Busy, Busy in Bequia!

Well, from famine to feast, it seems.  We had a quiet start to our short season down here, with lots of work and little socializing.  While in Bequia, things have been heating up considerably.  Although s/v Fido headed south to meet guests, we replaced them quickly with Al and Michelle of s/v Tarentela and of course with Steve and Maria of Aspen, and also Greg and Kathy of Indigo.  Soon, even more of the old gang arrived: Dream Catcher, Changes, Prism, Oasis, Katahdin, Clarity, and many more.  Jumbie also arrived from Grenada, also having a shorter season for very similar reasons as we are.

We have made the floating bar a major success; especially as again this year, we have too many people to enjoy each others’ cockpits.  The bar swarms with us at least two nights out of three.  We have also done the usual rum shop tours, snorkeling, restaurant visitations, and of course hiking: Ma Peggy’s Rock, the park to the north of Cinnamon Garden, and the top of Mount Pleasant.  The last hike had 23 people.  As well, the girls have started up a women’s lunch here, with good attendance on 3 different Wednesdays and 3 different restaurants.

Twenty three of us headed out for an uphill hike in Bequia!  We split up at noon and went to various restaurants where we undid the benefit of hiking in exchange for beers with lunch!

Dawn and I also went on our own little adventure.  We caught what was supposed to be a perfect weather window for a trip to the Tobago Keys:  low winds and waves for both the trip and for a lovely visit to a special place.  It didn’t work out, however; as the forecasts were terribly wrong.  The sails there and back were bumpy, and the wind and seas grew to the point that the water was in a horrible state in the Keys.  We stayed two nights in sheltered anchorages, and hightailed ‘er back to Bequia.

Yesterday was absolutely unique, however.  Dean of Dream Catcher voiced his wish to book passage on the local tourist boat the Friendship Rose – an old wooden schooner that used to be the mail boat and primary ferry from the main island – to go to Mustique.  The rest of us said he had half an idea, and yesterday, we all jumped on for a full day trip – not upwind to Mustique, where they don’t seem to want us anyway – but across the wind to the Tobago Keys.  It was fantastic, with great sailing, complete with two major squalls, good food and drink, and fantastic camaraderie.  Dawn got into the water for some fantastic photography as well.

Friendship Rose at 7:00 am just before boarding

The crew of Friendship Rose hoisting the sails while we looked on.

The Friendship Rose taken from Cat Tales when we sailed by them on our last trip to Bequia a couple weeks ago.

The twenty of us "little boat sailors", who paid for and jumped aboard the Friendship Rose for a fun filled day of being spoiled rotten!  Would we do it again?  Hell, yes!

A beautiful parrot fish seen at the Tobago Cays

Dawn took this picture of a turtle who really didn't mind spending time in front of her camera!

Steve steering the boat while John, the captain has time to spend with guests.  Laurie is featured in the background.

Steve and Maria (not on their own boat Aspen)

Fran and Chris, (not on their own boat Changes)

Rick (Clarity), Fran (Changes) and Dawn (Cat Tales) doing what they do best...

Laurie and Chris making excellent bookends for these new young sailors!

We are off-loaded from the Friendship Rose to be taken to the beach and/or off to snorkel, and we see that it's our old friend Sekie from Chatham Bay on Union Island operating the tourist boat!  He and his wife operate a restaurant on the beach and we met them years ago and see them from time to time when we return to their little piece of heaven.  So nice to see old friends!

Perfection!

This is pretty much the turning point for us now.  We’ll carry on here possibly until Saturday, when we’ll start back south to Grenada.  We hope to have time in both Chatham Bay and in Tyrell Bay, but need to have a few days in Prickly Bay before our haulout on April 12^th.

If any of you from New Brunswick enjoy this update, and feel like sending us an email update of NB personal happenings (or wherever you are), please do so.  We often arrive home feeling like we know nothing about what’s been happening with most of you, and it is a bit depressing.  Please be advised that we are both well and enjoying life down here.

TECHNICAL

Not much to report on regarding Cat Tales’ condition.  We have been enjoying a great period of mechanical stability.  That being said, it IS time to get the list of projects ready for the season’s end.

Laurie is under the boat cleaning the barnacles and fuzz off the props!

Sweet Bequia...

