Mike returns to Trinidad - Oct 2013

Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Wed 16 Oct 2013 20:21

Power Boats Boatyard Trinidad – 2 to 16 October 2013

 

Mike has just been in Trinidad for two weeks to do some work on the yacht.  October is extremely hot as well as being a heavy month for rain so rather than live on Tashi Delek we booked a small apartment within the boatyard.  Complete with air conditioning and plenty of UK sports channels on the TV it was a godsend to be able to retreat to in the heat of the day.  By midday the temperature was almost unbearable on the deck and especially when working in the engine compartment where it reached 53 degrees centigrade.

 

During the summer while we were in UK, Jonas the Swedish rigger had replaced all the standing rigging steel cables, as required by the insurance company as the yacht is now 10 years old.  Mike was able to discuss the new rigging with Jonas and arrange for the final tightening and tuning to be done when the yacht went back into the eater in January. 

 

Raymond the engineer assisting Mike had had the propeller checked and found that it was bent!  The bent propeller (a legacy we think of the submerged mangrove root off Puerto Rico) would account for the fact that the new Cutlass bearing that Mike fitted in Deltaville 5 months before was distorted.  So, before the straightened shiny propeller was put back on they took out the propeller shaft and gear box coupling to check if they too were damaged, and sure enough both were bent and needed straightening in the nearby foundry.  However, in order to take out the propeller shaft Mike had to first hire to boatyard workers to dig a big hole under the back of the yacht so that the rudder could be dropped and the shaft pulled. 

 

 

Eventually the coupling, shaft and propeller were replaced together with a new cutlass bearing.  The rope cutter on the propeller shaft was also found to have been cracked needing a new part ordered in UK.

 

 

 

While the rudder was out Mike had a new bearing made for it by a German engineer living in the boatyard and that too has now been put back in along with the rudder (complete with verbal guarantee over a cold beer that the German engineers bearing will outlast the yacht).  Phew.

 

The electronic auto pilot attached to the rudder steering gear had to be removed in order to drop the rudder, so has been serviced and refitted, and a new electronic rudder reference unit ordered from the USA to be fitted when Mike returns in January.  The engine itself was fully serviced before we left in May, the exhaust elbow cleaned out and the fuel injectors sent to a specialist workshop to be cleaned, tested and adjusted before re-fitting. 

 

The white gel coat covering the stern transom and swimming platform of the yacht flexes at sea and has also been damaged over the years and was in places a spiders web of unsightly cracks.  So that has all been ground off and re-sprayed with gel coat, polished and buffed.  There were no cracks in the underlying fibreglass and the stern now looks as if it is new.  So all in all the back of the yacht is in pretty good condition ready to continue the journey!

 

 

Mike was also able to drill through the teak toe-rail into the anchor locker near the bows in order bolt down two deck mounts to take the blocks for the port and starboard poles, thus freeing the mooring cleats which we had had to use previously.  He was also able to check the done during the summer to replace the formica work surface in the galley and fit a new tap for the sink.  Contracts have now been arranged; to replace the headliners throughout the yacht as the foam backing and glue has failed after ten years, and to replace all the six year old batteries in January.  Finally he was able to complete the purchase of our new Yamaha outboard motor which will be waiting for us in January, ready to export from Trinidad, tax free.  Hopefully we can look forward to starting the outboard first time, every time, from now on.

 

On Friday 11 October at about 10 pm there was an earthquake that shook the buildings and rattled the boats on their stands.  About 6.4 on the Richter scale, 30 km off the north coast of Venezuela and about 60 km below the earth’s crust.  No damage but several cruisers living in their yachts were very shaken. Literally.

 

And here is a very bright green lizard with a very long tail….