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Larry's LogAlso after it cleared up and I continued on the chainplate. I had to file the dried epoxy I had put in so that the chainplate would fit back in and so there was room for the caulk. After the hole was big enough, I did a dry fit and filed some more. Finally, the it was a good fit and I re-attached the chainplate to the bulkhead. I would need to get a replacement bolt since the threads on one of the 6 bolts was slightly cross-threaded. Diane was going into town the next day so I could get it at the chandlery then. After putting the chainplate back and filling the slot with caulk, it was time for a swim and a shower again. There hadn't been much wind at night and so it was pretty hot. We didn't sleep very well even with the fans running. Also as a result of little wind, I needed to run the engine fairly often to keep the batteries charged. I don't like doing it, but often there's no choice. Tuesday morning we went into town to get the bolt I needed for the chainplate and to go on the Internet. We were successful on both counts. There was come confusion that morning with the van, though. It seems that the van that usually takes the shoppers to St. George's was going to do a tour. The driver, Bull (who had taken us on our tour), brought us to a place on the road where he said another bus would pick us up. He also said a red van would pick us up later on the way back and we all paid him as we got out of the van for the round trip, as we usually do. Unfortunately, when the new van picked us up, the driver and the helper didn't know anything about the arrangement and we all wound up paying him the usual bus fare of EC 1.50 per person. While not much, we felt that there had been some miscommunication. We would have to talk to Darius about it the next time we saw him. Fortunately, the promised van was there when we were ready to go back from town. Actually we went to a large mall that Diane had shopped before and had some pizza for lunch that wasn't bad. We then caught the van back to the marina. Back at the boat, I put the last bolt into the chainplate and started cleaning up a bit. We then went to see Forest and Susan on Rejoice, our friends we had met in Bermuda. We dinghied over to the next bay through a narrow pass and found them in the middle of a fairly crowded bay, anchored behind Hog Island. They had Bill and Carole from Duchess on board also and we enjoyed a few hours of very nice conversation. We left early since we wanted to be able to see our way through the pass between their anchorage and Mt. Hartman Bay. They lent us a homemade videotape showing St. Martin during and immediately after Hurricane Luis. Diane loves to watch this kind of thing and so we borrowed it. On the way back, we stopped at Kristali to say hello and ask about a get-together Connie was organizing for the weekend; they invited us on board and then graciously offered some pizza that Connie had just made. We didn't want to eat someone else's dinner, but they insisted they had enough so we stayed a while. When we got back to the boat, we decided to watch another video, "What Women Want", with Mel Gibson; we both enjoyed it although I really didn't want to "spend" the electricity that way. But I thought I would have to run the engine the next day anyhow since there still wasn't much wind and the sun had been spotty. Wednesday I cleaned up some more from doing the chainplates. To access them, I removed the headliner (ceiling) and also some pieces of wood that held up wires running between the deck and the headliner. After that, I cleaned and organized my tools and the storage space for them and the supplies. I was running the engine again to charge the batteries and Diane was watching the Hurricane Luis video. I watched bits of it but I was too busy with my chores. She complained that there were lines across the screen from the engine interference, but it was more important to charge the batteries. The video ended and we then went to shore for a swim and a shower. Akila had invited us for drinks and snacks, along with Kristali and Driftwood. We got there at 5:30 and had a great time. Dione had a business of refurbishing yachts and is a wealth of knowledge and Steve built his boat from a hull and deck and so between them they are great to talk to about boats and their systems. We spoke about all sorts of things and I questioned them about running the engine to charge the batteries. Both agreed that it wasn't ideal but that as long as the engine comes up to temperature when it is run, the oil is changed regularly and the engine is allowed to warm up before putting a load on it and then "cooled" down before shutting it off, I shouldn't have any problems. Diane had brought over the tape of Hurricane Luis to see if anyone wanted to borrow it, but everyone said "let's watch it now", so we did. This time I watched it and it was a very impressive sight, with 120 knot winds blowing through Simpson Bay Lagoon. The footage of the aftermath was also very impressive, particularly since we had all been there. Eric commented that they had done a pretty good job of rebuilding, considering the extent of the damage, but of course, Luis was in 1995. Thursday was a dreary day. It started raining in the morning and although it let up around noon for a few hours, it was cloudy all day and rained on and off. Not much fun. I worked on the web site, made some changes and did some updates. Diane went to shore to call the airlines to make our reservations for traveling home during our visit to Trinidad. Other than that, we didn't do much. Thursday night was slightly breezy but after the torrential rain and stiff wind during the day, it seemed pretty mild. There was no rain that night which turned out to be fortunate. Diane had woken at around 2am and just happened to look outside when she saw a large French-flagged catamaran about 20 feet from our bow. When they swung, they also came dangerously close to Pride, anchored just ahead and to starboard. They had come in the day before and had anchored ahead of us with plenty of room. I'm not sure why, but they had dragged dangerously close. When Diane saw them, she got me up and then took out our large spotlight, shined it on them and yelled out. They got up almost immediately and started to correct the problem. They started their engine, pulled up the anchor and motored up to where they had been. Unfortunately, the bottom there is very weedy and holding is tricky so they started to drag again. They tried 2 more times before they finally set the hook. I stayed up to watch and make sure we were OK and they were doing the same. Everything seemed OK and after a while we all got some sleep. By the time I got up the next morning at 6:30, they had gone. |