Monday 2nd April

Tyrrel Bay
Carriacou

12 27.328 N
61 29.291 W

Happy birthday Kay, we wish you a relaxing day filled with too much wine, chocolate and gifts, if you get any of them ENJOY!

Well we had hoped that our day today would be easier, we had finished most of the base paint removal, all that was left was the keel, around the water line and a couple of stubborn patches. It was going to be easy, the yard workers could finish off the removal with the sander whilst Gerry got on with some of his project work and I took the day off away from the boat to catch up on the blog and emails. Gerry set off at about 07.30hrs and I crawled out of bed a little later and began typing. By lunchtime I had just about got the computer stuff up to date when Lorie appeared at the door of the chalet with lunch in hand. Gerry was 2 steps behind her and covered in the same blue tinge that seems to have become the norm around here, minutes later Dale turned up looking as if he was Gerry’s twin – blue from head to foot. I was then regaled with the story that Alfie, the worker who was helping to strip our boat had called in to say that he had just remembered that he had to attend a court case in Grenada today(?!) That left no one to do the work on our boat so Gerry had started sanding and when Dale came into the dock and saw him working alone he grabbed some old clothes and joined Gerry with the second sander, They didn’t think to let me know or I would have been down there helping out – blue is just so my colour! I asked about the power issue as the owner had the electrician coming today and it turned out that one of the other boats in the yard had a bad power cord which was allowing 220 volts to earth through our power leads. The electrician earthed this other boat’s power cord through the fence posts that runs along the side of the yard making the fence live, he then fixed the power cord on the other boat which solved the problem. Thank goodness it was nothing to do with our boat, it was bad enough that we could have had some serious damage from it. Any way I had spent the morning getting the blog up to date and as you will be able to tell, I still haven’t been able to post any photos, it just won’t let me. Lorie has also had the same problem so it’s probably just this connection – it makes it quite boring not having the pictures – sorry! You’ll have to back track and see them when I can get somewhere that I am able to post them – will let you know. After we had finished lunch Dale and Gerry returned to the boat to continue with the sanding, I offered to help but they refused, thank goodness. I cleared up the mess that they had left behind, that paint seems to be everywhere and then Lorie wanted to know if I would go with her to collect their dodger from the canvas place, the Strata glass had split in it and was being replaced. We took off in their dink and beached it across the road from the sail and canvas loft, a short walk and minutes later we were returning to the dink with the newly refurbished dodger. Lorie wasn’t very pleased with the job they had done and I have to say it wasn’t done how I would have done it either but it should last them until they return to the States. Again I offered my help to the men as I went past but they didn’t want any help so I spent the rest of the afternoon on the computer, watching it rain outside. Lorie returned to the chalet with dinner that she had prepared and was followed shortly after by the men. After showering and a couple of beers the men were feeling a bit more human, even if they still looked like something from outer space. We enjoyed a quiet dinner and drinks before Dale and Lorie returned to their boat for the night and Gerry and I went to bed.