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.