A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 1/7/2024 – 1/14/2024

Good morning! Have you seen our latest YouTube video?

Most of the island (including the boatyard) is closed on Sundays, so we spent the day relaxing in our hotel room, recovering from the last of our illnesses and updating our to-do lists.

Monday and Tuesday were a blur of contractors, coming and going as needed to complete the last of our scheduled work on Sabado before we went back in the water. Here is a list of what we had done:

• Back-up autopilot: Since we are planning to cross the Pacific with just the two of us on board, we invested in a secondary autopilot and had it installed in our port engine compartment.

• Corrosion repairs: Mismatched metal fittings (like stainless steel + aluminum) can lead to corrosion without proper protection. Our boat has stainless steel anchor rollers on an aluminum crossbeam and stainless steel brackets attached to an aluminum mast. The proper protection was not used when attaching the fittings, so we had someone address the signs of corrosion in both areas and put adequate protection in place.
• Spinnaker halyard backing plates: We hope to use our spinnaker for most of our trip across the Pacific. So, we had backing plates installed to strengthen the hardware attachment points.

• Rig work: We had the local rigging company fix our squeaky boom and convert our single-line reefing system to have two reef attachment points, one using hooks at the mast. This should help prevent chafe and allow us to get a better sail shape when reefed.
• Top-loading refrigerator repair: We’ve had problems keeping our top-loading refrigerator cold for months, and we finally had someone take a look. They installed a new plate and fixed some holes in one of the lines.
• Bottom job: We had the yard put an extra coat of bottom paint on in hopes of delaying our next haul out…

Details, including prices and contractor information, will be in our next Behind the Scenes post. 

We checked out of our hotel and made it to the yard bright and early Wednesday morning to complete some last-minute projects and start putting the boat back together before going in the water that afternoon.

Overall, both of our haul-out experiences at Bobby’s Megayard have been fantastic. It’s rare to hear a boat owner gush about a boat yard, but man, our experiences at Bobby’s have been brag-worthy. There aren’t a lot of situations where we feel comfortable leaving the boat for an extended period, but I got regular updates via WhatsApp from the yard manager, Brad, about Sabado. He also helped me find the best folks to complete the work we needed done and told me when to negotiate the prices I was quoted. The icing on the cake came when paying our final invoice, and I noticed they did not charge me the daily storage fee over the holidays. If you’re searching for a haul-out facility in the Caribbean, you’ve got to go to Bobby’s!

Anyway, after saying our goodbyes to the staff, we made it to the Simpson Bay bridge before the last opening of the day with 10 minutes to spare! We motored through, dropped our anchor, and marveled at our floating home. The anchorage was loud (right by the airport) and rolly, but we were thrilled to be back on the water! As we got settled, Ray noticed our electric flush head was malfunctioning. I’ll spare you the details, but he was able to fix it by replacing the macerator pump with a spare we had on board. We spent the rest of the evening cleaning and unpacking, watched a beautiful sunset, and got to sleep in our own bed that night.

The next day, we took the dinghy to shore for breakfast since Sabado’s food stores were empty. We stopped by a small shop after and picked up some coffee beans, a bottle of wine, a baguette, and a dozen eggs, which carried us through the weekend as we continued to put the boat back together. I went for my first swim in what felt like forever and faced my fear of getting a haircut at a salon where no one spoke English… -4 inches of hair feels much more manageable on the boat!

We had turned all of our refrigerators off when we hauled out, and the receptionist at the boatyard was kind enough to keep my sourdough starter in her fridge until we splashed. This was the longest my starter has gone un-fed, but I’m happy to report that by Saturday afternoon, SabaDOUGH was back to tripling in size.

Today is pleasantly calm and cool. We haven’t been nearly as productive as we’d hoped these past few days, but maybe today is the day we finish cleaning and organizing the interior…

I hope you had a great week! ❤️