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Larry's LogI went to shore and Diane's meeting was already over and so I took a quick shower and we went back to the boat to get ready for our guests. At around 5, Lori and Bob from Pride came over and just a bit after, John and Bridget from Gabrielle and Joe and Ruth from Legacy arrived. Eight people in our cockpit is cozy but we all had a really good time. John and Bridget were leaving for Trinidad the next morning and we wanted to say goodbye and thank them for the fishing trip during our stay in Carriacou. We invited everyone else just because. The next morning we had scheduled our island tour. On the tour were Legacy, Cameron, Kristali, Pride and us. It started out well but Darius also does the shopping trips and there was a slight problem. Since the van with shoppers was so full, we had to wait for a few minutes when we got to Prickly Bay (we were picked up at Mt. Hartman a mile away) but then we got going again. Then the van got a flat tire. Fortunately, he had a spare and we got the flat near a discount place that everybody wanted to look at anyway. After fixing the flat, we got going again but it was nearly an hour late. Prudently, Darius went to a tire place to get a replacement spare, but of course, that took another 30 minutes. So by the time we actually started, plus the pretty heavy traffic in St. George's, it was already 10:30. But Darius seemed a very nice man and so was his driver, Bull. Bull's real name was Frances, but he said, "Ev'y one call me Bull." So we did. Our tour started by going around the western side of the island toward the north. We went to waterfalls and lookouts near the road. One of the highlights was the Nutmeg Cooperative. This was where farmers brought their crop to be processed and sold. Grenada is the second largest producer of Nutmeg in the world after Indonesia (where it's native), and we saw a huge amount of the stuff. I hadn't realized just how much Nutmeg and its associated products were used. We also went to the cliff on the northern tip of the island where the last of the Carib Indians leaped to their death rather than become slaves of the French. One highlight was the old airport where 2 planes were still left from the time when the US invaded Grenada. There was a Cuban and a small Russian plane and they were left because the pilots had been captured and sent back to the their respective countries. It was interesting to see the faded CCCP letters on the side of the old plane as it sat with plants growing out of the cockpit. We went to an old plantation where all the spices on the island were described and we got a chance to ask questions about each. Besides Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Cocoa are very large crops, in addition to the usual coconuts and bananas. The Levera National Park looked very pretty but unfortunately we didn't have any time there since we wanted to get to the rum distillery before it closed. The rum distillery we visited was very interesting. It was a small one that only bottled about 1200 bottles a year. The way the bottles were filled was by first putting the rum into large water bottles with spouts on the bottom and then filling the bottles from them. The distilling pans were interesting and we saw people skimming the "wash" with large pans on wooden poles. We, naturally, had a tasting of the product. Unfortunately, nobody in our group really cared for the rum there. To me, it was very harsh. I suppose we all like an aged rum better. Oh well. The last "official" stop of the day was at the Grand Etang Park. This was at an altitude of about 1900 feet and was very pretty and cool, with a nice breeze. It was a pleasant change from the hot humid conditions we had all day. We took a short hike and went up a rickety lookout platform and the view over the rainforest and out to the Atlantic was spectacular. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and the light was already fading so we couldn't get the best view. Joe mentioned even coming back to Grand Etang for a morning. Perhaps we would do that. On the way back, we stopped at a bakery and we got some bread and other goodies. Then back to the marina and the boat. The next day it rained pretty hard in the early morning and, naturally, it woke us up as we got rained on. The hatches in most of the boat were closed already since it generally rains in the morning, but we leave the hatch over the v-berth open so we can get some air. Unfortunately, when it starts to rain it wakes us. It was already 7am so we stayed up and I checked the chainplate I had fixed the day before. Damn. It was leaking again. I knew I would have to fix it again so after breakfast I took the cover plate off and started cleaning up the old (new) caulk. I saw what had happened and why it leaked again. One of the screw holes didn't have any caulk under it because I couldn't get the caulk in properly the day before because of the caulk gun problem. It was a real mess trying to get the caulk out since much of it hadn't cured yet but using various tools and lots of paper towels, it was finally clean. Once the old caulk was cleaned out completely, I tested the balsa core and, of course, it was wet. So I dug out the wet core and luckily it was sunny so I didn't have to worry about rain. I called Steve on the radio to ask his advice and I brought him over to the boat to look at the problem. Steve had built his own boat from a bare hull and deck and had done a fantastic job so I trusted his advice. He looked at it and also felt the core. Some was still wet and so he suggested that I use a heat gun to dry it but to be very careful about not melting the deck. He then said that I should put epoxy between the two fiberglass skins, sealing the core and the making a solid place for the caulk to sit. I had done something similar to that for the windlass boltholes and knew it was the right thing to do. I thanked Steve brought him back to Kristali, and then started preparing for the now much larger job. The hardest part now was digging out the epoxy that was buried in the back of the aft cabin. We use the aft cabin for storage of all sorts of things; we refer to it as the "garage." By the time I got out the epoxy, got out more of the wet core and dried the rest, it was really too late to do the epoxy job. Since it usually rains every morning, I had to cover the chainplate slot to keep it dry. After I did that, Diane and I went in to use the pool and take showers. It had been a long tiring day and that pool felt really good. Amazingly, it didn't rain during the night or the next morning, so I uncovered the slot and started to do my epoxy work. The idea was to use straight epoxy, which is a relatively thin liquid, to apply to the core so it would soak in a bit and then use epoxy thickened with silica or similar hard filler to fill most of the cavity between the fiberglass skins and form a hard bed for the caulk to seal against. My concern was that the ambient heat and sun would cause the epoxy to "kick" to quickly. Not only would it waste that batch of epoxy but also if it happened once it was applied to the surface, I would have to remove it. Epoxy that crystallizes like that forms a very weak bond. My solution was to put the hardener and resin in the refrigerator for a few minutes to get it cool before mixing. That seemed to work pretty well as I had plenty of time to mix the parts, add the thickener and apply it. |