Mike’s Page 1       May/June 2007 - March 2008

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Mike’s Page 3       April 2009 - March 2010

Mike’s Page 4       April 2010 - April 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August to November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2011

Well this month we have been stuck in Grenada waiting for the solar panels. We had been negotiating for these panels since the beginning of February, The original semi flexible ones that we installed on the dog-house roof failed. They were six years old and we were told that they should last at least twenty years. They obviously fell far short of that. It took over twenty e-mails and much frustration to get it sorted, then to be told that they (Barden) didn’t have any of the model we needed in stock so they had to come from the manufacturers who were in Germany. They eventually agreed to send them direct to ‘save time’! However, they sent them by UPS, who seem to have a sense of humour, not. The package went from Koln to Hamburg and then back to Koln. From there to Luton, UK and on to the States to Pennsylvania and then to Louisville, Kentucky before being flown down to St John’s, Antigua. I think they thought that they might have been a little tired by now with all that travelling, so they gave them three days rest in Antigua before sending them eventually to Grenada. We then had to go through all the rigmarole of finding them and eventually clearing them through two lots of Customs. So now we have at last got them. The same day I fitted them to the original position and we are monitoring the extra power like kids with a new toy. The only trouble is that the weather at the moment is not all the conducive to generating power but things have improved and we soon hope to be able to watch a movie again pretty soon. However this weather has given us the opportunity to collect lots of rainwater and this supposed to be the dry season!! Last year at about this time, there was a drought in the islands and at one stage we had to scrounge water from a friend who had a water-maker on board.

Our LED masthead light that we fitted  before last season failed after about two weeks use so after a little persuasion we managed to get a refund from Budget Marine in Trinidad but they had no more in stock so instead I used the money to buy a Blue Sky solar panel booster cum regulator. This can boost the current going into the battery bank by up to 30 percent so once everything settles we should have sufficient power for our needs.

We replace the masthead light with our old one but we have installed LED replacement bulbs. To be truthful, I haven’t had a lot of success with these type of bulb in the past so I am still rather sceptical. I had tried to replace some of our domestic lights with LED and they didn’t last long, but this was a few years ago and I am told that the newer ones are a vast improvement. The problem with the original ones was that they were not very tolerant to voltage changes but the new ones are, or so I am told. We will see. We have been going from anchorage to anchorage around the south of Grenada and with the wind now at last veering to get a little south in it, it has built up a bit of a swell so going up the mast was going to be uncomfortable. So we went back to Clark’s Court Bay where there should have been shelter but there was still a bit of swell. Lining up the bolts at the top of the mast and trying to hang on at the same time was a bit of a challenge. At one stage I was getting rocked so violently that I was getting seasick!! How Ellen managed on her own in a raging sea …….

I also discovered why we were not making sufficient headway under power. When we anchored at St George’s we knew that the holding was less than perfect. What looks like sand from the surface is actually broken coral and much less dense than sand. Last year we dragged a little here so this time I donned my snorkel gear and dived on the anchor to check it out. I could see that the anchor had dragged for a few yards before the point dug in but it looked fairly secure although it was on its side. However when I swam back to the boat I checked the anodes and then I saw the propeller. It had all types of growth on it. We could have sold tickets for guided tours if only I could have identified the twenty or so different varieties of vegetation! I could see that it would be a hard job to do with just a snorkel so on with the scuba gear and I went down and scraped off the foliage. We had also acquired a few barnacles so they were disposed of. We had a small school of fish that had adopted our hull as a feeding ground and one of them actually attacked me and nipped me on the elbow as he thought I was destroying his lunch. He was almost pan sized so he was really pushing his luck! However I let him off with a warning as long as he continued to clean our hull.

Anyway we are now at last free to travel once more. By the time you read this we should be in Carriacou which is a small island north of Grenada. Our intention is then to head north through The Grenadines and on to St Vincent stopping at Bequia on the way. We hope to meet up with friends and do some walking in St Vincent which is still quite unspoilt by tourism.

May 2011

We headed north from St George’s, Grenada, and made Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou our first stop for this month. The journey takes us past ‘Kick ‘em Jenny’ which is classed as an active underwater volcano. We kept east of the volcano and sailed in amongst some uninhabited islands to gain as much easting as we could but the engine was necessary to master the currents through the gaps. Navigation-wise it may not have been the best decision, but the scenery was fantastic. It did get us some easting which we needed to compensate for the constant west going current but even by sailing close hauled we still ended up about three miles west of Tyrrel Bay and had to put in a few tacks to get in. Tyrrel Bay itself is a good anchorage favoured by many cruisers and there were a few regulars there. We met a guy called Max who also had a ferro cement boat that made ours look posh. He had had a few problems and was ready to pick some brains. I was willing to pass on a few tips but made it clear that I was by no means an expert… yet!! He also had engine problems but he said he had a spare back in the UK so was intending to sail back sans power to fit the other engine. I wish him luck. There’s a lot more to Max but I won’t go into it here!! I enjoyed his company and wish I could have spent more time with him.

We stayed in Tyrrel bay for a couple of days, but internet access was a bit of an issue so we decided to move on. We went round to go to Hillsborough, which is the capital of the island to go to an internet café when we were hailed by our friends Mike and Debbie on Caramba who were moored by Sandy Island which is just that, an island of sand which is also a marine sanctuary. We picked up a mooring just behind them and went across for a cuppa. No sooner had we sat down on their boat than the Park Rangers came across and demanded $20EC for the buoy.

As we had already paid, we stopped the night there and the next day we went into Hillsborough, checked our e-mails and then checked out through Customs and Immigration. From Carriacou we sailed directly to Bequia which is the northernmost island of the Grenadines and part of St Vincent. It is another beautiful island with clear waters. The trip was fairly straight forward and again picturesque. We sailed north between Union Island and Mayreau and close to the west coast of Canouan again to keep as far east as we could. There are a few reefs here to watch out for but they are well marked. As we left the north end of Canouan we had a course of almost due north to Bequia. With the wind from the east it would normally be a good reach, but again the current comes into play, and with El Lobo being a heavy boat and also a slow boat, it still meant that we needed to be close hauled again to avoid being pushed too far west. As luck would have it, the wind veered a little to the south and we managed to ‘free off’ and have a comfortable sail up to the island. We passed all the islands in the Grenadines that we intended to visit on the way back down and we were looking forward to the experience.

Once in Bequia we met up with friend Paul from back home in Sunderland. He is Sales Manager at Tradewinds Charter company and also skippers one of their Luxury catamarans. We also confirmed that Graham and Joan on Karma were due in Wallilabou in St Vincent. It is one of our favourite spots so after a couple of days we headed north again to meet them. Wallilabou is where they filmed some of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and some of the film sets are still there. The distance is about 14 miles so it was just a few hours. The bay there is quite deep and not really suitable for normal anchoring. There are buoys there but they cost money so we rarely use moorings if we can avoid it. The trick is to drop anchor and use a stern line ashore. Most boats can go in and turn round, drop anchor and go astern and then get a line ashore. However being a ‘longkeeler’ with a three bladed prop, going astern in El Lobo is far from predictable. So my trick is to just go straight in and in this case, drop the anchor in 25 meters of water and pay out sufficient chain and let the boat swing round on the anchor and then give it just a little burst astern. This time it worked well and we had the stern line ready for the boat boy to take to shore and tie to a tree. Graham was also there to assist if needed and that night we were the only two boats in the bay.

However on the second night the population suddenly grew. A certain 55 footer decided to moor in between Karma and ourselves. She had an Italian flag with just a couple on board. There was a bit of a cross wind and their anchor was obviously not well bedded in. The anchor dragged and the boat was pushed over on to El Lobo pivoting on the shore line. Luckily we were on board at the time and I saw what was happening. It was a dash to the bows where the boat was headed with a few fenders to try to minimise any damage. They didn’t seem to have the gumption to deal with the situation. I shouted to them to release the stern line and then to re-anchor. Then they told me that the windlass wasn’t working. They were still not prepared to release the stern line. I then made it clear that I had a sharp knife and was ready to cut the line. They then released the line but the boat still came up against our bow. With fenders and boat hook I managed to keep them off as their boat swung round in the wind. They took a while to get themselves sorted but when they did, they took a mooring at the other end of the bay, far away from this irate Englishman!! 

We stayed for a couple of days and then Karma left with their guests. We left the next day and headed back to Bequia which turned into a nice beam reach and back to almost the same spot in Admiralty Bay. Now was the time that we had been looking forward to, the exploration of the ‘Grenadines proper’.

