Tuesday 3rd April

Tyrrel Bay
Carriacou

12 27.328 N
61 29.291 W

We woke to pouring rain today – well why wouldn’t we? After all we are trying to re paint the hull of our boat! It strikes me that every time we have hauled a boat to re do the bottom it has rained for most of the time we are out of the water. To make matters worse it is unusual for it to rain here at this time of the year – it must be the “Cooper Factor” in action. Gerry took off to the boat and I followed about an hour later. I found him under the hull sanding; at least it was dry under the hull. I began chipping away at the odd patches that still had paint on them. By the time 08.30hrs came around Gerry was getting tired and cranky, Tim the yard manager happened to walk past and Gerry lost it. He told Tim that he had just about had enough of doing the sanding and was there anyone who was going to help us today, Tim trotted out the usual excuses. For those of you who have never heard them they are as follows:-
Well this is the Caribbean mon.
We are only a small yard.
I only have 3 men working in the yard.
There are only 2 here this morning as one had to do security duty last night.
We have to haul a couple of boats today.
At this last one Gerry exploded, he said that surely they needed to get the work finished that was in the yard before hauling any more boats, Tim’s reply – well they have been booked for months. I thought Gerry would attack him at this point but he just fumed and added to his heart attack stress indicators. Shortly after this outburst one of the workers arrived to help us, Gerry handed over the sander and vanished onto the boat. I had to get the guy to move the support stands so that I could get the paint off from underneath them. Dale arrived not long after this and helped to remove the last of the paint; as Gerry had reappeared and the 2 sanders were in use there was little else that Dale and I could do to help so we sat under the boat until the rain let up slightly then Dale went back out to his boat and I returned to the chalet for a shower and change of clothing. The rain actually stopped for a while and between them, Gerry and Alfie managed to get the sanding finished, cleaned the hull with acetone and applied the undercoat of paint by the time I returned to the boat. I went onboard and spent the afternoon making new straps for the fuel cans as the UV had destroyed a couple of the old ones. By the time I had finished my project the guys had the first coat of anti foul on the hull – at last it was beginning to feel like we had gotten somewhere. Just as we were about to call it a day Dale and Lorie arrived with Mike in tow, they had just arrived specially to say goodbye to us all and they invited us to their boat for dinner that evening. Gerry was in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes, not to mention a beer so everyone trooped over to the chalet for a quick drink before we arranged to meet up on MT Nest at 18.00hrs. I made up a plate of hors d’overs and we relaxed until it was time to dink out to Mike and Terri’s boat. We spent a pleasant evening eating fish that Mike had caught and telling the tales of woe about our haul out. Mike played his Saxophone at sunset to the applause and shouts from the boats surrounding them. The moon rose over the top of one of the hills – it was almost full and was a great photo opportunity – if any of us had thought to take a camera along! We discussed the need for us to get a patch put on our main sail where the spreader hits when the main sail is reefed and Dale and Mike offered to come over early in the morning to help us get the sail off and take it across to the sail loft. As we were tired it was another early night so we dinked back to the yard dock and made our way to the chalet for the night.