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.

2024-10-12 A week on the hard, and hard work

We did not have much excitement this week, just working on the boat.   

Kris finished all the engine work, so that is one item checked  off the list.  Our list is short, only about 26 items left to do.  Some are almost done - like bottom painting, but until it is 100% done, it stays on the list.

Each day we do a bit more.  Every day the humidity is high, and we sweat a lot.   

A big project was raising the waterline.   We did not need to, as we float higher than the current bottom paint line, but not by much, and with wave splashing, the boat was always dirty looking on the decorative vinyl striping that runs at the waterline.   In addition, the waterline was not level with how the boat floated, being higher in the bow and stern, and low in the middle.   So we tried to correct the uneven waterline, and raise the middle up 2 inches.    We won't know if we did a good job or not until we are floating again.

Part of raising the waterline is first marking it with tape.  We did several measurements while the boat was in the water, so used those, plus a laser level, to get the best line we could.   Then we had to sand the gel coat and apply the epoxy barrier coat, and then finally could put on the bottom paint.

Dean sanding the gel coat up to the line marked out by blue tape.  The electric sander died at 10%, so the rest was hand sanded 😖

Barrier coat done, now the bottom paint

Bottom is painted (except the bottom of the keel)

Once the bottom paint was on, then it was time to add the decorative striping.  It serves two purposes.  One is to make an easy to clean surface near the water.  The vinyl striping is easier to clean than the gel coat.  It also dresses up the boat a bit.

Kris working on putting on the blue vinyl striping.

After the 3" blue stripe is on, we were going to add a 1" green stripe that matched our sail covers, but the green was a bit too close in color to the blue, and we felt that from a distance would not really stand out, so we decided to add a somewhat white/gray stripe, as we had mistakenly ordered an extra roll of reflective tape, and decided to use it.   So now we have a reflective stripe at the water line, and will also add one on the rub rail, like we had before.

3" blue stripe, with 1" reflective white stripe - hope it looks OK.

Kris has been working on painting our props and hubs, getting them ready to go on.  We use a cold galvanizing paint that we have had good luck with.

Another project was to replace some above water thru hulls.   We had 15 above water thru hulls we removed before we left to visit back in the states.   It took almost a full day to put new ones in.  Each hole was cleaned, and then lots of sealant applied to ensure they were leakproof.  Dean was inside with the nut, and Kris was the sealant gooper outside.  Then all the hoses had to be put back on.  

New thru hulls 

Dean working on connecting the hoses back up.

There is a nice wood working shop here.  Love walking by it, such pretty wood waiting to be made into stuff for boats.   Dean had a great idea, we had one shelf fiddle rail bracket that had broken.  Dean suggested taking an unbroken one over, and see if we could get them to make a new one.   I walked over early in the morning, and they said they could make one.  It would be done in an hour.   Did not make it back until lunchtime, and they had completed it.   Asked the price, and they suggested a couple of beers.   

Off to the store, and bought 3 beers and 3 small bags of chips for the guys.  They were super happy, and we were super happy.  Custom piece of teak, made in one hour, and cost us less than $12 USD.

New shelf fiddle bracket on left, old on right.  Need to varathane it, but it looks great.

We did have a nice break on Friday, we took the bus to get groceries with Peter and Iris from IP, which is right next to us.  It is a Lagoon 42 catamaran.  They are a nice Swiss couple.  Had a good bus ride to the grocery store, and on the way back, a new experience.  In Trinidad to have Maxi taxi's, which are vans, with a yellow stripe, that run on a non-existent schedule, but frequently, and are about $7 TT per ride per person (about $1 USD).  Then there is the large normal bus, which is only $2 TT, but runs infrequently, but on schedule.  Then there are the honkers.  At least that is our name for them.  These are people just earning a bit of money, that when they see you walking or waiting for a bus, will honk, and if you wave them down, will pull over and give you a ride.  They charge a bit more than the Maxi taxi, but fewer stops.   

We took a honker back from the grocery store with all our stuff, and Peter and Iris's items in the trunk, and had a pleasant ride for only $10 TT each. (About $1.50 USD)  Our driver was a nice young man, who is a police officer.  He was off duty, but heading to work, so made some extra money giving us a ride.

It is interesting to compare our boat, to IP (Lagoon 42).  Even though they are the same length, the Lagoon looks soooo much larger.

IP on the left, and Charm on the right

So basically a week of long hot days and work - but that is boatyard life.  Look forward to the nice hot shower at the end of the day - except there is no hot water, so nice long cold shower - but not that cold, as the water is outside temperature - or slightly cooler, so mid 80s.

