The 14-Day Week

The month of September has come and gone, and we’ve been busy, busy, busy…

We made our way to Peake’s Boatyard Travel-Lift on Monday morning, September 15th. The lift operators were very professional and efficient, and it still took three hours to get KINGDOM out of the water and settled on the jack-stands used in the yard for temporary storage and bottom-painting. As soon as the boat was ashore, still in the slings of the travel-lift, the bottom was scraped free of barnacles and pressure-washed before moving to the yard.

I had already made arrangements with Peake’s Yacht Services for the bottom paint work. They had assured me that this could be finished in five days, which is technically possible, if the work starts the same day. We checked into the on-site waterfront hotel, expecting to be there until Friday. The hotel is actually what we would call a “motel” in the U.S. – a tiny room, twin beds, small closet, bathroom, TV, and a powerful air conditioner. However, it was only $70 per day, so we felt we could afford it for a week or less. Best of all, on the second-floor verandah was the “Vespa” restaurant, which offered breakfast, lunch and dinner, with FREE INTERNET SERVICE.

I'm sorry that these pix are not in order, but maybe I can label them so they're understandable.

KINGDOM on the jack-stands in Peake's Boatyard


















Did you ever see a prettier bottom?

















The pilot house now glows with fresh varnish






















KINGDOM's freshly polished and waxed hull sides

















KINGDOM rises in the slings of Peake's Travel Lift


















































This is the scariest part- when the travel-lift begins moving...


















































KINGDOM takes a stroll... Notice her sistership "Never-Neverland" in the background




















































The waterfront verandah of the onsite motel at Peake's Boatyard




















































KINGDOM's freshly re-bedded windshields















































Peake’s is a full service boatyard, with onsite contractors for virtually any repairs or maintenance that a boat could need. The downside is that the place is packed with boats this time of year, and project management leaves a bit to be desired. We engaged an onsite company, KNJ Yacht Services, to organize some of the other work we wanted done.

We needed a complete set of anodes. Anodes are made primarily of the relatively soft metal, zinc. When attached to underwater parts made of harder metals, they act as a “sacrificial” metal, slowly decomposing as electrolysis occurs between the water and metal parts. This prevents destruction by electrolysis of the critical steel, brass and bronze running gear, such as drive shafts, propellers, rudders, bow thrusters, etc. Depending on conditions, anodes must be replaced every year or less, or whenever they are approaching total disintegration.

We also needed a replacement or repair for the “clamshell” raw-water strainer for the air-conditioner intake.

We required a new “spur” for the portside driveshaft (a “spur” is basically a line-cutter that sits just ahead of the propeller. Its’ purpose is to keep the props from being fouled when we run over an unseen crab trap anchoring line, or other floating cordage; a not uncommon event.)

Our portside propeller needed to be straightened and balanced, due to a minor mishap with a small coral head in Solomon’s bay a few months ago.

All five of our front windshields need to be re-bedded and re-sealed.

While that work was in progress, we separately engaged local workers to undertake several other projects of a more cosmetic nature. We had the hull cleaned and polished from the waterline boot stripe up to the rub rails, which is almost impossible to do while the boat is in the water. We engaged the services of another crew led by “Uncle Sam” Haynes to completely restore the varnish in our pilothouse (this is the only area of the boat we had not restored or remodeled in Florida). We had a wood joinery craftsman replace two small areas of dry-rotted wood in the pilothouse. We tracked down and caulked two small but annoying water leaks in the pilothouse area. Another crew installed our new SSB Grounding Plate, to improve SSB Radio reception.

All of the above work was only possible while KINGDOM is out of the water and we were off the boat, so we tried to get it all done in a week. Pretty ambitious, not to mention overly optimistic! What were we thinking???

