Ep38 - It took four months to replace two hatches!

Since day one back in July of 2022, we have had several hatches that leaked. While in Guatemala, we re-bedded two of the three hatches in the salon and galley, but that's as far as we got. We mitigated the problem by keeping a bucket or bowl under the leaky spots, with the intention to re-bed the rest of the hatches as time permitted. Taking care of that problem was definitely a job for while we're in the boatyard doing the refit, and only a month into the process, we got busy removing the worst offenders. Unfortunately, they were corroded so completely that we couldn't separate the screws and hinges from the frames without breaking them, so we had to order new ones. We have a European boat. It was built in France and many of the component parts are also made in France. This includes the deck hatches. This is where we made our first mistake. We procrastinated a few weeks, and July turned into August. If you've ever tried to acquire ANYTHING from Europe in August, you will have discovered that everyone goes on holiday for the entire month of August. At least they do in France.

Four months later, we finally got our new hatches. That's four months having two huge holes in the boat covered with tape, and leaking profusely into large plastic totes. After a few mistakes, we finally got them installed and are one step close to having a dry boat.