The first island we visited after Bequia was Mustique. It is the holiday home of the rich and famous but Pat will tell you more about that. The Island is SSE from Bequia and I knew we would have a bit of a challenge. So the night before we left we sailed round the south of Bequia to Friendship Bay. It is a pretty little bay that theoretically should be well protected as is has a reef that almost encloses it. Careful navigation is needed here to get in through a fairly narrow channel. We anchored behind the eastern reef and settled in for the night. However with the wind coming from the east and the swell coming across the reef from the south, we were getting rolled fairly violently. So we got the stern anchor out and swung the boat round so that the boat was facing south. It made all the difference so we were able to settle down for the night.

The wind had backed a little during the night so that our sail down to Mustique was pleasant and we were sailing fairly free for a change. There were no real hazards on the way although there is the Montezuma shoal just off Britannia Bay which is the only place you can moor, anchoring not being an option.

We stayed for three nights and the next island was Canouan. This is about 9 miles SSW from Mustique again with no hazards on the way. The main anchorage is in Charlestown Bay and the entrance to the anchorage and port to is marked by a red and green marker posts. We stayed for three nights and I managed to catch a few fish for the freezer.

Next stop was Mayreau which is part of a cluster of islands some of which are uninhabited and included Union Island and the famous Tobago Cays. There are a couple of choices here although it is a small island. To the north is Saltwhistle bay which has developed into a bit of a resort. As we approached it looked a little crowded so we continued down the coast to Saline Bay where we anchored. There are a couple of hazards here. The first is at the north of the island just west of Saltwhistle Bay. To the west is Catholic Island, uninhabited, with a reef that extends east towards the north of Mayreau. There is a cardinal beacon here which marks the extent of the reef so you need to keep between the mark and the north end of Mayreau. Then further down the west coast of Mayreau there is another reef that extends about 500 meters out just as you approach Saline Bay, There is a red marker buoy here but there is also a wreck just of the reef which isn’t covered by the buoy, just deep enough not to be a hazard in calm weather but to be avoided when the weather kicks up a bit. However the reef does make for good snorkelling.

Next stop, the famous Tobago Cays. This is really something else. The Cays extend east from Mayreau and are a series of shoals and reefs formed by volcanic action but over the years has formed a series of beaches around five small uninhabited islands with scenery you could only dream about. Navigation is not really that difficult as long as you keep your head. The colour of the water and the lines of breakers give you a good hint as to the passages through. It is exposed to the Atlantic here as due east there is nothing until Africa. Horseshoe Reef is the main reef and although covered it still gives some protection from the Atlantic swell and we had a couple of comfortable nights here. We anchored by Baradel Rock whose shore on the south side borders onto a turtle sanctuary. This is an area that is cordoned off from the rest of the anchorage and there are strict limitations here. However you can dinghy in slowly to the white sandy beach and then snorkel out into the bay. Swimming with these prehistoric creatures is somehow magical. What keeps them here I can only hazard a guess. No doubt they are used to all these humans but the whole area is a marine park. I can only assume that they have been here from time immemorial and seem contented here. They obviously have sufficient food for their needs and we witnessed them grazing amongst the sea grass although I don’t think it was the grass they were feeding on but whatever was in there.

After a couple of days we needed to move to civilisation, not for any cruising reasons, but Pat wanted to watch the Man U v. Barcelona European Champions League final, so we headed the short trip across to Union Island and Clifton Bay.

Boat wise, well I have been trying to have a bit of a holiday this month. However management still has to continue. Our power problem seems to be rectifying itself and with steady winds from the Eastern Trades and sunny days have gradually topped up our battery banks. The freezer has been the main drain, but I bought a new thermostat in Bequia and at last we seem also to be getting the freezer down to temperature. We still run the engine for a couple of hours every day, which also ensures plenty of hot water.

Whilst in Wallilabou our dinghy got caught under the dinghy dock where there was a nail protruding and as a result we got a puncture in the forward tube. It’s a PVC dinghy and not really suitable for this climate, but it’s what we have got for now. Trying to repair a PVC dinghy even with the so called proper patches is usually only a temporary job but after a couple of attempts I sealed the patch with 3M’s 5200, which is their version of Sikaflex and is supposed to stick to just about anything. Trouble is that it takes 7 days to cure properly. So once the patch was on, we were travelling around with a dinghy with a rather deflated front end before I felt confident enough to pump it up to full pressure. We were confident that it was not going to be stolen!! That part seems to be cured but I now find that the bottom is leaking water in, and we are back to wet feet again, so there’s another job!

June 2011

From Union Island there are still a few more islands we could visit in the Grenadines. Palm Island, which is just about a mile across the water from Union, and Petit St Vincent (PSV) a little further south, are both basically holiday resorts. We decided to give these a miss. It’s the usual story with meals and drinks at about three times the price in man made ‘pretty’ surroundings. We’ve seen it all before. So we made the trip to Petit Martinique which is almost joined on to PSV by a connecting reef. It is a little off the usual rhumb line of the cruisers and so not visited as much. The thing is that once you head south from Union Island, you are leaving the jurisdiction of St Vincent. Petit Martinique is part of Grenada but has no check-in facility with Customs and Immigration. It is east of the island of Carriacou which is the northernmost check-in point for Grenada. But being east of the check-in and with the prevailing winds coming from the eastern trades, few people want to go there against the wind after they have checked in. However we found out that they will normally turn a blind eye if you went to Petit Martinique before checking in to Grenada. So we went.

The trip is only about four miles, but there is a series of sand banks stretching across almost two thirds the distance west towards Carriacou, so careful navigation was necessary. The day we went was pretty blustery and the sea a little lumpy so eyeballing the sand banks wasn’t going to be easy, so I decided that we would go round to the end of the bank rather than trying to find the way through. This meant a fast broad reach to the end of the sand banks, and then a slog upwind for the last mile to the anchorage, but altogether a pleasant if rolly sail. The anchorage is well protected by the reef connecting the island to PSV with little movement of water so that the bottom is soft mud. It is advised that you drop the anchor to the bottom and hold the boat there for a minute or two to allow the anchor to sink into the mud, before paying out the chain. With the strong winds, we still dragged a little for the first hour or so, but then we held firm.

We stayed for one night and then sailed for Carriacou to check in to Grenada. We sailed round to the north end of the island and then down the west side to Hillsborough, which is the capital of the island. Once we checked in we then sailed round to Tyrrel Bay to the more popular anchorage and a few more familiar boats.

After a few days we then set sail again for Grenada. We chose the day badly this time and there turned out to be quite a bit of south in the wind, making us close hauled with a beam sea. There is a set of islands, uninhabited, on the way and once in the lee, things calmed down a little, even though this route took us over Kick ‘em Jenny, which is classed as an active underwater volcano. Last eruptions were in 1988 and 1989, but I’m not sure when the next one is due. I did however have my camera ready for some spectacular shots if the worst happened!!

We sailed down the island to St George’s where we anchored just outside the harbour. The holding here is not the best. The bottom looks like sand, which should be good, but it is in fact broken coral which is far less dense. I always make it a point to dive on the anchor to check it and here we also let out a lot more chain. There are a few rocks here so I try to make sure the chain goes around a couple. We have anchored here several times before and it is an easy dinghy ride into town and plenty of places to secure the dinghy. There is a supermarket here with its own dinghy dock where the ‘packers’ will take your groceries across the road to the dock for you. Makes life a little easier. The local chandlery also has its own dinghy dock. Whilst there we teamed up with our friends on ‘Titom’ to go snorkelling on the underwater sculpture park, which was about two miles north.

Also a little tip I learned here. The water here is full of nutrients and tiny little creatures whose names are way beyond me. The hard fact is that you do get a lot of growth on the anchor chain if you are there for a week or more. Of course you cannot antifoul your chain. Experience has shown me that this growth is difficult to remove, and if left on the chain, will produce a strong smell of decay from your chain locker. It is only the section of chain from the surface to the sea bed that is affected, but I can tell you that it can take up to half and hour to scrub clean that section of chain when trying to raise the anchor. The smart thing to do is to let out more chain so that this section is now on the sea bed. Do this a couple of days before you leave. The movement of the boat will then drag the chain along the bottom, cleaning off the growth. It works!

