Limbering up

Posted on July 31, 2009 by steve

Yesterday morning I decided to remeasure everything and get my plans straight in my mind in terms of what I need to do with the batteries. I discovered, much to my regret, that the house bank battery boxes are tapered top to bottom. While the top of the battery boxes are big enough to fit four Trojans, the bottom certainly isn’t. Double checking the drive bank I was able to confirm the cases were ok. This meant I’d have to find boxes for the house bank or, most likely, build them.

On the off chance I could find boxes I lowered the dinghy to go ashore. Then it started raining again. Another real downpour. That pinned us aboard so we waited it out and had lunch. In the meantime we discovered a small leak in the hatch above our bed so we made plans to fix that too.

Once the rain had subsided I went back ashore to look for boxes and other items. As suspected, I could find no boxes but I did manage to get a dive tank holder, a breaker which I’ve been looking for since Martinique, a new hydrometer for testing battery acid and a decent pair of cutters for cutting hooks (remember the sea gull?).

Back on the boat I was just preparing to install the dive tank holder when the phone rang. I was informed that the batteries were ashore and I needed to bring in some paperwork. So off I went with our customs papers to be copied. I was asked to come back around 4pm when the customs inspection should be complete. I returned a little after and had to wait a while. The prospect of lugging all those batteries by dinghy didn’t appeal to anyone so we agreed to keep them on the truck and move them over to Peaks dockyard where we could temporarily dock.

That we did and with the help of a couple of guys we loaded the 36 batteries and 7 gallons of paint/primer onto Dignity. Not easy work. The batteries were places roughly one third in each hull and one third in the cabin. The effect on the water line is obvious as we’re now dipping at the front. We need to lighten up.

As soon as we could we were back on a mooring, showered and ashore at Sails bar/restaurant where we had agreed to meet Ann and Alan from Freya of Clyde who we learned are here in Trinidad for the summer. We had dinner and beers together and they, being regular summer guests here in Trini, were able to share much info about the island with us. We won’t be able to use it all as we’re heading back to Grenada next week for the Carnival. Still it was nice meeting up with friends from earlier in the season and catch up.

This morning we both ache a little from yesterdays activities. We’ll ache some more tomorrow because today we start swapping batteries. I am focusing first on the port set of drive batteries. Once we have the new batteries in place I can measure up and take all the old cables and have them cut to new lengths and new lugs put on the ends. With them in place I can then take the cables off the second set of drive batteries and hopefully have them cut and prepared today too. If there’s time.

I’ve had some thoughts about what to do with the house bank but the final, proper job will probably get done in Grenada where we have more time. That will also allow us to enjoy Trinidad a little during our brief stay.

So right now we’re limbering up mentally and physically for a strenuous day. Once the coffee is down, it’s off to work we go.

Posted in Freya of Clyde, Trinidad | Leave a comment

Batteries Aboard

Posted on July 30, 2009 by steve

Boat still floats.

Off for a beer.

Posted in Trinidad | Leave a comment

Wet, wet, wet

Posted on July 30, 2009 by steve

We were told it would be hot and dry down here in Trinidad at this time of year. We’re not seeing that.

Yesterday our ‘mission’ was to tour the Chaguaramas area and look at all the stores and services finding the best places to buy the things on our list. We left around 9am and chained the Dinghy up at the Tropical dock. We made it as far as the local Budget Marine before the heavens open for the first time during daylight. We waited in the store until the rain lessened and made our way back to the dinghy – the paths we had come along were now ankle deep in water.

We abandoned the plan to visit everything in the morning and headed back to the boat to dry off and have lunch. In the afternoon we dinghied over to Crewsinn to look at the shops and services there and then over to the Power Boats marina dock and to complete our exploration.

We did a lot of wandering through boat yards looking at the boats on the hard for the summer. We saw a few we recognised including a couple already mentioned in this blog. Marcia – if you’re still reading, Mimi looks fine.

It rained some more while we were walking around but we managed to get back to Dignity before it really poured again, this time almost half filling the dinghy.

We did receive notification in the morning that our batteries and paint had been unloaded which seemed odd as the ship was supposed to arrive on Wednesday. We later learned there had been a miscommunication. Our goods were on the boat and it arrived normally so we should see them either Thursday evening or, more likely, some time Friday.

We did acquire a couple of items. We bought a new security chain for the Dinghy and some waterproof grease for the shaft seals. We finished off Wednesday evening with a visit to Joe’s pizza. The food was delicious including the best garlic bread I’ve tasted in a long time.

We’ve now had two good nights sleep. I need to reset my clock a little as I’m now falling asleep too early and waking up even earlier than normal.

Today, we are considering taking the local bus to the nearby malls and, maybe, into Port of Spain.

