Nov 20 - Safe arrival in Tobago

Pos: N11deg09.456min/ W060deg50.594min. We anchored near Chupara Point last night at N10deg48.21min / W061deg22.11min and awoke early for a 0530 departure to Tobago. With Mr. Perkins humming along at 1700 rpm, we generally saw 4 knots. That means some of the time we were doing in the 3's; occasionally (but not too often) in the 2's, but no 5's. Hmm. Winds on the nose the entire way, 10-15 knots, occasionally higher in the gusts; swells about 2-3'...but the current was something to reckon with. It had to be anywhere from 1.5-2.5 knots, on the nose (of course), and made for a long day of motoring. We had the mainsail cover off - wishful thinking. It was a motor trip, pure and simple. The good news is that we pulled into Store Bay at 1530 and took a mooring ball. It's possible to anchor in deep depths, but there were a few available mooring balls, free wifi and our friends nearby. Our first eastern Caribbean island; we can't wait to explore. All's well.
Pic: Arriving at the mooring field in Store Bay. We'll have to catch a ride to Scarborough to check in with Immigration and Customs. We were so entertained by a pod of dolphins swimming alongside us as we hugged the north coast of Trinidad for over 2 hours.

Nov 18 - Preparation for departure

I was in the dinghy at daylight inspecting the pee hole; no obvious blockage. I started the engine; it kicked in immediately and had good water discharge. My guess? I probably picked up something that partially blocked the water intake yesterday (the water here is not too clean), and by this morning, everything was back to normal. The exhaust riser was wrapped in exhaust wrap, and things are looking good. Sue went on a shopping excursion with Members Only (Jesse James) to Pricesmart; we plan to check-out with Customs tomorrow morning.
Pic: The many boats here at TTSA (Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association), are seasonal on moorings with bow & stern line .

Nov 17 - Details

We noticed a water leak near the exhaust manifold attachment to the heat exchanger while motoring yesterday. I tightened up the nuts and hose clamps, and put a bit of high-temperature gasket sealant around, but nothing changed. We dinghied in to the office at TTSA to inquire about things, and caught up on wifi. There's a bar and restaurant here, and many rows of boats on moorings, but Infini is too big, and too heavy to consider a mooring, not that we wanted one anyway. The showers are good; a bottle of Stag beer is 11 TT. In the afternoon, Falco, the mechanic, came by and discovered a split hose and loose hose clamp right near our leak. How I missed that one is a source of embarassment. Fortunately, I had a length of 1" heavy duty hose that we cut to size, fitted, and voila, leak solved. On the way back from dropping Falco off at the dock, I noticed the Yamaha pee hole wasn't putting out water; something else to look into. Otherwise, all's well. Most all systems have been checked; the water maker will have to wait until we get to clean water to service. We bent on the jib early in the morning when there was no wind; also, the staysail was hanked on as I anticipate we'll be using it. The new snubber line was put in service, and we settled in for the night; it gets dark at about 1800 hours.
Pic: So lovely to be back in the water! Sunrise is usually calm. The routine afternoon winds make the anchorage a bit more lively.

Nov 16 - We're back in the water!

We launched a bit later than planned, but it's island time, right, mon? Tightened up the stuffing box, checked all the thru hulls and strainers; all's well. Had a hell of a time getting the headstay and backstay re-attached; thanks to Steve of sv Slow Flight and Greg of sv Serenade for all their help; beer's on us. There were no moorings available in the bay so we motored around to TTSA and anchored; it was late afternoon. It's wonderful to finally be back at anchor staring at the low hills, with the city of Port of Spain in the distance.
Pic: The view from Infini as she's carried to the haul out slip.

Nov 12 - Update

We're making progress. Bottom painting is just about complete (the support pads need to be re-positioned, and then the bottom of the keel where the boat is resting will need painting when we're in the slings). We're scheduled to splash Monday morning and are looking forward to being back in the water. Life in the boat yard - not for the faint of heart.
Pic: I was able to get the captain to join the group trip to Macqueripe Bay that Robin from Heidi organized. The hike let us know we were out of shape. The views and walk through the bamboo forest and jungle were invigorating. Submarines used this picturesque bay to refuel during World War II.

