It has been a busy month here at the Power Boats yard in Trinidad. This is prime cruising season, so the boat yard has rapidly emptied. There are a few of us are still working away on boat jobs and it's lucky that we have both friends and the resident Iguanas keep us company.
Phil Welding On The Bow
We had two unexpected setbacks this month. Firstly our welder Ian, from Chaguarmas Metals, was hurt in a car crash, then his boss also had a car accident, so our welding and stainless projects came to a stand still.
To our rescue came Phil Christieson, from the New Zealand yacht Windora. He offered to complete the welding on the new stainless steel bow roller extension - it took two long sessions, standing on high planks in the blazing Trinidad sun, before the new part was finally and beautifully welded in to place.
Secondly, our local painter Rawle spent 6 days in hospital and was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer. We kept busy whilst Rawle was recovering as we had a lot of refinishing to do, including hatches on deck and an area of hull surface inside, around the refrigerator.
Rawle returned to work last week and followed his doctors orders, taking his meds, cut down his working hours and is now eating lunch every day. With Neil assisting, the blue boot stripe has been sprayed and the waterline marked. Visual progress at last.
Here is our month summarized in images :
Spraying Epoxy Primer, Almost Ready For Top Coat
Spraying Primer At The Bow, Where We Removed The Stainless Steel Striker Plate
Rawle Spraying Awlgrip Top Coat
Neil & Rawle Measuring And Taping The Boot Stripe Lines
Rawle Spraying The Blue Boot Stripe
Shiny Topside, With Window Surrounds Being Refurbished
This one is my favourite image. Rawle has been helping Neil with his spray painting technique - best of all, we have found that we can use our PowerDive hooka as the compressed air source for our small spray gun.
Today we started building the paint layers on our wonderful Gori propeller. It is my favourite image because this means that we will be applying anti-fouling and launching in the next few weeks - there is water at the end of the tunnel.
As a visitor to the West Indies, you can't think of Trinidad without thinking Carnival! Steel (pan) bands, parades, stunningly costumed men and woman strutting out dancing ... and rum, lots of rum.
So when we heard that Jessie James from Members Only was organizing an evening tour of pan rehearsals and Mas Camps, we booked. On arrival at our first destination, Jessie began talking in another language - competitions for Dirty Mas, Pretty Mas, Jóuvert, Kings and Queens, Soca music and Panorama, He cited prize money for the winners of each event of up to One Million TT dollars.
Mas is short for masquerade procession. Dirty Mas is a dawn parade that starts around 2:00am, the first of the carnival processions, where dancers are covered in everything from mud to motor oil to liquid chocolate. The Pretty Mas procession is held the following day, and is where the very best costumes and finery are on show. Our
first stop was where Jóuvert or dirty mas began - participants pay a fee to join the
group, wearing the team shirt they dance with locals and tourists around town, drinking
rum and juice and having paint and whatever thrown at them.
Next stop of the evening tour was to a costume factory, where more of the carnival mystique was explained. At one shop the theme was an Arabian Wedding and there were many different styles of costumes, all with prices displayed. Only then did it dawn on us that Carnival in Port Of Spain, Trinidad, is now a fully commercial venture. Organized by government and business to attract tourists, who travel from all corners of the world to not only watch but to pay real money to dress up and be part of the Carnival.
The costumes are splendid, just what we had expected, just not the price tag that excluded most of the locals from participating unless they were sponsored. We visited two costume shops and then were dropped outside a workshop to see where some of the costumes were being made. As soon as we started peering in, the door opened and we were invited to look, touch and even try on some of the fabulous feathers. Lots of hot glue gunning with feathers, sequins and lycra.
Four Special Pans Are The Guitar Section.
After dinner we settled in to listen to a rehearsal for the Silver Stars pan orchestra. This was a large pan orchestra, with over 45 players using many different types of steel pan drums. There was also a large rythm section, with various drums, congas and percussion instruments.
As it was a rehearsal we listened to the same 12 minute composition, over and over. The conductor was focussing that night on building dynamic range into the performance, working various sections of the orchestra at different times so that they could develop the necessary crescendo required in one part of the composition.
Eventually the whole band played together, covering the entire piece. Finally the conductor gave the orchestra it's head and said "ÖK, lets do it with feeling" - never have we felt music like this. Check the link here to a prior Silver Stars rehearsal.
