30/5/2012

Well I’ve been very lazy and not updated the blog for too long. Salila is now all tucked up for the hurricane season in her new, and very expensive, tent. And I’m back in the UK.

The last few days in Trinidad were hard graft in very hot conditions, but I seem to have lost a few pounds (as well as a few pounds from the wallet). They built a framework of plastic water piping over Salila, then covered it with shrink wrap plastic. It’s designed to keep the UV off the whole boat and I think it will do a good job. If it preserves the plastic hatches,  windows and the trampoline from 6 months of searing tropical sun then it will be a good investment. It should also keep almost all the torrential rain off; boats have been known to flood if they have a leak, so much so that they advise owners to leave one of the seacocks disconnected to avoid the hull filling up.

There was a mass of other jobs to do as well, culminating in spreading anti cockroach and ant powder everywhere. Combined with the disinfectant I sprayed liberally to ward off mildew I’m hoping nothing will survive. We’ll see! Actually I’m surprised I didn’t expire after inhaling industrial quantities of the stuff.

I was also able to say hello to my trusty (not rusty) folding bike. I’d bought a second hand Brompton and lugged it out via Ryanair to get me around Las Palmas. Just before we left, 6 months ago, I’d given it a very quick spray of “GT85” which is like WD40 but thicker and better smelling. I  fully expected it to emerge from the starboard Immigrant locker as one large ball of rust, given that anything metal on a boat suffers terribly from the salt air. Even my expensive “marine” wifi antenna had a badly corroded plug, and that has always been in my cabin. But no, it came out of its bag, I opened it up, and off I went! Brilliant. They are as common as muck in London, but in Trini it caused lots of happy comments, especially when you park it and tuck the back wheel under, it looks as if it’s been in a bad accident.