1 June May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys woke with a dodgy tummy, so she stayed on board, while I caught a mini-bus into Hillsborough. I love riding on the mini-buses, everyone greets each other good morning and there’s always some friendly chatter going on. I can’t understand a word of the local patois, but I enjoy the cadence of the banter and the bursts of raucous laughter. The fare of £0.75 is a bargain.
I managed to get some money out of the Bank’s main ATM, but only with our Debit card - it just rejected my Credit card. I had a wander into a few hardware shops, but they’re geared up for house building and I soon gave up trying to buy things for the boat. I’ll wait until we get to Grenada.
We had a quiet afternoon and evening on-board.
2 June May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We’ve decided that we’ll sail to Grenada in a couple of days’ time, so we couldn’t be bothered to disrupt the boat with any big jobs. Instead, we had a very lazy day.
We go home to the UK in 4 weeks and I’m planning to spend some time with my mum going through her memories of our family history. In preparation for this, I spent most of the day working on our family tree. I’ve bought a genealogy application (Roots Magic), which allows me to enter lots of information about each family member.
The application also has a clever interface to several on-line genealogy websites which carry large databases of birth, death and census records. It’s amazing that I can be sat here at anchor in the Caribbean doing research into my family living in Lancashire in the 1800s. I traced my mother’s family and found out that they were mostly cotton weavers living in Bury Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution. My Great Grandmother Kenyon was working in a cotton mill when she was 12 - a hard life.
3 June May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Being a Sunday, we had another quiet day, going ashore to the Slipway restaurant for a boozy lunch. The food was fabulous and they sell a very tasty IPA beer, which is brewed in a micro-brewery in Grenada. Unfortunately, it’s very strong (over 8%), so I slept the afternoon away...
4 June May 2018 Tyrell Bay to Prickly Bay, Grenada
After two weeks in the lovely Tyrell Bay, we pulled up our anchor and sailed down to Grenada. We elected to sail close by Diamond Rock and Ile Ronde, which is half way between Carriacou and the north coast of Grenada. It broke the journey up with some nice scenery, but the wind was very flukey as we passed in the lee of the steep sided islands and we had to start the engine several times.
We’d put out a couple of fishing lines and the lures were very attractive to some of the hundreds of Brown Boobies. We tried shouting at the birds, but they just kept on swooping down to try to snatch the lure out of the water. Unfortunately, one of the younger ones tried to dive into the water and became hooked, skipping along on the top of the water as we towed it along.
Glenys pulled in the other fishing line, while I reeled in the desperate bird. I lifted it on deck where it immediately started to snap at anything close with its vicious 3 inch beak. Glenys handed me a towel, which I threw over the bird’s head to calm it down. I was then able to unhook the lure from its wing and unwind the stainless steel leader which had wrapped around its neck.
Once free of the fishing gear, I unceremoniously dropped it into the water, after which it shook its head a few times and few off home. Hopefully, it’s now a bit wiser.
The sail down the leeward side of Grenada was pleasant, but with fluky winds. We rounded the south west tip of the island and had a gruelling 20 minute bash directly into 25 knots of wind and 1 metre seas. However we were soon entering Prickly Bay, dropping the anchor at 11°59.77N 061°45.76W in 10 metres of water.
The anchorage is not as crowded as I expected it to be, but there are plenty of boats huddled together on the east side of the harbour trying to keep out of the swell which hooks into the bay. We couldn’t be bothered to try to find a spot amongst the herd, so we anchored in the middle of the bay - it will be more rolly, but at least we’re in our own space
Our friends Paul and Monique arrived here a couple of days ago, having just finished their circumnavigation, so we went over for a few beers and ended up staying for dinner. It was great to catch up with them.
5 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
It was my 62nd birthday today, so we had a leisurely day. We caught a mini-bus into St Georges, had a wander about town. The place seems a bit tidier than it did six years ago, but they still have the very smart policemen directing traffic at the major junctions. We had a celebratory lunch of Chicken Roti at the lovely Nutmeg restaurant. It overlooks the Carenage and has a great view of the hustle and bustle of the port. We’ve been coming here for 25 years and it hasn’t changed much.
