“Groundhog Day Again”
Each morning as Dan and I ride our bicycles into the shipyard, we see some of the same sights. Our team of workers running around getting ready for their day. Flip flops and bare feet are a common sight. Some change clothes under the boat, putting their yucky, sandy clothes back on from the day before. “Hola, buenos dias” we call to each other as we pass. Making sure they know how appreciative we are for their hard work. It’s difficult to believe that the Mexicans don’t get hurt more often. There are reduced safety rules here in Mexico in comparison to the USA. They do work hard to keep themselves and their team members safe. It would never go in the US.
Our project list was on our previous blog Shipyard Work, One for the Boys!…#23 if you are interested. Below Dan calls out the projects that they are working on too. As the work progresses, of course, more items are found and/or we add to the list because we didn’t understand their existence when creating the list. I will let Dan tell the story. He wanted to start from the beginning, from when we purchased the boat. So much lead up to our scope of work here in Puerto Vallarta that he felt he needed to start at the beginning. Hang on… it is long list!

“Fuel in the Bilge is never a good thing”
- We had to ID and buy many different filters – over 2 dozen kinds. That data is so big it now lives in Excel spreadsheet
- Oil and Coolant Rebuilt both Reverso oil change pumps so I could do the oil changes
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- Purchased lots of Chevron Delo 100 oil for Engines and Transmissions, as my 2 Detroit Diesel 650 HP 12V71TIs, that take 9 gallons per engine and another 4 for the transmissions
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- 20 gallons of specially treated engine coolant for diesels plus 20 gallons of distilled water to mix with the coolant took care of both engines
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- Another few gallons of 15W40 oil and more coolant mix for the Northern Lights 32KW gensets
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- Each time I changed oil or coolant. I had lots of buckets of waste oil or coolant and used filters to dispose of
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- Have changed oil and filters in the mains and 1 genset one more time since
- Replaced all the raw water side zincs and impellers
- Cleaned the sea strainers
- Cleaned bilges
- Replaced 240V Air conditioning raw water pump
- Rebuilt 240V overboard 3HP macerator pump
- Calibrated stabilizers
- Emptied and refurbished 2 cockpit fuel tanks
- Polished and saved 150 gallons of diesel with a home built system of vane pump, Racor filter and 55 gallon drums. (from the fuel leaking incident mentioned above)
- Installed new gas station pump for dinghy and waverunner. Yes, we have gas for our toys! Correct ventilation blower installed as well for the lazzerette.
- Rewired navigation light sockets
- Replaced many old GFCI outlets
- Rewired the stereo and TVs after the salon makeover
- Replaced the broken starboard helm windows and cracked Sapphire deck windows with new glass
- Installed and Integrated a 10kw 240V split phase Victron Inverter System with Ron Micjan’s help on design and sourcing and Angela’s help with the giant 200AH Telecom batteries on the install.
- I am sure there is more but you get the drift.
While I was working on all this Angela was working on the interior updating. (Upcoming blog in the works!)


Here is the work list with a bit of discussion:
Top side painting, Fly bridge to deck including cockpit and cranes
Remove, restore and reinstall dinghy cradles in new positions. This was done to renew worn non-skid on top deck flybridge for safety, looks, to stop cracks and leaks and to better arrange the toys on top
Clean, scrape, repair bottom with epoxy coat, bottom paint and boot stripe. The old bottom paint was worn out and needed stripping. Blisters and crack repairs were needed to preserve the hull. 2 coats of West System Barrier epoxy will be applied before the Pettit brand hard blue bottom paint.
Upholstery cushions on bow and flybridge. Updating worn and discolored vinyl cushions with Sunbrella. Along with cockpit bolsters. We haven’t seen these yet just pictures in process.
Varnish railing, doors, flybridge bench seating rails, sapphire deck bench seats. Many coats! new veneer here and there. Improves looks and preservation of the teak wood. Rebed and repair Bow spray rails. We had a small leak to stop. These were bolted on and we found hidden damage from previous owners. This was causing problems as both the hull and spray rails were cracked and leaking. After good structural repairs with West System epoxy we will have a nice looking, functional bow again.
Repack and install new packing box hoses on main shafts, rebed one strut. Poor work by a prior yard is being proven out. I feel a claim coming. Prop shafts and bearings and couplers all being cleaned up and repaired.
