Out of Quarantine & In the Water !!

Man are we bad at updating the blog! Good thing this is not how we make a living…

We survived quarantine !! 7 days actually went by pretty quick… spent the time working remotely, reading, watching tv, needlepoint, swimming and generally relaxing & resting. On day 4 the nurses came by & probed our brains – I think that pcr test by far went the furthest! By Day 6 we had our results and would be free the next day! Unfortunately the boatyard required us to be on the island for 10 days before we could get on board… so we spent the next few days with a rental car getting what could be done to be ready for day 10 & time to start the hard work! And a bit of sight seeing to Annandale Falls.

On Day 10 we were up bright & early… loaded up the majority of our stuff & headed to the boat yard! Adiona was patiently waiting for us. Overall she was in pretty good shape! We were really lucky that we had no insects, birds or rodents get into the boat. Our neighbours in the lot were not so fortunate and had a rat living on board that had gotten into all their foodstuff. Pretty lucky rat! But good thing that it was supplied with food, as they can chew through wires, etc… not good! The inside of Adiona had a bit of white mold type stuff on most things, but all our shrink-wrapped stuff held up really well. We had stored our canned goods, coke, beer, milk, orange juice in one of the outside lockers and anything that was stored right side up survived. Only the cans of coke & beer that were lying on their sides had leaked out. A sweet treat to the one & only roach on board! Our 12 boxes of OJ had expired a month ago & unfortunately it is actually expired and tastes like crap! Sad, cuz a litre of OJ here is about $4-5. First thing was to turn on the fridge & freezer to make sure they worked and to head back to pick up the rest of our stuff from the hotel and stock up on some groceries.

The next few days were long, very hot & very tiring!! We were up around 6am and working by 7am to take advantage of the coolest part of the day.. by 1pm it started getting pretty hot & our work definitely slowed down. We usually worked till sunset around 6pm… ate some supper and in bed by 9pm.

There was a ton of work to be done… the boatyard had blasted our bottom down to the fibreglass.. now it was time for us to paint on the epoxy primer (3 coats of the nastiest shit you could roll on – super thick & would dry in minutes). Then 3 coats of bottom paint. We had to do a light sanding between each layer and the boatyard power sanded our final epoxy layer before we started applying paint. About 5 days of 4 hours a day to get the painting done.

Scott completely rebuilt our navigation station, took out all the old unused instruments, cleaned up the rats nest of wiring, installed a new chart plotter (that he built at home) and new VHF radio… a 3-day project!

Scott spent almost a full day wedged in with one of the engines trying to figure out how to change the impeller – he needed to remove the alternator to get access. Meanwhile, I was pulling everything out of cupboards, washing and cleaning.

I spent almost a full day cleaning lines that had gotten moist & were shaded, resulting in a ton of black mildew on them… hundreds of feet of line had to be scrubbed by hand, inch by inch. Including the sides of our trampoline. And then there was our poor dingy… it was almost completely black !! Another full day, scrubbing it (best thing is toilet bowl cleaner – thanks for the advice to our neighbour Jim). TB cleaner has the same active ingredient as most high-priced boat hull cleaners. But even that was not enough & I had to get out the bleach & SCRUB! Went through all the outside boat lockers, removed everything & scrubbed away mildew. My poor hands and nails took a beating !!

The boatyard had acid-washed our outside hull, but we needed to do the topside. All the smooth surfaces were scrubbed by hand.. then Scott & I waxed the entire boat (luckily the boat yard had a power polisher then loaned us). We managed to get 1 coat on the hulls and 2 coats on the top side. The boat could definitely use another coat, it was just soaking in the wax. But it sure looks nice now that it is done! Although it might be more correct to say that there is a layer of wax on the boat, that is partially buffed up to a shine.

Scott went up the mast to inspect everything, remove a birds nest, and re-install the running back stays. Re-installed the engine on the dingy. Got the generator going.

And in between all the boat work Scott & I are both still working remotely a few hours each day.

We had the rental car for a week, so a few more trips into town for boat parts & groceries. Then after spending 10 days on the hard we launched on Tuesday Feb 9^th and she floated!! It was definitely a wobbly first day on the water.

So now it was time to get some of the systems running… generator, engines, water maker, windlass, winches. The first few days on the water were much more slower paced.. we needed to rest & relax a bit.

Our first sail was a short trip from Grenada Marine to Hog Island on Feb 11 (Scott’s birthday). It was the perfect way to celebrate. We started and ended the day with drinks at Nimrod’s (a local rum shack where tons of Canadian sailors & expats hang out, with dinner at a local restaurant in between.

We were their only customers that evening… it is so sad to see how much the locals are suffering. There are virtually no tourists here except for about 1/2 the normal cruising boats (hundreds of boats sitting unoccupied). The big resorts are closed. Only a few smaller hotels & AirBNB’s like the one we stayed at have a few guests (mainly American’s and a few Canadians that managed to get out in time). No tourists from the UK or Europe unless they have arrived by boat. The beaches are empty. The locals outnumber the tourists by far… and most of the tourists are here for longer term stays. It is a very different feel than last year. Much more subdued. There is still a curfew at 10pm… which is actually pretty nice because it is so peaceful & quiet at night. Everywhere you go (shops, restaurants) masks are required, you have to sign in, sanitize your hands & your temperature is recorded. Much more organized than Canada is.. but this is why Grenada is covid-free!! 6000 doses of vaccine have arrived in the last few days and that process has started.

Over the past few days we have moved from Hog Island to Pricky Bay (on the south side) and now around to St George the west side of the island. We are currently anchored in front of our quarantine hotel & spent Valentine’s Day with another couple we met at Sea Glass sailing a short distance to a nearby beach & hung out with a bunch of Canadian expats. Ended with take-out pizza and beer on the boat.

Scott had a bit of problem getting the water maker fully functional. When we put it away last year, we ‘pickled’ it with a solution of potassium metabisulphate to keep nasties from growing inside it. When started up, the produced water had a strong chemical taste to it (as expected), but after an hour or more of running it was still pretty strong. In the course of investigating the backwash function Scott discovered what an unlabeled valve behind the fridge was for – it supplied the fresh water for back-washing the water maker! So a combination of opening that up, and changing the primary filter and the water maker is back doing its job. Always something new to learn!

The last couple of boat projects (for now) are to replace the trampoline, and find and fix the leak in the dingy. The trampoline is in really rough shape. We hardly dare to walk on it, as it is ripping at the attachments. A few hours of searching, and we found a place in France that will build us a trampoline and ship it to St Maarten for the first week of March.

The dingy needs to be re-inflated every morning on one of the flotation tubes. A couple of days ago we thought we had spotted the leak, but it was apparently just one of the holes. The dingy is pretty ghetto, but I am hoping we can get at least another season or two out of it. So today it is off to a beach with tools to remove the engine, turn it over and wash with detergent to see where the bubbles come from.

Anyway, that’s pretty much life on a boat… most of the day is spent dealing with the same stuff we would be doing at our land home… cooking, cleaning, working at our businesses, maintenance, etc… the main difference is our view changes & it is much warmer !!

Hope you guys are all staying safe !

Maggie & Scott