There were lots of long-line fishing boats tied up to the harbour wall and I had a chat to one of the fishermen. He told me that they put out 15 miles of fishing line, which has baited hooks that are suspended between buoys on the surface. The buoys have flags and lights and are normally deployed overnight, targeting Yellowfin Tuna. He told me that the line is 20 metres deep and it’s safe for us to pass over the line as long as we stay away from the buoys.
In evening, we went out with “Full Circle” for pizza at the marina restaurant.
6 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
It was uncomfortably rolly last night and we want to be somewhere calmer to get on with some jobs, so we went shopping for essential supplies - hardware and food. We walked to the Spice Island Mall, stopping off at Ace Hardware and two other hardware stores, where I was able to tick off a lot of things on my list - sandpaper, wire brushes, wood filler, etc. Glenys stocked up on meat and essentials and then we caught a mini-bus back to Prickly Bay.
Over lunch, we ran our water-maker and then motored into the steep waves around to Hog Island. I have fond memories of Hog Island, having spent many weeks there on our previous boat, Glencora. However, that was back in 1994 and the anchorage is now covered with moorings and scruffy, mostly abandoned boats - it’s horribly crowded. We motored around the anchorage, but couldn’t be bothered to try to squeeze in between the moorings and the wrecks.
We motored around to Mount Hartman Bay and found much the same sort of picture - too many moorings and unmanned boats. It’s a sad reflection of the many cruisers who congregate in Grenada and hardly sail their boats anywhere. We tried to anchor once and then decided that we didn’t like being surrounded by boats, especially as the wind swirls around in the anchorage.
So, we motored upwind into Woburn Bay and anchored off Calvigny Island at 12°00.05N 061°43.66W in 14 metres on good holding mud & sand. There are only three other boats in the anchorage and the nearest boat is 50 metres away - lovely. Calvigny Island looks very smart - it’s private and can be rented for the exclusive use of you and your friends for $165,000US/day. This includes accommodation for 50 people and is fully catered with top notch chefs.
7 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
The anchorage is in a gap between the island and the mainland and the wind really whistles through the channel, so we had a restless night. After breakfast, we upped anchor and moved further into the harbour to Benji Bay. Most of the bay is covered by moorings belonging to the small boat yard ashore, so we picked a spot just outside the mooring field at 12°00.32N 061°43.81W in 11 metres - it’s good holding and we’re much better protected from the howling wind.
We had a quiet day pottering about. I did some more genealogy and found to my horror that my ancestors on my mother’s father’s side come from the Yorkshire Dales. (I was born in Lancashire and the War of the Roses against the hated Yorkshire men is not easily forgotten - even though it occurred in 1455…)
8 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We pottered about in the morning getting the boat ready to start on some more maintenance. The front cabin has been converted back into a workshop ready to do some varnishing and I reviewed my to-do list, pushing back some jobs until we get to Trinidad in two weeks’ time.
In the afternoon, we went for a look around the harbour. There’s a small marina called Whisper Cove, which is owned by a French couple, who normally sell freshly baked bread and very good cuts of meat, but they’ve just closed for a holiday because it’s the low season.
We popped into Woburn where there’s a sturdy dinghy dock and we can get a mini-bus into St Georges. Woburn is a sleepy little village with goats wandering about, but there’s a rum bar called Nimrod’s and Taffy’s restaurant run by British couple who do a Sunday roast lunch with Yorkshire Pudding, so we might indulge this coming Sunday.
Over in the north-west corner of the bay, there now a huge boat yard called Clarkes Court Marina. It used to be a sleepy little boatyard, but four years ago they invested loads of money and it now houses hundreds of boats on the hard with a massive travel lift. We met Nils, who used run St David boatyard and he told us that they are massively oversubscribed and are busy extending their hard stand.
9 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We had a day of jobs. Glenys sanded down various removable fittings and then varnished them. I worked on the teak on the aft coach roof. We had most of the teak deck replaced in Thailand, but the aft coach roof is a low wear area, so it’s still the original deck with screws. Over the past three years, some of the teak plugs covering the screws had popped out, so I replaced them.
