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Larry's LogMonday morning it rained very hard as a tropical wave had passed over and the rain was the trailing remnant. It was also pretty windy during the night with gusts up to about 35 knots. Our anchor held well as did everyone's around us and we slept fine. We planned to go into St. George's on the 9am van and just as we left the boat, it started to rain again, and hard. We got wet, which was not great, but I was worried about the cameras we had packed in our backpacks. Fortunately when we checked they were fine. The van was very crowded and we made two trips so we could get everyone into town. Diane saw the man who was getting our Wednesday tout together and made the final arrangements. Darius was the owner of the van we took into town and he also did the island tour we were taking. After talking to him, we both felt good about booking the tour with him. We got into town and walked up the hill to get a view from Fort George. The scene was really very nice as the fort has views of the entire town of St. George's and well past to Grand Anse Beach. This was also the place where, in 1983, that Army officers executed Maurice Bishop, the Prime Minister at that time. It was five days later that the United States invaded Grenada, supposedly to protect the US students at the medical school nearby. Interestingly, we met a man giving a description of the fort and those events to a Jamaican woman delegate (I don't know what kind of delegate but she worked at the medical school) and we asked some questions. He was kind enough to answer those and also give us his view of the invasion as a Grenadan. Of course, we don't know what his political bent was, but it was interesting to hear a different viewpoint from the one we had always heard in the US. After leaving the fort, we went into the Grenada National Museum. Although the name is certainly grander than the place, it was a very good small museum and was worth visiting, as they had exhibits of the Grenadan natural world as well as the history of man's inhabitation of the island, from the Arawak Indians through slavery and sugar cane up through their independence from England in 1974. We then walked around St. George's a bit, ate lunch and caught the van back to the marina. We went to the boat and got ready to go to a hurricane preparedness talk being given at Prickly Bay. John Pompa who, with his wife Melodye, runs the Caribbean Safety and Security Net was giving a talk. This is one of the nets we listen to every morning and we felt it would certainly be worth going. The talk was very informative and was a combination of experiences and useful tips and techniques for preparing your boat and yourself for a hurricane. There was also another speaker, a long-term cruiser, who had been through 5 hurricanes, the most devastating being Luis in 1995, which decimated the island of St. Martin. His description of the events and the aftermath were terrifying. He and his wife had lost their boat and almost everything else they owned, but fortunately had insurance that covered his claim. What was amazing were the preparations and precautions they took, but that none made any difference. The basic problem was that there were too many boats anchored that hadn't prepared or were poorly prepared. Some of his preparations for his 35 foot boat were: two (2) 70 pound Danforth anchors and a 45 pound CQR anchor, all with 1/2 inch chain and 1 inch nylon rode, along with stripping the boat on deck of all sails, canvas and even the boom. The boat had sunk in place and was found on the bottom with all the ground tackle still attached. Of the 1400 boats in Simpson Bay Lagoon there at the time, only 15 survived and those still had serious damage. Interestingly, when they first got the hurricane warning, he said there were only 300 boats in the lagoon but that over 1000 boats poured in from miles around, the crew just throwing out an anchor and leaving. We had been there for 6 weeks and people still talked about Hurricane Luis as the worst disaster to hit the island in decades. After the talk, Legacy, Benta from Side by Side and we walked back to Mt. Hartman Bay and discussed the points made. It was a sobering discussion. When Diane and I got back, we found Patrick and Theresa from Kajsa having a drink at the bar at the marina at Secret Harbour. They had gotten into the Hog Island anchorage the day before and were going to walk to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We talked with them for a while before they said they had to get going and we then went back to Destiny. They had spent several days in St. George's Lagoon before coming around and they had enjoyed it. They also said there were no security problems they had heard about. That was actually one reason why we didn't go there. Hopefully a lesson learned. The next day was a busy one. Diane had helped organize a women cruisers meeting at 2pm and I had to fix the chainplate. I started the chainplate after breakfast and Diane had Lori from Pride over to discuss that afternoon's meeting. I brought Diane to shore at around 1pm and I went back to the boat to finish the chainplate. I had decided to remove the chainplate completely and inspect it. This wasn't very difficult since the stainless steel bar that is the chainplate is very accessible and held by six 1/2 inch bolts through a bulkhead. The beginning was easy and I simply removed the cover plate, dug out most of the old caulk and took out the six bolts. The chainplate came off easily. I cleaned it and dug out the remaining old caulk. Digging out the old stuff was difficult since it was in deep and recessed. I then reattached the bar. To do this I took out my toolbox containing all my large wrenches and sockets. When I opened the box, I found water in the top and bottom compartments about 2 to 3 inches deep. Of course, the tools were rusting very nicely. It took about an hour to get them in acceptable shape and some may still need work or I may just trash them. Fortunately, the newer ones with a chrome finish were fine; it was just the older plain steel tools that had a problem. I'm still not sure how the water got in, but I'm pretty certain it was fresh water and may have come from the vent in the forward head. It might have come from an overflow of the water maker that happened some weeks ago. I'll never know definitely. After the tools were OK, I cleaned the deck opening again and started with the caulk. I had a partial and a full tube of Lifecalk that I was planning to use. I also had a caulk gun to use them with. Unfortunately, the gun didn't work right and the caulk came out the back of the gun rather than the nozzle. What a mess that made, and I had to use a small screwdriver to get the caulk into the slot of the chainplate. I managed to get enough caulk out of the tube through the nozzle to fill the slot surrounding the chainplate and put the cover plate on and cleaned up as best I could. It was already 3:30 and I still had to clean up and take a shower before our company arrived later at 5. It wasn't the neatest job I had ever done but I thought it was good enough to not leak anymore so I called it quits. |