Monday, November 29, 2010

Still in Trinidad...sitting in the rain!

We were launched on Wednesday noon with a few difficulties that caused lots of stress. We unplugged the air conditioner, said goodbye to Internet, and the boatyard workers proceeded to get Cat Tales into the trailer to haul her to the boat lift at the dock. It started raining pretty hard and while the workers ran for their rain coats, of course, ours were onboard the boat and out of reach. No problem in the heat around here, there's no chance of freezing! As Cat Tales was transferred from the giant trailer to the straps of the travel lift, they told us that the tide was turning and we'd have to be careful of the turbulence in the slip while being lowered into the water. Once lowered, but still being held by ropes managed by the four handlers, Laurie started the engines. The starboard engine refused to spit cooling water out the pipe, and the handlers started yelling suggestions and encouragement. As we shut it down to check things out, the port engine quit. So stressful. We had jury-rigged water to both engines, and had run them both on the hard to ensure there were no problems. Even further to that, Laurie had taken all parts of the cooling systems apart and had replaced the pump impellers, so there was not an inkling of what could go wrong. Finally, Laurie decided that only higher rpms would get the water running, started the engine, and gunned it in nutral. Finally, water showed up in the starboard exhaust. A third effort on the port engine, and it began working properly. Our handlers threw the ropes at us, and we motored clear of the haul out, soaking wet and a little stressed. As we were approaching a mooring in the middle of the crowded bay, the port engine quit again. Then the starboard engine quit. With no jib bent onto the furling, and a high wind pushing us towards expensive yachts, our day was going horribly wrong. We managed to get one engine running again and headed out into the bay far away from other boats we might damage by hitting. Laurie went through his trouble-shooting for a half hour while we drifted, then discovered that the port engine fuel hose at the tank had a bad clamp and had to be replaced. He went through the bleeding process and the engine would start and run. No problems reappeared with the other. We then headed to the customs dock and informed them that we would be leaving the bay temporarily and would be over in a bay at Monos Island. It's close enough to hear the morning net on the marine radio, complete with their weather reports and it's far enough away from most of the crime.

So, here we sit on Friday evening at Monos Island where there are a few small cottages on the shore and the water is pea green with more garbage floating than you'd ever care to see! We haven't been brave enough to take a swim and more than likely won't bother before we get up to Grenada. The weather is still very rainy and squally with no hopes of letting up until next week some time. The amount of rain we have seen in the last few days is just simply more than we could believe, even after the outrageous flooding that occurred in New Brunswick a few short weeks ago. We can't even leave the boat, as there is no real shore to land on and a couple of nasty looking dogs protecting the cottages.

We have an appointment on Monday morning with Echo Tech who worked on our watermaker. It isn't performing as promised and is only making 8 gallons an hour instead of the 12 to 15 they promised. With the upgrade in motor for the device, we have to run our engines in order to make water, which is an unwelcome switch from the past. We wouldn't mind so much if the promised output was reached and we only had to make water every 4 days instead of every second day.

We have both picked out books and in between doing chores, we are reading and doing sudoku puzzles. It's a bit boring here with nobody to play with, but it's fairly safe.
Our plan is to try to get out of Trinidad sometime mid next week and hopefully will be traveling with Sue and Maurice from s/v Strider
We'll try to get this blog out in the morning by Ham Radio, which will renew my skills in that unpleasant task, so if you can read this, then I was successful!

Zanzibar

It is Monday morning. We got up early, and motored back to Chaguaramas from Monos Island to pick up some technicians to work on our watermaker. We think we have a solution for it, for Laurie to work on.

Presently, we're trying to get internet in a restaurant called Zanzibar, while it is pelting rain outside. This far south, "outside" means just off the veranda where our table is. The torrential rain is just on the other side of a textylene curtain. Our food includes a thick mahi mahi sandwich and buffalo fries.

We have a full day of chores, then we hope to escape the anchorage again and go back to Monos Island. We are stuck in this area for a while, as the channel to Grenada has high winds and two metre waves at 6 second intervals.

We don't know when we'll be connected again, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for a few days.
Dawn & Laurie

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Still in Trinidad in the pouring rain