It’s a straightforward job. I removed the screws; deepened the holes; put the screws back in with a touch of sealant; and then knocked in some new teak plugs with some epoxy to hold them in place. There were only a dozen or so, but it still took a couple of hours. The rest of my day was spent on small jobs and helping Glenys with the varnishing.
10 June May 2018 Prickly Bay, Grenada
It’s a Sunday, so we had a relaxed day. In the morning, we finished off a few small jobs - putting on a second coat of varnish. We then went over to Taffy’s bar for a traditional English Sunday Lunch - Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire Pudding and lashings of gravy. All washed down with a few cold beers of course.
Later in the afternoon, we zipped over to Hog Island where we went for a walk before having another cold beer at Roger’s Bar. There was quite a gathering of tourists and yachties at the bar - Sunday is a regular event. Roger has been serving beer and food on the island for years - we first met him in 1993. He used to be a happy Rasta, but the joy has gone out of him and he’s now a jaded bar owner.
After our extensive lunch, we were feeling a little weary of drinking, so we sloped off before the band started - perhaps we’ll go back next week.
11 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
Glenys continued with her varnishing projects, while I had a look at our battery charger. In 2013, our friends Maury and Bonnie from “Smidge” gave us a new battery charger after ours stopped working. At the time, I just wired it in and left it loose on the floor of the cupboard underneath the chart table with the intention of installing it properly when I had time - five years later, it was still lying in the same position.
I checked the wiring, installed the temperature sensor and connected the remote control panel. I then bolted the unit to the bulk head under the chart table. Sounds like a simple job, but I had to disrupt the aft cabin to get at the batteries; I had to pull out all five drawers from under the chart table; and pull out a lot of my spares from behind the saloon seats. For a few hours, the saloon looked like a bomb had hit it while I sweated and cursed working in the cramped space under the chart table.
12 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
In the morning, we caught a mini-bus from Woburn and went into St Georges. We caught the bus going the wrong way so we had an interesting tour of the local area. It’s a very verdant country. We didn’t stay long in town, only visiting the vegetable shop, a supermarket and the fish market. We were back home by noon.
Glenys did some more varnishing, but I couldn’t motivate myself to do much, so I messed about trying to tint some wood filler. We have a few holes and dents in the wood work which need filling, but the standard colours of the fillers that I’ve bought don’t match our wood, which has an orangey hue. Earlier in the day, I’d bought some water based wood filler and a set of poster colour paints, so I tried to match to our wood.
It’s not easy because the filler dries to be a lighter colour and then changes tint when the varnish is put on. I drilled some holes in a scrap piece of varnished mahogany and filled them with my various tints. I’ll let the samples dry and varnish tomorrow.
In the evening, we went to Taffy’s Bar for English Fish & Chips and to listen to the cruisers doing an open mike session. The food and the music was great. I’m glad that I didn’t take along my guitar because I would have been terrified, trying to play after some of the very professional musicians.
13 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
Glenys carried on with varnishing and I tackled the port-side teak toe rail. There’s some dark staining on the teak around some of the wooden plugs, which cover stainless steel screws. Over a year ago, I worked on a similar problem on the starboard toe rail and found that the staining is caused by a fungal attack - mildew and a small amount of wood rot. I treated the rot and the staining has not returned, so it was time to do the port side.
I removed 22 of the affected plugs, dug out the small amount of black powdery rot that I could find and then flooded the holes & surrounding wood with Ethylene Glycol. I let it soak in for a few hours then soaked up the surplus. I’ll let it dry out over the next couple of days and then refit new teak plugs with epoxy.
14 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
No surprise, Glenys continued with the varnishing, it’s getting easier now because she’s done the initial sanding of the various fixtures and is now just doing the light inter-coat sanding and brushing on the varnish. I did a bit of varnishing of the cockpit shelves and then put the teak plugs into the toe rail.
I mixed up some West System marine epoxy in a small plastic cup, which was fairly runny, so that it could fill the small voids left where I’d removed the wood rot. Unfortunately, the wind was very strong and blew over the cup, spilling epoxy onto my lovely teak deck. By the time that I’d scraped it up and washed it down with Acetone, I had a large 2 foot long patch of epoxy-coated deck. It looks a mess, but I’ll have to wait until it hardens off before I can do anything.
