Tasks in Trini

 30/7/2012

Braai Master at his new work station

 Trinidad is a primarily a place to work on ones boat, while staying south of the Hurricane zone. Prices are reasonable and there is a great infrastructure in terms of skills, materials and boating equipment.
  

 We arrived with a long list of things to be fixed, acquired, varnished or painted . The one thing that was NOT on the list was to re-do the toilet plumbing again, but as they say in the classics….. shit happens….like when the pipes get all blocked up again!

So from not being on the list, to First Priority in a nano second! Everything just had to move down one place! Things like the removal of the gearbox for a set of new seals and bearings, servicing of the injectors, oil change, filter changes, engine re-alignment etc.

Romovable 3rd forestay with No3 jib

 Also on the list were things like fitting a removable third forestay. We have found ourselves doing a fair bit more beating than we originally anticipated. Fortunately a Shearwater does this extremely well, but our wider than spec spreaders often required us to lead a second genoa sheet inside the cap shrouds to achieve the right trim. Being a roller furled sail, however, the sail shape is compromised when a few turns are taken in either due to wind strength, or to prevent the luff touching the spreaders.

We think that a well shaped No.3 Jib hanked on to this new stay, with sheets inside the cap shrouds will be more efficient. It will also enable us to sail down wind with two poled out headsails, (and no mainsail) if we so choose.

All the teak woodwork has been stripped and re vanished (all 7 coats), the non slip deck scrubbed, cleaned and touched up in places…

New teak cockpit table

I built a smart new teak fold up cockpit table (unfortunately the pic won't rotate so you'll just have to twist your neck!), and we have filled all our diesel tanks to the brim (560 litres)………(1TT$ is about R1.10!)

Can you believe these prices!!

Butterfly hatch with jerrycan covers in background

Mary has not been idle either, and has been busy redesigning and replacing a great deal of our aging sunbrella……. A new rain proof wind scoop over the fore peak hatch, new individual covers for all the on deck water and diesel jugs, a new butterfly hatch cover, new fender covers to replace the ones pirated for the genoa’s UV repair etc etc.

Hatch cover

Windscoop over forepeak hatch

We have also had a new stern mooring line reel made up, to store the 80mt line, and have replaced the cockpit flooring,

Stern mooring line in action with new reel

So the tasks are now done, and its time to play again! First up is a tour of Trinidad with Jesse James, sampling some of the special and unique cuisine??? of Trinidad. The tour is called “a Taste of Trini”, and I’ll cover it in the next blog!