Now We Are In Granada

We made the passage from Trinidad to Granada, but more about that in a bit.

At the last post we had been dropped into the water, we are a boat again.  We spent the night tied to the dock because we were waiting for the canvas maker to finish the cockpit enclosure.  We went out for dinner with friends and when we got back the cockpit was enclosed.  The final Trinidad project was done.  If we check out of the country on a weekend we have to pay an overtime fee.  We wanted to get out of the harbor and check the systems before leaving.  We motored out of the harbor and around the corner  to Scotland Bay.  This is a sometimes quiet bay with a long enough trip to check out the engine, steering, etc.  Everything is working properly and we dropped anchor for the weekend.  Now that we are away from the marina we had less interference when using our Single Side Band radio and we were able to check in with friends in North Carolina.  One more item checked off the list.  We had a very quiet night but were disappointed in the morning that we did not hear the howler monkeys.  We had a quiet day until the party boat arrived in the afternoon, but after about an hour and a half they and their overpowered speakers left.  Quiet again.  A little later the Customs and Immigration boat came by to check if everyone was legal.  We thought we were but were informed that after being launched we should have notified Customs that we were once again in the water.  No problem, just a verbal warning this time.  The next morning we woke just before dawn to the sound of the howler monkeys.

Monday morning we pulled anchor and went back to the main anchorage and picked up a mooring ball.  We checked back with the boat yard since we were told that the rigger had been looking for us.  He had not gotten his bill for inspecting the rigging turned in before we paid the yard bill and were launched.  Evidently he thought we had skipped out on him.  After the bill was paid we headed to Immigration and Customs to check out.  Once checked out we were back to the boat to finish getting ready.

About 4:30 pm we dropped the mooring and headed for the cut to make the crossing.  It is about an 80 mile trip and if we leave in the morning we arrive after dark.  We do not go into a harbor in the dark, therefore we make this trip overnight arriving in the morning.  We started out with just the headsail and the mizzen expecting the forecasted 15-20 knots of wind and 4-6 foot seas.  The winds were no where close and we were only making about 3 knots.  We raised the main that we had prepared with a reef in it to make it smaller and we were off.  Within an hour we had the winds and seas that we had expected.  As the night progressed the winds and waves grew to the point we were taking water over the bow and were heeling excessively.  It was time for some changes, we hove-to, which is a way for stopping the boat to get it under control, and dropped the mainsail.  Once underway again we were still doing 7 knots but were riding better and not taking on so much water.  The real good news is that we were completely dry in the cockpit with the new enclosure.  It just paid for itself.  We continued on in the dark until early morning when Cori informed me that we were a half an hour out and it was still dark.  We had about an hour before sunrise.  We turned 180 degrees and sailed away from the island for about 20 minutes and then turned back.  This ate up enough time that the sun was up as we approached the bay.  We dropped the sails and motored in picking up a mooring ball and relaxed.  We had arrived.  We did some cleanup and took naps, it had been a long night and neither of us had gotten much sleep.  After a couple of hours we launched the dinghy and went in to check into the marina to pay for the mooring and to clear in with Immigration and Customs.  We are now legally in the country.  There are a lot of cruisers that refuse to go to Trinidad feeling it is unsafe with the problems with neighboring Venezuela but we have not had a problem and thoroughly enjoy the country and their people.

We spent two days in Prickly Bay on the mooring getting things organized, and taking care of business.  We caught a ride to the bank to get some East Caribbean currency but I unfortunately left the debit card on the boat.  Just one of my bad moments.  The next day I got the opportunity to walk to the bank and back, this time remembering the card.  We had our propane tanks refilled and stocked up again on LLB and Diet Coke.  Once these were taken care of we dropped the mooring and moved several bays down the coast and dropped anchor in Clark's Court Bay.  The advantage of this location is that it is closer for our friend Sperry to bring out the items we had stored with him over the summer.  Also the shop that is repairing the Honda generator is here.

