting stuck in the “Should-a, could-a, would-a s”

Mark had worried about these decks from the very beginning, he had a gut feeling these were going to cause us trouble from the start, he had often voiced his opinion, MC tended to keep optimistic without fully understanding the impact if his worst fears were to be realised, like today. He is now saying : “I should-a followed my gut....

Why did we not check this earlier ?  We ‘should-a’ had  the decks looked after while the boat was on the hard for 7 months last year !! We ‘could-a’ had this all resolved earlier. Why did we spend so much money on that other stuff ??? 

Then comes:Disappointment, worry, anxiety.

What does this mean for our travel plans ?  What about our budget ?  Can we go on ? What do we need to sacrifice ? How will we afford to live another few weeks/month on land ? What about the people we wanted to meet up with later this fall? Is this where everything starts falling apart?

Next step : Readjusting our thinking:

Like my favourite spiritual teacher, Eckart Tolle, likes to say:

 “Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose”

I keep reminding myself of this, as we focus on what to do next,as well as asking; how to get around or work through this one ?

Here's what we need to do: Stop getting so upset about this, give our collective head a shake, stop kicking ourselves, stop looking back ad trying to change what has already been done and keep our eyes and minds FIRMLY forward ! We need to work out what we need to do now, how to best deal with this new situation and remember to be grateful for the things we do have.So we started by having a chat with the kids, (well, with Meg really- Matthew got to play a little longer on his ipad that evening). Explaining to her what was going on, why our plans needed to change. We tried to involve her in the decision making (where are we going to stay, how we have to adapt our plans, how this was going to affect her and Mathew) She had trouble initially, but is putting on a brave face and trying to see the positive side of things as she puts her wants aside. 

In desperate times, misery loves company, or more like : “Inspiration from other peoples’ triumph over misery”. In other word: We seek encouragement by reminding one another of other peoples’ misfortunes. People we’ve met on this journey who have pulled themselves out of a few holes.

Like the lovely family we met last month. They bought the boat, got it all ready, and within the first week, the boat hit a reef and SUNK, yeah that’s right , SUNK ! Three kids on board, everyone is fine but the boats and all their stuff was LOST. Did they pack up and go home ? Nope, they bought another boat and kept on going, living the dream, then, a few month later,(while in Grenada) they were boarded and robbed while they were sleeping, again, no one was hurt, but they lost laptop computers, ipads, phones. What did they do ? They shook it off and kept on sailing.   (My heroes!)

Good friends of ours, bought the boat in Florida, drove down from Canada,  got everything ready over a few months, and just before they were about to go: their boat was vandalized one night and they had to put their plans on hold, for a few MONTHS. No one as hurt but it was an unplanned, large expense and frustrating delay, did they give up on their dream?  Nope ! They kept on going, they are sailing now !

Other friends of ours, crossed the Atlantic, arrived in the Caribbean where they sailed with their two children, they had a plan to backpack throughout South America during the hurricane season, less than 2 weeks before their departure for Peru they had an engine FIRE onboard, lots of damage, did they give up their dream ?  Nope, they kept their chins up, cleaned up the damage as best they could, got the boat ready for hurricane season and went on an adventure of a lifetime to South America. They are now back onboard, in Grenada with memories of their South American adventure to cherish for a lifetime. 

Story after story which have really helped us to focus on what’s important. We all know S*%t happens, and, so what ? So what are we going to do ? Do we quit, pack up and go home ? Hell no ! Not today anyways. We are not ready to trow in the towel yet folks!

Is this an IQ test? I hope not!

Ok, feeling a bit better, so I’ll keep going: This must just be a test, of course! This must be a test of our tenacity & our will power! 

Seriously though : Come on ! We didn't hit a reef, we are not sinking, no one is hurt, we are all healthy, we did not loose the boat, we need to stay the course, just adapt it a little , learn to adjust to the new conditions and sail on!

Last step, Moving forward: Kidding aside, in my experience with these things, I find that when we are at the beginning of a crisis, it is really hard to see the solutions all we see is the problem and the domino effect of all the consequences that will follow, all the bad stuff is at the surface, it feels like there is no hope, and everything is just, yuk! Then as time goes by, either more problems emerge or solutions start to take shape, start to materialize, sometimes where we least expect it. But until then, we will not let ourselves get caught up in what we could have done, should have done or how things could have been different if we only had. 

 “The past has no power over the present”  (Eckart Tolle)

or if, like Meg, you prefer someone more hip and happening : 

“The past is in the past”  (Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen”)

Since I am now resorting to inspiring quotes to get us through this, here is another one from Eckart T.  that  I’l be practicing :

“What ever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it, always work with it, not against it ! ”

Ok, here goes :  “ I chose to have the decks (gelcoat) replaced!" It will be a great learning experience AND we get to rid ourselves of our least favourite Amel "feature", the faux teak decks!   AMELIE will look so amazing when this is all said and done! (BTW I still think that she is still the best darn boat for us, she just needs a little TLC right now)

“I chose to stay a while longer in Grenada” It a great place after all, with great provisions and internet and makes the Field part of the Environmental  Unit (Science Gr7) MUCH easier to teach !  (yeeha!) Ok, there is a lot of value to all this stuff Eckart speaks of, but  we have to be honest : Listening to Jack Johnson tunes and having a sip of rum sure helps too ! Phew, we feel better, thanks for sticking with us through this one! I will add a few photos of other things we have been doing this week, to keep our ind off of our troubles. 

                                           *****************

 

Mt Carmel Falls, Grenada

Meg enjoying a cool shower, Mt Carmel falls

Matt and Meg at Mt Carmel Falls

Le Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada

HobieCat Race day at Phare Bleu Marina

Mark and Matthew racing Hobie Cats 

Mark and Matt, Meg and René neck and neck at the start line

And they're off !

Rounding the first mark, still a tight race!

Mark and Matthew on the final stretch to take the win

Meg and René coming in to the finish line

Meg takes the tiller, w/Mike,  

Meg thanking Mike

Editor's note (aka Cpt Mark):  Interim update since this was drafted early last week.  While investigating numerous resources to help resurface the decks, Mark stumbled across a company here that has the knowledge, space, materials and craftsmen available to start in about a week!  15 minutes into the discussion with Nicolas at X-Marine it was evident that he had seen this issue on Amels before, was not interested in a Band-Aid fix, takes tremendous pride in his work, had a solid and practical plan, plus the cost estimate didn't knock him out (just wince a bit)!  Their references have checked out very well, and we should be moving to their dock (where we can stay aboard for pretty much all the work) late next week and hopefully be done by the end of October, so our departure will only be a few weeks behind schedule, hopefully.         

It will also allow Mark to get some other minor projects completed much easier than planned.  

                                        

How will the 4Ms handle these new challenges, how will this affect their plans ? 

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It’s a mystery !  Stay tuned as we keep you posted over the coming weeks!