After a few days, we decided to go round to the south of the island to meet up with a few friends. On the morning we left, there was little wind so I decided to go the long route by way of deeper water and try a bit of fishing. My fishing so far has not exactly been productive, but I would maintain that out routes do not necessarily go where the fish are (well that’s my excuse anyway!!). We just had the foresail up and engine on to try to keep up a trolling speed of around five knots finding deep water and following the underwater ridges and cliffs. The route also took us south of Glover Island, which is a small island just west of Prickly bay, and then also keeping south of The Porpoises, which is a reef just east of Prickly Bay. Between these two the wind started to increase and we lost the sun with some darkish clouds coming over. The wind increased, on the nose of course, and our speed dropped. We were just outside The Porpoises when I saw a squall approaching fast. The sky went black and the rain started. I shouted to Pat to drop the sail. This usually Pat’s job when we come into harbour or to anchor, so she is pretty well practised at it. Within about five seconds, the sail was down and safely in the sail-catchers. We were about 300 yds off the porpoises at the time, when the rain came we could not see them. The winds came with a vengeance and gusted up to over 40 knots we were told later, and we were feeling it. We were about a mile downwind from the entrance to Clark’s Court where we were headed, but in these winds we were making no headway over the ground. We tried for a few minutes but then decided to head back to Prickly Bay. The sea seemed all over us and the boat. We do have a low freeboard and so we do get a lot of water on the side decks in certain conditions but this day it seemed we were on a semi-submersible with water all around but I’m pleased to say that no water entered the cockpit. As we turned towards Prickly Bay the wind was then on our quarter and our speed increased dramatically. I slowed the engine down to tick-over, but we were still doing 6 knots with just the bare poles. Once we reached Prickly Head, we were in the lee and the winds subsided we then looked for a suitable place to anchor. Of course when that squall hit us, I still had my fishing lines out, and there was no way I was going to be able to get them back in. I had four lines trailing out from the stern and by the time we had anchored, there was a bird’s nest any pigeon would have been proud of. Luckily there were no lines round the prop and no hooks in the dinghy which we were still trailing behind.

The next day we motored round to Clark’s Court bay. The sea was still a little rough with waves about four to five feet but very short, making us pretty uncomfortable. It reminded us of the North Sea except that if we were indeed in the North Sea, we would have been wearing oilies instead of shorts and tee shirts!

Here we experienced another gale which lasted for about 6 hours. We thought our wind generator was going to explode at one stage, even switching it off would not halt it, but it kept going, charging in excess of 20 amps which did our batteries no harm at all. However we were quite close to shore with good reference marks on the land at I could see that we were very slowly dragging, so I decided to put out another anchor. We have a CQR as a main anchor and our next anchor is a Danforth, so Pat motored forward whilst I flaked out the chain and deployed the anchor. We have about 30 meters of chain on this anchor and I let it all out almost down to the piece of rope that we secure to the end of the chain. We fell back on to this chain and it seemed to be holding on that anchor for a while, until the main anchor chain was also taking up the tension and we held firm. It wasn’t until we decided to move that I picked up the second anchor, the Danforth, and discovered that the flukes had actually rusted on the shaft and were not moving (we haven’t used this anchor for a while!!). It hadn’t actually bitten into the mud but had just slid over it. So it was basically just the weight on the anchor and chain that was needed to add to the main anchor to stop us from dragging any further. Another job to do!!

We managed to get our batteries well topped up when we were in Tobago Cays and Union Island. The weather was perfect for our set-up with good winds and all day sun, but once we headed south to Grenada, we were in sheltered anchorages and soon we were losing ground again with our battery power. We have a Sterling monitor which tells us the state of our batteries with a voltage read out as well as the charging rate. It also shows us the amp/hour status of the batteries. Our battery bank has a total capacity of 675 amp hours. The monitor shows us how many a/h’s we are below the total capacity. We had dropped to around –200 a/h’s which still kept the voltage at around 12.5v but it was a little worrying that we were not treating the batteries as we should. Whilst we were in Tobago Cays we managed to get the a/h’s back to zero which means that the batteries are to full capacity. However we started to lose this figure when in the sheltered anchorages and we were soon back to the –200’s. basically this means that we were still using more power than we can produce. The main user of power is the freezer and my suspicions were that the compressor was probably getting a bit iffy and was therefore using more power than it should. I was in conversation with our friend Graham on Karma, who has been cruising for years but has also lived on boats all his married life and then some. He explained that I had a ‘speed card’ on my control panel and that I could check the speed of the compressor. When I got back to our boat I checked the speed card and found it was turned up to maximum so I adjusted the speed down to the minimum. The effect was immediate. Gradually, day by day our amp/hour situation improved and we were at last producing more power than we were using. We had to monitor the performance of the freezer of course, but it seems to still be freezing as it should.

In the meantime, I discovered another electrical fault that had obviously been contributing to our power problem. We noticed that we could not hear the pump for the shower sump for some time. It isn’t noisy and is difficult to hear sometimes, and with the hot weather we have fans running down below. The shower sump accumulates a lot of ‘gunge’ and the first one I fitted which was a Johnson unit, didn’t last very long. Whilst in Spain I built another unit with a larger capacity, a bilge pump with a separate float switch and stainless steel food sieve! This still needs periodic cleaning but not as often as the original unit. So when I lifted the floor boards I could see that the sump was almost full and that the pump was running constantly, but very quietly. So here was another power drain. There was quite a bit of gunge in the sieve and some had spilled over into the main sump. I tried the float switch and it seemed to be working. I then disconnected the pump from the delivery hose and checked again. The pump was working and water flowing. So then I thought, blockage in the line. I have a couple of non-return valves in the line as it shares the same overboard discharge as the bilge pump. I checked the valves and forced water through the line with the high pressure wash-down pump. All clear. Reconnected the pump but it although it was running, it still was not getting the water out of the sump. I assumed that the pump was on the blink. I knew that I had another pump on the boat and after some rigorous digging I found it. It was the wrong hose size but I managed to sleeve it enough to do the job. However, again it would not move the water out. I checked the voltage at the pump connector and that was OK. So assuming that this pump was also ‘knackered’ we took a trip to the local chandlery and lashed out on a new one. Back to the boat to fit it and once tested we still had the same problem. The motor was running but not as fast as it should. Eventually the float switch started operating intermittently and I was thinking that I would have to make yet another trip to the chandlery. Now readers of this page will remember that I have had problems with different types of float switches in the past. In the bilge I have now settled for an air switch which works on a pressure differential. So far I am pleased with this unit. However these units produced under the name of ‘Rule’, are all made in China and are not of a quality that I feel we should be trusting our boats with. All chandlers stock them and unfortunately we have to go a long way to find an alternative. The next day was yet another holiday here and all the shops were shut, so after some thought I decided to make my own float switch until I could find something better. It consisted of a six inch piece of 2 x 1, a stainless steel hinge, an piece of s/s plate 3 x 1 and some wire. I fixed the hinge to the end of the sump box and checked the movement on the arm. The plate was screwed to the top of the piece of wood with one of the wires. The other wire was fitted to the side of the box with a long bare end and I took the wires into a block connector. I then needed a couple of short lengths of wire to connect to the pump connector so I cut the wires off the old switch when I noticed that the wires were not actually tinned and just crumbled when I cut them. No wonder the switch was not working, it was the poor wiring. There is no chance of rewiring one of these units as they are all sealed. So I looked out some tinned wire from my stock and finished the job and it’s working fine. The wood isn’t painted or sealed so it will soon get waterlogged but I am already working on Mk ll!

So after four years of having problems in the power department, we seem to have at last got things under control!! Takes us older folks a little longer sometimes!! However we decided to go into the marina at Clark’s Court to hook on to some power and charge up the batteries and hopefully equalise them as well.

Over here they just have two seasons, the wet season and the dry season. It has to be said that the dry season this year has been a little wet to say the least, but the wet season has now started with a vengeance. Last year when we were in St Lucia, there was a hose pipe ban when the locals were even banned from washing their cars. We were in Rodney Bay and were running out of water. The local marina had turned off their water supply. Luckily we had friends on a boat called Asseance who ran their water-maker most of the day. They offered us water any time we needed it, so we could go over to their boat and fill a few jerry cans to keep us going until the water was turned back on. No such problems this year. We were anchored in Clark’s Court Bay when the first real rain hit us. This was not just a squall but a continuous rain storm which lasted most of the night. We managed to fill all our water tanks and jerry cans with this one night’s rain, but we also managed also to find leaks that we didn’t know we had. A few more jobs to be added to the ‘to do’ list for Trinidad!!   

We are now basically waiting for a decent weather slot so we can leave once again for Trinidad to wait out the hurricane season. The hurricane season officially starts on 1st June so we really should be there by now, but it is rare for any named storms to reach the West Indies before the end of August so we reckon we still have a reasonable margin of comfort. There are a couple of reasons that we go to Trinidad, and the first one was that it is below the hurricane belt and pretty safe from the high winds. The bay is well sheltered there although we have had some pretty rough weather there. The second reason is that I have found nowhere else in our travels that matches Chaguaramas for facilities. There is just about every trade allied to yachting in the area and all within walking distance. There are chandleries, electronics, riggers, painters and paint suppliers, welding and fabrication shops, woodworkers and timber supplies, plumbers and refrigeration engineers along with grocery stores, eateries and watering holes of the alcoholic variety. I’m sure there are other places similar in the world but I haven’t heard of one yet. Also this is the third season we will have been there so I now know who to deal with and who to avoid.

