More boat maintenance

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Tue 1 Sep 2015 15:53
We stayed at our berth in Port Louis marina for a week, to do some essential indoor maintenance work while we had mains electricity to run the aircon.  The main task was to secure the floor under the freezer, which had worked loose over time and was sagging dangerously.  To access the supports I had to rip the back out of a cupboard, but then it was straightforward to shore up the supports.  At the same time I could also solve a long running problem of condensation dripping from the pipework behind the freezer.
 
When our week was up we moved around to Prickly Bay, which is where we have been for the past month.  Aside from the ongoing maintenance tasks we have a weekly routine which goes something like this.  Our day starts at 7:30 with the morning radio net, which is as much for entertainment as information.  There are lots of grumpy old cruisers, but what is remarkable is how many are willing to go on air and whinge in public.  The rest of the day is something like this:
 
Monday        Andrea has Yoga from 8:30 to 10:00 following which we pick up a baguette from the bakery for breakfast.  Half price pizza at the marina restaurant in the evening.
Tuesday       We both do Tai Chi at 8:30 under the almond tree, after which we pick up a baguette for breakfast.  Quiz night in the evening, which our team has won three times now.
Wednesday Slow day (recovering from quiz night celebrations).  Grenada Train Dominoes at 2pm, if we are up to it.
Thursday     Andrea does Yoga after which we pick up a baguette for breakfast.  Evening is DIY barbecue night at the marina.  The on-site butcher stays open late for you to buy your meat and the restaurant supplies whatever sides you want.  
Friday         We both do Tai Chi at 8:30 after which...
Saturday     We do the Hash at 3pm, which is basically a couple of hours of walk through the Grenadian back-country followed by half a dozen beers and singing on the bus all the way home.
Sunday       Another slow day (dominoes at 2pm)
 
It all sounds pretty mundane, but life in Grenada is rarely mundane.  For example, last Saturday the wheel fell off our minibus on the way to the hash.  Fortunately it happened on a straight section of road so we just slid along on three wheels until we stopped.  The driver knew exactly what to do.  He had replaced the sheared studs and had us back on the road in 45 minutes, so we still got to the hash on time.   
 
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If the pipe lagging does not prevent condensation from dripping down behind the freezer then here is a solution involving a shopping bag, Duck tape (obviously), an old funnel and a length of hosepipe running to an aircon drip tray
 
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I finally got round to ripping out all the old Simrad navigation equipment that we never used, and sold it for a good price on the morning radio net “treasures of the bilge”!