Still in Prickly Bay
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Fri 11 May 2007 23:36
Grenada really is a nice Island, the
people are genuinely friendly, whether you use their services or not, the water
and the beaches are not as good as we hoped, but still nice. We went for a walk
a couple of days ago, past a house with a beautiful tree in the garden, I think
it's called a red flowered tree, turned down a sidetrack onto
the local beach for the first time, as you can see it's quite nice.
Our new toy arrived today, one of
many things we've been waiting for, which is one reason why we are sill here.
Not quite an Americas Cup Boat, but looks like it's gonna be good fun, At 250
euros it has to be a bargain, it can be used a board towed behind the boat, you
can paddle it, fit the fin and you can windsurf, fit a rudder, tiller and sheet
and you can sail it like a dinghy. We had to have a try today, despite having a
busy day rearranging items on board Chaser ll.
In fact this week started with the
arrival of our replacement generator. Enza Marina fitted it as they are Fischer
Panda agents. I had to pay of course, but Fischer Panda have assured me they
will refund ALL our expenses up to 1100 US$. The total bill was 1000US$ so
we are waiting for the reimbursement. The problem now is we have two generators
on board, Fischer Panda want the other one back, which is fine assuming they
reimburse our money and pay the shipping, otherwise we'll keep it and sell it.
It still has a value even though it doesn't work correctly. The new one however
works purrrfectly, the difference in sound is noticeable, but the most important
is we can run over 3 kw, which Herman the German tried to tell me was more than
we should expect from a 4kw genset. So up yours Herman!
Some new friends we met on the fish
fry night at Gouyave, ordered a Bowthruster, they have a beautiful 65ft ketch
called Ladyhawke, check it out on the web. They ordered this bowthruster to take
with them from Grenada to Venezuela, but although it arrived it didn't get
cleared through customs by the time they had to leave. They asked on the VHF
cruisers net if anyone was going that way, and could they take it. Yvonne
volunteered, and that arrived yesterday. It was in a wooden crate 3ft x 3ft x
3ft, we couldn't possible fit that aboard, let alone lift it. The delivery guys
opened the crate for us, and inside was a smaller wooden crate about 30" x 15" x
15", this we could handle and get on board 'Digby' but it was heavy, 150lbs. We
got back to Chaser ll and rigged up a hoist to one of our winches, to lift it
aboard. So today we've moved the bow thruster, using winches and pulleys to
under our nav table seat and rearranged all our tools, we lowered the old
generator (250lbs) into the locker that also houses the new genset and
outboard and many other things. Then we had to go into town and collect our new
boat/windsurfer. We had to get a taxi back, you couldn't carry this on a bus, so
we stopped at a wine shop and bought a case of wine. Unfairly to the locals, we
can get wine at duty free prices. The bottle rate was 10EC$, the case rate works
out to just under 8EC$, and then we get 30% knocked off that, there is actually
37% duty but I suppose someone has to make a bit.
In fact it's now 1900hrs, so
we're gonna sample a bottle right now, and tomorrow we'll see if we can
get the same deal on the rum!
