Rudders and chocolate
Irie
Fri 30 Jan 2009 02:01
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Prickly Bay,Grenada
Well the great rudder plot has developed over the
past week or so. It turns out that the stocks are aluminium - OK in itself and
possessing some properties that are better than stainless. However, it is
relatively soft and prone to electrolysis, a bit like an anode if there is any
stray current. Ours is in fact isolated, and there's no measurable input, but
marinas and other boats may have been a problem in the past - even the copper in
antifouling can be a problem. Anyway, we hauled out and sure enough there's
corrosion and pitting. It may be OK, but mid Atlantic would not be a good place
to find out. Grenada's a lovely place, but not the industrial skill centre of
the world, so sorting this is a bit of a song and a dance.
However, we have a plan, a good second hand
stainless stock has been located that saves huge lead times, and the plan is to
turn this down to the right size, and either make a new rudder blade, or
hopefully split the old and rebond to the bright new stock. All this and
sourcing new bearings etc from Europe has been interesting to say the least So,
plan A is to haul on Feb 9th, drop the old rudder and move on from there.
Unfortunately, this means we have to curtail Jane and Jem's sailing by a
couple of days, and very regretfully scrub Neville and Eileen's time on the
boat totally - both a great shame. From our point of view, though it's annoying
and a bit expensive, this sort of thing seems to be part of cruising and there
are worse places to be stranded. At least Warren was able to alert us to the
problem, and he's been a bit of a ginuea pig in another yard some five miles
away.
Grenada is actually lovely; stunning scenery, a
great balanced climate (that means wet and windy as well as sunny and hot), and
really nice people into the bargain. Bus transport here remains a highlight,
cheap, exciting, colourful and social - well there's no choice with twenty
people in twelve seater. For the first time we went on a
trip to the east side of the island - Jane and Jem had hired a car for a
couple of days. It's really beautiful and unspoiled once you escaped the five
thousand people recently disgorged from the three huge cruise ships.
Fortunately their limited stamina means that the horde of taxis and minibuses
peters out within a radius of ten miles from St Georges, and thereafter the
island is virtually yours alone. We visited Grenville, a thriving port and
fishing community facing the Atlantic breakers, and then drove on to Belmont
estate, another colonial throwback that started as a French operation making
sugar in the 1700s, and then converted to chocolate beans, passing first to
Scottish ownership from the late eighteenth century till 1945, and then for the
princely sum of £35000 to an Indian family who had made several million in
the 30's by cornering the market for nutmeg. The grandaughter is a lawyer, but
operates the estate, producing organic beans for Bournville, Lindt and
Green and Black. The production is pretty well unchanged since the start - cocoa
trees, hand cut pods, hand sifted beans, donkey transport and laborious
fermentation and then drying operations. The islanders drink a form of chocolate
tea flavoured with bay leaves and cloves - it's excellent, and the actual
tasting after the little tour was a sublime, soaring from 60%, through 75
to an orgiastic 85%, or so I'm told. It was a great start to the
day - more of the subsequent events in our next.
The Careenage in St Georges
 Locals assisting the drying process through turning
the coffee beans by foot
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