September into October 2025
Late September but let’s make a clean start. Back to the boat. This is it, enough of your lazing around Denver tending gardens and chickens, petting the cat and dogs, drinking wine with Laura and the best neighbors ever, cooking delicious food in a proper kitchen, sewing, walking, painting bathrooms, cleaning fridges and cupboards, and having coffee with girlfriends. You’ve had your fun, now let’s get back to real life. But why make it easy? Why not an extra night in Houston along the way and then a new flight from Trinidad to Grenada, why not Covid for the first five days in Grenada? Why not “unusually” high heat? Because they know we can take it, that’s why!
And here we are, halfway through the month we were going to spend in Carriacou, the Grenadines, and Mustique and we’re one anchorage out of the boatyard. On a mooring ball, actually – we haven’t even had to anchor yet. It took us a little longer than we expected to get the boat put back together again. I mean, it only took a week to break it down before we left in May, along with one completely frantic last afternoon in which we left the salon an absolute shambles of fenders, cushions, hastily folded sails, dirty rags, and ant powder.
Three days into Peter’s round of Covid (just as I was starting to come down with it), we visited the boat to assess the job in front of us. Since we’d paid to have the “mold issue” dealt with before we arrived, other than the unholy mess it looked almost manageable. But the list was long, and our endurance was short, particularly in the heat and humidity. We had the “advantage” of being deep in the boatyard on our cradles, a safer site in the event of a hurricane, which was why we were there in the first place, but also where not a stirring of breeze lifted the palm fronds of the jungle behind us, and the sun beat down with the intensity of an August afternoon in the Peloponnese.
So, we got a slow start. But every day there was a little more progress, both back to full health and towards launching again. Ten days after arriving we finally “splashed,” then tied up to the boatyard’s dock. Just a couple more jobs to check off. The big one was getting the main sail back on. We’d gotten the genoa on a few days earlier, but so far it had been simply too hot to be up on the coachroof for three hours dealing with all the battens, reefing lines and cars involved in rerigging the main. As long as the boat was on land, we were living in a Vrbo up the road, and since the boatyard gates didn’t open until 8 in the morning and closed at 5, we were limited to working during those hours. Once in the water again however, we could get up before sunrise or work into dusk to take advantage of the relative cool to finish the “last” jobs.
There were a few other things besides dealing with the main, including getting our shredded parasail back from Turbulence Sails, who had assessed the cost to repair it – a quote that led us to simply bend over, cough, and order a new one from Oxley. In addition to the sail itself Turbulence had the sheets and the snuffer at their office in town, both of which were essential to making the new one functional – so no leaving without them. There were provisioning runs to make, a hunt for a new deck squeegee of just the right flex, and a return trip to the chandlery at Clarke’s Court for more of the magical fiberglass cleaner we’d found there that miraculously removed the cat pee stains on the sugarscoops that had been there since Greece, and the bird poop stains everywhere else. We filled our water tanks and hooked up to shore power to enjoy the wonders of air conditioning while we still could. We put the inside of the boat back together again. We could find things again. We made it livable again.
And then there was just the usual solid flow of repair and maintenance tasks that seem to add up to “Life on the Fish.” This time, this included
Dead power winch – needed new fuse, switch AND solenoid, along with professional help
Replaced main sheet boom and deck blocks
Reattached fuel filter to dinghy motor
Fixed starboard genoa car – we’d brought two different ones on two different trips from the states, neither fit. No local chandleries could order one in fewer than three weeks, and we couldn’t find a metal rod of the right diameter to McGyver it. In desperation we walked to the tiny hardware store out at the main road to look for a rod, but instead found two drill bits, cut them down to the right size, and sika flexed them together. Bada bing bada boom.
Installed new Starlink hardware
Replaced freezer handle – no more sliding open in swell!
Added new screws to the electrical compartment of the generator – along with more coolant and oil
Added saildrive gear oil to both engines
Too much engine oil in port engine – siphoned off excess
Unfroze alternator in starboard engine, replaced ruined fan belt
Washed mold off cockpit ceilings and helm ceiling
Washed seat cushions
Installed new cleat for starboard genoa sheet
Disassembled and greased power winch
Removed rust everywhere
Replaced leaking line from water pump
Oh, and as we were in the final stages of leaving the dock at last, we realized we hadn’t retrieved our helm seat cushions from the Turbulence workshop on site. Oops.
But now, at least for the moment, everything works. It won’t last, but it’s always a good feeling at the time.
Up Next: the Best of the Caribbean