Category Archives: Repairs

Successful morning

Trinidad work day

Wozers, what a busy day. Up at the crack of dawn after getting to the Hotel @ 2am.. so about 4 hrs of sleep.

So we didn’t do everything by the book, but so far so good. When you come Trinidad on a one way ticket you need to show your boat papers to clear in to the country at the airport, then report immediately to customs and immigration again at the marina. Well it was 2 am so we decided to drop our luggage at the boat on the way, another no no since you need to show up at customs with your luggage. We ended up having the hotel call the customs office since they didn’t ask when we knocked, so we woke him up and I sorta implied that we had no bags, so he said just come back tomorrow. So straight to the room and finish off the 6 pack we picked up on the way across town.

We were to splash at 6:30 am, got pretty close probably around 7ish it still floats and didn’t take on any water so thats all good. The sail guy was supposed to have the sails on the boat, they did not so we motored over to the marina and grabbed a ball and then back to the hotel before 10am to get our breakfast that came with our hotel room that we used for all of 4 hours. And a trip to immigration and again to customs that now said we needed some paperwork about when the boat was put back into the water.

We finally got in contact with the sail guy they delivered the sails and battens to the boat, damn they is heavy. We cut the battens to length with the jigsaw and Wayne put them all in, I put on the sailbag and lazy jacks, Christine unpacked and put made the boat liveable. It took the better part of the afternoon go get the boat fully dressed with all her canvas. I think we have most of the lines in the correct places.

The engine work that was done by the Phillipe’s crew at Catamaran Village was top notch, everything works and looks good. The new toilets are awesome. The only missing thing they didn’t hook the port side head up to the fresh water, so they were on the boat doing that while we were tackling the sails. In the process of using the heat gun to shrink wrap the fresh water connections, our inverter blew up, smoke and sparks filled the salon. Ugh, that means no blender drinks unless we can get that fixed.

With all those tasks, we also squeezed in a small provision run, and definitely some cold beverages. After several beverages and a shower we went exploring to find some dinner. We finally found a pizza joint, Joes Pizza, it was good or we were just happy, back to the boat and everyone passed out.

What a days work, it was a little to late to clear customs so we’ll be here another day and see what they say or want to do about blowing up the inverter.

9 months of waiting in Trinidad

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okay, its only been 8 months since we have been in Trinidad and posted an update and it seems like forever since we have seen our blue water baby.

Lots has happened been accomplished. This year flew by, the summer was HOT, the winds in Corpus were strong, not as much Texas sailing as usual, but busy every weekend with something. However its finally time to go check on the Shack and put her back in the water.

We had Philippe @ Aikane Catamaran Village take care of her while we went back to work to earn some more vacation time to spend in the islands. Philippe and Karen were excellent to deal with from 2000+ miles away, always there to answer emails take a photo and send updates as projects neared completion. His knowledge of the Catana boats is astounding and very helpful/insightful in respect of items to keep an eye on.

We had a couple major things fixed/redone while on the hard in Trinidad. The biggest issue was after 10 years the plexiglass on the ‘flat’ windows had crazed. It was sorta like looking through broken glass. To add to that, all the flexing in the boat after ‘bashing’ across the Mediterranean and being 10 years old the ‘seals’ around the rest of the plexiglass needed to be redone as well. The flat windows were replaced with new ones, hot drapped and molded to fit their spots and the large tear drop windows resealed and the surround repainted. There were 2 other leaks that were identified and fixed as well, one in the owners shower and one in the starboard engine compartment where the seat / hull were joined, these were also sealed, with any luck all we’ll stay drier on the inside now.

all back together

That alone would be enough to make every month worth it!

We also had some other work done some as preventative maintenance and others for just pure creature comfort and joy.

There was a some corrosion on the windlass, so we had that taken apart and gone through and repainted. A couple of other items were starting to show some signs of corrosion, as does a lot of things when exposed to the salt air. Philippe and crew went through both engines compartments and cleaned and repainted the items that were starting to show corrosion, and replacing the 10 year old raw water lines. Just like we replaced the Exhaust hoses in St. Lucia last April. We were going to have the Teak table and flooring replaced, but decided to wait till next year. Somewhere along the years I think the pressure washer was used on the teak and the 2 hatches in the cockpit and the transoms could use replacing at some point.

The dingy was stored inside the building and the starting batteries were taken out and kept on trickle chargers to keep them maintained, the house batteries should be fine with the 680 Watts of solar should keep the new (1 year old) Sonnenschein batteries fully charged, or at least that is the theory. The sail drives will have fresh anti-fouling applied as well.

We had the main sail washed by SocaSails . We tried and tried to get main sail washed in Turkey but they couldn’t figure out how to take it off. So again via email, Mark took charge and picked up the sail and had it washed as well as cutting us some new battens for the 2 that were shattered at some point in the past. No telling how long they had been broken as they stayed in the batten pockets and we only found them because we took the main sail off so that it wouldn’t get any more mildewing while stored in the rainy Trinidad during hurricane season. Still have to find Soca Sails and pay for their services when we get down there.

A few pictures of all the engine pieces that were removed and repainted.