Grenada Day 18

We both manage a good night’s sleep and wake up around 6am refreshed.  Well Mike wakes up and he wakes me up by rummaging around in the fridge which is next to my side of the bed, trying to pour himself a glass of cold water, so I whinge for tea to be made.

When we get to the boatyard, we are the only people there.  I have decided that I will go back up the mast to do the painting higher up, so I get my stuff together, and armed with primer (which is now practically the consistency of toothpaste but at least it can’t drip) and camera, I clamber into my giant nappy and up I go.  It’s like an obstacle course going up.  First there’s the sail bag to get over, the stays and lazyjacks to avoid, and each time I encounter something attached to the mast, I have to unhook my life line, get past it then re-attach it.  I reach the spreaders,  take some photos and paint the bits I missed yesterday. 

Photo:  You can just make Mike out sitting on the bow

Then I make the mistake of glancing up.  Now I am higher, I can see more places, much higher up past the spreaders that need painting so Mike hauls me up further.  The boat is now a very long way beneath me, I mean REALLY a long way so I get the camera out again.

Photo:  That’s a long way down which means I’m a long way up!

I am now four fifths of the way up and the view is amazing.  At this height I don’t need to tie myself to the mast as I swing only a foot away from it.  I hang there and take photos before putting the camera away and get on with the real work.

Photo:  Grenada Marine looks more attractive from above 

Getting down is interesting.  It’s the same obstacle course as yesterday but this time I have to avoid going through the painting that I did on the way up (thinking it was the only piece I had to do).  But I manage it.  Back on deck, I go to start putting a second coat of paint on the boot stripe but the guys have turned up and are doing a bit of rubbing down as well so I wait for them to finish.  An hour later they have gone and I do my painting while Mike attempts to clean out the shit coloured calcium from the toilet pipes in preparation for re-routing them into the holding tanks rather than the sea, ready for the Panama Canal.  A very revolting job!!

Photo:  Rather you than me, Captain!

We’ve bought some REALLY noxious stuff called “On&Off” – a very nasty mix of chemicals that removes anything from anything as long as you rinse if off within 60 seconds otherwise it eats holes in it.  Mike holds the brown calcium caked valve (wearing gloves) and I gently pour a small amount over it, over a bucket of water.  Smoke rises and the brown gunk just fizzes away.  It is truly horrible stuff but boy, does it do the trick!

After Mike is thoroughly scrubbed down, we have lunch at the bar/restaurant again and it is very good.  We both have the fish – ocean gar – which neither of us has heard of, cooked in ginger and garlic.  When we get back to the boat there is activity as another coat of epoxy is going on.  When they finish we strip the masking tape from the boot stripe and it looks really good.  The problem is that we now have to do all the blue as well otherwise the green will make the blue look worse.  As we have no more masking tape we call it a day and phone for our lift back to the hotel.

We both go for a swim and meet Gordon and Jean, the two Grenadians that I met on the beach last week.  We chat for a while and they invite us for dinner tomorrow to experience some Grenadian hospitality.

Mike starts to feel like he is burning so we swim back to our little cottage and have showers before catching up with some PC work.

Photo:  Mike in his usual evening position

  Photo:  That view and the sound of the waves – just beautiful

I admire the view for a while then catch up with my blog.  Another good day’s work.  We eat the remainder of our bread brick for tea and watch a DVD for our evening’s entertainment.