We had not planned to take Noxoma out of the water this year. Last time we were on the hard was one year ago in Aruba, and we prepared her for staying in the water for two years, until we reach New Zealand in November 2025.
However, we have experienced problems with our underwater lights. There seems to be a reaction between the screws and the frames covering the lights. The screws end up being corroded, and eventually fall out.
The result? Lots of holes on the hulls, which is not what we want, of course. The captain has been working hard on filling the leaks with silicone, and it has almost stopped, but not quite.
At one point, we had several liters of water getting into the boat every day. The bilge pumps are working fine, so no need to fret over it right away, however the main leak was in the engine room, which obviously is not ideal.
We have some other work we would prefer to do this year as well, which is still under the warranty period. So, that enabled us to get parts of the costs of the planned work covered.
We had pre booked a spot on the Technimarine boatyard, which is one of two yards in French Polynesia with a big enough lift to take us out of the water. It is located centrally in Papeete, Tahiti, and is mainly a commercial yard for the local fishing vessels.
We arrived three days before our haulout date, and waited at the anchorage close by. However, the yard contacted us right after we arrived and let us know that we would be delayed a few days. It ended up being a week delay before we could get hauled out.
It is quite nerve wrecking to enter the sling system of the cranes, but the captain and crew performed exceptionally well, as well as the guys from the yard who waited for us as we arrived.
We were onboard as we were hauled out, which is quite a bizarre experience. You hang with your home high above the ground, relying only on two slings under your boat. The yard can handle boats up to 50 tons, so with our “only” 23 tons, we felt safe.
The yard is not too big, there were about 20 boats there, which of 5-6 were other sailboats. We decided to live on the boat while we were there, which is not necessarily very comfortable, but it turned out okay.
Staying onboard allowed us to work early and late on the boat. The workers begin their day at 07:00, however we quickly learned that many of them gather from 05:30, and hang out together in the mornings. Quite nice to have your buddies at work and meet them for breakfast in the mornings!
We stayed a total of 8 days in the yard. We spent the time doing a lot of different projects, and went back in the water happy about the work done. The yard is mostly professional and efficient. We had a little mishap as they used the wrong cleaning substance which tainted our chrome, but they fixed it by putting most of the guys at work to buff our chrome back into good shape. At one point, we had eight workers on our boat at the same time!
We ended up being very pleased with the yard, and were excited to be heading back into the waters after 8 days on the hard.
We leave the yard excited about being back on the water and enjoying the rest of the season! We headed straight to the beautiful island of Moorea, which will be our next stop.