No 2.An exercise in patience.

February 2018

What is patience? Well according to the dictionary definition found on Google, the noun means “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious: “

This definition refers to having work done on a boat in Trinidad, especially over the Christmas and New Year period. Throw in Carnival time and then you will most certainly know what patience is all about!

The standing rigging being checked prior to tuning.

As mentioned in my previous update, Mel did an amazing amount of work on Passages but the phase ‘Time is money’ does not really apply to island time. Please don’t get me wrong, the people that you encounter are extremely warm, friendly and helpful, but very chilled out. In fairness, Port of Spain – the capital of Trinidad, does have major traffic issues, which like in many countries, is swamped in political red tape, bickering and egos. Many of the trades people who work in Chaguaramas, must spend at least 2 hours in traffic just to get to work. 

The standing rigging at Peaks Boat Yard.

Generally, when a trades person says that they will be at your boat at 10.00am, in all fairness, add on a few extra hours. In other words, expect them when you see them.

Passages has had several modifications. One of the main items, has been the arch on the stern/back of the boat where the dinghy is hoisted up, plus where the faithful and all important solar panels sit, catching and absorbing the daylight sun.

I often think of how lucky we are to have these solar panels, as they have made an enormous difference to our cruising life. Most sunny days, they have recharged the battery bank by 10 – 11.0am. A little later when it’s a bit overcast, but let’s just say by lunch time the batteries have been fully recharged which means we can then make water. In turn, this means we can take slightly longer showers. PLUS, if we are lucky and it is not always necessary as having a cool shower is so inviting and refreshing, we can put the hot water cylinder on for a few minutes.

Over the past few years, Mel has been planning the design of the arch as eventually, he would like to add a wind vane. A wind vane is mainly used for long passages when you set your course according to the wind and the wind vane steers the boat without electrical power. Mel was also keen for the arch to be high enough that we could get off the boat at the stern, without having to take the dinghy down. Some people have steps on the side of their boats but that is another topic and a point of conversation.

Passages on the hard at Peaks Boat yard.

Back to the arch…. Mel organised with a very good stainless steal manufacturing company in Chaguaramas to construct the arch for Passages. However, the owner was away in Canada so the second in command took over the construction. Lots of discussions took place and most days Mel went to check on the process. We were starting to make plans to have Passages launched back into the water. We were even saying to each other, we’ll be back in the water within the week.  Mel was relieved as Passages had been on the hard in Peaks Boat yard since December 14, 2017 and now this was at the beginning of February 2018, soon after I had arrived in Trinidad from Perth.

We did NOT factor in Carnival….. this takes place over a two-week period and most partying starts at 10/11.00pm until the following morning – 5/6.00am.

The Friday before Carnival day, Ian, who was the main welder and Sheldon, arrived at Passages with the arch. Great excitement!

The arch being put in place - 1st time.

It was hoisted up on the boat and the main clamping was done and would be completed the following morning, Saturday. It was not completed by the end of the day, so we had to wait until the following Wednesday – after Carnival.

Sunday – Mel and I start putting a few things back onto the boat that belonged where the modifications of the boat had been made to accommodate the new arch, like the barbie and the dinghy motor. It was when we were pulling up the dinghy motor that we started saying that ‘things’ were not right.

When we hoist the motor up, Mel is usually still in the dinghy, fastens the dinghy motor onto the hoist and unfastens the motor from the dinghy. I normally hoist the dinghy motor up onto the boat to fit it onto the motor bracket that is at the back of the boat.

I was not able to hoist the engine up without physically lifting the motor above the bracketp. Normally I can hoist the motor above the motor bracket and then gently drop it down onto the motor bracket.

We thought about this for a few days – remember it was Carnival time which I will write more about in another update.

Nothing much happened over the following week due to Carnival, but Mel thought he could not have got something so basic and important wrong. He went over his design specifications and realised that the arch was 8 inches lower than what is should have been!

When the arch was hoisted up on the boat, nobody thought to check the measurements!!!!!

Mel contacted the company, who were as shocked as we were and literally bent over backwards to correct the mistake. There is more to come….

Over a week later and many discussions on what should happen, it was decided to sail Passages round to the Stainless steel’s company dock, stay there while the corrections to the arch were being made and completed. Mel and I had changed the launching date at least 5 times and we were determined to get Passages back in the water as soon as possible.

Launch date and time arrived – yippee!!! We are now in the water, in the slip but before the dock hands release lines/ropes, we must make sure our engine is running fine. We check the engine – everything seems fine and we are ready to motor down the main channel to the Steel companies dock. BTW - Passages did not have any of her sails up as the standing rigging still needed to be checked and tuned, plus it would not be possible to sail out of the slip way.

The main channel where our engine died!

 We were preparing to turn into the dock, when Mel said “The engines just died.....!”. Panic!  Remember we had NO sails to help us! We of course had to have complete engine failure just outside Crews Inn, where there are some mighty big boats!  I just saw all the lovely boats around us and thought we were heading straight for, who I now know was Ken and Sylvia’s boat. We met Ken and Sylvianne over Carnival.

 Mel, quickly dropped the anchor, while I had to be ready to use the fender in case we came close to any boats – which we did but luckily didn’t hit any!  Picture this – we are stranded in the middle of a busy water way and some ‘very charming people’ reminded us that we could not stop/put down anchor there. I was starting to sound like a true sailor in my response to them!

Lincoln, who organised the adjustments to the arch, saw what had happened and managed to hitch a ride to Passages. Another kind gentleman came past in his dinghy and offered to help, plus Ragga, who is the dock master from Peake’s, was called and came within 10 very long minutes and pulled us to the dock. We gave the kind gentleman a very nice tip and when we were safely tied up on the dock, we both said we wanted a very stiff drink after that experience. Never a dull moment!!

What happened was a check valve in the primary filter was stuck in the closed position, thereby starving the engine of fuel. We have now had the whole engine checked and serviced despite it being done in Grenada before Mel left there.

Ian working on the adjustments to the arch.

Back to the arch….. we spent the next three days and nights on the dock having the arch raised 8 inches. In between all of this, we had the fridge’s gas recharged, although he only came back to Passages to refill the gas the evening before we left Trinidad – that was 7 days AFTER he first worked on the fridge.

We also had to have some of the fibre glass of the boat re done due to the modifications from the arch – that took place over the course of 5 days.

The arch was still not finished after three days at the dock, but we were able to go back to Peake’s Boat yard and stay in the marina while all the work that still needed to be completed, was completed and while we waited for a good weather window to EVENTUALLY leave Trinidad.

We eventually left Trinidad on Friday 2 March 2018.

What we learnt about having work done on the boat is: Don’t have any time frames. It just leads to one becoming frustrated – you just have to have patience!

Well that’s all for now. I will be writing something about Carnival time and the fun we had although Mel is shying away from Rum punches now. An after affect from Jou‘vert – Carnival.

Take care

Mel and Caryn
Sv- Passages

If you want to see where we are – go to:

www.marinetraffic.com
top right corner – search for Passages with the Australian flag – that’s us!

A few photos of Passages being put back into the water before our engine failure episode!