The jobs I have to do this year are a bit more extensive. The main one is that there is some rot on the port side of the cockpit. I have tried to eradicate it in the past, but it won’t go away. So I have decided to rip out and replace the cockpit coamings and extending the replacement forward to about halfway along the coach roof. This will take in the port lights, which have been leaking and no doubt we will have some damage there. The stanchions also need replacing. They are as old as the boat. They are galvanised but the zinc has long disappeared and despite special paints, the rust has done its damage. This will mean taking out the headlining to get at the bolts, so a major disruption down below again. I may also take the masts out again. We are still getting some damage to the masts at the top where the yard bangs against it so I may sleeve it with some plastic pipe on the top section subject to the availability of the pipe.  

July 2011

Last month saw us in Grenada and at the end of the month we were waiting for a weather slot for the trip down to Trinidad which is just about 80 miles due south, give or take a degree or two. Well we waited for a couple of weeks and eventually a possible slot seemed available, but as that slot approached, the weather changed and closed the door on us. At this time of the year the (Eastern) Trade Winds tend to blow with a little South in them, and with the west going current, it makes it a hard slog, closed hauled all the way. We eventually found a slot with the wind at ENE but we also knew that within 24 hrs the wind would veer a little to the south, but by then I had hoped that we would have made sufficient eastings to be able to bear away to the Boca at the western tip of Trinidad.

We set off after breakfast and managed to be able to steer SE for a while getting well east of the rhumb line and things were going well. The sea was a little lumpy which always slows you down a little especially when you are heading into it. However in the afternoon I could see a dark column of cloud approaching us and knew we were in for trouble. We shortened sail and within moments we were hit by some ferocious winds and a rainstorm that was as heavy as any, reducing visibility down to just a few meters.  Our wind instrument only has two cups at the moment, but even that recorded wind speeds of over 35 knots. We were down to just three panels per sails. El Lobo rode it well and we never felt concerned. This squall lasted for about three quarters of an hour and suddenly the sun was out and we set about raising sail again and on our way. We had lost some of our hard earned eastings. We later experienced two more squalls though not quite so ferocious but with changes in wind direction we were pushed further west forcing us to head further into the wind. By morning we were approaching the oil rigs and the sea flattened out and we thought that our troubles were over. We set the Hydrovane and went back to full sail as the wind dropped, and settled down for some breakfast. With no land in sight you are a little disorientated especially when there are clouds covering the sun. We were probably not paying as much attention as we should but after we had eaten, we noticed a wind change and suddenly we were heading for Panama! The wind was now coming from the south, exactly the direction we wanted to go. So we tacked and headed south east as close as we could and from then on it was going to be a tacking event with still 25 miles to go. We were making little progress towards The Boca so I decided to just motor in. We had it in the back of our minds that we wanted to be at the Customs dock before 1600 hrs or else we would have to pay them for ‘overtime’. The wind stayed fluky and by the time we approached the Boca the wind was from the south west and we were on starboard tack, an unusual situation. We eventually got to the Customs dock at about 1545 hrs and made it to the Immigration Office in time but with all the form filling and carbon paper we were in an overtime situation with the Customs. We had no Trinidad currency with us and the ATM that used to be just around the corner had now closed down. We managed to find scraps of Trini money and a few US dollars enough to satisfy the Customs and now were checked in.

We had decided to stay at TTSA (Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association) for a week or so before Pat was to fly back to UK, so we motored around the peninsular and into the anchorage. We dropped the hook in calm water with little wind in amongst other boats. It was a little unnerving for a while as all the surrounding boats were pointing in different directions, so which way would we settle? I had let out plenty of scope as last season several boats had dragged here and so I was regarding the holding here as suspect. We must have anchored at slack water as soon the boats were starting to look a little more regimented and we finished up pretty close to a couple of other boats. Against my better judgement I shortened our chain by a few meters so that we cleared the other boats and through the night we held firm. This anchorage is quite close to the only road into the Chaguaramas area and after a few months of peace and quiet we slept little that night with all the traffic noise. Now TTSA is usually a good spot to stay. You can pay a small fee to give you temporary membership which allows full use of their facilities which includes showers, a workshop and a swimming pool. However we decided that after giving it a bit of thought, as far as working on the boat was concerned, we needed to be back around into the main bay. It was then that I discovered that the windlass had decided to go on strike. I had a quick look and decided that it was an electrical problem. We were going to pick up a mooring over in the bay so I decided to just pull up the anchor by hand and fix it later. Our windlass is electrical but also has a handle to be able to crank up the chain. However this is slow and it is much quicker to pull up the chain hand over hand until you are getting the anchor off the bottom. Then you need the cranking power. So I got the anchor up and safely into the bow roller when Pat shouted from the cockpit that the engine wouldn’t start. I went back to try it myself, and no luck. Unfortunately there was now a little wind and we were drifting towards other boats, so reluctantly I had to go forward again and drop the anchor that I had worked hard to get up, knowing I was going to have to heave it up yet again.

Back to the engine, I knew that the fuel tanks were now low after our passage from Grenada and that there would be some of the proverbial sludge in the bottom. So I checked the filters and sure enough they were pretty clogged. I have had difficulty in getting hold of the secondary  filters for our Nanni engine. Finally with the help of a lady in Ace Hardware, Grenada, we measured the filter and found an equivalent. Our suppliers in UK have ignored my repeated requests for an equivalent number for other manufacturers stating that I should only buy theirs, at an inflated price of course. So luckily I had a spare secondary filter which is the finer one of the two. However I could not find a primary filter which is the more common and easier to source. My mistake here. So anyway I changed the secondary filter and washed out the primary as best I could, bled the system through and the engine started. So then I had to go back forward and haul up the anchor again. It is at times like these that I have to say to myself, am I getting too old for this? Or should I get a lighter chain? We motored back round to Chaguaramas Bay and took up a mooring. I went to bed for an hour or so. We stayed for a couple of weeks on the mooring whilst we got settled and started to source the supplies we were going to need for the work to be done on the boat. Then we moved on to a slip at Power Boats where we could plug into power and just step ashore.

The first job was to strip out the windlass, rewire and clean up and re-spray before making a new backing plate for under the deck and refitting back into position. However the immediate job was to replace the stanchions. The original ones were made of galvanised steel and have been on the boat since it was built which was 40 years ago, so haven’t done badly. We are replacing them with stainless steel, both the stanchions and the bases. These are being made by Mitch of West Coast Fabrications here in Chaguaramas, who I have found to be reasonable and have a sound practical knowledge of stainless steel fabrication. The bases he has made are a little dearer that the standard ones as supplied by the chandlers but they are much meatier and with a larger base plate. So they will outlive the boat. I am also making the stanchions two inches taller than the originals to give us extra security when going forward at sea.

The rot on the port side of the cockpit has not gone away despite the last few seasons spent raking it out and injecting epoxy into it so I am having to replace it along with a section of the coach roof side. I installed a new opening port light above the galley a few years ago which was a little smaller than the original and I had to add a patch. I am also replacing the existing port light just forward of the galley with an opening one so we can get a through breeze in the boat. Something desirable in this climate. With one sheet of 8 x 4 I should be able to complete the job. This will then give a stronger side with it being a more solid piece of timber. The only question is what I will find once I open it all up. See the photo of the cockpit side. 

I will lift the boat out in September. We don’t have a lot to do under the waterline this time (hopefully) but I do need to take the masts out again. We are still getting some damage to the top of the masts from the yards so I have decided to sleeve them with a plastic soil pipe, which hopefully will take more of a hammering without losing the structural integrity of the mast. I am also experimenting with the yard parrel arrangement which is also causing a little damage. I’ll get it right one day.

There are a few other issues internally that I want to modify or change whilst Pat is away. We also bought another second hand dinghy this year and that one is giving problems needing constant repair, but I believe I am on top of that now.

El Lobo is now 40 years old and such an old lady requires a lot of TLC and constant attention, but all in all she is faring well. We have been though some tricky situations and she has looked after us. All she needs in return is for us to look after her. The same should apply with any boat. By the time we reach the USA she will have had a new toe-rail, new stanchions and a repaint and should look smarter than she has done for a long while. Pat will be going back to UK for a couple of months so the next update will probably be in October so I should have a full update on progress with a few photos.

Summer/Autumn 2011

Well this summer, Pat went back to UK and I stayed on the boat to effect some major repairs that I had been putting off for the last couple of years. The main project was to replace some rotten timber to the port side of the cockpit and forward along the coach roof. We also had but one opening port light down below which is certainly not enough in this climate, and I had managed to scrounge up some second hand openers to replace the existing.

