November 2012

November

Thurs 1^st

Pick up stop cable. Sewing machine should arrive tomorrow. Miss Molly drive by to say they are off to Tobago,hope to see them there. We pull out all our cupboards to fit the stop cable.

Fri 2^nd

Pick up sewing machine, it is a monster. Sailrite LSZ-1; check it out. It can sew through 10 layers of canvas! And weighs a ton.

Sat 3^rd

Spend most of the day assembling the sewing machine and watching the 2 ½ hour video that comes with it. This is needed as shows how to put it together and use it. A second gig with Stan and Cora this time at the Oasis bar in Clarkes Court Bay. Pot luck dinner; you each bring a dish and something to barbecue.

Sun 4^th

One of the local divers, Kirt, is in hospital in St Lucia with the the bends. One other guy died from bends injuries. Today there is a fish and lobster lunch put on by the fishermen and divers all proceeds to go to Kirt's medical fund. It is extremely well attended by locals and cruisers alike.

Mon 5^th

Final bottom clean, customs and immigration check out, fill with water and leave at 17:00 for Trinidad. There are several flashes of lightning during the night, which is always a worry, but none get too close. We see bright lights in the distance and pass three gas rigs only two of which were charted. There were only about ten vessels crossing our path, throughout the night, travelling along the Venezuelan coast. The quarter moon rises about midnight to help visibility through the second half of the night.

Tue 6^th

Overnight sail and motor. The water around Trinidad is brown. We were told to expect rubbish in the water and strong currents through the “Bocas”. There is rubbish, but not that much; and there was only about ½ knot current against us travelling through the first Boca de Monos. We arrive on the customs dock in Chaguaramas Trinidad at 08:02 two minutes after the overtime rate stopped! And a saving of US$50. Back on the boat for a long sleep.

Wed 7^th

Visit Echotec to order and pay for our watermaker then head out to Port of Spain to pay for our US visas. The town is really clean and rubbish free. After reports we have heard this is a big surprise. When we get back to Chaguaramas we dinghy round to find a cash-point and a bar. There are several bars but none are busy. We cannot find any happy hours and between one and three people in each bar. We ask around and everyone says the same.

Thurs 8^th

We have invited Lateral Thinking, Brian and Catherine for supper but have to cancel because weather is so bad. Rain chucking it down and heat and humidity high, and we don't want to spend an evening inside. They have a Fountaine Pajot the next size up from ours and have spent a long time making improvements.

Fri 9^th

Roti for lunch at Power Boats. You turn up and queue sitting down until they have finished cooking, then all stand up and queue again to collect your food. We finally get to invite Brian and Catherine back, it is several months since they barbecued an excellent stake for us in St Lucia. Rick has produced another video of the bays where we anchor south of Grenada island. At the start on the left is Michael, one of our best cricketers. “Lucky” the parrot is also on board.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD6Vtlk8XZA&feature=em-unknown&list=TL83XureDI57g

Sat 10^th

Up at 5:30 to get the bus to the market, clothes fruit veg, meat, poultry and fish. The biggest market I have ever visited with a fantastic selection. King prawns fresh at £3 per pound. One stall has about 50 small sharks another massive dorado, yet another is carving up a huge tuna. Butchers have pigs head, a bullocks head and all manner of other cuts. We are still looking for soursop juice and passion fruit syrup but can only find soursop fruit. Driver returns with live chicks. We go for an arranged walk though the bamboo cathedral and up to an old radar station, then to the beach for a swim. The Orinoco chucks out loads of mud so water is all a bit murky.

Sun 11^th

Peel the soursop and squeeze the fruit by hand. This produces about 200cc of thin juice; overnight this thickens and can be used as a juice concentrate. A wonderful grown up flavour with a slightly bitter finish.

Mon 12^th

Miss Molly arrive and later invite us for drinks. I spend about 4 hours working on Brian's Big Boy! This is a WiFi booster that is not getting a signal. After various diagnostics it appears the band width of the various providers is such that all signals keep dropping out. As a result of this “work” Brian offers to rebuild our engine covers as he is a carpenter.