Again, the blog is overdue.  We are sitting in Bequia taking life very easy. We had a great sail to Carriacou; indeed, although it was fast, a slightly open hatch that we had missed on deck delivered no water to the interior.  Besides the enjoyable sail, there was one bit of overwhelming excitement:  We were trawling one line with a new lure, and got a serious bite.  I wrestled the line in (it was bare line, not on a pole and reel), until we could see that we had a 3.5’ mahi mahi on it, fighting, diving, and slicing from side to side in a 45 degree arc.  I got down to the bottom step, and Dawn passed the gaff hook just as the beauty was within 5’ of the stern.  As I brought it around, he seemed to just spit out the hook, and nonchalantly, swam off to starboard as if he’d had a lovely time teasing us, but remembered some business elsewhere.

We found Carriacou a little lonely.  The usual hangers-on were there, but none of our “tribe” of past friends.  We did renew acquaintance with a slightly older Swiss couple – and I, Laurie, got to work on my French language skills a bit – but the truth was the extra exertion of the partial language barrier, and maybe my poor skills ensured that they preferred the many French friends they already had in the Bay.

We did the usual walks, alone this time, and also bought some conch, half of which is in the freezer.  We also whittled down our boat chores, I wrote a bit, and we read and took on increasingly difficult Sudoku puzzles.  Wind howled most of our visit.

Hiking Carriacou

On February the 25^th, we set sail for Bequia in a so-so weather window; not just because we were a little tired of Tyrell Bay, but because a better weather window seemed to be nowhere in sight.  The promised kind east wind did not arrive at all, and we had blustery wind and waves on the nose for most of the journey.  At one point, while in the shadow of Canouan, we had the boat rigged with two reefs and one engine going well above idle.  The confused waves slapped us silly, and the autohelm could not keep us on course.  The waves slowed us down to the point that the rudders were useless.  After convincing ourselves we were not caught in a great mass of fishing gear, I started the second engine and put both up to 2800 rpm before the rudders and the autohelm could manage their chores.

Two hours from Bequia, tired of hanging on and of engine noise, we decided to sail just to get some feeling of success.  Cat Tales was allowed to take a tack to a position 3 miles west of Bequia, and we enjoyed the sail and tacked back and forth to get closer.  As we had at least two monohulls doing the same thing, we were able to compare strategies.  I could go 15% faster than them, but they could point 10 degrees better and keep a reasonable speed, which averaged us out in performance. 

As usual, we got our anchor down by 5:30, and could have an anchor beer.  We placed our anchor behind s/v Fido, a 50’ Xquisite catamaran that was purchased last year by Fiona and Don of Calgary.

Bequia has a new floating bar!  We have been visiting it most nights after 4 pm, with Fiona and Don, and enjoying acquainting ourselves.  One would think the bar would be populated by people under 30, but we seem to be among the ruling quartile.

Floating bar in Bequia.  Of course it would have its own engine!

I think we need this at Grand Lake!

Bequia has had a little bit of excitement in the weeks before our arrival.  A small boat went out, intending to head south, when a 30 knot gust destroyed their forestay (actually a cast aluminum bow plate failed – cast aluminum?  Curious).  The baby-stay saved the mast, but other boaters who arrived to help could neither save the jib nor the furling foil from bad damage.  Also recently, a large charter cat was 30+ minutes out, with a quasi-professional (idonthinkso) captain put her into motor-cruise, autopilot, and went into the salon to lie down and rest his eyes.  The two guests were in their stateroom, also napping.  The boat came to rest after double-teeing a nice Amel monohull, putting two holes and a deep ugly crack in her.  The “captain” of the cat attempted to leave the bay, but the authorities grabbed him.  Again other cruisers came to the rescue, pulled the booms over (ketch), and hung on to keep the damaged side high in the water as the scuttled her on the town shore for repairs.  The Amel owner, whom we’ve met, is rather overwhelmed by both the damage and the difficulties being thrown up by the insurer (which happens to represent both boats, by the way).

This is just one of many callilou leaves that Laurie washed, diced and chopped for the soup.  There might have been as many as 30 leaves!  Some soup still left in the freezer!  Sorry about the pic being sideways.