We were launched on Wednesday noon with a few difficulties that caused lots of stress. We unplugged the air conditioner, said goodbye to Internet, and the boatyard workers proceeded to get Cat Tales into the trailer to haul her to the boat lift at the dock. It started raining pretty hard and while the workers ran for their rain coats, of course, ours were onboard the boat and out of reach. No problem in the heat around here, there's no chance of freezing! As Cat Tales was transferred from the giant trailer to the straps of the travel lift, they told us that the tide was turning and we'd have to be careful of the turbulence in the slip while being lowered into the water. Once lowered, but still being held by ropes managed by the four handlers, Laurie started the engines. The starboard engine refused to spit cooling water out the pipe, and the handlers started yelling suggestions and encouragement. As we shut it down to check things out, the port engine quit. So stressful. We had jury-rigged water to both engines, and had run them both on the hard to ensure there were no problems. Even further to that, Laurie had taken all parts of the cooling systems apart and had replaced the pump impellers, so there was not an inkling of what could go wrong. Finally, Laurie decided that only higher rpms would get the water running, started the engine, and gunned it in nutral. Finally, water showed up in the starboard exhaust. A third effort on the port engine, and it began working properly. Our handlers threw the ropes at us, and we motored clear of the haul out, soaking wet and a little stressed. As we were approaching a mooring in the middle of the crowded bay, the port engine quit again. Then the starboard engine quit. With no jib bent onto the furling, and a high wind pushing us towards expensive yachts, our day was going horribly wrong. We managed to get one engine running again and headed out into the bay far away from other boats we might damage by hitting. Laurie went through his trouble-shooting for a half hour while we drifted, then discovered that the port engine fuel hose at the tank had a bad clamp and had to be replaced. He went through the bleeding process and the engine would start and run. No problems reappeared with the other. We then headed to the customs dock and informed them that we would be leaving the bay temporarily and would be over in a bay at Monos Island. It's close enough to hear the morning net on the marine radio, complete with their weather reports and it's far enough away from most of the crime.

So, here we sit on Friday evening at Monos Island where there are a few small cottages on the shore and the water is pea green with more garbage floating than you'd ever care to see! We haven't been brave enough to take a swim and more than likely won't bother before we get up to Grenada. The weather is still very rainy and squally with no hopes of letting up until next week some time. The amount of rain we have seen in the last few days is just simply more than we could believe, even after the outrageous flooding that occurred in New Brunswick a few short weeks ago. We can't even leave the boat, as there is no real shore to land on and a couple of nasty looking dogs protecting the cottages.

We have an appointment on Monday morning with Echo Tech who worked on our watermaker. It isn't performing as promised and is only making 8 gallons an hour instead of the 12 to 15 they promised. With the upgrade in motor for the device, we have to run our engines in order to make water, which is an unwelcome switch from the past. We wouldn't mind so much if the promised output was reached and we only had to make water every 4 days instead of every second day.

We have both picked out books and in between doing chores, we are reading and doing sudoku puzzles. It's a bit boring here with nobody to play with, but it's fairly safe.
Our plan is to try to get out of Trinidad sometime mid next week and hopefully will be traveling with Sue and Maurice from s/v Strider
We'll try to get this blog out in the morning by Ham Radio, which will renew my skills in that unpleasant task, so if you can read this, then I was successful!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

launch day tomorrow

I thought I'd better write before all goes crazy today and tomorrow as we finish up chores here in the boatyard. There is a good chance that once we're put into the water, my Internet connection will go with it and we'll be out of touch for a few days.

We checked the weather this morning and it looks like there's a bit of a system going through, so we may not be able to sail to Grenada for a few days. Unfortunately, out here in Chaguaramas Bay, there have been many thefts of outboard engines during the night, so we'll be forced to put our engine below by our pillows as we sleep, otherwise, we'll be adding to the numbers!

Our friends on the boat Strider aren't ready to be launched yet, Mike Campbell from Loreley just got pulled out of the water minutes ago so he can replace the bottom paint. He lives onboard year-round, so he has a slightly different timetable than those of us who go home during the hurricane season.

The other day, we went out for dinner with Maurice and Sue (Strider) and Mike Campbell, and another Mike from a trawler called Flying Buzzard who is from Vancouver. Mike and Mike had come across a huge feed of shrimp they got from some fishermen in exchange for some economical beer they had obtained in Grenad. They delivered the shrimp to the restaurant for our dinner and had them cooked up beautifully. The restaurant only charged for drinks!

In the morning, we went out in the bay for a tour of the trawler, Flying Buzzard...what a sizeable boat! I haven't seen his website, but apparently it tells the story of how he ended up with a working boat. He buys and sells fuel throughout the islands and has 4 people working for him, so it's quite a story! We hope to run into Mike again, and this time meet his wife Julie who is back in Canada visiting family.

All for now. I can't wait to get to Grenada and go for a swim. Yesterday, the temperature inside the boat was 36 with the air conditioning on. Tomorrow, while out in the bay there will be NO such air conditioner!

All for now. We hope to post some pictures soon when our lives become a little more interesting!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

sweatin' it out in Trini

Lots has happened since we posted last, but I'm not too sure that you'll find this stuff too interesting!

Laurie has been hanging upside down in the engine rooms for a day and a half now, with limited success. At the end of the day, after starting one engine (connected to a water hose to simulate being in the water), he received the good news that it was spitting out cooling water and running fine. However, the second engine gave us no such joy and he's hanging upside down in the engine room once again this morning. I try not to take in all the details as this is clearly a 'blue' job, not a 'pink' one! Yesterday, he sweat so much that only after drinking water steady for a few hours did he finally recover.