Tue 13^th

Divali is a bank holiday in Trinidad and Tobago so all day spent on the yacht fixing and planning. 7pm there is a jam at Coral Cove. John from Out of Africa hosts it Phil from Miss Molly, Terry from Liberty, Samuel and Corinne, a French couple from Ercolousa all on guitars and Rob from Marie Elise, who played a brilliant trumpet. The best jam for ages as we had a variety of music including some Buena Vista with trumpet solos. We all bring our own booze as there is no bar.

Wed 14^th

A hike around chandlers and hardware stores looking for marine ply, 2x2 and 4x2 for our engine covers, plus some LED light strips. Electronic position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) and satellite phone. As a result of hearing about Windigo our friends Steve and Tania we have decided to take safety more seriously. They were recently rescued by the New Zealand services after their 12 metre boat was turned upside down in 20 metre waves. The Pacific cyclone season came a month early this year.

Thur 15^th

Haul out at 8:00 am. Busy day filling out paperwork and tracking down service providers.

Fri 16^th

Call Echotec the watermaker manufacturers and book fitting for Monday. Brian tracks down the wood required for our engine bays.

Sat 17^th

Brian arrives to repay my (failed) attempt to improve his wifi; He puts in 1 ½ days work and enlarges one engine bay and repairs the other. And fits a sewing table for our new machine.

Sun 18^th

Brian completes wood work and we begin tidying up and preparing for the electricians tomorrow. Pulling cupboards out, emptying under seat lockers and lifting floor panels. We will be in a mess again for a couple of weeks.

Mon 19^th

Watermaker engineer and Electrician both turn up to start work; both perform a “survey” that requires teeth sucking end further expertise to be brought in. Electrician requires a different electrician to provide power to units being wired in. Second electrician provides a survey and will get back with a quote. Quote arrives later, I accept at once – work can start tomorrow.

Tue 20^th

We have an appointment at the US embassy to apply for our US visas. 7:00 taxi we arrive at the embassy 7:55 in time for our 8:00 appointment. There are about 50 people in the queue outside the embassy for their 7:30 appointment and another 50 in the 8:00 queue. We get in to the embassy about 9:00, register and are finally the second to last to be interviewed at about 11:30. interview last 45 seconds, visa approved, pay for it to be delivered and collect it later. Too late to get any engineers on the boat so go shopping. Tonight is a special food night “sucking pig” we presume this is suckling pig and have booked. Pig is a metre long! Presumably not still suckling.

Wed 21^st

Watermaker work started Radio fitting stalled as wires will be too long, second electrician called in again. Further survey, will get back with a quote, it arrives later we need an extra battery, I accept immediately; work can start tomorrow. At 2:30 get a call from US embassy, visas are ready for collection, before 3:30 – impossible to do today, they are closed tomorrow so will come Friday.

Thur 22^nd

Thanksgiving – whatever that is! Most workmen have an excuse to take the day off. Also religious holiday for seventh day adventists. Watermaker engineer turns up at 11:00 then goes for lunch. Comes back fits primer pump exactly where I would crouch to service engine and so has to move it.

Fri 23^rd

Trudy collects our US visas from the embassy. Electricians and watermaker staff all arrive by midday and the boat is a shambles with people crawling all over. Winch is dismantled for servicing and is found to b a total write off. The casing has turned to powder to such an extent that a stud has dropped out, the motor housing is brown rust with the windings showing through. So its off to the chandlers for another large bill. I buy a larger winch that needs the deck to be filled and re-drilled; also wiring is not up to scratch so bill gets even bigger.

Sat 24^th

Pull all flooring out again as we need to run a small pipe from the watermaker to the tank. Also our “KISS counterpoise radial system” (a kind of earth for the short wave radio) needs to be hidden under the floor. We book tickets for the cinema on Monday. I am surprised to discover that, being over 55, I get senior citizen's discount! Saturday evening is Shark and Bake night at the “Wheelhouse” and we meet up with Steve and Jodie from “Blue Pelican”, a couple of Aussies who we first met at the cricket in Grenada.

Sun 25^th

Bilge cleaning. We have some sound proofing in the engine bays that is falling apart with age. So it all needs to be removed and replaced. The trouble is that it is partially fibre, filled with diesel and is very irritating. You spend an hour in the bilge and come up black and itching all over.

Mon 26^th

Engineers all arrive between 9 and 10 and by the end of the day we have a watermaker that should work.