Yesterday we joined an organized Rum Shop Tour, and followed a crowd around to six different shops.  It was absolutely fun, and a great way to meet people.  The first was a major hike up the hill, off the road to a place called the “Tree House Bush Bar”, at noon.  The last four rumshops were a bus ride over into Friendship Bay, but also high on the hill.  Great views and good fun.  We finished off with quesadillas back in Admiralty Bay at Mac’s Pizzeria, and got home exhausted at 9 pm.

Michelle and Al of Tarantella arrived in the Bay while we were gone, and we have made arrangements for drinks at the floating bar tonight.

The view from the Treehouse Rum Shop after a uphill hike to get there!

The second rumshop on our tour.  We would have missed this one if it wasn't pointed out as a bar!

This rumshop even had a washroom...bonus!

THE PATIENT

This will not be a continuous addition to our weblog, but is meant to answer a few questions.  I am feeling fine, and really feel I am gaining strength and stamina.  In Carriacou, we culminated our walking with a 3 hour hike with significant climbing involved, and it seemed no problem.  This week I swam continuously for over 1000 feet without too much difficulty, although slowing down when breathless was definitely part of it.  I notice that past injuries are worse than before, however.  A bad knee is now a really bad knee, and I cannot walk long without slipping on my brace.  A locking finger joint is much worse, and a second finger has become locking with great pain.  I’m still hopeful that this stuff goes back to normal, or to a previous status.  Pain from the incision is almost nil, and pain from interior work is long-gone.  There is a bit of searching for a new normal with respect to bathroom habits, but it is not an inconvenience.  Now you know more than you wanted, ha ha!

CAT TALES TECHNICAL

Dawn worked through some raw materials that were placed on board, and created a pile of single-person folding cockpit cushions.  Pretty spiffy.

We installed an oil pressure gauge on the starboard engine and got pressure reading within an acceptable range.  Disappointingly, I could not get the gauge to thread into the port on the port side engine, and gave up.  It has no unhealthy symptoms and I stopped looking for trouble.  Yes, my Yanmars quickly dirty their oil, but I will just accept it at this point, and enjoy the season.

New 900 psi fittings and a new gauge were placed onto the watermaker assembly, but leaks continued.  After consultations on the internet, I simply increased the wraps of Teflon tape, and got that solved.  Next, we found a serious leak at the depth sounder through-hull.  I bought some stuff that was meant to work under water from the chandlery, and spent an hour working in the water sanding the area clean of bottom paint.  Sadly the product did not work well – the bottom of the tube of caulk was hard, and I suspect that the rest of the tube was poor.  It acted mealy as soon as it was in contact with salt water, and made what I call a poor bond to the boat and sounder.  I attempted to stem the tide inside the boat by unscrewing the sounder’s flange, placing both the caulking and two layers of neoprene, and closing the flange down.  It was still leaking hours later, but I gave the flange another turn and it dried up.  I will allow the laminate to dry in Grenada on the hard, then do some glassing to level surfaces inside and out, and reinstall the equipment with 3M 5200.

Good news is that the newly bedded and newly gasketed escape hatch is totally dry.  We might tackle the starboard one before leaving for Canada.  Bad news, is that some leaks showed up in the salon windows during the rough slog from Carriacou to here.  We’re still tracking these down.

I was thinking of rewriting a Jimmy Buffet song about “Boat Drinks” to tell the story of Boat Leaks.   “Boat drinks, Jimmy he sings about boat drinks.  I just wonder what he thinks, there goes my bilge alarm.  Boat leaks, I spend my day looking for boat leaks; no time for drinking or song.  Walking, I start all my days walking – I need to buy some more caulking – there goes that damned alarm...”

ESCAPING THE FROZEN NORTH, THEN, ESCAPING THE BOATYARD BLUES

Surely it is time to update our weblog.  We left the story with us having a health crisis.  Indeed, when we last wrote, we were pretty sure that Laurie had Stage IV Colon Cancer, after a CT Scan done on November 10^th showed a 2” tumor in the cecum region of the colon and spots on the liver.

Happily, that got scaled back to an early Stage II tumor, and normal lesions on the liver.  Five doctors were consulted, various technicians attended, a dozen nurses assisted, dozens of needles were used and discarded, two CT Scans were performed as well as an abdominal MRI, Laurie received a colonoscopy, and it all climaxed on November 30^th when 18” of bowel was removed and sent to Pathology.  The work was completed using modern titanium stapling technology for the resection, and a combination of sutures and staples for the incision.  If you wish to see it done, search YOUTUBE for bowel resection using stapling.

