2024-11-02 Last days in Trinidad and sailing back to Grenada

We did some more exploring at Chacachacare.  Hiked up to the abandoned buildings and walked around.  Think the buildings were a church, living quarters and the hospital for the leper colony.

Buildings were nice at one time, with covered verandas

Nice view of the anchorage

Kitchen areas were outside the main buildings

Don't know what the odd shaped cutouts in the walls in the hospital were

Showering and toilet facility

Dean being goofy

Lots of black vultures on the roof and in the building added a bit of creepiness

Next day we headed to a different anchorage, as Chacachacare had gotten to be a bit choppy and rolly in the afternoons.  We needed to put up our sails, and mark reefing points on our halyards, and figured doing it in the daylight would be best, as when we left Trinidad, we would be leaving in the dark.   Had a nice sail, with lots of tacking but got all the reef points marked.  We anchored in Scotland Bay, which  was quite nice and calm.   We could hear the howler monkeys in the forest.

We checked out of Trinidad - took 1 hour, and we never waited in line, we were the only ones checking out.   Lots of paperwork, and lots of copies and stamping and initializing and signing.   Had a nice lunch out, and stopped by to see Bruce and Sandra on Namid.  They were hauled out, and flying out that same day that we were leaving as well.   

Chaguaramas Trinidad anchorage

We spent our last Trinidad cash at the store, and rested until 7:00 p.m, then set sail in the dark for Grenada.  Did spend some time getting our Grenada courtesy flag ready, as it was a bit torn and faded from use.

A good selection of sharpie markers is great for coloring flags

Nice sunset for our last night in Trinidad

Had a nice sail, left at 7pm and arrived around 9:00 a.m.  Showered, checked in, and walked to the grocery and hardware store before back on the boat for lunch and needed naps.

Next day we moved over to St. George's, which is the largest town and capital of Grenada.  We took a mooring for a week, as the area in front of St. Georges is a marine park.

Went to town, and got a Digicel sim card for internet, and just walked around a bit, and got a few groceries

Industrial area of main harbor

Lots of pleasure and fishing boats in inner harbor

Busy streets with lots of stores

Narrow streets as well

Today we head off on a tour of the rain forest and more.

2024-10-27 Back in the water - out to Chacachacare Island

We are back in the water – woo-hoo.

Hauled out on August 9th, spent 5 days working on the boat, then flew to Boise for 48 days, then back to the boat for 23 days.

What we accomplished:

• Sanded off old bottom paint, marked and raised the waterline.
• Buffed and waxed and polished the hull and deck.
• Replaced engine impellers
• Checked and replaced bolts on bow anchor roller
• Painted sail drives and props
• Fixed anchor swivel (Wasi ball)
• New bottom paint
• New striping at waterline and rub rail
• Took off sails and reinstalled, doing minor sail repair to jib and mainsail cover
• Removed and replaced 16 above water thru hulls
• Changed oil, filter, and gear oil for outboard
• New membrane in water maker
• Switched props intentionally after last haul out mistake, so switched them back and had to switch controls to match.
• Had new shelf bracket made
• Touch up paint on boom
• New seal on starboard engine rear crankcase
• Changed oil on both engines and sail drives
• Cleaned, cleaned and cleaned – boatyards are dirty.

Seems like a pathetic list, and we did have some off time having lunch with friends, bussing to the store and such. Most of the work was done by Dean, sanding, buffing, waxing and polishing.

Our time off was mostly spent with new and old friends.  We had a nice lunch out with our friends Peter and Iris on IP.  They were going to launch same day as us, but are delayed a week now.  We took a trip to the mall to get a phone sim card so we can have data after we leave the boatyard.  We have Starlink, but they have changed the rules, and technically only allow you out of home country for 2 months a year, so we don’t know what may happen when we turn it back on.  We want to be north of Grenada when we do, as Grenada is not an authorized area for Starlink.  So we went to the mall to the Digicel store to get a sim card.  Mall already decorated for Christmas.

Christmas decorations up in the mall

Palm trees and Christmas lights - not in Idaho anymore

Had a nice lunch out at the mall, got some groceries and took a honker back - the fellow who gave us a ride had a car that looked much nicer on the outside than inside - but oh well, we made it back just fine.


Most boatyards are dirty to some degree, but since the northern part of Trinidad also is commercial, with petroleum being a major industry we get a lot of dust and somewhat black dust at that. Hard to keep the hulls and deck clean when almost every day you get a fine coating of black dust. The yard is cheap, super friendly, and lots of resources, so you take the good with the bad.  But cleaning and polishing was done right before launching.

Black dirt embedded in window screens

Cleans up nice though

Kris doing the Strataglass cleaning and polishing on the dodger

Scrubbing the deck

Final polish of the hull

We spent a wonderful afternoon with Bruce and Sandra on Namid, at the pool, and then a delicious dinner on the boat.

Bruce and Sandra at the pool

Thursday morning, they lifted us onto the trailer, so we can paint the bottom of the keels.

Getting the trailer in position.