Tue 27^th

More boat fixing, nearing completion

Wed 28^th

Swordfish, Ribs and parang night at the wheelhouse. Parang and Parang Soca are types of Christmas music. Lyrics are usually about drink, mostly rum and or food, mostly pork. These being the most important aspects of Christmas.

Thur 29^th

We take a trip to the Asa Wright nature centre. This is a large area of land that was given away in a will provided it remained a nature sanctuary. We see a huge selection of humming birds, 11 species in all. We miss out the scorpions and snakes but see several large lizards and a couple of agouti, a large hamster type thing. The interesting thing was that certain creatures habit specific areas of the rain forest. They are not spread all over; so you need to walk to specific locations to view individual species. This is followed by a visit to the Coroni swamp where we see the roosting of the red ibis and several types of egret. Quite a spectacular splash of colour. We also see a bird that looks like a log and a couple of brown tree boas. Apparently Trinidadians celebrate 100 days of Christmas ending 6^th January, then follow this up with two months of carnival. Celebrating means eating and drinking each other out of house and home. For almost half the year!

Fri 30^th

The electricians turned up yesterday, even though we told them we were out all day. Can't come today so remaining work will not be completed until Monday. Echotec tell us they need to go out on the boat to commission the watermaker and won't deliver filters until we go into the water, so that will hold us up another few days as well. Last day of November and we go to the annual Christmas cook-out. This is type of street party with stalls selling food and drink. We win two prizes in the raffle, a taxi ride to the airport which auctioned for £15 and two ferry tickets to Tobago which we will try and use.

October 2012

October

Mon 1^st

Piereve runs the yoga practice first thing in secret harbour. He and his wife Miray have retired and live on Umido. He has studied kendo, judo, karate, tai chi and yoga. The French don't do cricket at school but martial arts are an option.

Tue 2^nd

I won $100 by drinking Carib but had to take the bottle top to the brewery to collect the award. Tough job.

Wed 3^rd

Best book swap at IWW then guitar practice.

Thur 4^th

Yoga first thing then boat fixing. Our decompression lever has corroded and will not stop the port engine. Not as bad as it sounds, its just inconvenient to have to dive into the hot engine bay and reach down a metre to move the decompresser when we stop.

Fri 5^th

The boules tournament is cancelled so we take the dinghy ashore to give it a scrub underneath. A new top tip, turn it over and let it dry, cover with bleach and let it dry, done. It seems to work so far. Not sure what the fish think. Piereve and Miray teach us Tai Chi on the beach for about an hour first Tai Chi in years and Trudy's first try ever. All good stuff.

Sat 6^th

We go to our second ever Hash House Harriers Hash. We remember why we didn't enjoy it last time. It only lasted a bit more than an hour and a half but we slither about in mud, in and out of streams up and down 45 degree and steeper inclines getting scratched and bruised, just avoiding broken limbs. We discover red ants about 1.5 cms long and get bitten by some so small you can hardly see them. This is followed by an “oil down” (local dish) and a few beers. There is a great following out here among many locals and cruisers and up to 250 hashers do this every week sometimes up to 500. Actually it doesn't sound that bad; perhaps we will go again next year!

Sun 7^th

Peter Bonta from yacht “Too Much Fun” arrived at the jam session and standards rose again.

Mon 8^th

Yoga with Piereeve.

Tue 9^th

Meray and Piereve show us more Tai Chi moves on the beach.

Wed 10^th

We weather watch Invest 98L that is destined to become storm Raphael.

Thur 11^th

Yoga again. More storm watching. Every 2 to three hours we pick up another weather forecast. It seems to be heading straight for us but at last minute heads north towards St Lucia.

Fri 12^th

Start the day with Tai Chi, and. Collect some parts from Island water world and budget marine; Sherri calls to say she will drop some more stuff off at the local bar. We go to cricket, Trudy plays for the first time in her life, we are on opposite sides, it is the same for all couples....she scores as many runs as me....duck....Its the closest match yet. With an equal number of West Indians on each side! Complete with barracking.

Sat 13^th

Storm Raphael passes north but leaves us with a large swell. Too roly and windy to get off the boat. Fitted new fridge pump, a smaller one using less than half the amps of the old one.