Restore pitted rudder shafts, rebed rudder glands, install new bearings. This was to fixing leaking and poorly repaired rudder shaft seals, and replace worn out rudder shaft cutlass bearings
Complete overhaul of the Naiad Stabilizer Actuators and seals. Chris Ponce had the lead on this for Lance Lage’s MTU team. The stabilizers had begun to ooze grease once again as forecast. As they came apart we could see a complete overhaul was in order. The shafts and numerous other worn parts were replaced and the good parts were stripped and repainted or refinished to new condition. This was a couple of weeks of very careful detailed expert work that I greatly appreciate. Chris also was a big help with steering leaks, oil hoses and generator exhaust as well.
***Before***
***After***
While the yard team was working, I had my “Dan” Jobs;
- Wire aft bilge level switch to alarm bell. We have a school bell now for too high bilge water! Safety
- Install new KVH compass and Garmin display unit. These were replacements of existing units. Pretty straight install and rewire.
- Build and install new reverse engineered wireless remote for our old Robertson AP300 Autopilot (Saved $800). I uses a remote control, like a key clicker with 50 Meter range. This replaced a wired autopilot control. Now we can steer (adjusting the autopilot) from anywhere on boat! $12.00US!!! This was awesome and I can’t wait to try it.
- Added new zincs on swim platform brackets. Grunt labor for preservation.
- Refurbish and install our old swim step ladder as designed under the step. Prior owner had installed with wrong hardware and installed backwards. It now works as designed.
- Glue and clamp Sapphire Deck table to fix crack. More wood and varnish work for Dan and Angela. Glue done, now just need to sand and finish.
- Install new port generator exhaust elbow, and starboard generator shutdown solenoid. More mechanic wrench turning. Solenoid was just me. I got Chris to help on the elbow, just in case.
- Fix electrical issues with 32V bow lights and aft hall 12V lights, and panel lights. OMG. Traced wires and grounds and voltages like mad, Determined I had to run new wires for power. Did it. Lots of snaking and crawling and crimping and terminal strips later, they ALL work. Added some new 12V LEDs too.
- Build and install new heavy duty battery hold down clamp on house batteries. Determined existing holders were not enough. Built a giant 2′ x 4′ clamp with some 1/2″ threaded rod to hold all the batteries down hard.
- Clean repair and lubricate all 6 seawater intake strainers, and fix mount on Starboard GenSet strainer. More grunt work in the bilges for Dan. Found 2 strainer screens needing replacement, did so.
- Install 3 new Turbo drain hoses on main engines. Replaced old ones that had some damage. Installed chafe protection too. Chris helped here too.
- Fix steering leaky O-rings and hydraulic hoses aft. I gave this one to Chris and his buddy mostly. I helped find the right non-leaky o-rings. They did all the hard fitting and rebuild work. All clean and shiny and not leaking. Sea trial needed to prove but it is holding 30 pounds of pressure nicely.
- Fix snaps on bow sun shade. Replaced all corroded canvas snaps with snap tools. We will have new snaps on the cabin as well.
- Repaint anchor chain depth marks. Drop them on the hard, lay out chain for easy painting, clean out chain lockers, reel back in. Try not to kill anyone. Thanks Angela for your help here too.
- Install 2 new searchlights – the old pedestals fiberglassed in. Just need to drill, bed and run new wires and switches, probably after the yard time. Not enough access.
Upcoming articles we are working on…
** Interior Remodeling
&
**Our Final Splash Down after all this work, along with Pics too!!
Thank you for your continued support! If you weren’t reading, we would stop writing!
That was most entertaining. I closed my eyes and could almost visualize the processes. Thanks for sharing. You made me tired. Now I’m going to take a nap😴
Haha. Well you deserve it!!
Wow, what list of duties you folks are covering…. You know what, this is a dream of a lifetime and you will enjoy sitting down with a good glass of wine and say “What an Adventure”… I so wish you all the very best and stay safe….. Joan
Thanks Joan. Yes it is crazy list of stuff. Looking forward to getting back in the water
Wow! That was such a long list to read, I can’t even imagine actually doing the work! If you ever bring her back to this area again – we look forward to seeing your shiny brand new boat! Continue to enjoy your dream! You both deserve this adventure. 😊
Thanks Lavonne, after all this work we won’t want to ever sell her.. haha
Salt water sure is hard on everything, isn’t it? I cant wait to come visit you guys again.
Yes it is. We look forward to your visit!
Wow – great photos and content! Looking forward to the interior blog!
Nice to hear from you, Marie. Hope all is well with you! Interior blog is almost done. So watch for it by end of week!! Miss you!
Good luck with all the updates & repairs. So glad you found a shipyard you trust & can count on. Continued smooth seas & happiness. Cheers & blessings, The Robinson’s
❤️ thanks!