Our friends Peter and Iris from IP, watching the launch and seeing us off

Launching went smoothly, only one small hiccup, Kris forgot to tighten one of the hoses in the raw water system, so had a leak there, but it was quickly resolved, and we were on our way to Chacachacare Island.  The water here is much cleaner than in Chaguaramas bay.  We started up the water maker and put out shades, as no more air-conditioning, so we are sweaty and hot.

Charm looking good, back in the water again

Chacachacare used to be a leper colony, so some abandoned buildings to explore and a lighthouse to walk to.  History of Chacachacare here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chacachacare

Saturday we took a long sweaty hike up to the lighthouse.  754' above sea level.  

Paved road from the dock to the lighthouse.  Fairly steep grade in places

Nice view, and near the top must have been close to 50 corbeaux, or black vultures.  They sound like jets when they glide overhead.

We disturbed the black vultures (Cobeaux)

Venezuela is the island in the background

Lighthouse at the top, Kris is in the doorway

Heading down was sooo much easier than the walk-up

Quite a bit of trash on the beach where we landed the dink

One of the abandoned leper colony buildings.  Will do more exploration later

Today is more exploration of some buildings, and trying to stay shaded and cool.  Not sure when we will head north, sometime this week depending on weather.

2024-10-20 Another week on the hard - but getting close to done - and even had some fun outings

Work continues on the boat - we are almost done, so went ahead and scheduled launching for Friday the 25th.

This week was more polishing on the hull early in the week for Dean.  He also added reflective tape to the rub rail as well.   

Kris worked on doing some touch up painting on the boom, where we had some scratches, and installing the zincs and props on the sail drives.   We also switched the props, as Kris had messed up 2 years ago and put the port prop on the starboard side, and the starboard prop on the port side.  This haul out, we switched them back, which also meant switching the controls back as well.

Tuesday, we headed into town on a scheduled Maxi taxi trip to Pricesmart - which is kind of like a mini Costco.  Good trip, other than the torrential rain when we went to unload the groceries.

The yellow stripe vans are the Maxi Taxis - they run like a bus on a regular route, but irregular schedule

Putting away the stuff - $500 USD in groceries

Bought 10 lbs of Mozzarella cheese for our Friday pizza nights - back at boat, repacked them into 1/2 pound packages and used the seal a meal before putting the cheese in the freezer.

The first week we were back from Idaho we had a great week with little rain, but this last week it seems to rain starting around 1:00 every day, so we get up early, do projects in the morning, shower before lunch, then mostly inside the rest of the day.  When it rains - it really rains.

Rain coming down

We have a small ditch behind the boat for water runoff - it overflows during the hard rain.

Same ditch after the rain stops.

Another project was our anchor roller. It was looking rusty, so we took it off and polished up the metal.  There are 8 stainless all threads that go through the bow, with 4 of them holding on the anchor roller.  We were not going to take them off if we could get the nuts off - but we could not.  Broke one of them, so had to buy some more all thread and replaced 4 of the 8, with new nuts on all.

We worked on polishing up the anchor roller, and sanded the roller a bit to make it roll easier, as after we took it apart, it was obvious that the bolt was rolling more than the roller.

Kris polishing the anchor roller

You can see the plate the anchor roller bolts to, all polished up ready for new bolts

Our new all thread next to the old stuff.  Glad the old did not look that bad.

The bolt that holds the nylon roller on the anchor roller, you can see how grooved it is from spinning.  It should not spin, the roller should spin on it instead.

Kris wanted to also take off our Wasi Ball swivel from the anchor, just to check everything out.  Could not get it off, as a couple Allen screws were corroded tight.   Kris did not trust it if she could not check it, so we drilled out the screws, and took it to the machine shop on site.  They cleaned it up, and tapped it for new screws.  Cost us $35.

We had taken the sails off when we left the boat, so we worked on getting those back on.  We replaced the bolts and nuts that hold the battens on, and Kris sewed up a couple spots where the battens had worn holes in the fabric that holds them in.

Sewing up the jib batten pockets

On Thursday, we went out to dinner with Bruce and Sandra on Namid.  Namid is a Manta 42 as well. They are at the dock, and will be hauling out next week.   Had a great night visiting with them.

Pizza dinner with Sandra and Bruce on Namid.

On Saturday we went with Phil off Antevasin, a Fontaine Pajot catamaran on the hard next to us, and his mom Jill to the Saturday Fresh Market.  Jill was born in Trinidad, and Phil was very familiar with the area, and had his aunts' car to use while he was here, so we were quite lucky to get an invitation to go with them.  Had a good time seeing the sights on the way there, and walking the markets.

Surprised to see a lot of apples imported from Washington at the market

Not only food, but clothes as well

Mostly food though.  Most locally grown and quite cheaply priced

Spices were also available

Indoor open air meat market was next to the produce sections

In case you could not tell what meat it was, just check out the feet, and skin from the head of the cow.   

We have to touch up the paint on the boom a bit more.   We get a coat of dirt on the boat most days here in the boatyard from general dust in the air, and have black streaks down the side of the boat from it, so Dean will buff those out right before we go in the water, as well as putting bottom paint on the bottoms of the rudders.     Tomorrow we head to town for more groceries, and to look into a local sim card for the phone.