15 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
After a bit more varnishing, I chiselled off the tops of the teak plugs on the toe rail and hand-sanded the teak smooth. I then brought out my orbital sander and tackled the epoxy that I spilled on the deck yesterday. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad a job - I sanded the area with 120 grit sandpaper and most of the epoxy came off. There’s still some in the course grain, but that will eventually come out as the deck wears.
We’re slowly ticking projects off our list. It’s only three weeks until we fly back to the UK and we’re trying to do as many jobs as possible before we fly out. That way, we’ll have less to do when we get back in October and we can get back to cruising more quickly. Having said that, our lives are very tedious at the moment and we’re looking forward to going home.
16 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
Glenys is nearing the end of the varnishing - she’s done the magazine racks, the washboards and the two cockpit shelves, plus a few smaller parts. We’re planning to sail to Trinidad in a few days, so we’re not starting any more projects. The boat is in chaos and we need to start tidying up.
After a spending a couple of days trying to tint the wood filler, I have to admit defeat. I’ve tried different amounts of white, black, red and yellow paint, but I’m unable to get the right colour to match our woodwork. I’ve decided that too much white makes the filler look muddy and it’s better if the filler is a little darker than the surrounding wood. My final conclusion is that I might as well use the wood filler in its original colour - ah well, at least I tried.
17 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
We finished off a bit of varnishing in the morning and then went to Taffy’s Bar for another boozy Sunday Lunch - we’re becoming regulars. It’s definitely time to move on…
18 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
There’s some kind of Tropical Wave passing over the area, so it rained last night and into the morning. Glenys did a few second coats of varnish and then chilled out for the rest of the day.
I went over to see Norm on “Ortizonti”, who is one of the good guitarists who plays in the open mike sessions at Taffy’s. We spent a couple of hours playing and chatting about guitar - Norm used to play blues lead guitar, but is now immersed playing jazz rhythm. I picked his brains about the blues and I’ve now got a better idea about ways to practise my blues rhythm and lead guitar. Back on Alba, I spent the afternoon messing about on the guitar and watching some YouTube blues lessons.
19 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
We’re planning on sailing to Trinidad on the night of the 21st, so we spent the day on-board finishing off the varnishing and tidying up the chaos after working on the boat for 1½ weeks.
In the evening, we went to the open mike session at Taffy’s. The performances weren’t as good as last week - with a couple of excruciating singers. Each person plays 4 or 5 songs, which is great when they’re good, but a lifetime when they’re bad. Norm was trying to persuade me to play, but I politely declined. I might have a go when we come back in November - I’m slightly encouraged that there are other awful singers.
20 June May 2018 Benji Bay, Grenada
We caught a mini-bus into St Georges and as always, it was an interesting trip. A lady got on-board with a cool box and a couple of big bags. Not a word was said to the driver, but he pulled off the main road and drove into a secondary school, where the lady was dropped off at her food stall next to the playground. Teenage school kids in their smart school uniforms were already waiting in a queue and helped her to carry the food. She obviously does this every day and all of the bus drivers know to take her to the school.
In town, we walked up to the fort, which is on a hill with a great view of St Georges. We’ve already been in the fort, so we didn’t bother to pay the $7EC (£1.70) to go inside, instead we just walked around the outside of the fortifications and then back down to town. On the way, up we passed a church with a sign asking for money for renovations. They’re not just asking to renovate a leaking roof, there’s only the church tower standing.
We had lunch in the restaurant above the United Grocers supermarket, which is next to the bus station. It’s a bit scruffy, but lots of locals eat there and it’s cheap - costing us $30EC (£7.50) for two huge meals including drinks. It’s a buffet style place, so you can select whatever meat and provisions that you want. They have a lovely airy balcony at the rear overlooking the sea.
Calling in at a couple of supermarkets, we stocked up on booze which is much cheaper than in Trinidad. We stepped onto a scruffy minibus at the bus station and had to struggle to the back seat with our shopping. Unfortunately, the seats were very small and we were crammed into the corner, while the driver shoe-horned a fourth, very drunk guy into the seat next to Glenys.