About bottom paint – for those wondering why it’s such a big deal. Boat hulls are under continuous attack from barnacles and algae growth. If left unchecked, barnacles can and will eat through the hard surface of the fiberglass hull, to the extent that bubbles form in the gelcoat, which can eventually burst and create gaps for seawater to seep into the layers of fiberglass, ultimately causing separation and de-lamination. Not a good thing. Apart from that, barnacle and algae growth adversely affect performance of the boat through the water. Specialized marine paints have been developed to combat these problems, and are widely known in the industry as “anti-fouling” paints. Their general purpose is to make it more difficult for these critters to adhere to the hull, and make it easier to remove those that do manage to attach themselves. These paints typically contain copper, zinc, and other trace metals and are designed to slowly slough off as the boat moves through the water, thus discouraging marine growth over time. That is why bottom paint must be re-applied every 12 to 18 months.

On Monday afternoon, September 29th, we were able to check out of Peake’s and “splashed” the boat. Back in the water, we motored back to Coral Cove Marina. Several small projects are still underway, but these can be finished while we are here and in the water.

FUEL CRISIS IN TRINIDAD !!

When we returned to Coral Cove Marina at the close of our Tobago cruise with Paige and Dmitry, we knew we were very low on diesel fuel. We had intentionally run low so we could clean and refill our tanks with the cheap Trinidadian diesel. In fact, our big generator sputtered and died on our last day of the cruise. Its 400 gallon tank was empty!

Timing is everything – and ours was bad!

Unfortunately, while we were cruising, the government of Trinidad had decided to enforce an old law on their books prohibiting sales of fuel to foreign-flagged vessels at the same price as locals pay. (Murphy strikes again.) Since Trinidad is an oil producing country, gas and diesel prices are “subsidized” here, so that locals can buy it far below average world prices. Overnight, the price we must pay for a gallon of diesel quadrupled, rising from $.91 to $4.25!! Not only that; but the fuel vendors were now required to use different pumps to sell fuel to foreign vessels, and to obtain a separate bunkering license for those pumps.

The upshot of this was that there were no fuel vendors at all in Chaguaramas that could legally sell fuel to us until they complied with these requirements. It took over two weeks for the vendors, government and foreign consulates to sort this out. In the meantime, the yachting community was unable to buy fuel even for their dinghies, which they must use as transport to and from shore when anchored in the bay. Obviously, the cruising community was furious with the government, as were all of the merchants and vendors who make their living serving the yachting industry!

So, for weeks, we were basically marooned at our dock at Coral Cove marina. This wasn’t really a great hardship for us, since we at least were able to unload our scooters, and use them to get around. In any case, we were waiting for an opening at Peake’s Boatyard to haul out and perform annual bottom maintenance. If fuel had been available at a reasonable price, we might have gone elsewhere to have this work done.

At last, we had a haul-out date, Monday, September 15. We decided to take on 400 gallons of fuel prior to our haul-out, thinking that we might go directly to Venezuela for cheaper fuel once we were back in the water. (We really need 2400 gallons to prepare for another few months of extended cruising.) So on Saturday, September 13, we took KINGDOM over to the Powerboats Marina fuel dock. Murphy struck again…We were only about 100 feet from the fuel dock, when our starboard engine sputtered and died from lack of fuel! We maneuvered the boat into the dock using the bow thruster and the port engine. Whew!! Another close one!

We knew we were low on fuel, but that is cutting it too close! We have resolved never to let our tanks get lower than 500 gallons in the future. If we had only topped up our tanks on our arrival in Chaguaramas, we would have been able to buy it for less than a dollar a gallon! Timing is everything!

Murphy's Cruise to Tobago with Paige & Dmitry

We so looked forward to Paige and Dmitry's visit with us. Early on, we had wanted to have already scoped out the perfect spots to explore in Tobago, but our time schedule prohibited that. We wanted them to fall in love with this quaint little island off the coast of Trinidad, as we had several years ago while on a Windstar cruise. They were scheduled to arrive on August 15th,Friday evening, and our hope was to depart at first light on Saturday morning, but our plans were dashed when the air conditioners went out on Wednesday and weren't repaired until Friday afternoon, leaving us with provisioning and customs clearance yet to complete. But, they were good sports, and we had way too much fun on Friday evening to get an early start on Saturday anyway. Instead, we took care of moving the boat from the marina to the anchorage and completing our chores for a Sunday departure. From the anchorage, it is necessary to dinghy into shore obviously, and since the recently completed repair to our Zodiac was under the influence of Murphy's law like everything else, it was leaking air like crazy. Dmitry quickly got the hang of and lots of practice making like a hillbilly on Hee - Haw while he foot-pumped and Walt held the bellows hose to the valves, sometimes twice a day.