Laurie went through 4 nights in hospital, a 6-week recuperation at home, and is now feeling great.  A little left-over anemia makes him a little slow to bounce back from physical activity, but that will slowly abate. 

Spending the first December and January at home since 2008 was an eye-opener.  The shoveling was enough to get both of us exercised.  We did find that the winterized cottage might not be as winterized as we thought, but we were able to make it cozy enough.  We also had a lot of help and support from relatives, neighbours and friends to get us through this bit of adventure.

Winter wonderland back in New Brunswick, Canada

The day before we left, we  put our car into our neighbor's garage...it took a wee bit of work to get the job done!

We flew to Grenada on January 25-26, with a lay-over in Toronto, and put in 9 nights in a little apartment at Cool Running, across from the boatyard. A highlight was an upgrade to a “Royal Suite” half-way through our stay.  It was quite beautiful, but the kitchen was suffering an infestation of those tiny brown ants that love crumbs and swarm the counters during food preparation.  We would have been happier staying put.  Still, the nights were comfortable after each hard, and sometimes frustrating day.

We launched the boat on Monday, and hope to finish provisioning on Wednesday.  We have a target of Thursday to sail to Carriacou, ahead of wind strengthening on Friday.  In the meantime, we were able to have a bit of fun with a meal at the Umbrellas Beach Bar, Grande Anse Beach.

 

After 8 days of working in the boatyard on Cat Tales, we finally launched on Monday, the 4th of February.

Lunch out at Unbrella's Restaurant on Grand Anse Beach...ah...cold beer after a long and dusty walk!

TECHNICAL

The boat sat for nine months on the hard instead of the normal six months.  Still, it seemed to be no different.  The tarpaulin we had rigged to cover the dinghy on the foredeck was disintegrated; it was difficult to find a piece of it, but the main tarpaulin over the salon was in fine shape.  Dawn took on the cleaning and the feeding, and just about wore herself out washing and waxing the hulls. 

Besides the usual work of putting the equipment back in working order, we had some special chores that had to be completed.  We had some osmosis golf ball bumps above the waterline, and had half-completed the rebedding of an escape hatch.  Repairing these two items, as well as rebedding the back bumpers all had about 9 iterations to them.  For example, the hatch had to come off, have all the calking scraped down to bare metal, the removal of oxidized aluminum that had caused the leakage, painting with phosphorous acid to stop any oxidized aluminum from causing further corrosion, painting with zinc chromate, painting with primer, installation of the frame with proper calking, then the same sequence for the window itself, with the addition of installing new gasket material.

A seawater pump, for the port engine, had ceased to turn since being removed – a common problem with them, as there is no way to re-grease or lubricate them.  We had it sent away, and it returned in time to be bent on for launch.

This all complemented the work of the season before, as we had installed new bottom paint, ordered new chain, had the mainsail repaired, ordered the new gasket for the escape hatch, and set out new anodes and other consumables for reinstallation.  Oh - - A special thanks to Fran and Chris of s/v Changes for taking delivery of some of our parts and getting them stowed aboard for us.

Launch went well on Monday, but the outboard engine for the dinghy almost broke our hearts later in the day.  We got it sorted out Tuesday morning, and it is again delivering stellar duty.

We have on board a gauge that can be connected to the engines instead of the oil pressure sender, thanks to Roger Michaud.  This will help to determine if the engines are suffering a deterioration of the oil pumps – which could cause ultimate engine failure.  We’ll try them in the flat waters of Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, in the coming weeks.

Summer 2018 in NB, Canada and plans for the fall

Brothers: Laurie, Mike and Ken acting clever?? at the wedding

As we write this, at Grand Lake, NB, we have weather patterns of winds and snow passing through in quick succession.  My outdoor chores for the winter are completed, and we’ve finished up ordering parts and sorting out our needs for Grenada.

