12:02.66N 061:44.85W Oboe In The Hands Of Strangers

Oboe D'Amore's Web Diary
Nigel Backwith
Wed 10 Feb 2010 20:50

OK, I apologise for the radio silence over the last 3 weeks.  Only excuse is that things have been running at their peak and the season is in full swing, with charters back to back.  After the deep clean and mid-season maintenance described in the last blog entry, I handed over the good ship Oboe to some good friends for a couple of weeks and released Ryan from his duties, allowing him to fly home to catch up with family and friends and providing me with a quiet few days.  So, there was I, stranded on land, expecting a call any minute from Oboe with questions and concerns, but the call never came.  Instead, Oboe was retuned safe, sound, spotlessly clean and with a number of things “mended” that I didn’t even know needed seeing to!  Alan, Jan and crew, thank you so much for taking care of her while at the same time obviously having a wonderful sailing holiday.

 

Relieved that all we had to do on taking Oboe back was fill the fridge with goodies and sail north to Carriacou to meet our next guests George and Shenac from Aberdeen, Ryan and I got a good night’s sleep, raised the anchor early on the morning of 4 Feb. and slipped out of Prickly Bay, this time turning to port and heading out into the Atlantic to sail the windward side of Grenada.  Everything was perfect, the bareboat charter was over and Oboe was back under the direct command of her owner once again.  Many sayings however now spring to mind:  “Pride before a fall”, “Don’t count your chickens”, “how the mighty are fallen” ...

 

“There’s a lot of water in the bilge skipper!” and for the next few hours things got pretty messy.  Suffice it to say that when I decided to install a third electric bilge pump in case the other two pumps failed I never expected to have to bring it into play!  Yup – two pumps failed to operate and the third simply could not cope alone with the ingress of water until we realised it was the engine pumping the water into the bilge!  Now, with improved installation, should the main pumps be called on again, they will be just fine.  What happened then?  A joint in the water cooling system came loose and instead of funnelling sea water round the engine and out into the sea it dumped it in the bilge!  Heading back to Prickly Bay with the aftermath of dirty bilge water taking the edge off Oboe’s pristine interior (a typical British understatement!), with no engine capability and with the grins wiped off our faces, we begged a tow into the anchorage from a passing catamaran and sat with tail between legs, totally deflated, to mix metaphors.

 

A call to a friend on another boat in the Bay received an immediate response.  What can we say Nick, except thanks a million – see you again soon at Tiki Bar for a few beers.  All of us worked together for the afternoon, fixed the problem and it was once again – Game On!  Slipping out of Prickly Bay at dusk for the second time that day, this time we turned to starboard and set sail north along Grenada’s leeward shore under a spectacular starlit sky to Carriacou, arriving in Hillsborough Bay at 0200 hours and collapsing into a deep sleep after an 18 hour shift!

 

Apologies for our late arrival were soon accepted by the gracious Scots waiting on the dock at 1000 hours the next morning and so began four days of laughter and enjoyment and the camaraderie usually reserved for good old friends but this time they were good new friends.  George and Shenac from Aberdeen, new to sailing, took to it like ducks to the proverbial and we have had a wonderful few days together.  Who would imagine that we would find stories in common but then again it really is a small world isn’t it?  In the dim, distant past I visited a restaurant in Ballater, Royal Deeside, Scotland with the family and indeed an extended gang of young people intent on drinking a bit too much.  Bruno, a larger than life Italian with a Scottish accent delivered up possibly the best food in the world “family style” as he put it, which meant large platters heaped to overflowing plonked in the middle of the huge table and regularly replaced with new ones as we struggled from antipasti through pasta, via the fish course, the meat course and many other courses, of course!  Bruno was a legend in Ballater about whom many rumours circulated – Mafia, fingers in lots of pies, being a couple of the milder ones!  Well, George and Shenac knew Bruno and we were able to share many of the rumours once again.  Bruno “burned down his restaurant for the insurance money” being one that we both agreed was probably true.

 

We spent last evening in Chatham Bay and took the opportunity of dining al fresco with Ballhead and Geoff once again.  Slipping out of our dinghy – now of course renamed Power Ranger by four year old Silas – we tugged her unceremoniously up the sand and, in the pitch dark, approached Ballhead’s restaurant, where we were greeted and hugged like long lost friends – pretty strange but nonetheless enjoyable given that we had only been there once before!  We were treated like royalty, which seemed to go down well with G & S, while Ryan was befriended by all seeking to share his Old Holborn.  Grilled tuna, garlic potatoes, peas and rice and green salad (actually red) washed down by rum punch brought the night to a mellow close and after a lot of back slapping bed became too difficult to resist.

 

There is no way to haul anchor quietly but despite this, Ryan and I managed to get away from Chatham and set course for Grenada well before G & S poked their heads out of their cabin the next morning.  Which only goes to show that they have settled into a life on the ocean waves remarkably quickly and easily.  A chilled out couple of Scots relaxed in the cockpit over a leisurely breakfast and a pot of hot coffee and before we all knew it the coastline of Grenada once again appeared to port, the wind died in the lee of the island, all went quiet and we motored slowly into St. George’s and the luxury of the new Port Louis marina.  Farewell to you George and Shenac and here’s to the next time.  Jonty says toodle pip!

 

 

Nigel

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