Also the masts needed some attention. We had acquired some slight damage to the top of the masts where the yards had been striking when we had swelly seas and no wind. So this needed attention.

The windlass also needed remounting. We anchor a lot, and the windlass is vital to us.

Down below, in the fore peak, I had installed a new bunk with the mattress running along the hull. The headboard I squared off with the mattress, but the bulkhead I squared across the boat, thus we needed to shape the mattress. This was fine on the original mattress as we could take out a couple of springs and fit to suit, but we've since bought a ‘posher’ mattress which is far more comfortable but I was unable to shape this one. Consequently we have been putting up with the corner of the mattress sticking up in the corner. So the bulkhead needed to be moved.

The life raft also needed a permanent home. The original position we soon found was liable to get in the way of the fore sheets so I have been trying to find a location and a method of mounting it so that it could be easily deployed without getting in the way of general life on the boat.

We decided that with the amount of work I had to do, that we would tie up in 'C' Dock at Power Boats and the first thing I did was to set up a workshop at the water's edge. I managed to set up my bench in the shade of a palm tree which was quite pleasant and as soon as Pat left I set about ripping out the side of the cockpit and then the side of the coach roof. I also found some rot to the aft of the cockpit so I attacked that as well. Clearing the rotten wood from the cockpit was a bit of a struggle but the coach roof side proved to be an even greater challenge as I didn't want to damage the coach roof itself and I also wanted to retain the integrity of the carlings which are pieces of 3 x 3 mahogany that sandwich the deck and provide the 'foundations' for the coach roof. This is also the critical area where we seal the deck and the coach roof together. Eventually I borrowed a circular saw and made cuts along the area I was ripping out and took it out strip by strip. It turned out to be hard work and getting the old screws out was time consuming and a struggle.

This year I found to be particularly hot and with the high humidity here, work was extremely uncomfortable. My daily routine was to start work at first light, usually around 0530 and work through ‘til about 10 ish when the sun was getting high and hot. I would then go down below and sit under one of our little 12 v fans with a bottle of cold water and wait ‘til I had cooled down and dried off and then after about half an hour I would get back to work again until I was too uncomfortable and then back down below. By about 1600 it was starting to be bearable again and I could work then until dark (usually around 1830) and cook some supper, shower and then to bed. Don't let anybody tell you that this cruising life is an easy ride!!

Anyway back to the coach roof. Once I had cleaned up all the now exposed wood I noted that the carlings were in good shape I epoxied them to seal them from any further exposure to rot and prepared to replace the sides. Getting hold of marine ply as we know it in UK is practically impossible here, however there is a product called marine tech ply which is a rather knotty birch faced ply and 'good one side' with little evidence of voids between the laminates. Not a lot of good if you need to varnish, but with a bit of fine filler and a good sanding it's OK for a painted surface. The coach roof sides are 3/4 inch thick but the cockpit is one and a half inches thick so that meant two layers. I managed to select an area of the ply with no knots for the inner layer that took a nice mahogany stain so is in keeping with the rest of the cockpit. With the sides on, all that was needed was a lick of paint and to fit the port lights, just two on the port side.

I also had acquired some second hand opening port lights last season. One was a ‘Vetus’ type with one catch missing and the other two were an old fashioned type made of bronze and had been chromed at some stage of their lives. I had contemplated getting them re-chromed but decided that they would have to be disassembled and the risk of losing something was not worth it. So I decided they would just have to be painted. The seals were beyond use on these so I had to think about replacing them. Have you any idea about how many different types of window seals there are on the market? Of course the main problem was that I did not know the make of the port lights or even the country of origin. So I soon realised that I would have to make them myself and I also knew that they really had to work as we get a lot of water along the decks and on to the sides of the coach roof.

On our voyage I had been considering for a long time to purchase a small portable welding plant but kept debating whether I would get enough use out of it on our boat. Anyway, last season I decided to bite the bullet and bought a small 70 amp jobbie. I also got some mild steel and some stainless steel welding rods. This little machine, whilst not that easy to use, has proved to be a godsend. I made a new catch for the Vetus type port light using some small bore stainless tube and some thin flat bar, finding a spring in the local hardware store and the job was a good'un. This window was smaller than the original opening so I had to splice in some more ply and cut out the hole and got a good fit. I plastered the joint surfaces with 3m 5200 mastic and slid it into place only to find that the frame was made for a 3/8 inch thick mount and I had 3/4 inch to fit it to. I usually do a 'dry fit' in these circumstances but for some reason I was confident it would work. Anyway 'I got it wrong Dad!' I had to remove the sticky frame and clean it all up again. As anyone who has handles the type of mastic we use, it is sometimes easier to let it dry a little to clean it off but the rain was threatening. I then had to use my router to rebate the ply to the correct thickness. With mastic flying everywhere I was not a pretty sight, but I managed to get it fitted just before a torrential downpour.

Whilst doing other jobs I was still thinking of how I was going to be able to fashion the seals for the bronze port lights. The original ones have an 'L' shaped profile made from quite stiff rubber. Finding something even near proved impossible. Then one day, over a beer on Passagemaker skipper Peter said the had a small section of conveyor belting and that set me thinking again. So accepted his generosity and cut out a gasket to shape. I then had to use my router to thin the edges a little. That gave me a shallow 'L' shape and I built up the rest with some neoprene strip. Job sorted!

Over all the port lights I have also fitted a drip lath to help deflect rain water away from the openings. They probably should have been a little wider but that would start to interfere with our passage walking along the side decks. This seems to work quite well and we get very little water in when raining with them open.

The time was looming when I booked for a lift out, but many jobs were going on in the meantime. The biggest disruption to the boat was probably the installation of new stanchions and stanchion bases. To get at the bolts for the bases meant ripping out much of the sides of the interior and the headlining (ceilings to you landlubbers). When I installed this lot, I did not think I was going to have to remove it, so some had to be renewed, painted or varnished before fitting. This took time and a lot of discomfort as I was also living on the boat at the time. Any, it was well worth it as we now have posh stanchions that are a little higher than before. The previous ones were made from galvanised steel and had been on the boat for 40 years so they hadn't done too bad.

The day eventually came for lift out. It was delayed a little as Mike, the hoist driver, was trying to reserve a space for me where I could set up my workshop. They're getting to know me too well here!!. No complications lifting out and Mike had found me a good spot in the yard with a bit of space so I could lift the masts and store beside the boat. Barnacles were abundant on the bottom as they are on every boat that spends any time in Trinidad waters, but I was pleasantly surprised at the way the paint had stayed on this season. There were a few areas where it seemed as though there was a reaction but not as much work needed this year. These areas I sanded off and sealed with two coats of Ameron sealer. This is a two part product which is much thinner that epoxy and so will penetrate into the matrix much better ,I hope. I then applied two layers of anti foul to these areas before anti fouling the whole hull. This year we once again used Jotun’s Sea Queen, one coat of black, then a coat of red and them another of black. The reason for the different colours is that it is often difficult to see where you have painted using the same colour and also it is difficult to see if you have actually covered sufficiently. When using two colours you can be sure, and anti foul is not something I like to skimp on. Using two colours will also tell us how the anti foul is eroding and where.

The other reason for lifting out was to attend to the masts. As I mentioned earlier we have been getting some damage to the top of the masts from the yards when in a sloppy sea with no winds. I have fendering on the yards to prevent this damage but it seems that the culprit is the block for the yard parrel which I am altering. In the meantime I decided to offer some protection to the masts albeit sacrificial and hopefully prevent any serious damage in the future. The top section is 6" diameter tube so once the masts were out, I repaired the damaged areas and repainted the masts and managed to get some 6" plastic drain pipe. This proved to be a little more than 6 "  inside diameter so I cut down the length of the tube and squeezed the pipe on to the mast using hose clips and gluing the joint with a special solvent cement. I then faired it off with epoxy filler and sanded it all down. I had made the mast head fittings a little oversized so that I could insulate the galvanised steel from the aluminium mast, as as luck would have it the mast head fittings fitted snugly over the plastic pipe as if they were made for the job. I am half expecting that any serious clanking against the mast may shake the pipe loose as it it difficult to stick plastic to another material, but the pipe will not come off as it is well held in position by the mast head fitting.

 have also had problems with the fore mast twisting in its boot. This mast has a forward rake and seems to be a lot more powerful, thus there are twisting forces which I had anticipated. As well as a bolt through the bottom of the mast, I have a securing band at the base which in turn bolts to a thickening of the hull. But still it twists and has elongated the bolt hole. Last time I took the masts out I fitted a blocking bolt to the hole but this was ineffective. So this time I made up a curved plate with my trusty welder out of 1/4 inch stainless steel and bolted it to the inside of the mast, so hopefully this will keep it all square.

