Just a little more work to do

Jim and Dick admire the "shiny thing"


This is the sort of thing I get excited about!! The first loaf I baked with my new silicone "tin"....definitely NOT shiny!


A lot of work has been done on the boat in the last few days. She is now antifouled with the strongest stuff you can buy...essential for these fertile waters. It was expensive but worth it I'm told. The hull is shiny again after all the rain washing dirt off the deck and leaving brown streaks eveywhere. Jim from Delicado has been very helpful lending a very practised hand to removing then cleaning up and replacing three of the hatches which were leaking....not good with the recent wet weather! The main hatch forward which is huge was especially awkward to do....took three days in all....very unpleasant in the heat and impossible in the rain.




The boat now has a new dinghy which will sit on the still incredibly shiny new davits and a rather splendid, new, equally shiny outboard, a Tohatsu 9.8 HP......As far as I'm concerned, this means that Moonshiner's tender is now the equivalent of a BMW compared with the old one which was more like a Trabant! It will make dinghy trips ashore a lot faster and drier. No more spending the evening sitting in salty damp shorts




The boat is due to go back in the water in a couple of days. it'll be nice to be afloat again...no more having to clamber down long ladders to go to the loo, fewer mozzies around and hopefully a cooling breeze most of the time. We plan to stay around Chaguaramas for just a couple of days because the water here is so dirty and oily...it'll quickly spoil the nice shiny hull!! Note how many times I have used the "shiny" word...this is because all the men around here seem to be especially attracted to all boaty things that gleam....chandleries are just too full of this stuff and are just impossible to pass by without buying something else shiny to add to the collection! Hmm..



We haven't done any organised bus trips to other parts of he island while so much work is being done but we may have time to do something next week. Monday the 31st is Independence day here, a national holiday with lots of events being staged. We plan to visit the Savannah (an open recreational space inside the world's biggest road roundabout near Port of Spain) where there will be lots going on all day, steel bands and fireworks etc. If we go, I'll try to get some photos.



OK, that's it for now. back to work......

So here we are back in dear old Trini…..just about to pour with rain for the afternoon just as it has been doing every day since we left….at least everything is looking very green as a result.It was also raining as we left Gatwick…there’s a lot of water up there at the moment!! At least three proper tropical depression/storms are also currently threatening the more northerly Caribbean Islands but we’re quite safe here as storms don’t reach this far south though we may experience some of the rain associated with them. The yard workers tell us that lots of yachts will be heading this way to shelter. I’m watching the progress on Wikipedia!

It’s nice to be back after some major travel hassle on the way here, thankfully now resolved. We flew Virgin Atlantic to Tobago then on via Caribbean Airlines to Trini which sounds simple enough except that my bag (with my whole life in it of course!!) got left on the Virgin aircraft along with several other unlucky passengers and so I experienced Caribbean bureaucracy tinged with inefficiency, which is quite normal I’m told except that it hadn’t happened to ME, yet……

My bag eventually turned up after two days at Piarco (Trinidad airport) and that was as far as anyone involved was prepared go so I had to get a taxi there and back….each way takes over an hour by road on a good day. At least the trip was cheap, only about £25 total…I don’t think that would even cover the petrol in the UK? My things were a bit squashed but otherwise undamaged thank goodness. I had some 100% Deet in there which would have been a disaster if it had leaked…….melted through the fuselage I should think!!

So, now settling back into life in the slow lane after five weeks visiting friends and family scattered across England and Guernsey. Everyone was very kind in putting me up and putting up with me too. I didn’t get to do half as much as I’d intended….far too much catching up to do…lots of socializing, eating out as well as watching all those awful but compulsive viewing TV programmes….I hope I will get regular updates from now on via email on Big Brother and Eastenders….well, not seriously you understand!

I was sorry to miss quite a few people while I was in Guernsey as I’m not sure just how long it will be before I am able to fly back from now on…it gets incredibly expensive as we head west beyond Panama. I am hoping that one or two people may actually be able to fly out to see us as we have fixed dates in some of the Pacific Islands with the Blue Water rally which we join in December in the San Blas Islands.

The boatyard workers were supposed to be getting on with a lot of work while we were away but it doesn’t look as though they’ve done much at all… (oh dear!).Pete on Troutbridge had the same problem when he returned. It’s been pretty busy though since our return and the boat now has a very nice shiny set of davits which were needed for the new dinghy…..hoping THAT will arrive soon along with a much more powerful outboard….fairly essential for the long dinghy rides around the Pacific Island coral reefs. I don’t fancy having to row those distances!

I have tried out the amazing new, vibrant orange (!) silicone bakeware set that I bought via the internet… I think the place is QVC, a shopping channel no less, but it works. The baking sheets make very good trays with the rigid edges and are very heat resistant too. No more burnt knees as we sit in the cockpit in the evenings eating dinner! It’s going to be brilliant too when we sail…nothing rattling around in the lockers and no more rusty tins to scrub. Maybe I should get a job promoting this stuff to other yachties?

The other thing that I’m looking forward to doing is making my own ear candles….don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! I have beeswax and calico and just need a little trial and error and a willing guinea pig or two!! On that note, more to follow with some up to date photos soon.....NOT of people having their ears done you will realise!!

Our plans are otherwise just to get the boat fit for relaunch as soon as possible maybe in about ten days. I’ll miss the airconditioning but not the noise it makes and just hope that we are moored far enough outside the mozzie belt….yes, they ARE still biting, mostly me of course……Hmm.