Monday it rained pretty hard most of the morning….and Winfield decided to just prep the boat as it was clear there wasn’t going to be a long enough dry period for him to varnish. So we went ashore for a while – amazed by the Bank Holiday crowds in town on a day trip from St Vincent – and then went back onboard for a lazy afternoon. John and Georgina joined us for sundowners and we had a really nice evening with them. They have headed off south now, so we hope to catch up with them again later in our travels.
We awoke to a cloudy day Tuesday but it was dry – hurrah! Winfield turned up early and got on with it straight away….. That’s the fifth coat of varnish done… It is starting to look really good. We had a quiet night on board and enjoyed another beautiful sunset.
Wednesday we are excited about the last coat of varnish being done….almost finished…. Winfield turned up at 7.15 am as he is eager to get this job over with too. Good job he’s not on a daily rate with all the weather delays and also that we are not in a great hurry to be on the move again. Well…he had virtually finished the whole boat…and the heavens opened. Not just a few spots but a tropical downpour. Winfield retreated into the cockpit with his head in his hands – not again – all ruined! He’s going to have to do most of it again….only the companionway and the bowsprit are potentially salvageable…… We cheer him up with a cold beer and he goes on his way. Have to say I would have been in a really bad mood at this point – but he’s really philosophical and chilled about it all and says that this happens sometimes…. Having a quiet night in the cockpit and the wind starts howling and the rain comes back with a vengeance. Oh ho….this is some storm….with lightening flashing around too, although thankfully at some distance. The wind builds and the noise is deafening and we have 35 knots blowing through with horizontal rain to accompany it. We stay up for a while until the worst is over and then retire to bed thankful that the anchor has held steady.
Thursday morning and we are shocked to see damage on shore – there is a large tree down at Jacks which has taken out his cabana and blocked the dinghy jetty. The Fig Tree restaurant has lost one huge branch of their ancient old fig tree and has demolished some tables and the guard rail leading to the boardwalk…. Thought we would have heard trees coming down – particularly the one at Jack’s place as we are not anchored that far away – but the noise of the wind and the rain drowned everything out. Winfield came by and, again, decided not to risk the varnish so just did all the preparation ready for Friday with fingers crossed for a dry day.
During the storm when we were in the cockpit we realised that we really need some additional canvas to protect us as we struggled to keep dry…… So when we went ashore we arranged for a canvas maker to come on board to give us a quote for the work later in the day. In the evening we had Chris and Linda over for a home-made curry night, including popadums… Had a really nice evening just chilling and chatting – although we did have to snuggle together a bit when the rain came down! Definitely need that extra canvas….
As we were washing up after our guests had left suddenly we were both absolutely shocked by the deafening noise that appeared to be coming from somewhere in the saloon….. Couldn’t find it immediately and then suddenly we spotted that it was the high water bilge alarm – we hadn’t heard this one before and wow you won’t miss that one! So we looked in the bilge and yes there was a lot of water in there….so I went on pumping duty while Richard checked all the pipes etc… Eventually we checked in the lazarette to find that the external shower hose on the transom was leaking into the bilges – Winfield had used this to clean off before he left us today and had forgotten to turn it off!!! Phew….we’re not sinking then……panic over! But frustrating to realise that we had lost at least a quarter of a tank of fresh water – so will have to run the watermaker a lot in the coming days to replenish our stocks……
This morning we have woken up to bright blue skies and Winfield is here in a positive mood – so fingers crossed that we get it done today…. It won’t be the end of the job as he will still need to come back and reinstall the stainless and clean up the hull etc….but at least that isn’t weather dependent. We are also going to go into the customs house to get our stay extended which will, no doubt, require copious amounts of form filling. We only found out last night that they keep passports for three days during this process so we won’t be out of here until potentially the middle of next week now…. And we are both really keen to get going again now….Mustique is calling. Will keep you posted.
Bye for now
Jan