We Have Escaped !

Oh, what a feeling!

I'm not sure why, but hardstands have a strong magnetic pull on Crystal Blues. We haul out every two years so our time on the hard is always extensive. The only way to break the cycle is to set a launch date and work diligently towards it. Oops, so we missed our first launch date and only made the second date with superhuman effort.

After two weeks tied to the dock and still with a lengthy job list our final escape was determined by the expiration of our visas. Working 12 hour days, installing sails, new stanchions, running rigging and three hatches, including fairing and painting the hatch surrounds and provisioning. We sailed away from Power Boats, Chaguaramas, Trinidad bound for Grenada, sea worthy but with a long job list.

We had to dig a trench deep enough to use the needle gun.

One of the final job before launch found us digging out a 18 inch wide by 12 feet long trench under the keel. One foot deep, it allowed us to clean up the base of the keel with a needle gun and then paint with multiple layers of epoxy and antifoul.  Lacking a trenching tool or shovel, we had to dig the hole with a borrowed crowbar and a piece of timber to scoop out the compacted landfill. Fun, stressful times!

There were many reasons why we were held up in the Power Boats yard.

New stanchions took just on three months to be manufactured and were returned to thew workshop four times due to a range of manufacturing defects. Even after the final delivery we found that the holes for the locking pins were the wrong size (too small), so we had to pull them off and re-drill each piece. Then the absolute best varnishing man in the area left us with the last coat covered in dust and runs, plus varnish on the dodger glazing and cockpit paint, not a good look.

Finally, one of the props supporting the hull was faulty, and a loose bolt in the pad pierced the hull paint right down to bare metal. This damage was only revealed as we were lifted into slings for the final weekend pre-launch. Speed sandblasting, epoxy painting and antifoul followed.

Our last few weeks in pictures :

Neil spray painting the spinnaker pole.

Ley finishing off the antifoul, only the rudder to go.

Neil brushing Awlgrip top coat around the hatch surrounds.

Travel Plans

We stayed 4 days in Grenada, long enough to collect and install our new Lifeline AGM house batteries, that had been pre-ordered months earlier. Then we day sailed the 40 nautical miles to Carriacou, a smaller and peaceful island with a lovely sheltered harbour, Tyrell Bay.

From here we'll jump to Martinique, then onward to the BVI's and eventually the east coast of the USA for the summer.

Vale Bethany Smith

On March 15 we received the tragic news of Bethany Smith's untimely death, falling from the rigging of the super yacht Germania Nova, in Jamaica (read more here). Cruiser support for her family, our friends Sarah and David and their son Bryn, was amazing as the community rallied around to assist and comfort them.

We organised a raffle, with generous prizes donated by Power Boats and Jesse James, Members Only. The raffle was well supported by the local cruising and business community and the money raised helped to defray some of their escalating costs.

Live life for today, you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Bethany Smith, 17 March 1998 – 14 March 2017