One of my projects that I saved for when we got to Granada was to repair a leak in our water-maker.  After tearing it down, installing the new parts, reassembling and reinstalling it I found that it no longer leaked.  Unfortunately, it did not make any water.  I had done something wrong.  I gave it a day or so to think on it and came to the conclusion that I had one of the poppets installed wrong.  I disassembled it again and found that I had damaged the poppet and crushed the spring.  I was able to file the plastic part back into shape but the spring was done for.  The boat shop did not have any springs but suggested a hardware store.  Time for an adventure.  We went to shore and caught a number two maxi-taxi to St George, the capital city.  A maxi-taxi is a van with three rows of seats and picks up passengers as they drive their route.  Picking up anyone, anywhere that signals them for a ride.  No need to be at a bus stop.  The hardware store in town was closed, many businesses close at noon on Saturdays, so it was off to another one.  This time taking a number one maxi-taxi out of the city.  They don't leave the bus station until they are full and we had twenty-one people in the bus.  They dropped us off at the hardware store and I found a spring that I could cut down and maybe it would work. We then caught another number one back to the city and then another number two back to he harbor.  In all it cost us $20 EC for both of us to take the round trip for a spring.  Twenty dollars East Caribbean is about $7.40 US.  It just sounds expensive.  Back at the boat I was able to modify the spring and once reinstalled everything appears to work properly.

While we were in the city we made a side trip to the public market to take in the sights, sounds and the smell of it.  Granada is called the Spice Island and there are many booths selling bags of spice giving the market a remarkable smell and the bright colors are a treat for the eye.

At one time, before a hurricane damaged the island, Granada provided 80% of the nutmeg to the world.  This is what nutmeg looks like:

 We are planning to spend about another week here before moving on up the island chain.

Back in the Water

We are back in the water. After three and a half weeks of projects we are finally in the water.

It has been a lot of work but the time has gone fast with the last two weeks flying by but Hi Flite has never looked better.

Here is a photo to illustrate:

What is new? the teak wood along the toerail was installed this summer, the windlass was painted, the tan areas of the deck were painted and Cori repainted the white non-skid surfaces. The bow pulpit (those shiny post in the photo) had been removed and it was a couple of days job to remount it. The stanchions that hold the lifelines had to be removed and re-bedded (three days project) and those are new chocks that the dock lines will run through that you see in the photo. All of these involved two people with one trying to reach and attach nuts and bolts in a small confined space. The other big change is the new cockpit enclosure. We have had the clear glass/poly replaced in the dodger, the canvas top for the bimini replaced and now will have side curtains to keep out splashes from waves and rain. We will now be able to stay dry when sailing and when it is raining. It will be almost like having another room.  None of these projects will have to be redone for a number of years.

The other big project was to remove all of the old bottom paint, about 25 layers, seal the bottom with epoxy and then reapply several coats of anti-fouling paint.

There have been many other smaller projects, my list was a full page of a legal tablet plus others that I thought of and didn't write down. Along with painting the deck, Cori had her sewing machine out making new hatch covers among other items. Here is a photo of the materials for one of my projects:

I needed to replace the screws, nuts and washers on the Dynaplate. That is a metal plate attached to the hull below the waterline to work with the Single Side Band radio, our means of communicating and getting weather reports. What is special about them? They are gold plated, that is about a hundred dollars worth of hardware in that photo.

Cori has made several trips to town for provisions but unlike the Bahamas there are grocery stores on most of the islands. It is not necessary to stock up with as much as we have had to previously. There are a number of things that we need in volume and this is one of them:

It is LLB or Lemon, Lime and Bitters. It is sort of like a 7up or Squirt but also has Angostura Bitters. 
Angostura Bitters is one of those products you will find behind every bar and is used, if I remember my days as a bartender, in an Old Fashioned. It adds a unique flavor, Cori also likes to add a bit to her drinking water. The bitters is a product of Trinidad.

We learned a few lessons last year that we did not want to repeat. We tested the windlass and the chain wash down pump before going and anchoring. I don't want to have to pull in a hundred feet of chain and anchor by hand again and it helps to be sure the pump is working so I can wash the mud off of it before storing it away. There are a couple of systems that we tested making sure they still work after spending six months unused.

As I stated, there were a lot of small and large things done and I don't think Hi Flite has been as ready for another years adventure.

What is this years adventure going to be? Who knows? Our plan is to leave Trinidad next week for Granada, spend some time there with friends then start moving up the chain of islands visiting familiar locations and discovering new. How far north? Our plans at this time to to work our way up to Antigua and spend some time there, we haven't been there yet. At some point we will turn around and work our way back to Trinidad where we will put the boat up for another summer. We have been talking about working our way back to the States the following year and then continuing as we had previously with trips between New England and the Bahamas, once again becoming full time cruisers.

As always we keep in mind the old adage: "plans are written in sand at low tide" and are often subject to change.

Check back often, I will try to keep this blog updated often but it will depend on where we are and how good of data connection we are able to get.