We then sat and sweated while the driver touted for more business – he was determined to fill his bus before he left. After 10 minutes, he only had one more person to find at which point Glenys started to shout that we were going to get off the bus, if he didn’t leave now. The other passengers started to grumble and reluctantly, he climber in and drove off.
It was hell for the first ten minutes, with the drunk guy falling asleep and leaning on Glenys. However, people were soon getting off and we were able to shuffle around to have more space. The drunk guy wouldn’t move (or was too pissed to be able to), so we squeezed past him to move forwards – they’re fun these buses.
21 June 2018 Grenada to Chaguaramus, Trinidad (Day 1)
It rained heavily early in the morning, which didn’t bode well for our night passage to Trinidad. There was a lull at 09:30, so I zipped around the corner to the customs and immigration office at Phare Blue marina. The marina has berths for about 40 boats, but it was very quiet with only 5 boats tied up.
There was a single customs lady in the office, who obviously had nothing to do, but she still kept me waiting for 10 minutes while she sorted out some personal crisis on the phone. Most of the officials in these Caribbean countries are surly and arrogant to the point of being rude. This lady displayed another common trait, which is to grow fingernails to an excessive length, I guess to show that they don’t do any physical labour.
The clearance process was very easy, the lady found my clearance record from when I cleared in; produced the clearance out; and printed four copies. I then had to wait fifteen minutes for the Immigration officer, who was out of the office, probably getting his second breakfast. Anyway, it was all completed within 45 minutes.
Back at the boat, we put the dinghy on deck and tidied up ready for sea. Glenys cooked a Cassoulet for dinner and we were all ready to go by lunch time. It’s 80 miles to the Bocas de Monas channel and a further 5 miles to the anchorage at Chaguaramus, so we reckoned with an average speed of 5 knots, it would take us 16 hours. We decided to leave a 16:00, which should get us to the channel at 08:00.
When we motored out of the bay, the wind was 15 -20 knots from the ESE as forecast, so we were expecting to be a little hard on the wind. Unfortunately, there was also a wicked 2 knot current pushing us west of the rhumb line, so to be able to hold our course over the ground, we were having to point 30 degrees higher than our required course.
We tried sailing hard on the wind, but the steep choppy waves were stopping us, slowing our boat speed down to below 2 knots at times, which allowed the current to push us further west. The only way that we could hold our course over the ground was to motor-sail with the wind at 30° - a very uncomfortable motion and frustrating when there’s reasonable wind strength.
Normally, we would have sailed as hard on the wind as we could manage and accept that we were being pushed west. Unfortunately, 10 miles to the west of the Bocas de Monas lies the Peninsula de Paria, which is part of Venezuela. Over the past 20 years, there have been many acts of piracy, violent robbery and even fatal shootings along the Venezuelan coast. We do not want to be going anywhere close to Venezuela.
To make matters worse, Venezuelans use fast pirogues to run drugs from the Peninsula de Paria along the north coast of Trinidad. A couple of years ago, there were four piracy attacks on yachts by armed men in fast pirogues. I’m guessing that these were opportunistic robberies, but we wanted to remain as far from Venezuela as possible.
It was a very frustrating night. We tried to sail, but on Glenys’s 10-1 watch, we were pushed 2 miles west in an hour, so it was back to motor-sailing. At times, we had 2 knots of current against us, reducing our speed over the ground to 3 knots. A few squalls hit us with a bit of rain, but there wasn’t much wind in them – maybe 25 knots, so we only had to slacken the main sheet rather than having to reef.
At 03:00, when we were 5 miles from the Hibiscus oil platform, the current finally slackened off and we were able to sail again, albeit hard on the wind. The wind and waves calmed down as we approached the coast of Trinidad and we had a good run until dawn.
22 June 2018 Grenada to Chaguaramus, Trinidad (Day 2)
At our 07:00 watch change, I pulled out the final reef from the main and we had a lovely sail for an hour. However, the wind died when we were 8 miles from the Bocas de Monas channel and we had to start the engine again. We motored through the narrow channel gazing up at the steep sided hills covered in jungle, while scored of pelicans circled above, riding the thermals looking for fish.