24 hours after their arrival, they still exhibited good sportsmanship and in spite of lousy internet connections they made do and were able to plug Dmitry's head into the financial reports from NYC. The man is a workaholic!

"Formal" dinner aboard KINGDOM











































Sunday morning, bright and early, we made a spectacular exit from Chaguaramas Bay. We headed out to the clearer and cleaner Caribbean, only to have both engines sputter, cough and quit in swells about 3 feet, hitting us on the beam and rolling us from side to side. Never mind the 48 cans of beer which escaped from the the fly bridge refrigerator to roll all over the deck making a fearful racket. The guys were down in the engine room doing the filter change and priming thing, in wretchedly hot conditions, pitching to and fro, while we were slowly but surely drifting toward a dramatic rocky coastline with crashing waves, and the mountain soaring straight up. They didn't complain, but I think the Babayev's may have been losing a little confidence in the Captain, Crew, and Kingdom.

However, there is nothing that My Captain can't fix, and eventually we were underway again, to an overnight anchorage in Abercrombie Bay, located on the north shore of Trinidad. Of course, we had the torrential Murphy's rain squall to anchor in, but when the rain stopped it was a really picturesque little bay, with a nice beach, and tons of Trini-daddies and Trini-mommies with all the Trini-kiddies playing and swimming and jamming to the loudest music we had ever heard, just 100 yards from our spot. Oh well, if you can't lick 'em join 'em, so we spent the afternoon floating in the water, drinking Carib (the local brew), doing a bit with the snorkel and fins. Paige and Dmitry kept jumping off the fly bridge deck, trying to out-cannonball each other. Murphy had his way with Dmitry this time; he managed to plug up his ear on one very deep submerge, and he lived with the painful results for the remainder of the journey. However, Russians apparently suffer in silence, unlike us Italians!

High Diver Paige




























Sunset at Abercrombie Bay


















The jaunt across to Tobago was an easy one, and we arrived in Scarborough early to send Walt off to handle the customs and immigrations chores, while we once again jumped in for a swim and some liquid refreshment. He returned with a bruise to his composure, having been rebuffed by customs for not having brought the proper clearance forms from Trinidad ashore with him (Murphy strikes again!). This necessitated an immediate return via dingy to the hot, dusty, long walk on the streets of Scarborough to sort it out with them again. We decided to venture ashore for dinner, and according to our guide book, would find a great restaurant (The Donkey Cart Restaurant) within a 15 minute walk through the "old" part of town, just up the hill. Remember, it's 80 degrees, with 80% humidity, and at dusk the mosquitoes are hungry. It was a 40 minute walk, and we all had so many bites it's a wonder we didn't get Murphy's Dengue Fever.

If it can go wrong, it will go wrong, so of course after we all turned in for the night, the seas picked up and tossed and rolled us more than the little cradle swing we had promised our dear guests. Come morning, and still a bit too unsteady to fix a proper breakfast, we made ready for a fast get away. Mt. Irvine Bay was just a short hop, and is a picturesque setting with a great beach and a funky little shore restaurant. So we headed over; hot, thirsty and hungry. We thought we should avoid the swimming area, so decided to drop the dingy anchor off the stern and tie the bow to a palm tree on shore; usually a great way to secure a dingy when the water is shallow and you just hop off and walk ashore. Murphy somehow managed to untie the line to the anchor, so unattached, irretrievable there is sat on the bottom, in the middle of a garden of sea urchins. So we left the dingy bow-in at the beach, tied to the palm tree. After lunch, we came back to a completely swamped and very heavy Zodiac. Every wave had splashed over the stern, and filled it up to the brim with sand and sea water. My Captain was not happy! It took all our strengths to maneuver it back to deeper water, re-float it and get it pumped out...We went back to Kingdom, and drowned our sorrows in more Carib, and rested our aching arms.

