12:02.70N 61:44.80W

 

It has been nearly two years, during which time she has just been sitting at the marina rotting in the tropical humidity.  I am afraid the blog is going to be all about repairs for the next few weeks.  Photos of idyllic anchorages will have to wait until we are seaworthy again.  But when we do set sail, I have my drone onboard for some different perspectives...

 

The UV degradation has had some amusing results, (for Andrea anyway). 

 

Fortunately we are in the marina and not on the hard, so I just got a bit wet when I fell through.  Glad it did not happen at sea!  We have ordered a new trampoline but it will be several weeks in coming.  We ordered a new sail bag at the same time because the zip had completely fallen apart on the old bag.

 

At first we thought that the ice maker (the new one that made us late leaving South Africa) was working great, but the cubes were coming out a bit gritty.  In the end we took it apart to see what was wrong.

 

The ice tray is a bit the worse for wear.  The little bits of “grit” were in fact chunks of rust and paint mixing with the water as the tray was filled.

 

The generator seemed to be working fine as well, until I checked the voltage and found it was producing 320 volts.  Glad we didn’t have anything turned on when I started it up.

 

The batteries for the hydraulic winches were trashed.  I replaced the batteries but still only 50% of the winch buttons work.  The electromagnets that operate the hydraulic valves need replacing.

 

The rudders were seized up, but that is something we are used to fixing.  Andrea was, not unsurprisingly, reluctant to do her rudder waggling in the marina water, so we hired a diver to drop them for us.

 

Everything has mildew and UV damage.

 

The tabletop is beyond repair.  We are getting quotes for a replacement.  The mildew on canvas and lines is superficial, we just need to work out a good way of getting it off.

 

The caulking around all the windows is dry and cracked and letting in water,  We have hired a guy (Winsley aka Jib aka Rastaman) to replace the caulking.  He estimates it will take 15 tubes of Sikaflex to repair all the damage.

 

We hired another local guy (Martin) to go over Anastasia with a rotary polisher, so at least she is shining now instead of chalky white.  The fenders were in a disgusting state, but fortunately we had some fender covers which we were saving for when we returned.

 

The outboard on the tender, surprisingly, seems to be working fine.  I just had to replace a rusted steering cable and rotten fuel line.

 

So here is Anastasia, looking naked without her sailbag, but on the way to being restored.

 

 

You would think that amid all the rot and corrosion we would be wary about any food that we left on Anastasia, but Andrea discarded everything too far beyond its sell-by date and we have been eating “end of the world” rations for several weeks, including two year old pasta and salt bought in the Canary Islands right at the start of our trip. 

 

It is not all work and no play.  Yesterday we went on our first hash of this trip, which just happened to be the 1050th Grenadian hash, so it was a big event with 6 trails.  We did the “long walkers” trail, only about 3 miles, but lots of uphill walking so it was plenty long enough for our first outing.

 

Finally, a thank-you to the Grenada customs.  I went in to the customs office to get our paperwork updated and they asked me to pay for 24 months of cruising permits.  That seemed excessive given we were out of the country the whole time, so I went to see the comptroller in town with letters from the marina (Anastasia never moved from her berth) and the surgeon (I really was ill over the period), arguing that the illness had actually prevented us from cruising over the period.  Technically, if a yacht is in the water then it is deemed to be cruising, but the customs officials agreed that in this case there were extenuating circumstances and reduced the bill to 8 months.