The most significant happening this season was the flooding of the lower St. John River valley.  During the rising waters in May, we helped our neighbours scramble to move goods out of basements, then sandbagging, then out of yards and storage buildings, then out of main floors of homes and cottages.  We put our feet up during the peak flood to watch furniture, decks, and refrigerators float by our house in the ice (with a few rowboat trips to retrieve neighbours’ items); then went into high gear to remove sodden remains in garages, basements, and homes, rip up carpets and underlays, flooring, exterior walls and cupboards to get out wet insulation and disinfect.  We had a short break again while everything dried; then helped whom we could with reinstalling insulation, vapour barrier, new floors, and wall finishes.  It was the year that wainscoting came back in fashion, as many properties reconstructed the bottom third of their walls.   I even had to relearn how to hang doors. 

Sandbagging ahead of the flood.  Note:  the water crested the bags.

Laurie fetching the neighbour's stairway.  A hard row before breakfast! 

Fridge, float and iceflow in front of our cottage. 

Finally making progress against the wind.

The flooding involved cottages on numerous lakes and bays, and the complete valley from Mactaquac to and including Saint John.  Numerous properties have been condemned, and some of our near friends and neighbours are still fixing damage, five months later.  Our side of Grand Lake, regardless of the damage, fared better than other areas.  At high water, a north-west 90km/h wind arrived that delivered waves to some areas that destroyed properties better than bombs could. 

Our own property only suffered some erosion and exterior damage, a wet mess in our crawlspace, and the loss of less than 100 square feet of insulation that was buried under the deck, along the front wall.  With no living-space damage, (we had 15 inches spare before we would have had serious damage inside) we were free to help out others until their basic needs were met.  Indeed, yesterday’s chores just put complete on our own damage. 

It was not all drudgery, however.  Our work teams got together for numerous meals and camaraderie, and that was fun.  After all, we can’t get that feeling of accomplishment without actually doing anything. 

Jeanne and Doug's cottage.  Wainscoting??  Very stylish after the flood of 2018!

We had our usual parties at the Lake over and above the flood-workers’ fare: with a barbecue every Friday night.  Dawn and I were able to host out of doors on our deck twice without a mosquito problem, as the wet spring was followed by a drought. 

The spring, summer and fall had other events as well.  As soon as we got home, we were off to attend the most fantastic wedding of our lives.  Our niece Marilyn was marrying her man Sean, and put together a fantastic weekend in St. Andrews at the famous and historic Algonquin Hotel.  Family get togethers, fantastic food, dancing and music, and all as the newlyweds’ guests. 

Sean & Marilyn.  What a beautiful wedding.  Thanks for letting us share your wonderful day!

Getting reacquainted with nephew Peter and his daughter Emily at Marilyn's wedding. Lolly is stitting in the background.

What is it with these brothers and napkin hats?

Soon after that, I gave two historical presentations regarding Fredericton’s old water treatment plant – one to engineers and one to citizens, resulting in one more big brass plaque on the building.  It was exciting for me, and reawakened some serious interest in things historical.

Laurie gave a public presentation at a plaqueing ceremony.

As is custom, we did a little trip with Brian and Paula of s/v Magique (for sale now); a camping and biking expedition in Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia.  It was a blast.  Dawn showed off her new 8-person barrel tent that she insists is an appropriate 2-person, and her new 11x11x7 kitchen tent – at least she will tent!  Dawn and I followed the camping with two nights in a spa hotel and a tour with Uncorked Tours NS, where we were the only showups that particular day.  We had intimate visits to a vineyard and winery, a brewery, a distillery, and finally a cidery.  A most enjoyable day.

We got visits from my brother Paul and his wife Alida from Calgary, and Dawn got to spend time with her sister Lorna and her husband Brian, in the company of her other sisters and her mother.   Of course, we both enjoyed time with our friends and relatives at so many opportunities.

Laurie, Paula & Brian biking in Kejimkujik 

Paula, Dawn & Brian biking 

Dawn's new roomy, deluxe tent 

Dawn's new picnic tent!

Wine sampling in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

We also got out on the Hobie 21, “Madman Across the Water”, a few times.  One day it was windy enough for Dawn to trapeze – but as there were no other boats out there and rescue would have been an issue, she didn’t much care for it.  I also got to do some racing on brother Mike’s Laser 28.  We didn’t do so well, but we had a good time with fun sailing, and I got reacquainted with his sailing club.