Oh, what an evening we had, poker fans! Dmitry is such a good "Texas Hold-Em" teacher, that Rookie Walt won the pot! A few rain squalls, and a change in wind direction gave us another "swell" night, and our guests in the VIP stateroom began sleeping in separate beds to finally catch some zzz's.

Poker Tournament in progress

















Our next stop; Man O War Bay, sounds much more ominous than it really is, in fact it was so peaceful and calm, all the restaurants in town were closed! Our only visit to the village was a quick beer at the cab shack, and rain squall for the dingy ride back to Kingdom.

We found this mermaid on our foredeck - didn't know they wore "shades"


















Paige and Dmitry smooching at "The Donkey Cart" restaurant in Scarborough, Tobago


















We finally experienced the "ahhh" we were looking for when we arrived in Anse Bateau the following morning. The water is crystal clear, the little bay surrounding the quaint resort is protected, the little town has adequate services and amenities while maintaining the local flavor.

Paige snorkeling along the reefs at Anse Bateau

















We had lunch at the "Tree House" restaurant, which is actually perched in huge trees, cantilevered over the beach. Our lunch of fresh lobster and seafood creole style was out of this world. When it came time for dinner we were all still too stuffed from lunch to enjoy the hospitality and fine dining at the resort, which we had been looking forward to for a week!

Luncheon at the "Tree House"


















Our suntanned guests - P&D


















View of KINGDOM at anchor in Anse Bateau Bay, from the cliffs overlooking the reefs.




















From Anse Bateau, we motored back down the Eastern side of Tobago to Scarborough, to clear out with customs and immigration. After taking care of the official tasks, we, then ran around the southern tip of the island to spend the night in Store Bay, prior to making the passage back to Trinidad the following day.

Trinidad and Tobago hold "The Great Race" every year, a run of "pirogues" open high powered brightly painted wooden or fiberglass local style fishing boats. They run full out from Chaguaramas, Trinidad the long way around, and end in Store Bay, Tobago. We arrived in Store Bay the evening before the race began. The bay was packed with spectator boats, and the beach, resorts and streets were packed with revelers, various styles of music blasted from flatbed trucks, at deafening volumes, most of it CRAP (Caribbean RAP). It was too intimidating for 4 tired old salts to bother with, so Paige tuned in Nora Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Harry Connick and we "limed" our evening away playing scrabble, and drinking champagne. We were disappointed not to see hordes of pirogues blasting past us in the opposite direction during our return to Trinidad the following morning, but we were blessed with more dolphins, and calm seas as we headed back to tie up at our marina (in another rain squall) and prepare for Paige and Dmitry's departure in the morning.


Murphy ruled the voyage; if it could go wrong it did go wrong! I'm begining to believe Murphy lets no good deed go unpunished too! Yet, something tells me Paige and Dmitry had a wonderful time anyway. I know we did, and we hope they'll give us another chance to show them how good it can be. We miss them! and they are welcome anytime!


In spite of our threats to hide their passports, cancel the taxi driver, and forget to set the alarm, they managed to sneak off and make their flight back to the states at the ungodly hour of 4:30 a.m. Go figure???






Since this posting has been in the making for almost a month now, we will update you all on the latest developements in our next blog. Stay tuned for news on the international fuel crisis which has now resolved in less than satisfactory ways, and our current stay at Peakes Boatyard and Marina where we currently have the boat "on the hard" for its annual bottom painting, general maintenance, and some refitting.








Love to you all,
Walt and Susan

Where in the world are Walt and Susan?

