First Crew-Grenada to Trinidad January 2013

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After a fun Holiday and Christmas Season at home on Lake Kegonsa, and a great after Christmas visit with Niki, John and the kids,  Ken flew to Grenada and I flew back to Madison.   I stayed at the house until January 28th and Ken will meet up with the first crew to get the boat splashed (again) and ready for some sailing.

Kicking off a new sailing season – Grenada to Trinidad before turning west to Panama but ……. still some 2012 issues plus an instrument retrofit upgrade to do.  The crew – Charlie, Kristi, Kyle and Garrett arrived ready to sail and Paul – done at the last possible second – instrument guru all arrived on time.  But Granada marinas are closed from Dec 23 rd to January 6 th.  The crew spent time at Da Big Fish, Paul started the install of the new super duper instruments and Captain Ken tried to “spring” the new sail drive from the container with missing papers in St. Lucia.  No way Jose on the St Lucia container but for few bucks one could FedEx a new sail drive from the good old USA.  New problem – the Grateful Red was in Spice Island marina, the Volvo dealer in Grenada marina and the interior repair person in the Port Louis marina.

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New plan – the crew would move the boat from marina to marina with a sail drive that had no neutral, no reverse and the only speed was five knots.

Spice Island to Port Louis motor sail went without issue.  Port Louis is the high end, terrific pool, fine bar and restaurant Grenada marina.

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Kyle instituted “Pirate Night” when one wears a pirate outfit (Kyle had conveniently enough brought a pirate outfit with him) and drink pirate drinks.  This led to a Pirate blender party at the Grateful Red.  Amazingly in a few days the crew had numerous friends from bartenders to Holly and Fleur – the party crew.  The party went well ….. Except for the use of diesel in the gasoline power blender (we now have a new blender), spilled daiquiri mix everywhere on the boat and Paul the instrument guy needed Garrett assistance to return to the boat at eight ….. a little out of shape??

The motor sail from Port Louis to Grenada  Marine was a little rougher – upwind but uneventful.  The dock was quite eventful as the Grenada marina shore crew didn’t clearly realize what no reverse, no neutral and only five knots forward meant in docking.  Luckily the anchor took most of the beating as the Grateful Red ground to a halt before hitting the lift.

Grenada marina is the working marina in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily the crew found a terrific lodge – Sousons .  On the beach, bodying surfing, lots of sand, nice bar and restaurant – while the crew worked days and slept at Sousons Captain Ken and Paul stayed on the boat.  With a zillion little instrument issues unresolved Paul’s time ran out – as usual – and he headed off to his next boat in the US.  The Souson’s owner so liked the Grateful Red crew that she “gave” Ken a room for a couple of nights at the resort.  Twenty four hours before Garrett’s flight home from Trinidad and one Pirate’s night later the Grateful Red was ready to sail with new sail drive.  The boat was splashed at three in the afternoon and by five Charlie, Kristi, Kyle, Garrett and Ken were doing an overnight to Trinidad.

A beautiful overnight sail for the crew and landing at Chaguaramas marina in Trinidad.  Garrett checked in at customs, grabbed breakfast at the marina and went off to the airport to fly home.  Charlie had a video conference interview for a summer internship ( Charlie closed the intern deal and will be interning at Newport Beach, CA this summer) and at night Kristi, Kyle and Charlie celebrated Ken’s birthday at the Crew’s Inn restaurant before leaving at 0530 the next morning for the airport.

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Boat in Trinidad job well done.

 

 

 

 

 

Grenada Overnight to Trinidad

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The new Grateful Red sail drive from Sweden got hung up in St. Marteen so when Ken arrived, no sail drive, no motor and little action. Call to Volvo US. Fedex and a credit card, new sail drive in three days. With tons of help from Kyle, Garrett, Kristi and Charlie – a five day visit by instrument guru Paul and seven days of work – plus a Kyle-organized blender party – the Grateful Red was splashed at 3PM, new sail drive test run for an hour and then departure at 4PM on an overnight to Trinidad for Ken\’s birthday and Charlie’s successful summer intern internet interview.

 

Getting a “splash” on Sailing Season 2013

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Ken and Kyle stayed one more week and closed up the boat the best they  could considering it would sit on land from end of May until mid-November.   Can’t even imagine what we will find when we return.

Both Ken and I took separate trips back to Grenada to check on progress of off-season repair, upgrades and maintanence.  I was pleased at how the boat looked after Ken and Kyle had done the final cleaning.

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At Gordie’s urging Ken agreed to sail from Grenada to Union Island in November – the Kopke Greenhouse offseason –  and the southern Grenadine Islands plus Gordie brought his buddy Gary.  The fearsome threesome descended on the Spice Island marina with only one mission ……. Splash the Grateful Red for the 2013 season.  As always a million issues needed to be remedied before splashing.  Gordie and Gary worked liked like dogs ….. but met new friends with a catamaran.  He was 88 and his co commander Kim was 40 something, quite a pair and entertaining.

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After a couple days finally splashed …… the fearsome threesome was sailing to the Grenadines.  First night was a revisit to Union Island, inside the reef looking east ….. ocean all the way to Africa.  Plus new crew Gary doesn’t drink …… the perfect dingy driver!  Day two was an anchor off in the Tobago Cays – only one other boat.  Gary and Gordie went snorkeling; was difficult given the strong current away from the boat.  Plus an old issue reappeared the Grateful Red diesel would not go into reverse.  Supposedly Volvo and Spice Island had repaired this issue in the off season maintenance.  Using only forward and sails the Grateful Red was sailed to Mayreau and anchored off for the evening.  Gary drove the dingy into shore for a dinner and night on the town.  Food was good, the people fun but the music was incredibly loud and Gary got us back to the Grateful Red without altercation.  Next morning we pulled anchor and headed back to Port Louis in Grenada.  Now the Grateful Red diesel didn’t go in reverse and would not change speeds – it was 4.5 knot or turn the engine off.  No reverse, no neutral and no speed changes allowed.  Great sail to St. George but the motor into Port Louis is another story.

With only one speed, no neutral and no reverse docking is more problematic.  In addition we arrived …… as usual …. at sunset and the harbor master didn’t understand the issue.  The assigned dock location was between two large boats.  What is …. Is, so we lined up the Grateful Red, foresail only and turned the engine off.  We successfully glided in- luckily a couple of younger Aussies stepped in and helped stop the 18,000 pounds of Grateful red from hitting the two large parked boats.  Another successful dock and another reason to have rum drinks at the Port Louis bar!

Have to thank Gordie and Gary for getting the Grateful Red splashed with a shakedown sail  …. in the end a new sail drive had to be sent via Federal Express from the US to Grenada and installed before the Grateful Red could begin the 2013 season.