Laurie crewing for Mike on a Wednesday night race (Laser 28)

Now, for some upsetting news:  I (Laurie) have had some gastro-intestinal pain that we and our Doctor agree must be sorted out.  We have had testing with inconclusive results, and are waiting on some imaging scope work.  The normal scheduling problems are occurring as fair triage puts me a little bit back behind some others likely in worse shape.  Having been bounced ahead of the pack in the past, it is time to take a turn in the “waiting room”.  This means we’re giving up our tickets and waiting for the opportunity to reschedule on the far side of this, whenever that is.

So, the anticipation of a week of hard work in the boatyard, and the excitement of the launch is being replaced with plans for short trips and possibly another round of visits with friends and family.  Not so bad.  We’ll keep you posted.

Laurie moves quickly when the happy hour bell rings!

Sisters Valerie, Lorna, Kathy, Jean (mom) and Dawn at a lunch at Windsor Court. 

Host Liz, and guests Jane and David at the 14th and final Pig Roast.  Looking forward to others taking on the task next year.

 

END OF SEASON WRAP-UP!

Dawn and I are back in our cute, cozy cottage on Grand Lake, NB.  We moved out of a tiny house and into a slightly larger tiny house!  The season was great, but it is also nice to be staring into the fire, watching television, looking at the foggy ice, taking hot showers, and dropping dirty dishes into the slot in the dishwasher.  Having real bandwidth is fun too.  I’ll be waiting until next week to set up the hot tub and clean up the yard.  We are looking forward to attending a wedding in St. Andrews on Saturday, and we’re rushing around for appropriate attire.

I would like to take the time here to acknowledge Hugh Whalen and Liz Abraham.  We landed at the Fredericton Airport late Tuesday, and simply walked out and into their car to be whisked to their home for pizza and refreshments.  Hugh had my car at his door, with the battery charged, so we could drive the last miles to our own home.

Hugh checked on our cottage every Sunday for all of the winter, as he has since we started this.  He also does this service for the rest of the neighbourhood.  We could not do what we do all winter, every winter, without Hugh; and it is impossible to make it up to him, or even properly explain what it means to us.  Liz writes to us every Sunday to keep us up to date of the happenings at home.

We started our weblogs back in 2004; and for the first two years, the weblog did not accept pictures.  Well, we are almost back to that, as we just did not take the pictures we need at the end of this season.  Well, we’ll do what we can...

We had a lovely sail down to Carriacou on the 29^th of March, timing it to clear Customs without holiday charges; and we stayed 8 days before heading to St. Georges, Grenada.  Our time in Carriacou was slow, with us ramping up on our work to put the boat away: Dawn cleaning inside areas with strong vinegar/water solution to avoid possible mold, Laurie starting engine work and doing some gelcoat repairs.  Except for some fun with Joanna and Bill of s/v Baidarka and Cathy and Tom of s/v Jumby, we stayed quiet with the work, some puzzles, and getting a bit of exercise.

Just how many people can fit on Peggy's Rock?  Always room for one more, just like a Caribbean bus/van! This was taken back in Bequia.

Anina (s/v Prism) found a secluded spot dangling over the airport runway!  Anina often organizes our hikes and challenges our legs and bodies!

The trip to St. Georges was also an easy, fun sail; and after trying to get holding in the anchorage outside the harbour, we stayed only one night before going into the marina of Port Louis for two nights.  We washed and waxed the exterior of the boat and enjoyed two lovely meals before motoring around the corner and into Prickly Bay.  There, too, we got ashore for some meals and fun, but focused on oil changes and interior cleaning.  We did get on a Hash hike with Cindy and Dan of s/v Sittatunga,  Kim & Dean Martin of s/v Dream Catcher, and Ken & Grace of s/v Pisces. 

Haulout was normal on Tuesday, April 17^th, and we went directly to work to make the best of the short six days on the hard. 

The season, in retrospect was a wet and windy one.  We did well to get up to Dominica; and indeed, with the amount of destruction caused by the northern hurricanes, there was little reason to go further.  We spent an inordinate amount of time in St. Anne; enjoying the crowd of old and some new friends there.  We had an outrageous Christmas party on s/v Tarantella, and a killer New Year’s party in our cockpit with 12 of us.  Interestingly, the season was filled with so many friends in all the southern anchorages (not a chance to name them all), that having cockpit cocktail parties were curtailed in favour of afternoon lunches ashore, usually after a hiking party.  Still very enjoyable.

