A Glimpse into the World of Boat Jobs and Adventure

We are in Marigot bay, a bay where sailboats, catamarans and superyachts come and go while we are busy with boating jobs together with a small group of sailboats. The sun is shining and the wind is blowing hard. A symphony of sawing machines, sanders, hammers and drills echoes through the air. The days fly by and luckily the to-do list is slowly getting smaller.

Jeroen and Rajesh feel the sweat flowing from their bodies due to the intense heat that envelops their bodies in the engine room. They wriggle into all sorts of odd poses, their limbs twisted into awkward bends. Temperatures rise well above 45 degrees, making it unbearably hot. Amid the sweltering conditions, their top priority is the water maker. All supply and discharge hoses for the salt, fresh and waste water with the necessary filters in between still need to be given a place in the engine room. The engine room gradually becomes overcrowded, which presents a challenge. However, placing the water maker itself and the pump in this room is not recommended because of the heat generated by the generator and diesel engine. In the distance, I listen to their animated discussion about the best alternative. In a kitchen cabinet where the waste bins are now, or the bin in the cockpit, where Jeroen’s toolboxes are? Armed with a measuring tape, they discuss where the holes for the water hoses should be. In the meantime, I fulfill my task of polishing the stainless steel of the bimini, railing and stays of the boat. It will be the storage box in the cockpit, which will be decorated differently. The guest beds now serve as temporary storage for Jeroen’s toolboxes, turning the interior of the boat into an improvised workshop. I admire their perseverance when I see them lying folded in the locker and engine room and sawing, hammering, drilling and screwing tirelessly. Occasionally their voices resonate with cries of “OW” and “CHIPS” when mishaps happen. Which sometimes requires my help to clean their cuts and bandage them with a plaster. After five days of hard work, the end result is finally here. While I cleaned the boat of its algal beard growth, Jeroen and Rajesh successfully installed the water maker and it works flawlessly with just a simple push of a button.

The quality of the water produced is superb and we immediately taste it when we take the first sip. As soon as the water tank was sufficiently filled again, our washing machine could run at full speed again. I like the smell of clean laundry that hangs from the boat both inside and outside, which gives a nice and fresh feeling. Jeroen then turned his attention to the old water maker. With determination and some brute force, Jeroen managed to get the old filter out of the housing without damaging the housing itself, which he was afraid of. By replacing the old filter with a new one, the performance of this water maker will also be restored. Another problem we encountered was a crack in the high-pressure hose at a coupler. These hoses have been in service for over three decades and it is clear that they need to be replaced. Unfortunately, the search for suitable high-pressure hoses has proved more complex than expected and our search for replacements is still ongoing.

Two weeks ago, during our crossing to Saint Martin, as the boat rocked back and forth and I was half asleep trying to walk from the inside out, I lost my balance, grabbed just next to the handle and fell hard against our bathroom door. Which resulted in two broken hinges and a damaged door. In addition to the bruised spots on my cheek, shoulder and hip, this also meant an extra boat job. Fortunately, Jeroen was able to completely restore this door and it now hangs beautifully for our bathroom. If Jeroen does not need the dinghy for a while, I take it with me to do some shopping. First on the French side of the island, for the cheeses, wine and baguette and then to the Dutch side for the typical Dutch products that we enjoy while we can. During one of his many trips to buy extra materials, Jeroen met a Dutch man who is here on a boat with his family with 4 children. They left the Netherlands last year. When I announced to my clients a year and a half ago that we were going to sail around the world, one of my clients said he knew a family with similar plans. You already feel it coming, indeed, let’s meet them here now SY_Topaas! Super fun and cozy to have chatted with them for two evenings and to hear how the children are enjoying this adventure. A welcome change from the many boat jobs and they gave us the perfect tip to still be able to use Starlink for a reasonable price, so we are on Starlink and are very happy with this. SY_Topaas will also head for Panama and sail through the Panama Canal. We keep in touch with them and who knows they might be somewhere nearby when Tessa and Jasper are there.

As we go through our boat job schedule, it becomes clear that some jobs are best suited to be done in Martinique. Jeroen has contacted a harbour to reserve a spot on the side and have the boat lifted out of the water. When my parents-in-law, Henk and Yvonne, fly back to the Netherlands after their visit, the boat is out of the water and the work starts again. Jeroen will then work on the propeller shaft, while Rajesh and I will focus on applying an extra layer of antifouling on the underwater hull and repainting the red border along the waterline. Our goal is to have the boat back in the water before the arrival of Hanneke, Teunis, Tessa and Jasper. For now, here in Saint Martin, we will continue to tackle various jobs. The leaking skylights above our bed and in the salon, require attention, requiring new sealing rubbers. We are lucky that there is little rain here, but we know that the conditions in Panama and the surrounding area are different. That is why we carefully inspect and replace all window rubbers if necessary. Now that Starlink is operational, we are also looking for a permanent place for the hardware and we are concealing the cables in the ceilings. Jeroen and Rajesh also plan to install several additional power outlets throughout the boat, further increasing functionality. One of our refrigerators hasn’t worked since Dominica, and we were determined to get it fixed before we left for the Bahamas. In our efforts to resolve it, we have reached out to someone here in Saint Martin. However, to our dismay, we received our refrigerator in a more broken condition, leaving us disappointed, frustrated and angry. We decided to try again, this time with someone else. Luckily, at Titan Marine, they knew what they were doing and successfully repaired all the damage. Now our fridge is working properly again and we are relieved and happy. In addition to repairing our faulty refrigerator, we also checked all the valves to make sure they all still open and close smoothly. Our lighting in the cockpit was defective and we also replaced it. Very occasionally we treat ourselves by going out for a bite to eat after a hard day’s work and when we get back to the boat we set up our outdoor cinema for a movie under the stars.

A Glimpse into the World of Boat Jobs and Adventure