Once the masts were lifted in and secured, it was time to launch again. Everything went smoothly and I had to move my workshop back down to my dock which took several trips with my bike and trailer. I still had much of the interior of the boat to put back together and the forward bulkhead to remove and reinstall. This proved to be more of a headache than I thought and working in this heat in a confined space did not inspire much enthusiasm, so I decided to do just one bit at a time. Consequently what I had thought I could get done in a couple of days, took nearly three weeks!

The windlass has given us good service and I would recommend that anyone going cruising should have an electric one. It is no effort to lift your anchor again and again if you are not happy with your position and move whereas if it was manual you may be tempted to leave it especially after a hard voyage. Our windlass came with bolt holes for 8 mm and during the last season I noticed that there was some movement in the unit as we raised anchor, so I decided to drill out the mounting holes and fit 10 mm bolts. I am also fitting new foot switches and rewiring the whole system. This is one piece of kit I want to keep working well.

The shower tray had a slight fall to one end so the water always lay and didn't drain off, so I decided to try to adjust it. I needed to raise one end about 1/4 of an inch (5 mm to you metricised people), however that little bit job had consequences with all the surrounding  pieces of deck (flooring) so another potentially easy job turned into another couple of days.

Another project that I have underway is to make up a de-mountable mast for the Ampair wind generator. Our Kiss wind generator is a good performer but does little until the winds reach 10 - 12 knots. The Ampair will generate at lower wind speeds but has nothing like the power. However we also use it as a towing generator, but whilst at anchor of course it does nothing. We need as much power as we can possibly get to keep our batteries topped up and the freezer running so I thought it prudent if we could still utilise the Ampair. It was previously mounted where the Kiss is now situated, but there is no more room on the rear gantry so I have been trying to find suitable material for the job. The answer came when our then neighbours on Alba were fitting a new gantry and no longer needed their radar pole and donated it to the El Lobo benevolent fund. It is a little larger in diameter than I would have wanted, but hell, the price was right!! The mast will mount on the toe rail and has struts to brace it in position. Then of course there will be the wiring to do but hopefully that will be completed before we leave Trinidad.

For these port lights I now have to find a way of preventing the tiny uninvited guests from getting into the boat. Alan from Freya of Clyde had fitted new port lights on his boat and donated his old screens to the El Lobo fund and I have been busy trying to resize and reshape them to fit ours with some success. They were made of chromed brass, so once the chrome was removed the frames could be soldered to the right size. However my first attempts with my blow torch were a little too vicious and the mesh overheated so I just epoxied the mesh to the frame. I have since acquired a more powerful electric soldering iron and my recent efforts have been a little more professional!

I have also made up a new holder for the cling film and aluminium foil and a new mug rack as our favourite mugs wouldn't fit!! The poor old dinghies have been a little neglected this season so I need to offer them a little TLC before we set off.

Unfortunately there are no photos of the work being done as my cameras were in UK being serviced but for the most part all you would have would have seen would have been a mess.

Our plans now are to move North once we leave here and head eventually to the US and work our way up to Canada but anything can happen between here and there. Watch this space!!

December 2011

Happy New Year everybody!

Well time seems to move quickly when you are tackling so many projects and here we are still with much to do. However we can just see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Much of my time this month has been taken up with bringing the dinghies up to scratch. A dinghy here is almost a survival tool as without one you are basically stranded on the boat. We have a hard dinghy which I built back in the UK and an inflatable. Well, inflatables seem to have become my nightmare. I suppose you get what you pay for but we just cannot afford the Hyperlon dinghies, even the cheapest are over a thousand pounds. So we are stuck with PVC and it is difficult to find one that was not slung together in China. Our latest purchase is a Uship dinghy with an inflatable floor and keel, just 8 months old. Nice dinghy and a bit posh for us but after a couple of test runs, the transom fell out. This also happened to our last two dinghies so I decided to try something a little different this time. The glue supplied with the dinghy wont even stick on your fingers, so I managed to find some two-part adhesive at a local chandler.

Now, as in most operations of this type, preparation is the key, but when I inspected the material to be joined, it was apparent that there had been no attempt to abrade the material before adhesive had been applied. Now I don't know if they have any special chemicals to apply before the adhesive, but if they do, it doesn’t work! As clever as the Chinese are, they still haven't discovered the formula for the glue that was used on the Avon and Zodiac dinghies that stayed together for decades. So I set to to abrade the material which went well, and too easy the old adhesive came off. For the awkward places, right down to the bottom corner of the transom, I carefully used the Dremel to clean the fabric. I noticed that the glue I was using was not produced in China but in the UK, so I had a little more confidence in the operation. The instructions said to apply as much pressure to the joining surfaces as possible, so I made up some plywood formers so that I could clamp them either side of the transom on both sides to keep the pressure on. I also used some rope across the transom to the carrying handles either side. Big Mistake!! One of the handles pulled off.

I then made teak plates to clamp the ears to the transom to hold the PVC to the wood and bolted them through bedded with plenty of 3M 5200 mastic. That stuff sticks just about anything. Hopefully that will keep the engine from falling off at least.

The hard dinghy also needed some attention. We had no intention of bringing this dinghy with us initially but it was so stable when we put it in the water that I felt it would be prudent to take it with us. I built it from all the wrong materials, not a bit of marine ply or hardwood on it so there has been some rot in places over the years which I replaced with some fibreglass or epoxy as appropriate. Once we made the decision to take it with us, I did fibreglass the bottom and added some side keels. Last year I added some stainless rubbing strips to the keels. However when I inspected the dinghy this year I noticed that most of the stainless steel screws has in fact disintegrated, so I replaced them with silicon bronze screws. However the main problem was that the thwart (seat to the landlubbers) had some rot, so I replaced it with some more ply and epoxied it before painting.

The mast for the Ampair is now in place and just awaits the wiring, which I will attack probably once we get away.

I built our aft gantry out of galvanised 1” water pipe with the intention of it being a prototype and then we planned to get another built out of stainless with modifications made as we felt would be needed. The gantry has worked well and we are satisfied with it so far. However the main tube was not long enough to go the full distance from one side, up to the full height, into a bow and down to the other toe rail. So I had to join a piece to get the length. This weld was not of course galvanised and it started to give me concern last year as the rust peeked through the many layers of paint it had received since. So in the meantime I was keeping my eye open for some more pipe of the same dimensions to effect a repair. I eventually found some that was in the possession of my good friend Peter on Passagemaker. When I started to chip off the rust my chipping hammer went through the material in one place, so I had caught it none too soon. It was more than a bit awkward to get my unbending body out through the bottom of the gantry and bent round to make the weld to the out side of the pipe so I got the hard dinghy round to that side to effect the weld. That was one ‘hellova’ challenge. Even on a calm day the movement of the water in my small dinghy, made holding the arc almost impossible, so I borrowed a welding hood so that I had a free hand to brace myself against the rocking of the dinghy and managed to build up the rusted area, smoothed it off with the hand grinder and prepared the sleeve for reinforcing the strut. Hopefully that will keep it upright without falling overboard for another couple of years.

At present we are tackling painting the coach roof and deck and also fitting some new strings to the rigging and once finished we should be ready to head north or south even, subject of course to whether we decide to stay once more for the Carnival. I have always said that I have no agenda and I'm sticking to it!

January 2012

Well folks here we are in yet another year with not a lot of change to the old routine of work and play.

This month has seen us finishing off the work on the dinghies and we are just waiting for some canvas covers to be made.

On the boat we had a problem with the shower sump. The original was a Johnson self contained unit with float switch and pump. This failed after about 6 months so I had to build another whilst we were in Spain I had to make it out of some rather gash plywood and lined it with fibreglass, however I could not obtain any sort of resin whether polyester or epoxy, all the local chandler had was some two part gel coat. It took three days to dry but has lasted well in the circumstances but now it has given up the ghost and rotted through. So I have now built another, to the same dimensions but with some decent ply and coated it with three coats of epoxy. I have also built in a sludge trap to make cleaning a little less of a chore. I was surprised how much sludge is produced just from showering. Soap, dead skin and hair make a pretty unpleasant concoction!

I completed wiring the windlass only to find that it was making a rather unpleasant grinding noise. So I took it off the boat and on to my bench and took it apart. The rear thrust bearing had disintegrated along with the thrust washer. It is a Lofrans Tigres which is made in Italy. The local agents did not have the spares I needed and I was fearing that I would have to send to Italy for the parts. However I put out a request on the cruisers' net and got a good response that led  me to a bearing specialist that had what I needed. However the cover plate that holds the cross shaft had all but disintegrated and needed replacement so I have had to go to a machine shop to get another made. So hopefully we will have a fully reconditioned windlass soon.

