January 2010
Grenada
The new decade started with GD still anchored in Prickly Bay waiting for work and crew.
On the first wednesday of each month there's a charity fundraising book swap organised by Jonathan and his staff at Island Water World in St Georges near the lagoon. I swapped a few books to bolster my depleted library, drank coffee and ate cakes while chatting to other browsers. A pleasant social event that raises quite a bit for Grensave and other local charities.
I also assisted Scott to antifoul his boat and to renew the 'go faster' stripes. Boxxer's new white antifouling looks good.
On Saturday mornings I, and a few other cruisers, go up to Mount Airy to help with a reading program for local children. There were 30 or so kids from about 7 or so up to teenage. They are part of a reading improvement scheme run by two of their teachers (or perhaps they were local volunteers - not sure).
I ended up with two teenage lads, Jarvis and Tom who are very sparky! I was given the book we were to use - "Shakespeare". I thought I'd be teaching them Elizabethan English that I didn't understand either! But the book was "Stories from Shakespeare" written in plain English. I thought it was supremely silly to be discussing the goings on in a 15th C Florentine court with them. Their comprehension was good though and they only stumbled over more complex words and concepts. They got the bits about the men coming back from war and the men and girls fancying each other though! The following week we did Julius Caesar - more of an action story.
After reading practice we play Scrabble and I usually come last - some teacher!
The call came from Mike of Palm Tree Marine on Sunday 10th to go round to La Phare Bleu Marina ready for work to start on Monday 11th - at last. One advantage of being in a marina is unlimited mains power, an internet connection on the boat and hot showers - luxury.
The oil seal and associated gaskets were replaced but when the engine was reassembled the oil leak was worse than ever. Mike diagnosed a cracked component somewhere and once the back end was stripped down again this proved to be correct - the rear oil seal housing had a hairline crack. Much phoning and I have sourced the part in the UK and a friend who is coming out next week has agreed to bring it over (thanks Val). In the mean time GD has been towed out to a mooring in the bay in front of the marina to wait. Plenty of time to do the other jobs on the list like improve the SSB ground plane, investigate low power VHF transmission and fault find a wiring problem in the rear cabin.
It never rains... my engine part arrived and has been fitted, the oil leak fixed but... Mike of Palm Tree Marine identified a developing problem with the gear box. So the scramble to locate a new or reconditioned gear box in the US, UK or Caribbean began. I can't begin to imagine how difficult sourcing parts was before email, Skype and the mobile phone! Deep respect for those 'old' cruisers. Maybe they just carried half a boat's weight in spares!
New gearbox found - at least a 'low mileage' box located on the island by Rawle the Trinidadian diesel mechanic. Fitted just in time for Jacky's arrival - a day late because the Monarch flight had undercarriage problems. It's good to know I'm not the only one with technical difficulties.
We moved from Clarkes Court Bay to anchor off St Georges to be closer to the organisational centre of the Grenada Sailing Festival which began on 28th January. We were both crewing aboard Chris Doyle's 'Ti Kanot' a 40 catamaran in the multi hull class. This class was a late addition to the regatta and had only three entries. But we had good racing in strong winds on most days. Originally the class was supposed to be boat on boat with no handicap system but for some unknown reason the race committee announced handicaps after the first day's racing based on the first day's results. This gave rise to truly bizarre handicapping which rather made a nonsense of the original idea.
This was the first time either of us had been aboard a cat while sailing and it was an interesting experience. The motion wasn't as bad as we'd been lead to believe even in the closely spaced waves off the south coast. Going upwind at 9 knots and downwind even faster was exhilarating and we achieved 14 knots surfing down one wave. I enjoyed sailing past mono hulls in good force 5 winds while standing in the cockpit with both hands in my pockets! The regatta ended on Tuesday 2nd February after four good days racing.