Teffany, Carol, Brian, and Sam

Sam Haynes, known as "Uncle Sam" to his friends, is the acknowledged master of varnish in the Chaguaramas boatyards. He greeted us on the first day we hauled our boat out of the water at Peake's Boatyard. The first thing he said was "Your bow rails look terrible! Let me varnish them for you." Over the last month, he has transformed the varnish on KINGDOM so that it looks like a new boat. He has refinished our pilothouse walls and flooring, rails, stairwells, aft deck doors, salon doors, everything looks grand! He also attacked and eliminated rust in our engine room, removing it and repainting where necessary. He has provided us a wealth of information on specialized products to use to maintain marine finishes, and taught us how to use them.

Sam also found us high-quality workmen and craftsmen of all kinds. All we had to do was mention a project we had in mind, and the next day, someone would appear to handle it for us. He found a guy to clean the bilges, a refrigeration expert to repair our flybridge icemaker and faulty air conditioners, and a painter to repair stress cracks in fiberglass.

Most important, when we talked of going to Venezuela for fuel, he recommended Carol Lall to us as an experienced crew member. Carol, a Guyanese national, has 18 years of crewing experience aboard all kinds of vessels, and is a licensed seaman. She speaks several languages, is fluent in Spanish, and has visited nearly every port on our itinerary. Carol introduced us to her daughter Teffany Padmore, also Guyanese, also licensed, and who is most interested in marine engineering.

Sam is originally from St. Vincent, and was reared in San Fernando, in the southern part of Trinidad. He has spent much of his life aboard boats or working in boatyards. He is a tall, dignified man, very well spoken, and takes fierce pride in the quality of his work. We have become good friends over the last six weeks.

Sam and Walt in the pilothouse






















Carol Lall (foreground)






















Brian, a family friend from Guyana, came to visit Carol and Teffany. He is a Cuban-trained physician in Guyana. His specialty is Intensive Care Medicine (an internist who works primarily with ICU patients). He has taken a 90-day leave of absence to decompress from the stress of his job. As a change of pace, he is delighted to help perform the simpler tasks of maintenance (shown here repainting a fan from our salon).

Teffany loves solving mechanical problems. Nothing intimidates her! She is shown here squeezed into a small space in our engine room, while replacing a macerator pump that she just rebuilt.