I have fitted larger outlets for our water catching system. During a heavy rainstorm, we were losing a lot of potential water supply because the pipe was just too small a diameter to cope with the flow. So I have enlarged up to a 1” diameter so that hopefully one good downpour will fill the tanks. We have a tank just under the cockpit which is higher than the other two tanks, and whilst we do have individual fillers to each tank, by filling the tank under the cockpit we can actually fill the other tanks from it by opening the relevant valves on the manifold that feeds the domestic water pump. So hopefully now, when it rains, each time it will save me another trip in the dinghy with the jerry cans to fetch water.

Apart from that we are steadily preparing for painting and varnishing which takes up a lot of time, when it's not raining that is. Down below I am gradually rewiring the boat, one stage at a time. When I originally wired the boat I used ordinary household wire as the tinned wire was so expensive in the UK apart from the unavailability. This has proved to be folly and I am now rectifying that false economy.

The other problem I have had is with my archery. I broke my longbow at the Trinidad Nationals last year, not that I was taking part as they do not have a class for longbows, but I was shooting at a side target when the bow broke. I shoot at the Michael Mackenzie range of the Points Archery Club here in Chaguaramus most Saturdays. So I ordered another bow. The club here has been really great and they have a bow there that I can use and still shoot bare-bow. This time I am getting an Hungarian Horse Bow which is built in the traditional Asiatic style with horn and sinew and is much shorter than my old longbow making it easier to store on the boat. It arrived in Trinidad on December 20th and remained in some warehouse until Jan 6th when the TTPost got hold of it. It was then transferred to Customs who held on to it for another week or so and then was released back to TTPost who also took their time delivering it to Chaguaramus. When it eventually arrived at the local post office I then had to take it to Customs for inspection who immediately impounded it. It then went back to Port of Spain Customs House and when I made the journey to retrieve it armed with letters from the Trinidad and Tobago Archery Federation, but was told that it was now in the hands of the Police. Things happen slowly here especially with anything to do with the authorities. My letters are now in the hands of the Secretary of The Commissioner of Police and I now await a letter authorising the release of the bow. I have had great support from my friends in the club who have been advising me of the steps to take to recover the bow. It has been a very frustrating three weeks up to now.

Anyway, with the best laid plans of mice and men we have decided to delay our visit to the USA as there are a few issues with their Immigration and the length of stay permitted that we need to clarify. Also Pat has to return to UK for more tests. So after Carnival we will head South to the Monamo River which forms part of the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela. There will be some navigation issues as there are no charts for the part that we are going to, just sketches and way points made by other cruisers that have been there in the past.

February 2012

This has been the month of the Carnival so I have not taken on any more projects other than to try to finish off the jobs outstanding to make ready to sail. So not a lot to report from my section. By the time you read this we will be on our way to Venezuela. Not a long trip, just about 50 miles or so, and our intended destination is the Monamo River which is a tributary within the Orinoco Delta.

Work wise, the windlass has been rebuilt replacing seals and bearings obtained locally. I had a new side plate made by a machine shop in the next yard which was a good fit but had to get a little more turned out to allow some clearance for the thrust bearings and everything seemed to go back together well. However, I am not completely happy with the result and will probably be stripping it out again when we return as the sound is not all that encouraging. We will just have to see how it goes in Venezuela.

The dinghies are now both in good shape so hopefully I won't have to worry too much about our transportation in the rivers. We have had a new covers made for the inflatable that will hopefully protect it from the UV and give it a bit longer life here in the hot sun. With the new wooden floor it really is much more of a serviceable and working dinghy.

I have re-rigged much of the running rigging for the sails and hopefully that will see us through for a few more seasons. I have a couple of jobs to do at the top of the main mast but that can wait until we reach the calmer waters of the Venezuelan Rivers. We have acquired some growth to the hull whilst being back in the water but hopefully we will loose a lot of that when we reach the fresh water. Otherwise I may have to dive down to clean the hull. A daunting prospect when we hear from our friends that went there last year and commented on how tasty the piranhas were that they caught there!! Well maybe the fishing will be good.

As I mentioned, The Manamo is a named river that is actually a part of the Orinoco Delta. The whole delta flows partly into the Atlantic and partly into The Gulf of Paria. The Gulf is formed by the shape of the west coast of Trinidad and the mainland of Venezuela and basically separates the two countries. To the north of the Gulf is the Paria peninsular of Venezuela which juts out eastwards to almost the island of Chacachacare which belongs to Trinidad. Then there is a small channel and then Manos Island and The North West corner of Trinidad. Trinidad forms the east of the Gulf and the Serpents Mouth is the channel to the south between Trinidad and Venezuela.

We will be headed for the town of Pedernales where we will check in although this is not an official 'Port of Entry'. From there we intend to venture up river and anchor in amongst the jungle and inevitably meet up with the local natives, The Warao Indians. Tourism has not hit this area as yet although they are familiar with yachts visiting the area. There will be some trading and exchanging of various goods and we have stocked up with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, dressmaking materials and fishing tackle as well as bits of rope and old used tools. We also have a few gifts for the bairns.   These are usually traded for woven goods and local fruit etc. The supermarket chains have not ventured thus far as yet although we are told that there is a fantastic bakery in Pedernales.

So watch out for next months edition of the El Lobo Hobos when we hope to have some fantastic photos and stories to tell.

March 2012

This month is basically all about our visit to Venezuela and the Manamo River which as you will gather from Pat's main page is a small part of the Orinoco Delta. We had arranged with four other boats that were to accompany us, that the slower boats would leave at around midnight and the faster boats would leave nearer dawn. The 'slower' boats were El Lobo and Leila with Cheal although a faster boat, to leave at about the same time. We were on the dock at Power Boats, bows-to and made fast to piles astern. I thought it prudent to leave during daylight and anchor until time to leave. So a few of our friends came round to wish us well and help with our lines. We cast off, but when I went to engage the engine astern, nothing happened. I shouted to Pat to throw back the lines and we were just quick enough to be able to get back on to the dock before getting into an embarrassing situation. When I checked the gearbox I discovered that the 'saddle' that held the control cable to the gearbox had rusted away so that as we operated the control lever, it was just waving about in the air and not selecting the gears. I just cannot understand why they still use ordinary steel for so many parts on a marine engine. Anyway, I took the arrangement off and showed it to our friends on Modestine and Steve announced that he thought he had something that would fit. Sure enough he had a small stainless steel saddle that was just the right size. Thanks Steve.

Well back to the boat to fit the saddle. These saddles are held in position with very small screws and of course it is positioned in amongst a variety of pipes and cables that are conveniently placed to make it almost impossible to get your fingers into the right position without dropping a screw into the bowels of the bilge. Try as I may I had difficulty in getting myself into the right position so I tied up a couple of pipes to be able to get at the bracket, but when I released the pipe, unknowingly, the other end of the pipe had come off its spigot. When I started the engine to test the gears I left it running as we were now ready again to cast off. Now of course the engine overheated and the alarm went off. My first reaction was to check the impeller in the raw water cooling pump, and sure enough a couple of vanes were off. There was rubber from the impeller in the outlet port which was jammed in tight, so I had to remove the pipe to get it out. It was then that I discovered that the pipe was also off at the other end. Getting that end of the pipe back on proved to be the hardest part of the whole operation as it was tucked in tight between the alternator and the heat exchanger, and of course the engine was still very hot!! With scorched knuckles and the utterance of a few words not in any dictionary that I know of, I managed to everything back as it should be. So now we decided to stay on the dock, get some rest and cast off again at midnight.

Midnight came and we cast off and motored out into the bay where the other boats were, we assumed, getting ready to go. The only response we got was from Ian on Leila. He was just raising his anchor so we motored slowly out of the bay and waited for him to catch up. There was little wind. No one else came out so we just kept motoring or motor-sailing when the odd puff of wind came up.

We were heading for Pedernales which is in a south westerly direction from Chaguaramus and about 50 miles. The river entrance has shoals. We were given way points to follow that keeps you to the channel and we headed for way point no 1. The wind was directly behind us and we were hoping that it would veer some before we returned. This trip is contained with the Gulf of Paria which is squareish and is bordered on two sides by Trinidad and the other two by Venezuela. The waters flow in and out through the Bocas to the North and the Serpents Mouth to the South East. There is a strong flow through the Serpent's Mouth which does affect your course tending to push you west. There are no tidal atlases for this area so trying to get an accurate course calculation is basically a waste of time. We just aimed for a good easting from the rumb-line and adjusted when we got a little nearer.

When we were about 7 miles off we got a call on the VHF from Cattiva who could see our sails. She is a Beneteau 38 and quite quick and he must have brought the wind with him because just as we neared the first way point and the start the wind picked up with a vengeance as we entered the channel. He also brought news that 'Cheal' who was also supposed to be with us, had developed engine problems and so had to turn back. We soon realised that we had arrived about half way through the ebb tide so despite the wind we had motor hard for the next few miles to Pedernales.