Sun 14^th

Jam session again. Rajun Cajun Tony turns up and starts telling everyone off! We have a miserable time and moan into our beer. Many decide they are not coming back.

Mon 15^th

Liming

Tue 16^th

Tai Chi, shopping and a move into the next bay, Clarkes Court, Flat calm; lovely. We discover the windex is not working.

Wed 17^th

We find out our water maker has not been ordered and we need to order and collect it in Trinidad. Good job we were going there.

Thur 18^th

Pick up all remaining parts for out SSB radio kit. All we need to do now is install it; and pass the exam in the UK!

Fri 19^th

Trudy uses our old fridge pump to replace the deck cleaning pump. We get great water pressure for deck cleaning.

Sat 20^th

HHH 750^th Grenada hash in La Sargese, a beautiful beach resort and beers after a two hour walk in the hills. Back to Oasis bar to listen to live sax and trumpet from Gforce.

Sun 21^st

Trudy jerry rigs a stop cable, a bit Heath Robinson but it works.

Mon 22^nd

Our windex is still stuck so there are now two reasons to go up the mast, fix the windex and change the anchor light bulb for an LED that uses a 10^th of the power. Trudy hauls me up on two halyards and I discover the led will not work as the polarity is wrong and the fitting is an off set bayonet. I decide not to bodge it but reverse the polarity below deck instead.

Tue 23^rd

Of to IWW chandlers. The barometer that we bought to use forecasting storms has remained on 1011 millibars for over a month. We are convinced it does not work so exchange it for a more expensive version. As we travel by bus over the hills it changes continuously without tapping, perhaps we now have a good one.

Wed 24^th

All morning spent tracking down a 30' cable to activate the port decompresser and stop the engine. It is now on order and should be with us in 5 days....

Afternoon is spent removing every seat from the saloon and emptying all the under seat lockers in order to track down the junction box for the mast head lights. Polarity changed for the anchor light, Job finally completed, all lockers re filled, so just need to go up the mast again. We need to wait for the winds and waves to subside.

Thur 25^th

Grenada public holiday. Bruce from Serenity comes on board to swap some guitar riffs. Cooking class teaches us how to male plantain in a ginger and orange sauce; they also provide some mahi mahi in passion fruit sauce, calalou au gratin followed by soursop ice cream. All for £3. brilliant. Omega and Ester, the two girls that run the class will be videoed for a British television company on Saturday so you may get to see them on the box. Apparently they are having to use cocoa and nutmeg, two ingredients that come from Grenada. Back to the boat for a sundowner with Serenity and Secret Smile.

Fri 26^th

Grenada day off after public holiday! Tai chi first thing then shopping bus. No cricket this Friday as we are having a Halloween cricket party instead.

Sat 27^th

Trudy goes shopping for Halloween costumes, I practice with guitar. Stan and Cora play keyboard and sax at the local marina bar. The are with two guitarists and one is heading north, Do I want to play with them at Roger's beach bar on Tuesday? YES PLEASE!

Sun 28^th

Trudy spends hours filling in online visa application, Jam session at whisper cove.

Mon 29^th

No stop cable.

Tue 30^th

First thing tai chi, then customs to renew our visas. We are told we need to go to Immigration in town, rumour has it that this will take all day. Bus in, a mile walk, arrive in immigration, queue, register, wait, sent to treasury, queue, back to immigration queue to hand in receipt, wait, 1/2 mile walk as bus reverses to pick us up, back to marina to collect boxes of wine. My turn to spend hours on US visa application. We get to Roger's beach bar at about five and after problems with generators extension cables and adapters I end up playing on battery power. It goes well and I am invited back to play next Saturday. A dream come true.

Wed 31^st

Trudy climbs he mast to change our anchor light from a 3watt halogen to a 0.3 watt led. Then off to Miss Molly to see Phill and Monica. We need all to upload portrait pictures to the US web site to obtain US visas. We will apply for them in Trinidad. Then off to fancy dress cricket. Double runs if you wear a hat! Then a 20^th wedding anniversary party at de big fish with Barracuda and Ilfie doing an acoustic set, back to the Oasis bar for Kung Fu, an amazing 60 plus drummer, making quite a busy day! No stop cable no sewing machine.