Thru hulls - more

After contacting Conbraco I go a nice emailed response with part number for all of the maintenance kits that they make for the entire marine line of valves. Have several vendors in Florida where I can go to get parts so should be in good shape and intend to stock spare parts for each seacock and valve on the boat from now on.

Now, back to emptying the bottles!

On the beach

We finished in the boat yard and are now hanging out at La Sagesse - with the nicest beach in Grenada.

We had a few beers left over so my final boat task is
to make sure that they are left empty!

More yard work - surprises with thru hulls

We continued prepping the boat for summer storage today and as part of the checklist we inspected and lubed all the thru hull valves on the boat. We started with the head sink drain valve and it broke - temporarily plugged till we can try to locate a replacement valve tomorrow (Easter Holiday here from Friday thru today).

Next was the engine raw water intake - valve moved easily but noticed that the stem nut was turning as the valve handle was turned. Removed the valve handle, unscrewed the stem nut and after removal discovered that the stem was fused to the stem nut. More on this later.

I had an old Y valve onboard that looks like it has the same stem and nut. Thought I would take this apart and use the parts to fix the engine valve - wrong. The stem packing was fused into the body of the valve - into the trash.

Next went after the head discharge thru hull/valve. In luck this time as everything came out easily and all was in good order. Since this thru hull was abandoned when we installed the LectraSan (waste treatment system) we were partially in luck. Cleaned everything well and lubed the parts with silicone grease and the engine raw water valve is now better than new.

Took the fused parts (stem nut and stem), a hammer, WD40 and a few other tools down off the boat and was able to drive the stem free from the nut and packing. The threads on the stem were shot so cleaned everything up, lubed everything, and reinstalled in the abandoned head discharge valve. This worked fine except that the handle cannot be secured to the valve - not an issue as we do not use this anyway.

Email post to Ip Mail list and request to Apollo (Conbraco) looking for a source of spare parts.

Issue - the thru hull fitting and valve is a large brass (bronze?) part that is secured to the hull by a screw in pipe that tightens against the hull and also with three large bolts, nuts, and washers. The ball valve itself is fine, just need some internal replacement parts, almost like new faucet washers on the home kitchen sink. If these parts are not readily available then all of this hardware has to be replaced ($$$ plus lots of time to remove the old fitting and reinstall the new one.

Kind of like replacing the car if you have a flat tire!

In the boat yard!

We hauled out on Thursday about 1:15pm and have spent the past four days prepping the boat for summer storage. Everything has gone well up to this point but yesterday the gate valve on the head sink broke. So took that all apart and have the parts and tools standing by for replacement. Since the thru hull is above waterline it was not bedded with 5200 but rather what looked like plumbers putty. Will re bed with 5200 tomorrow and replace the valve with a stainless steel version - a bit more but not more chrome plated ball valves to break.

Waxing the boat

I was sitting in the cockpit this afternoon having a beer while Lesley was waxing the coach roof. Had quite a few folks stop by and there was lots of discussion with Lesley over the proper wax technique, products, etc. Most of the guys were quite interested in how Lesley came upon her technique and were interested in hiring her to teach their wives how to do the waxing.

Our coach roof really shines!

Working in the marina

We had water this morning so the first job we tackled was washing the boat. While the boat was drying Lesley made a pot roast in the pressure cooker that will be saved for dinned after we haul out. The boat dried and we took the sails down and folded them, removed the running rigging, hauled the newly cleaned dinghy back on the davits, put the outboard with the new water pump back on the rail and Lesley started waxing the topsides.

More work tomorrow, we're both beat, so that's all for now!

Removed the watermaker

We de-installed the Village Marine water maker yesterday and took all of the fittings off of the pressure vessels getting ready to take the parts back home with us. When we return here in November will have completed the swap out of the Village Marine system with a hybrid EchoTec system.

We will move into Le Phare Bleu Marina later this morning and begin final prep for summer haul out and storage. Once the generator cools off will dig into it and remove the mixing elbow that is leaking and do a final oil change and get it ready for storage as well.

