CHRISTMAS DAY

We awoke to rain, lots of it! In fact it rained the whole day and it kind of reminded us of being home for Christmas. Mark ensured everybody got nicely wrapped presents and I attempted to make a roast with roast potatoes too!

Carriacou for Christmas

The trip to Prickly Bay, Grenada was interesting.
We departed Chaguaramas after doing the last bit of shopping at about 1650. Motoring through the Boca was quite rough and we had to slow down quite a lot. However, once we cleared the island the wind was steady and we hoisted sails with reefs and eventually shook them and were bulleting along nicely, at about 50 degrees to the NE wind. We spotted a few boats and ships and another vessel which we avoided as we couldn't make out what it was. Later, it turned out to be a rather large yacht that was hove-to (not moving) and it didn't have any navigation lights on.

We arrived at Prickly just at sunrise. Our plan was to check in as soon as possible, get some fuel and get up to Carriacou, where we would meet our friends on Shiloh and Khaya Moya.
We ended up staying the night and had a great pre-Christmas roast beef dinner and some drinks with friends from Trinni at the Tiki Bar

The next day we had a lovely sail up to Tyrrell Bay, Carriacou.

Leaving Trinni

GOODBYE TRINIDAD

Mark arrived on the 19th December and for three days we worked to get Avatar back in the water. Some of the work has to be done last minute and people have to be paid etc. However we managed to get it all done and we splashed on the 21st December.

Checking out was easy as the Customs and Immigration officials are very friendly and helpful.

Kieran and I will miss Trinni, as we made some great friends and managed to see a few of the sights Trinidad has to offer besides boat yards.

Trinidad has some amazing bird species, unfortunately my camera doesn't do them justice! These shots were taken at the Asa Wright Eco Sanctury

We also took a boat trip on the swamp to see the scarlet ibis and saw loads of other animals and birds too.

Grenada here we come!

Friday saw the yard lift our boat off the stands and put it down on wooden blocks to free up the keels. The port keel needed repairing due to the boat not being chocked properly. Sean, the fibreglass guy is doing the repair on behalf of the yard.

While all this was going on Kieran got to finish two school tests.

At 1600 we needed to be ready for the annual business 'COOK-OUT'

This is a great charity event, where all funds raised, goes directly to the the people who need it. Basically the local boat yards and businesses that most of the people/yachties support here in Chaguaramas, get together and each group has a stall where they cook something or sell goods, clothes etc. With the funds raised, they then give or buy goods for the people in need, thus eliminating the 'middle-man' and the fees involved.

 The food was great. We tried Callaloo Fritters with mango sauce and the seafood chowder. There was also BBQ pig tails, swordfish, pineapple chow (cut up pineapple tossed a spicy corriander type herb dressing)

Kieran's ticket was drawn and he won a hamper full of snacks. Sugar heaven for him!!

SATURDAY 01 DECEMBER

This morning we got up at 0530 to attend the biggest market here. It has everything, from clothes, spices, fruit and veggies of all shapes and sizes AND meat, meat, oh.....and more meat!!!

This is the meat hall, where you can buy all types of fish, shellfish, shark, pork, beef, chicken (dead and alive). No slaughtering takes place here. The left row caters for fish, middle(left) is beef, then pork and chicken is on the right. As there are many cultures and religions here in Trinni due respect is given to all. There is no pushing or shoving. When I took this pic is was at the end of market time

This huge grouper was already scaled and the lobsters are displayed on the walls. 

I did mention you can buy ANY part of the animal!

Saturday 24th November

Kieran and I booked to for go for a hike near Macqueripe. It was a nice walk through a bamboo forest. I've done it before and seen howler monkeys, however we didn't see any this time. 

Kieran and a friend managed to spot some 'leaf-cutter' ants (left)

After climbing over and under fallen bamboo, walking through loads of mud, our group was rewarded with a swim at the beach. 

I still had stitches in my arm, so no swimming for me.(good excuse to not expose the totally untanned body!!!) Ha Ha

MEDIC ALERT!

Friday

After successfully tackling the water pump job, I was on a roll and decided to get going with the 'toilet job'.

After re-drilling the new hole for the 50mm pipe and filling in the old one with epoxy, it was time to sand down and neaten everything up. Enter the Stanley Knife (box cutter for the Yanks ;-). 

Well, it slipped and I managed to stab myself in the forearm. Fortunately the blade was fairly clean, with no rust. I did not realise that it was so deep, anyway I called my trusty side-kick, Kieran to get the medical kit and made my way into the saloon. I wiped the wound and opened it up for Kieran to squeeze in some Bactroban. I then realised how deep the wound was and put some big plasters on and a bandage and made my way to the marina office. A cab was called and we got to the hospital in 40 mins.

After all that drama, the doc only gave me two stitches and a dose of antibiotics and said I was very lucky that I didn't damage any tendons. 

A great excuse for being handicapped, is that you are off cooking duty...and everything else, albeit only for the rest of the day... I decided to get a takeaway from the ladies that sell their street food outside. On the menu was BUSSUP!

I think it's supposed to mean BUST UP. The bussup part is a Roti skin (deep fried pancake dough) which is broken up into pieces or bust up!

Served with a chicken curry and mango pickle, YUM!!!

PUMPS SUCK!

A few nights ago the Whale freshwater pressure pump decided to give up on us. The following  morning it was taken apart and cleaned. Unfortunately it still did not want to prime, I think the diaphragm became too hard from all the chlorine in the water. Another good reason to fit a water maker!

All in all, I have had to replace three Whale pumps now, both shower Gulpers and the Freshwater Pump. This, despite the fact that the boat is only two years old, is rather annoying. It was a relief to find the Jabsco freshwater version at the chandlery here, so I decided to go for that one.

Next obstacle is that the Whale pump used quick connect fittings....obviously!?!...and the Jabsco has normal size pipe hose fittings. Now to replace and re-plumb everything so it seals and fits. Back to the drawing board!

I have to say that all this climbing in and out of my little cave is giving me quite a workout, who needs gym here, ha ha

This is what the final job looks like after measuring and drilling and re-drilling. I couldn't have done it without the help of Kieran, who continually fetched tools etc while doing his schoolwork!

BACK IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

TRINIDAD, NOVEMBER 2012

After a fantastic three months back in South Africa, visiting family and friends, taking part in various sailing events, enjoying all the parties and sights we could cram in, it was time to head back to our other    home.

We arrived in Trinidad and have started working on the boat. Kieran is catching up frantically on his school work. Mark will be arriving sometime in December, so we are trying to get most of the work and modifications done before he gets here.

Last week we had our entire house battery bank replaced with six Trojan 6v batteries. Our previous batteries got fried, because the previous 'certified installer' entered the wrong charging settings into the solar chargers. Ah, well we live and we learn! On the bright side, now I'm also an 'expert' on batteries and their charging regimes.

I also managed to fix the seized tap in the galley, with Kieran's help of course. Next on the agenda is the toilet. A 50mm hole has to be re-drilled to accommodate the large hose. Obviously it can't be easy and NO, there are no universal toilet parts out there. Therefore, a simple 30 minute job takes 3 days.

Fortunately, I managed to source a hole-saw from some friends, over some Bake 'n Shark, at the Wheel House Pub.

BAKE 'n SHARK
is a local delicacy here in Trinni. It's basically deep fried bread dough or vetkoek, cut in half, filled with deep fried crispy crumbed shark meat. All served with condiments of your choice.