Yemaya underwater ship looked like a vegetable garden (haul out 2014).

It was almost two years ago since we last were on the yard doing some maintenance on Yemaya. The underwater ship started to grow all kind of vegetables so quickly, that even my former garden at home would have been jealous about it.

Text by Mallika. Images by Reinhilde & Mallika
 
 

Time for some repainting

with anti fouling to keep the growth away. Deep also planned to make a new bimimi together with a friend of his, who would be on the yard in the same period with his catamaran. Since Frits is a boatbuilder for over 30 years, he was of great help to show Deep how to make the bimimi out of glass fiber and epoxy with honeycomb being the core. First they made a mold out of wood to give the bimimi its proper form.
 

The honeycomb was covered with the glass fiber

and a lot of epoxy to give it the proper strength. Poles were made out of the same material and after building the whole structure on the ground under the boat they moved it on the boat and placed it above the cockpit.
 

Caribbean in the rain season

When I write it down like this, it seems such an easy job to do. Just put the right ingredients together to get this project done. One major and very important ingredient though, can’t be forget: being in the Caribbean in the rain season. Especially if they put you with your boat on the wettest spot on the yard. After each strong rainfall the ground changed into a swamp where Deep and Frits had to work knee deep into the mud. After a few days they were fed up with it and, like real Dutch men, they started digging little canals to lead the water away helped by a strong pump. Every morning Deep had to pump away all the water first before he could start his work.

 

Caribbean paradise?!

This wouldn’t have been that bad if the next less agreeable ingredient wasn’t there: Deep became very ill with high fever, joint pains and nausea. Because we had a limited time schedule, he just kept on working on the bimimi. Sometimes it can be hell in Caribbean paradise!
Nevertheless despite all this struggles Deep and Frits managed to make a super beautiful hardtop bimimi which makes Yemaya even prettier than she already was!

 

And where was Mallika during this whole story?

She was enjoying the Dutch summer working again at her old job for some time. Poor Deep had to coop with this all by himself. Luckily Reinhilde took good care of him when he was so ill. We are very grateful that Frits and Reinhilde were on the yard at the same time. They have helped Deep tremendously besides all the work they had to do themselves on their own boat. Thanks dear friends!