The sailing, for me was lovely, though limited to the very few weather windows the season provided – but for Dawn there were a couple of crossings she would have rather missed.  The trip between Dominica to Martinique was one!

The season saw the end of Denis’ weather, a revival of the FOD SSB Net, great hikes with crowds, fantastic lunches, and sadly, the end of Lorna and Brian’s Caribbean experience with s/v Peace and Plenty.
Lastly, we got three articles published in the Caribbean Compass.  You can see the latest one here, in April’s on-line version, on page 30-31:  http://www.caribbeancompass.com/online.html

We're ending this season's blogging with a little story of Dawn being a hero:

When we paid for a 2 day stay at Port Louis Marina, we had time to eat out and laze a bit by the pool in the afternoon once the work was done.  I was reading a book while Dawn was watching 3 little children (about 2, 4 and 6 years old) all decked out in their waterwings play with their mom and dad.  They were very entertaining and the parents were most attentive.  At one point, the oldest daughter took off her waterwings to show mom and dad that she could swim a few strokes.  This went on for awhile and eventually, Dawn spotted the 4 year old getting out of the water and taking off her waterwings, evidently wanting to copy the older sister's actions.  Dawn watched carefully, knowing that neither mom or dad had picked up on this turn of events.  The little one walked the 3 steps into the pool and simply sunk.  Not a peep, no flailing, nothing, just a cloud of hair on the surface.  Dawn sprinted over screaming all the way.  The parents pulled her out and nearly fainted at what might have happened.  The mother asked later how long we thought the child was under and we were happy to report that it was a matter of seconds.  Glad this turned out well.

These are little pottery fish bought from an artist in Bequia.  They will go with the 2 large pottery fish that Dawn bought from the same artist last year.

Cat Tales at the dock in St. George's, Grenada.  This is where we worked to wash and put leave-on wax on the outside of the hulls to save time once we're hauled.

TECHNICAL

I’ve been offered some technical assistance by my friend Roger Michaud, who intends to get to the bottom of my issue with oil pressure senders.  He intends to test and inspect the three failed senders as well as analyse the season’s oil filter.  I am intrigued.

After the boat was out of the water, I borrowed a grinder and ground into 8 funny mounds on the interior stern of the hulls above the water line, until each squirted the yellow, vinegar-like substance that proves the bumps are related to osmosis.  I am letting them dry out, and will fill them with glass and gelcoat upon our return in November.  I hope to start the repair process with the low viscosity epoxy: “Git Rot”; so capillary action might carry the material down the channel that the fluid originally traveled.  I will have to do some research on this first.

Laurie working with a borrowed grinder and borrowed face mask.

Pungent water oozing out of one of the osmosis bumps Laurie grinded out.

You can see the osmosis byproduct seeping down the side of the hull over the hull stripe.

This heavy fitting's threads failed to hold back the 900 psi water of our watermaker, and got eroded.

We also took out the port escape hatch, on the inside and down by the waterline.  We had become convinced it was leaking and, indeed, the caulking had failed.  We think the caulking failed because of the manufacture of aluminum salts as the frame corroded.  We sanded the frame down and applied an expensive primer prior to reinstalling to attempt to stop the process from recurring.  Were I to do it over, I would have sprayed the frame with zinc chromate before the primer, but I didn’t think it out.  We still have to track down the gasket material for this 1996 hatch before we complete the installation.  Wish us luck.

A dismantling and analysis of the watermaker assembly found numerous parts that need to be replaced.  If something drips at 900 psi, you can expect some corrosion and erosion.

The mainsail and boombag went into the sailmakers, and although we have not seen the results, a repair and inspection cost $800 Can.  The sailmaker said that it had suffered some sunburning, and easily ripped the top panel in front of us.  Still, that mainsail is from 2004, and it will hopefully do for another few seasons.

We are also having to make decisions on a new trampoline, with a probable cost of $1800 Can., and we’ll likely buy new chain in Grenada this fall as well.  The old one just will not stay in the gypsy any more.

As for the season on Cat Tales, we can say she worked rather well; requiring not really as much time in repairs as in past seasons; in spite of the work we are facing.