Nov 5 - Update

The cutlass bearing, shaft and transmission coupling are all in. I've learned that here in Trinidad, it's necessary to stay as close to the top of the work list as possible; if not, your place in the queue falls dramatically and your job, no matter how important it is to you, falls precipitously in importance to whatever contractor is doing the work. Not unlike other places we've hauled and had to have work done. I've walked my old pair of Crocs into repair going back and forth to the machine, welding and prop shops; they needed 5200 on the soles to hold together. I'll be looking for some beat-up bicycles to buy from another cruiser; it would save time and shoe leather. At any rate, the prop shaft and propellor were in fine shape, so the machine shop drilled a hole for the cotter, Chris from the prop shop (a prince of a guy) dropped everything off to the boat, and we were ready for install. The exhaust riser needed a new gasket and piece of vertical pipe. You'd think those parts would be easy to source; think again. Wazied, at the machine shop, had to drive across town for the pipe and then had to thread both ends; Falco, the mechanic, had to drive over to a supply shop downtown to source the exhaust gasket. There are several yacht boat supply shops locally, but they're more like a West Marine in the States; availability and selection is often lacking. The good news is that you really can source most, but not all, of everything you need here. If it's not available locally, you can have items shipped without too much hassle. The really good news I've saved for last. The Admiral flew in today and is now busy unpacking and reorganizing aboard. I had hoped to have all the major work done before her arrival, but things didn't quite turn out that way. Close, though! Weather permitting, it's possible that bottom paint will be applied next week.
Pic: A view from Infini's deck while on 'the hard'.

Oct. 28 - Projects

The shaft, stuffing box, transmission coupling and exhaust riser are now all out and off the boat. Our two fixed, 3-blade props will go for routine inspection and the shaft will have a cotter pin hole drilled in the end for the retaining nut to be secured. One of the weaknesses of the MaxProp, in my opinion, is in the design; several threads of the prop shaft have to be cut off to fit it, so if you ever want to change over to a fixed blade prop, you're unable to secure the nut with a cotter pin as you've just cut off that portion of the shaft thread with the cotter hole in it. Crazy. We've been very fortunate and never hit anything with our prop blades; we've met other cruisers who weren't so lucky. What would they do if they didn't carry an expensive set of spare blades for their folding, variable pitch prop? Our exhaust riser will go to the welder to repair a small crack that developed. I had patched it with JB Weld, which held for many thousands of miles, but a proper repair will be done at this time. The boat awnings, which haven't been used since they were made in Guatemala, have been up for the last 7 months and are off to the shop for modification and repair; also, two hatch covers are getting new clear vinyl sewn in. There's a choice of bottom paints here, and I'm in the final stages of decision making; Hemphill, Jotun Sea Force, Trinidad SR, or Sea Hawk; prices and color availability are all over the place. The wind vane is in the machine shop having a frozen SS bolt on the rudder blade removed and new bearings put in. For anyone coming this way, here in Chagauramas there's a cruisers information net at 0800 on VHF 68 daily; it's very informative with lots of participation. Lastly, this past week there have been thunderstorms every day, so if you're planning on painting or peeling your boat, better to get here way early in the dry season.

Oct. 26 - Back aboard in Chagauramas

I arrived a few days ago and spent the first two nights in the hotel located at Power Boats. That gave me the time to clean the deck and cockpit and recruit Clark from Two Amigos to help drag the heavy headsail and mainsail from the settee in the salon to the deck. We also brought the windvane topsides. Down below looked pretty good. A bit of dust, some dead flies, but no mold or dead roaches - yea! Overall, I'd say in very good shape, so I think our pre-departure efforts have paid off. The list of projects goes on. Since it's hot and humid here, I'm still getting acclimated. Oh, forgot: I said "I" and not "we" as Sue is still in Florida taking care of some business that needed attending to, and will be here in about two weeks. Let's see...all the halyards have been run; the furling blocks on the stanchions have been attached; the furling line has been run; Cold Keate put a small charge in the refrigerator compressor today; the box temperature is now down to where it should be; I changed the two water filters in the galley; the Maxprop propeller has been removed in anticipation of installing a new cutlass bearing; I've organized a bit down below (a never-ending process); done some provisioning for one; and installed a marine wifi system from island time pc. The internet is still very slow and sketchy, but I'm down below at the chart table writing this entry, so that's an improvement. All-in-all, not a bad few days. There are about a half-dozen boats around that we've met previously, so folks are coming back to start the new cruising season. I checked out the cruisers book exchange at the laundry here at Power Boats; 99% were in French or German.