Chaguaramas, Trinidad!
It has been six weeks since our last blog update, and it has been something of a whirlwind of activity.
We arrived here originally on July 10th. As soon as we arrived, I (Walt) began doing necessary maintenance and upgrades to the boat. We purchased six new house batteries and had them installed ($4,000), and replaced the SSB (Single SideBand - something like a HAM radio) for $2,000. (Ouch) In the meantime, we were preparing to make the semi-annual trip home to Arizona. Susan was furiously working on getting our doctor's appointments and lab work scheduled, and arranging airline connections.
We arranged for our boat to be looked after at Coral Cove Marina, while we were away, and departed for home on July 17th. We spent two weeks in Phoenix/Scottsdale visiting with family and friends, seeing our doctors, dentist, etc. While there, we stayed most of the time with Ray and Pam Delrich (Susan's father and step-mother), but also spent a few days at the home of our dear friends Phyllis and Terry Carron. We were able to spend some quality time with my daughter Kara, Miguel, and our new grandson Andrew Ronquillo.

Andrew (being fed) and Kara















Andrew trying to snatch Grandpa's hat!














Great-Grandpa Ray Delrich and Andrew



















Phyllis and Terry Carron














The "Sistas" - Susan, Yvonne, and Dee, on the beach



Then we drove to San Luis Obispo, California to visit Susan's sisters, Yvonne and Dee, her nephew Stan, and niece Sierra, Richelle and Brother-outlaw Clay


On the way back, we stopped for a wonderful visit in Pasadena with Jeannine, Greg, and Allie (Susan's daughter, son-in-law, and Grand-daughter).


We arrived back in Trinidad on August 11th, exhausted. We've resolved that our next trip home will have to be at least 4 weeks, since we still didn't get to see all of our family, old friends and colleagues in Arizona.


As soon as we recovered from jet lag, we began preparing to recieve guests - Paige and Dmitry Babayev - from NYC. They are a wonderful pair (Our step sister and brother-in-law) full of life and energy. They arrived August 15th, and our next blog entry will describe our week with them circumnavigating the island of Tobago.

St. Lucia to Trinidad

The marina at Marigot Harbour, St. Lucia, was our favorite so far. These two pictures were taken from the pool deck of the Discovery Resort overlooking the yacht basin. We spent one entire day laying around the pool, and being pampered for a change.
People were always stopping on the little bridge to admire our boat. I think they are fascinated by the scooters on the flybridge.


























We departed Marigot Bay at 9:00am on July 7, for the 49-mile run south to St. Vincent. We had wonderfully calm seas and light winds.

At the southern end of St. Lucia, are these two distinctive geological features, known locally as "The Pitons". They're enormous cones jutting up, and between the two are two lovely bays. As you can imagine, the resorts there are fabulous.

View of the approach to The Pitons














Not sure if you can see the mast of the sailboat in this picture, but if so, it affords a little perspective of the size of these things....














View of The Pitons looking back as we depart St. Lucia, southward towards St. Vincent














We dropped anchor at 4:30pm, in the lovely little deep-water anchorage of Wallilabou (pronounced wally-la-bow), on the island of St. Vincent. This harbour was the site of much of the outdoor action in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, with Johnny Depp as the pirate captain. A lot of the sets remain intact.





























If you look closely, you can see the wooden coffins leaning against the front of the building. In one scene, Johnny Depp steps out of one of them. They're made of plywood, covered with fiberglass, and painted to look like old wood. Seems to me like a lot of trouble. There are plenty of old weathered buildings on the islands that they could have used as sources of real aged wood.













Pirates of the Caribbean film buffs will recognize these as the gallows where Johnny Depp was to be hanged. They built two. One was for the beginning of the hanging scene, and is upright, and the other was for the end of the scene, where the gallows collapses, saving our hero.


















The harbour has a very steep slope to the bottom. We anchored the front of the boat in 35 feet of water. Our friendly neighborhood boatman, Alex, took a line ashore from our stern, and tied it to a firm structure, thus aligning us perpendicular to the shore, and to the inbound surf. It worked quite well.
Alex also ferried me to the local harbourside restaurant, where I was inquiring about the whereabouts of the Customs and Immigration officals that are supposed to be there. They were AWOL - attending the Carnival festival in the capitol. So, we had a beer and went back to the boat.
Alex and me, returning to KINGDOM













Sunset at Wallilabou harbour, St. Vincent - We had a lovely evening getting acquainted with the owners of this catamaran, Ron and Debbie. It was the only other boat in the harbour. We learned that they are friends of Mike and Beth Smith, whom we met in St. Kitts. Ron is another semi-retired MD who teaches part-time at the various medical schools around the Caribbean!