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Arrived in Chaguaramas, Trinidad

Posted on July 28, 2009 by steve

We left as planned at 9pm last night. It was a bit disconcerting leaving in the pitch dark. Even though we had our route out plotted it was something else following it out trusting our planning not to put us on a reef. We came quite close to a green marker buoy we didn’t realize was there but that was about the worst of it in the end.

We soon settled into our nights sailing. We decided on three hour shifts and Helen, feeling quite tired, had the first sleep from 9:30 to 12:30 while I was on watch. No events occurred during my watch. The boat was sailing around 6 knots getting up to 7 at times. We were regenerating which meant we were making enough power to run the autopilot, the radar, the nav lights and the water maker and have a little to spare.

At 12:30 we switched places so I could get my needed rest. Didn’t get much of one. On a couple of occasions Helen had a bit of a relationship moment with the autopilot sending us way off course and waking me with the sails luffing. She also woke me for good reason when we were within a couple of miles of a tanker. At night everything looks bigger and nearer than it really is. But it was a good call to get a second opinion on things. Using the radar and AIS I felt reasonably confident he was overtaking us but I called the watch officer on ch 16 to make sure they could see us. He agreed we would pass their stern which we did.

Despite Helen’s efforts to get us closer to Belize we did manage to pass east of the gas platform Hibiscus. With decreasing wind and the effects of current and regeneration we didn’t pass Hibiscus until dawn. Later than we planned but it did allow me to snap a picture.

With the sun rising and the need to run the radar and running lights behind us I turned off the instruments and the regen allowing the house bank to be kept topped up by solar. We really needed this help as the winds died down to about 10 knots and we spent a couple of hours making only 3-4 knots across the ground. Whenever I felt it was time to cave in and turn on the genset the wind would pick up a little so we ended up sailing all the way to the channel at the north end of Trinidad. Incidentally, I also put out two lures at dawn to catch the hungry fish in their breakfast frenzy. You can count the number of fish we caught on the fingers on my right elbow.

We did turn on the generator as we entered Bocos Monas, the channel between Monas Island and the mainland. The water was pretty turbulent and the steep to cliffs of Trinidad threatened to cut off the wind. Which they did. This gave us the opportunity to bring down the sails before we exited the channel.

Chaguaramas has an industrial history and while much of it has been converted to boat yards, the industrial legacy is still prevalent. It sits in a national park which is very pretty but at the waters edge you get a shocking contrast. Wharves, warehouses, marinas, many, many moored/anchored yachts and ships. The area is rich in terms of marine stores and (we understand) cheap places to go and eat decent food. We’ll try all that out another day.

Today we had to check in. This involved tying up to the customs dock and making our way to immigration and customs in torrential rain. Contrary to expectations set, the immigration folks were quite friendly. Customs were a little more stiff but weren’t too bad.

After clearing in it was back to Dignity to find a mooring. The heavens opened as we did this and we both ended up soaked to the skin. After securing ourselves we both dried up and slept for a bit. We’re both still a bit tired. We’re not going ashore this evening. We’ll watch some 24 to keep us awake and get busy tomorrow. Final piece of news is we learned our batteries and paint have already arrived in the country. We should see them by Thursday.

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Getting ready to go

Posted on July 27, 2009 by steve

Sunday was a wash. It rained mostly. We stayed aboard and read.

Today we’ve been a bit more busy. Having checked the weather forecast and saying our farewells on the the cruiser net we dinghied into Woburn then took the bus into town to clear out of the country and to buy some final food. As immigration and customs were in the Grenada Yacht Club we popped in to say Au Revoir to Jim on Bees Knees as he’s still slipped there doing his own summer boat projects. Not much of a goodbye as we hope to be back in a week or so – definitely in time for the Grenada Carnival which is considerably larger than the ones we’ve seen to date.

Back on the boat we ate rotis we’d picked up at the supermarket then rested. Whenever we’ve been feeling sleepy today we’ve tried to nap as we don’t expect to get much sleep tonight on our crossing. To that end we even forwent our usual bottle of wine with dinner last night. Serious stuff.

When we’ve been awake we’ve been prepping the boat. Even in fairly rough seas things tend to stay on shelves but we’re being cautious about this crossing. Dealing with flying things in boats in rough seas is never simple so time spent avoiding mishaps is time worth spent. The boat is nearly ready. I still need to tie down the dinghy and run some lines fore and aft to act as jack lines (the proper ones are coming from the US).

Apart from that we’re pretty much set to go. We plan on leaving at 9pm. We are familiar with the entrance to Clarke’s Court Bay and have a number of plots of our passage in and out so we feel confident navigating out in the dark. We’re aiming to pass the Bocos (the NW tip of Trinidad) no earlier than 8am. If we look like we’re going to get there earlier will slow down. If we pass any earlier we may end up incurring overtime fees from immigration. We’ve heard they can be quite aggressive finding ways to charge sailors extra so we don’t want to give them an excuse.

Next blog from Chaguaramus.

Posted in Bees Knees, Grenada | 1 Comment