Around the corner, we passed the coast guard base and into Chaguaramus Bay. It’s a busy bustling place with a combination of boat yards that handle huge ships and small yachts. There are yachts anchored or moored in the corner of the bay, surrounded by large commercial ships.
It was 10:15 when we arrived, so we went straight to the Customs dock - the Customs and Immigration are notorious for charging overtime if you are clearing in during their lunch hour which starts at 12:00 precisely. The customs dock has not changed in 6 years - it’s a horrible concrete dock with a 12” thick platform, which is the only place you can fend off. There’s a steady stream of local boats going past the dock and the wash from them can easily pop out fenders, so I left Glenys on board and went to tackle the entry formalities.
Immigration was tedious because I had to fill out 6 forms, some of them in triplicate, using pieces of carbon paper. The lady was friendly, but the whole process took about 45 minutes even though I didn’t have to wait for anyone in front of me. The officer wanted to see Glenys, so I popped back to get her and she signed the relevant form. Customs was easy - just one form (in triplicate) and there was no one else in the office, so it took about 10 minutes. They only fee was $9US to customs.
Back at the boat, we called Coral Cove Marina and nipped across the narrow channel into our berth, which is alongside another horrible concrete dock, but we’re nicely held off by on the piles behind us.
After lunch, we had a kip and then went for a walk to familiarise ourselves with the boat yards and facilities. It’s not changed much in 6 years, so I know which businesses I’ll be using to do the various jobs on the boat. Unfortunately, there are no longer any ATM machines in Chaguaramus, so we’ll can only get some cash from the Malls or in Port of Spain - I managed to get the staff in the marina office to change $20US into Trinidad and Tobago dollars (TT).
With the vague possibility of being robbed by pirates on our way here, we took a few precautions and hid a few things away like the backup disks for my laptop and most of our cash. Glenys hid her credit cards away in the galley somewhere, but wouldn’t tell me where. Her logic was that I wouldn’t be able to blurt out where her stuff was if I was being tortured - I don’t know whether to be impressed or terrified.
23 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
It’s very hot during the day, so we went for a walk to the various boat yards looking for someone to rent us an air conditioning unit. Unfortunately, the only guy who had one wanted $150USD for a month and wouldn’t rent for a shorter time. Oh well, it quite cool at night, so we’ll only suffer during the day.
We caught a mini-bus in to Port of Spain, which was an interesting ride - Trinidad is much more modern than the other islands with many flashy billboards and businesses. We were successful in getting some cash from one of the banks and then bought a SIM card for our phone. We then went for a stroll around the town, which hasn’t changed much.
Charlotte Street is a bustling place with scores of vegetable stalls and small shops selling a plethora of goods. We strolled around taking in the colourful scene and then stopped to have a Double. These are one of my favourite street foods. They put two 4” diameter chapatis on a piece of grease-proof paper and then slap on a generous helping of chick-pea curry. It’s incredibly messy to eat, but the taste is divine.
We caught the bus back towards Chaguaramus and stopped off at a large shopping mall, but it was incredibly boring with the usual collection of shops selling clothes, shoes and jewellery - we could have been anywhere in the world. We grabbed a disappointing taco for lunch and ran away.
It was a blistering afternoon, so back at the boat, we hid down below with all the fans running to move the air about. In the evening, we went out for a meal at Power Boats, which was rubbish.
24 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Being a Sunday, everywhere is closed, so we spent the morning planning our coming week and doing a few preparation jobs. We pickled the water-maker; removed the jack stays and preventers; washed the dinghy cover ready to be repaired; filled up with water and sorted out the 220V supply to our boat.
After lunch, it was too hot to work on deck, so we lurked down below. Later in afternoon, it rained very hard, which gave some relief from the humid heat.
25 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
I was up early and started to tackle the jobs on my list, which mostly involved organising local tradesmen. I managed to catch Jonas from Trinidad Rigging on his way into work and he came to look at our boat as his first job. North Sails have always pointed at the bend in the mast and the main halyard tension as the reason for the bagginess in our main sail, so I wanted Jonas to check the rig before I bring in the North Sails Representative.
