Astarte is now officially a construction zone. Work on the installation of the arch is underway. We went into the Club Nautico "marina" on Thursday morning thinking the arch might be delivered that afternoon. This was after one of those Spanish phone conversations where we hoped that was what was said. Bianney did come by for some last minute measurements and promised an arch the following day. Michael went with him to his shop to take a final look – which was a good thing. A few small items were forgotten – but he was pleased with the overall construction and look.
On Thursday, when we went into the marina, the slip we were promised had been taken by a boat who just decided to tie up there and then go to a hotel. The funny thing is – the boat is registered from St. Petersburg, FL and we had met the folks in 2001 in Martinique. Small world. But they were in our slip and that meant we had to go elsewhere. We ended up next to a huge catamaran party boat and had to tie one line to their bow, another line to the underwater mooring (a diver from the marina does this for you), and two stern lines.. The mooring was really far away, over 100 feet, because the spot was meant for really big boats! It was a tight fit and when the wind switched about midnight, in the rain, it meant re-tying the boat. So much for the comfort of marinas.
On Friday morning, the boat in our promised slip moved to their permanent slip and we moved to the original planned slip. This was a much better place for the construction as it was farther from other boats. After all the boats moved and we were just getting settled, the arch was being walked down the dock by Martin and Johnny. It was quite a sight. The arch was polished stainless and quite large.
Then the destruction and construction began. First, they had to power up their generator – which meant "jerry-rigging" some wire as our extension cord wasn't quite right. Barbara was certain this would start a fire the way it was rigged! When that was completed they needed to first removed the existing stern rail. This proved to be a much harder project than it should have been. Turns out the existing stern rail and stanchions were bolted in places we didn't know. It required some tearing out of wall boards below to get to these bolts. Noise, sawdust, and just plain frustration was rampant. After having to finally just cut the stanchions off to get to the bolts holding the bases, they were off.
Then the arch was fitted. It was close. The wind vane paddle however, didn't quite clear it completely at one point. Now the tough decision of whether we wanted holes on the deck to show (or be fiber-glassed over) or live with it. We decided to live with it and hope that when the arch was finally installed the windvane would work because it was so close.
It's a day of lots of noise from the generator, drills, grinders, cutters polishers, and music from the nearby boats trying hard to drown out our noise! We don't blame them – but it's making for quite a noisy environment. Rain in the afternoon has slowed progress – but hopefully it will pass quickly and progress will continue.
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