Another wonderful geologic feature, also used in the movie as backdrop. We think there were skeletons hanging between the pillars of the rock in one scene.














Typical fishing village on the western coast of St. Vincent.













We left Wallilabou at 7:15am on Tuesday, July 8, for the 50-mile run to Carriacou. We arrived at the port of Hillsbourough around 2:30pm. We took the dinghy ashore to clear customs and immigration. It was really hot there! When we got back aboard, we decided that the harbour was too rolly for us, so we pulled the anchor, and motored south a couple of miles to the harbour in Tyrell Bay. It was much more protected from the ocean surge, and we were more comfortable there.
As soon as we anchored, our friends Dustin and Courtney, Captain and Mate of the charter catamaran "Frangine", motored over to say hello. We had a great time when we met them in St. Kitts. It was good to see them again, but since they had guests aboard their boat, they couldn't stay and visit long. They did suggest a couple of good anchorages we could use in Grenada.

We departed Tyrell Bay, Carriacou very early (6:15am) on Wednesday, July 9, because we were asked to move our boat out of the path of an incoming freighter. This was only a 35-mile run in good conditions down to the extreme south end of Grenada. We arrived there about 12:45pm, and anchored in a small protected harbour formed between Hog Island and the mainland of Grenada. There were at least 30 boats in this small harbour. Since we had cleared customs and immigration in Carriacou, we did not need to do it again in Grenada, as both islands are under the same government.

The next day, July 10, we made the last long (82 mile) leg of our journey to Trinidad. We left at 6:00am, since we knew this would be at least a 10 hour day. As it turned out, it was a 14-hour run, against the strong equatorial current, which cut our speed by as much as 3 knots at times. In addition, the seas were kicking up and we dealt with 6' to 8' swells on the beam nearly all day. We also ran in and out of rain squalls throughout the day. It was NOT what we consider ideal conditions, but it was still do-able for us. We took only a few pictures on this passage. One was of this gigantic rainbow, which we encountered early in the day.














Volcanic rock formations of the southern coast of Grenada.















We arrived in Chaguaramas Bay, Trinidad after dark, about 7:45pm. We picked our way into the anchorage and dropped the hook. We were exhausted from this passage. Next morning, we went ashore to clear customs and immigration. Then we made arrangements to bring the boat into Coral Cove Marina, where it will remain during our three-week trip to Phoenix. We leave on July 17, and return August 12.

While we are in port here, we will have some time for maintenance. The boat's 24-volt battery bank needs to be replaced, and our Single Sideband radio needs adjustment or repair. I will also change the oil and filters on the main engines and the large generator, check the condition of fuel filters, etc.

We will be taking more photos and updating the blog again in a few days, once we get rested up again..

Party at the Shipwreck Bar - St. Kitts

Lest anyone think that we don't make good use of our time ashore, I thought we would include these pictures of our last afternoon in St. Kitts. Our friends Beth and Mike Smith took us out to the Shipwreck Bar on Sunday afternoon, and we ran into another couple, Denise and TJ, whom we had met earlier in the week at a Karaoke night (another story for another time...)

The Shipwreck is right on the beach, and provided cold beer and live music all afternoon. As you can see, we had to get up and dance, if you can call what we do "dancing"! Anyway, the locals seemed to get a kick out of our antics...

Only 470 miles to Trinidad -














Professor Mike Smith














Susan demonstrates her Italian heritage - (sign language)














Dancin' fools are we...














Susan and Beth Smith














You talkin' to ME?














Walt and TJ (he's the one in the cool hat)














Left to right - Mike Smith, Denise, Susan, Beth Smith, Walt, TJ














Bustin' a move on the dance floor












































See? I told you. We waste no opportunity to enjoy life!