The shower/toilet facilities are pretty nice, and cleaned every day.

The shower/washrooms are not air-conditioned, and have funky swinging doors for the entrance, but clean and in decent shape.

Oh, and good news, looks like our poor plant is making a recovery.

Some new leaves sprouting.

Probably another week in the yard, have some more things to do.  Dean is going to wax the entire boat, the sail drives need painted, we have some rusty areas to work on, the props to put on, and Kris wants to paint some on the boom.  We still need to make some more grocery runs to fully provision the boat, as groceries are cheaper here than the rest of the Caribbean.

024-10-6 End of a good visit - back to Trinidad and home on the hard

We spent a couple more days with Derek in Boise.   Worked on finishing up some small items, like kitchen molding, installing his new projector and screen in the "movie room", and other small items.

A last visit with Deans mom, and a quick visit with his brother, and our visit was at an end.   

Dean made a batch of cinnamon rolls before we left, for Derek to remember us by.

We also made a trip to Costco, as we had to pick up some needed boat supplies.

5 blocks of Tillamook cheese - Derek not keeping them, just helping to show them.

We left at 8:00 a.m. from Boise on Wednesday morning.  Short flight to LAX, that got in late, but luckily the next plane was parked two gates away.   We got off our first flight, and walked directly onto the next one, no layover at all.  Luckily, our luggage made it as well.

The next flight from LAX to Houston, TX was more interesting, as Kris had the window seat, but the third passenger in our row came with a large bag, and a small dog in a carrier.   She did not put the large bag in the overhead, and sat in the middle with bag below - that would not fit under the seat, and dog in carrier on lap.

Kris asked if she would rather have the window seat for more room, but then we found out she spoke little to no English.  Kris's rudimentary Spanish came in handy.  We got her to the window seat, where she settled in and immediately took the dog out.  The flight attendant came by a bit later, and told her she could not keep the luggage, and the dog had to go in the crate.   Since she did not understand, Dean and I got out of our seats, and the flight attendant manually moved her bag and got her to understand the dog had to stay in the crate.  Once airborne, she took the dog back out, and kept it under a blanket any time a flight attendant walked by.  The dog was well-behaved, so no issues, but a bit humorous.

Dog was not an issue, well-behaved

Had time for a nice lunch in Houston.

Deep in the heart of Texas

Next flight was great, three seats, but only us two, so got to spread out a bit.  Landed in Trinidad at 11:30 at night.  We had brought back a full bag of boat parts and food, and declared it all.  Just under $1000.  No issues with customs, and no charge, but had to go from airport directly to the customs office in Chaguaramas due to boat parts.

 

We had pre-arranged a taxi, so Ian was there with his wife to pick us up.   We got to Chaguaramas customs around 1:00 a.m. and the Customs folks were quite slow to wake up from the back room and come out, but they did, and all was good.  No issues, paperwork done.  Back to boat around 2:00 a.m., and had to make up the bed before we could sleep.  Did a boat check and very happy, no mold or issues inside at all.  It was warm, though, and humid.

1:00 a.m. and it is 83 inside the boat with 90% humidity

The next morning, we got busy starting to clean the boat.  It was filthy on the outside.

You can see a bit of the before and after on our louvers.  Lots of black dirt

The boat cleaned up well.  The only issue is our poor plant, which we left outside in the shade, in an area we hoped would get a bit of rain.   Don't think it got any rain.

Looking a bit sad.  Hope it will come back.

We got our A/C unit installed around noon, so we were able to go in and cool off.  Dean started working on buffing and waxing topsides, and Kris helped a bit.   Stopped early for the day, as we were both tired, and went to the small local store and got some provisions to make dinner.   

Next day we headed into the town on the bus, and got more groceries and the major grocery store, then back to the boat.  Dean worked outside buffing the hull, sweating in the heat, and Kris started on the engine, which needed a new rear seal between the flywheel and engine.   Had to pull the engine forward a couple of feet to access it.  Luckily, was able to scrounge some old boards from the marina to support the engine to move it.

Kris down in the engine compartment.

The flywheel and casing are very heavy, so Dean had to assist with part of the work.

Kris has a bit more engine work - putting the starboard engine back together a bit more, and maintenance on the port engine.  Dean has been a buffing maniac - which is no small feat in the heat and humidity.  We have marked out a new higher waterline, so next is working on that, then bottom paint.  Should be another week in the yard, and then we will see how far along we are.