Yesterday morning, I took advantage of the Members Only taxi service, where in spite of the name, all boaters are welcome! The outing was a grocery shopping expedition, where you meet at the gate of your marina and get picked up, delivered to a grocery store, given 1 1/2 hours of shopping and then returned to your marina/boatyard, all for $30.00 TT which is around 5 dollars. All was going well for me and my cart was fuller than all the others in the group. I intended this to be our only provisioning before heading up the island chain and I knew that most prices would be better than I could expect elsewhere. I had my order all checked through and all bagged only to find that neither of my credit cards would work! The total was around 2500.00 TT, which is around $450.00, which included wine, beer and rum, and of course some food. We had failed to let CIBC know that we were leaving the country and we were SHUT DOWN! We always do this, but somehow it was overlooked this time. Probably, a 'pink' job! I only had 2 dollars on my cell phone and knew I'd be cut off from CIBC half way through a call to them, so I convinced the check out girl to hand over her cell phone. All the other women were outside by now and the vans loaded up waiting for me. Well, anyone who knows me can imagine what state I was in; almost to the point of not being able to press the digits for the phone. Anyway, long story short (oh yeah, it's too late for that!), I talked to a couple of people from CIBC, got the problem all sorted out and I headed out to the vans. The drivers had to rearrange everyone to get all my stuff in! Everyone was very understanding, so the job got done. It felt like the temperature went from 35 degrees to 40 over the last half hour there. Oh, I forgot to mention that the sales clerk came running out to tell me that the phone call wasn't toll free afterall and I owed her $13.00 TT - I gladly gave her a 20.00, which is around 4 dollars and once again apologized.

When I returned to the boat, it took over an hour to find homes for all the things I bought and I was forced to crawl over tools, engine parts and the like to come and go with the goods!

My afternoon was spent outside with the hose and a brush trying to get all the green and black slimy mold out of the rub rail cracks and anywhere else it decided to grow. Any rope left outside to touch the deck was black and fuzzy. In the middle of the work we had a tremendous rain storm which suited me just fine!

Today, I will wash the rest of the boat with a soft brush on a pole by standing on the ground. Yesterday, I worked topside. When we left the boat in May, we were convinced by a couple of locals who were looking for a quick buck, to have them wash and wax the boat and leave the wax on over the summer months. I was a bit skeptical about this, but I've seen many boats left with the wax covering them. The boat looked horrible when we returned, but now as I soap it up and give it a light wash with the soft brush or cloth, I am convinced! All the crud comes right off, leaving it shiny as can be. We're so glad we took their advice. It took them one full day with 2 guys, so we're on the other end of it and it's cleaning up like a dream.

All for now...it's 30 degrees inside with the air conditioner slaving away and it's time to get to work!

Cheers,
Dawn (and Laurie)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

we have arrived safely in Trinidad

Hi everyone.

Just a short note to let you know that we left Toronto last night on time at 10:30 in the middle of a huge rain storm. We arrived in Trinidad this morning at 5:10, and made it through customs without a hitch, which is a miracle in itself! Blugh, a worker and friend from the boatyard here at Peake's picked us up and drove us to the boat. We had never driven that route in rush hour traffic before and we were blown away by the slowness and aggression of the drivers. We made it here in 2 hours, which should have been a half hour, to find the boat in great shape, although filthy dirty and the tarps in tatters! We have been totally tired out today, since we only cat napped over night, but a couple cups of dark and dirty coffee early this morning set us to work and we're just about ready to call it quits for the day. We managed to get ourselves to the customs office here in the bay, which is expected of us, over and above the customs at the airport. Laurie scrubbed the scuss off the boat while I unloaded all the bags of the hundreds of tid bits purchased and collected over the past 6 months at home. Laurie is filling all 6 batteries with distilled water and he's about to fill the water tanks with water from the hose. We also picked up a handful of groceries and have beer on to chill for this evening...so all is looking great here at this end at this point in the day!

We met up with Sue and Mark from the boat Strider, who we thought would have headed to Grenada by now. We'll have dinner with them tomorrow night and discuss next week's exit from Trinidad heading for Grenada. While writing this entry, I was called outside to meet up with an old friend Mike Campbell who has sailed these waters for the past 30 odd years with his dogs and cat. We have been friends with Mike since we arrived in the Caribbean in 2004. Feels like old home week here!

We'll sleep well tonight and will keep you up to date as we live the life here in the boatyard and beyond!

Thanks again Lorna and Brian and Valerie for entertaining us for the past 4 days in London Ontario before we set off for the winter. Love to you all,

Dawn (and Laurie)