Jonas looked at the shape of the sail and then went up the mast to check the main furling at the top. He then did an inspection of the rig and checked the tension of the standing rigging. The verdict was that the rig is fairly well set up and the mast is a good shape without too much bend. He thinks that the main sail has too much draft and needs to be adjusted.
There are a few old toggles that he wants to replace and a disk which helps support the main sail extrusion has come loose inside the mast. I’ve got a few jobs for him to do, so he’s going to do the work while we’re in the UK - Jonas is one of the few people that I trust to do work while I’m away.
I went to see Mitch at West Coast Fabrications. Six years ago, he made our stern arch and did a cracking job. I only have a few small jobs for him this time, but he was pleased to see me. He’s going to make me a couple of small brackets in Stainless steel, for which he has quoted £35 instead of the £120 that a guy quoted in Grenada.
The rest of the day was a blur of running about trying to organise other vendors to come to look at jobs. I walked around to Peakes and confirmed the booking for the haul out on Monday 2 July.
26 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Kenwyn from Ullman Sails came to look at our sails. I had him look at the main sail and he came out with a bizarre statement saying that the main sail is designed to be fully out or completely rolled away. He claims that an in-mast main sail cannot be reefed. I’ve decided that I’m not going to allow him to touch my mainsail. However, I am happy for him to do the drudge work of some maintenance on the genoa and stay sail.
We took the sails across to his loft where he measured them up and inspected them. He says that the genoa still has some life in it, so he’s going to replace the sacrificial UV strip; repair a small tear and repair some damage to the luff tape. The stay-sail is in good condition apart from the sacrificial UV strip. It’s a long, tedious job to remove the old UV strip, so it’s going to cost us $9,800TT (£1,100) for both sails. (BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand.)
While we were coming across the South Atlantic, I attached a block to the end of the pole through which I ran the genoa sheet to prevent chafe. Unfortunately, the block was rubbing against the pole fitting and after many days, it wore away part of the cast aluminium and the latch mechanism fell apart. A new end fitting is a staggering £380, but fortunately, I managed to retain all the latch parts, so I took the spinnaker pole around to Mitch who is going to repair it with weld, which will only cost £25.
The North Sails representative in Trinidad is Dynamite Marine and Mark came to have a look at mainsail. He pulled out the sail, reefed it, adjusted the tension of the foot and the leech, messed about with the topping lift and the rod kicker, but eventually agreed that the sail is too baggy when reefed. He thinks that the leech is too tight and the draft in the sail is too far back. We’ll wait and see what North Sails in the USA have to say.
Glenys pottered about the boat all day. She’s cleaned dinghy which was looking very grubby and has started to wash the various ropes on the boat. A carpenter came by and is going to give us a quote for a new teak grating in the front heads; cutting some marine plywood for new cupboard doors; replacing a mahogany trim in the front heads and a couple of varnishing jobs.
27 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Together with some other cruisers, we went on a day trip organised by Jesse James who runs a local taxi firm. The trip was entitled “Taste of Trini”, the idea being to see some of the island and to sample the local food.
We’d only gone a mile before Jesse made his first stop at a small roadside eatery and bought a local breakfast of saltfish, aubergine and some Bake, which is local fried bread. This was dished out in small portions amongst the nine people and we ate sat in the mini-bus. This set the trend for the whole day with Jesse screeching to a halt to buy curries, rice, bread, roti, fried chicken; pulled pork; cow heel soup; savoury pies; jack fruit; mangoes; chennet; and sweet pastries.
Altogether we made 30 stops, sampling over 50 dishes. By the end of the day, we were stuffed and barely able to eat the home-made ice cream bought from a vendor on the streets of Port of Spain
Jesse also took us to some interesting places, travelling down the west coast of Trinidad all the way down to the south coast. He’s a mine of information and gave us a non-stop commentary of Trinidad life as we passed through the small towns. There’s a large Indian population in Trinidad and we saw a couple of Hindu temples. At the Temple by the Sea, we witnessed two traditional Hindu cremations which were taking place at the edge of the sea.