Ian on 'Leila' led the way as he had visited here many times before. We anchored just off the town and made our way ashore to the river police station where we checked in. Pedernales is not actually a port of entry so no clearance documents were issued but we did manage to persuade the officer on duty to stamp our passports, which he should not really have done.

During our discussion before the trip, Ian had advised us not to take extra fuel as the fuel was cheaper there, he didn't say how much though. So the next day we loaded all our jerry cans into Ian's dinghy and I towed it around the point to the 'fuel jetty'. We just needed diesel. Now this jetty was something to be observed and not for the faint hearted. I would say that it was built probably in the sixties and nothing done to it since. It originally had about 12 X 6 inch steel tubes supporting it of which five were still attached to the walkway above. It was some shape. It is too shallow to get a keeled boat alongside. The local boats just use petrol (gasoline to our Yankee friends) so there is a plastic pipe running down the jetty to the boats. They usually fill a couple or more 45 gallon drums in their boats. There is no nozzle or tap on this hose. It is all 'controlled' by the operator who is way up the bank. The hose is just kinked over as is it passed from boat to boat, petrol dripping all the way. On the occasion that we were there the hose parted and the full bore from a 2” pipe just gushed through the jetty and on to the mud beach where we were. Eventually one of the boatmen just pinched up the two pieces of hose and pushed them back together and carried on. No sign of a hose clamp or anything so sophisticated.

Anyway, we clambered up this muddy bank to the pumps and got our jerry cans filled. I had four 5 gallon cans. I was amazed when the guy asked me for just 5 Bolivars. That's a little less than 50 pence, bearing in mind that there are 7 Bolivars to the US dollar. So we made our way back around the headland and the boats. We took another trip ashore and discussed our plans. We would set off the next day for Ibis Island. However when we got back on board, we spotted a sailboat coming up the river. It was 'Cheal'. Alan had fixed his engine and had had a good sail down. So now our flotilla was four. We stayed an extra day here so Alan and crew could have a good look around the town.

Next we were off south and up river a short distance to Ibis island where we had hoped to see some Scarlet Ibis as the name suggested. We anchored at the south end of the island, but not a bird to be seen.

Alan had trouble with his furling gear. The swivel at the top of the fore stay had jammed so he had to climb the mast, several times. He has mast steps all the way up which made things easier for him, but just another chore just the same.

After a couple of days we arrived at the Boca de Tigre and anchored off the Eco-lodge there. Here we first experienced the Water Hyacinths. These just float on the surface with roots into the water generally around six inches to a foot on the larger clumps. These play hell with outboard props as you can imagine but generally do not interfere with the deeper props of the boats. However, Cattiva, being a lighter boat has much less hull in the water and suffered with the roots getting under the hull and into his water intake and blocking the grille. The water visibility was nil so Maurice had to dive under the boat and feel for the intake, and after a couple of dives he managed to grab a handful of roots to clear the intake grille. He still had to clear the strainer but eventually the system was clear and the cooling water flowing back to full stream.

Whilst at Boca de Tigre, Leila also had a problem. He ran aground quite hard and couldn't get himself off when he was about quarter of a mile from the anchorage. Maurice and I went to his assistance in our dinghies and with not a little effort, we managed to drag him free. That was not the last of the groundings.

Our next port of call was the Orinoco Delta Lodge. This was up a narrower cut where the concentration of the Hyacinths became more dense. Getting ashore became a challenge. I tried to use the outboard motor in shallow water mode with the prop almost at the surface with the view that I could just mash up the plants as I made progress. It worked quite well at the time but I suffered later. On one long trip, the outboard overheated and stopped. Some of the debris had entered the cooling system and restricted the flow. The water from the bleed-off was scalding to touch. It took a few trips at low revs for it to clear. My intention is to check and possibly change the impeller, but on our arrival back to Trinidad, I found that the main dealers for Tohatsu, Budget Marine, do not carry many spares so I will have to wait for a delivery. Another story for another time.

When we arrived at this lodge it was raining heavily. A couple of months ago I had increased the size of the pipes on our rain water catching system and this proved worth while. We had soon refilled our tanks. We do not carry a water-maker and even those boats with had them installed, they would not be able to use them in this river as the water is heavily laden with silt and peat. I now have some more ideas to improve and extend our system.

We made our way upriver and as we progressed we could see that the people were becoming more civilised and I saw the first tractor. Gradually, agriculture was quite prevalent with horses, cattle, pigs and a few water buffalo.

We arrived At Boca de Uracoa on the Sunday night and woke on Monday to see that it was market day. We decided to get some more fuel here but as it was market day there was huge queue so we decided to wait ‘til the next day. Much the same procedure as in Pedernales even to the parting of the hose and the subsequent leakage.

There is a power wire across the river here which was brought down by a large yacht a few months earlier. This incident cut off power to a few communities and was fresh in the minds of the locals. We had thought of proceeding further up river but we were told that there were five more wires across the river before the next town and that they were actually lower than this one. So 'discretion being the better part of valour' we decided to head back down river and explore some of the side rivers we had seen on our way up. We then took a cut through the jungle that led to the Pedernales river. This was quite narrow in places with overhanging trees and turned out to be a good adventure.

We joined the main river and motored north, having one overnight stop on the way back to Pedernales. Here we had hoped to top up with fuel again so this time we went round to anchor nearer the jetty. Leila and Cheal managed to get in quite close but unfortunately, El Lobo struck bottom once again and had to beat a hasty retreat. As it happened they were not dispensing fuel that day anyway. Once we had managed to get confirmation that we were not to get fuel we decided that we may as well head back to Trinidad.

So once we had all got our boats back to 'sailing mode' again we set off down river to the open sea. However it was still on the flood tide so we had slow progress for the first few miles, and once past the tide line we started to get a bit of a lift from the current through the Serpent's Mouth. The wind of course was not exactly in our favour and we were pushed westwards for a while. All went well for a while and then the wind dropped, so we were motoring.

We soon got a call from Leila saying that his stuffing box had sheared. I feared the worst as this would normally mean water gushing into the boat and I knew that his pumping system would not be adequate enough to cope. We made haste to his position to assist. It turned out that it was the drive coupling that had sheared and that there was no water egress after all. However, he now had no drive so we dropped our sails and took him in tow and tried to haul him as far east as we could. After a couple of hours, the wind freshened up again so we released him so that he could sail. We hoisted sail once again, but had difficulty getting the foresail up. The sea was fairly short and choppy and we were being bounced about a bit and for some reason we could only get about two thirds of the foresail up. It was dark and I couldn't see what the problem was so we just had to sail with what we had up. Come daylight I discovered that the flag halyard had found its way into the bottom block of the sail halyard. The flag halyard was tied to the sail-catcher which in turn had been lifted up out of reach so I couldn't untie it. I tried lowering the sail but it wouldn't come down at all. I tied a sharp knife to a boat hook and managed to cut the flag halyard, which at least lowered the bottom section of the sail. I then sweated up the sail a little to try to release the tangle. It went up with effort, but still it wouldn't come down. By this time the wind had dropped a little and there was still about 15 miles to go. We motor sailed the rest of the way and back into Chaguaramus bay.

With the full foresail still up we gently coasted into the anchorage seeking a mooring buoy. Luckily there was one free in a good position and we managed to ghost up to it without too much of a problem and secure the boat. Alan on Cheal was on the next mooring and I had witnessed that he was a bit of a 'mast monkey'. He had his head down when we arrived but as soon as he showed himself, I shouted him across. In my younger days I might have attempted it myself and if we were on our own, I would have had to get up there. However Alan very kindly came over and with a safety line he climbed up the battens to the top of the sail and cut free the flag halyard. Once he was down, a sharp tug on the sail halyard was all that was needed to free the sail and down it came. Well done Alan and many, many thanks. We had hoped to arrive back in Trinidad fully fuelled up with full tanks and jerry cans from Venezuela but finished up with about the same amount of fuel as we started with.

We stayed on the mooring for about a week and then moved back into our old slip at 'C' Dock in Power Boats. Work now starts with a vengeance. I need to replace the starboard side of the coach-roof. You may remember that I had replaced the port-side last year. I also replace the back of the cockpit when I noticed that there was rot on the starboard side that until then I was unaware of. I also replace three port lights on the starboard side which were not the same size of shape as the previous ones so that I had to splice in 'filler' pieces. Whilst the job went well and the pieces were a good fit and well epoxied in, I will feel a lot happier when they are let into a solid piece. I still have some issues with the water tanks and I have also discovered some rot on the roof of the doghouse.

Pat flies home for four weeks at the beginning of April so I have much to do in the meantime. And I thought I had retired!!!!!

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