Then the washing and cleaning start in ernest.

Port Louis Marina

For the first time since we have been cruising the Caribbean we spent 3 nights in Port Louis (St Georges Grenada). Not an overly pleasant experience with a total lack of information on check in on everything from WiFi access, water and power, combinations for the showers etc. Was convenient to shopping but otherwise a place to miss in the future. Very different from anything we have experienced thus far out here.

We had a great experience with FedEx (Jeffrey) with some parts from Trinidad, with the customs rep in the FedEx office and also with the Customs folks at the Grenada Yacht Club site.

We left the Marina at about 10:00am this morning and are now anchored off Calvigny Island, South coast of Grenada. Nice to be here and enjoying the anchorage. Had some local sailing vessels come by at near sundown on their way back in and may have some interesting photos.

There is a big Oyster Yachts regatta going on now and think the final dinner is tonight - lots of Oysters in Le Phar Bleu Marina and lots of traffic over to the resort on Calvigny Island.

No weather windows?

Lesley had a most unusual discussion with a lady in the shower room last night.

The lady said that they had been in Grenada since January and that they had hoped to make it to at least the Grenadines this year but that they had not had a weather window! Knowing trawlers require better conditions Lesley asked what size trawler she was on. The lady told Lesley that she was on a 42 foot sailboat.

Lesley then told the lady where we had been this year on our 35 foot sailboat and the discussion ended.

I am sure glad that we didn't experience the same weather as these folks did this season.

St Georges, Grenada

We moved from Grand Mal to St Georges late yesterday morning and took a slip for the first time in the Port Louis Marina. We are on the J dock, stern to a large concrete wall. On the way in we watched as a large Amel ran onto a well marked reef! They tried to take a short cut on the wrong side of three very visible red Nun buoys.

This was our first time in the marina so we were not sure how we would approach the dock or where we would end up. A chase boat met us at the end of one of the large docks and told us how to prep the boat - two bow lines and a stern line - and then pointed out where our dock was. We came well into the marina and made a tight turn to port where the chase boat secured our bow lines to a large mooring line. We then continued slowly with the port turn until we were able to back up near the wall. The chase boat gave the stern a push and then we were close enough to throw a stern line. We continued to back down on the bow mooring lines until we were close enough to the wall. Ended up with two stern lines going ashore and about a 3 foot step to the wall.

If it will stop raining we plan to go to the Spicelands Mall, Carib Sushi for lunch and then Budget Marine.

Headed for Grenada

We left Carriacou early this morning headed for Grand Mal, Grenada. Had full main and Yankee up with winds 17 -23 kts, gusting to 26. Seas were nice and both wind and seas from nearly off the beam so we scooted right on over. Took a few photos off Goave on the way down (fish fry fame) more on that later. Also got some scenery pictures with lots of red blooms on the hillsides.

Running the generator/water maker for a few more minutes and then will make lunch and go for a swim.

Limited bandwidth here so will hold off on photo upload for now.

Anchoring in the Islands

Folks out here have come to expect that if there is only one boat in a large anchorage and another boat, lets say that is flying a French flag, comes in that that French flagged boat is going to anchor right on top of you. Today we saw a medium size cruise ship (Silver Whisper) come in and anchor in the outer harbor. A short time later a 5 masted Cruise Ship came in and anchored nearly on top of them. We are not sure but will check and update the blog but we think the 5 master is French flagged. After some sort of intervention by radio and visits from local officials the 5 master picked up anchor and moved well back and behind the Silver Whisper.

We need to find out what they did to get them to move - maybe we can use the same tactics next time!

Bequia Sailboats

Have noticed each time we visit Bequia that there
are people out sailing small model boats. Had one crash into our dinghy this morning so thought I would post a few pictures. Especially interesting in one shot as the cruise ship Sea Cloud II just anchored and then one of the models sailed by. Today's Regatta included 3 models and 3 tenders, two of the tenders were on paddle boards and the other in a row boat.




Two of the models and one of the race "Officials"!










Race "Official" getting a closeup view of the action.