We saw evidence of Trinidad’s volcanic environment with a stop at some mud pools bubbling with volcanic gas - a group of locals were plunging into the thick mud and then creating a mud slide by pouring bucket s of thick slimy mud down the hill - we didn’t join in. Jesse also took us past the Pitch Lake, which is one of the largest natural deposits of asphalt in the world. The road that goes through the area sinks and lifts up as the ash felt moves about and the local houses are built on floating foundations.
It was a long day, but very interesting and we just made it home by 20:00.
28 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Kool Keate, the fridge man came to have a look at our fridge, which has had a tiny leak for months. I’d already found the location of the leak because I could see oil covering one of the joints in the copper pipework. Keate pressurised the system; confirmed that the leak was on the joint and then repaired it with silver solder. The repair took about 2 minutes, but it took 2 hours to do the whole job; vacuum out the system and re-charge it. Total cost $120USD.
It threw it down for most of the afternoon, so I pottered about, while Glenys commandeered the saloon while she sewed patches onto the dinghy cover. There’s a small resident cruising community here, who organise events such as Yoga and Mexican Train Dominoes. We joined some of them for a pot luck dinner at the Roti Hut in Power Boats.
29 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Our friend Mike from “El Lobo” came for a cup of tea and we caught up on the last six years. He’s now living ashore with a Trinidadian lady, but still keeps in touch with the yachting community by hosting the cruiser’s net one day a week. He does a bit of carpentry and has a side line in looking after people’s boats while they are away.
Mike goes to the boat once a week; checks the stands; greases the stands to stop insects climbing aboard; opens the hatches to air the boat and generally checks that everything is OK, especially keeping a look out for the dreaded mildew. He only charges $75USD per month, so we’ve agreed that he’ll look after our boat for the 3 months that we’re away, which is a great load off my mind.
We had another day of running around. A second carpenter came to give us a quote. We nipped across to Ullman Sails to pay $5,000TT (£560) deposit for the work on our sail. They’re in the middle of changing banks, so their credit card machine doesn’t work which meant that we had to pay cash and the nearest ATM is 8 miles away, which was a hassle.
Just before lunch, we motored over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel - it’s a good idea to have the fuel tanks full when on the hard to prevent water getting into the diesel from condensation. I’ve also added a big dose of diesel enzyme treatment which will absorb any water and prevent microbe growth in the fuel.
I received good news from North Sails. They have agreed that the mainsail needs adjusting and that they will do it free of charge. Of course, they don’t admit that the design of the sail was wrong, but instead say that they are “starting to believe the sail has stretched and become too full for good furling.” However, they are going to ship the sail to a North Sails loft and adjust it without any cost to me, which is a very good service considering that I’ve exceeded the normal warranty period of one year. We dropped the sail and put it in a bag. A guy from Dynamite Marine came around and picked up it 20 minutes later. Hopefully, it will be sorted out and back here for the first week of October.
We managed to tick quite a few things from our long list. Our cooking gas bottle was delivered to the boat having been filled; I picked up the spinnaker pole from Mitch and Glenys finished off the work on dinghy cover and started other little sewing jobs. We had a quiet night in and were in bed by nine o’clock.
30 June 2018 Chaguaramus, Trinidad
Glenys finished off all of her sewing projects, while I did some running around and a small repair one of the windlass foot switches. I then tackled the messy job of changing the oil on the engine and the generator - I don’t want to leave the corrosive dirty oil standing for 3 months.
In afternoon, I used a mixture of bleach, tri-sodium phosphate and a dash of washing up liquid to treat the teak deck to prevent mildew. I lightly sponged the mixture all over the deck, leaving it for 10 minutes and then hosing it off, but it took me a couple of hours of hard graft on my hands and knees.
We haul out on the 2nd July and we’ve now done most of the jobs on our list. Once we’re on the hard, we’re going to be staying in a hotel room for three nights, so we’re going to concentrate on some messy varnishing projects, which are hard to do while living on the boat.
There are more photos in our Photo Album section.