Hot and sticky

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 5 Dec 2011 01:04

Well certainly first thing in the morning is the best time to work, but it does not actually get light much before 6.00am. the weather here is ‘unusual’ (well there is a surprise…) and it rains every night without fail and is not too shy about pouring down in the mornings as well. Then you add the sunshine and it is not surprising that the humidity is currently running at 89%.  (readers in the UK can just assume this means bloody uncomfortable.)

 

One of the bigger jobs that needed doing was the changing of the batteries as the older ones were beginning to show their age and were failing to hold their charge well enough given the amount we rely on them. We had ordered a new set through Budget Marine Chandlers during the summer and this in itself had been a long drawn out process as the Swedish manufacturers of Serafina chose to use a type of battery unavailable anywhere else in the universe it seems! But we did find some superior AGM batteries that would fit into the existing battery boxes and so they were ordered from Holland. They were shipped to Miami and then thanks to the perseverance of the Budget Marine manager here in Grenada, they arrived here just before we did. This just left the small matter of how I was going to remove the 6 very heavy existing batteries and replace them with the new ones. This is hard enough at the best of times, but given that Serafina is perched up high above the ground in the boatyard it all became a good deal harder. Fortunately Rickky from the De Big Fish came to our rescue by telling us about a lad who he sometimes used who was very strong and only charged the equivalent of £18 per day. So Jess was contacted and he came along on Saturday morning and was absolutely brilliant. A really likable and friendly lad aged around 20, he knew nothing about boats but was very careful at all times to ensure nothing got damaged. He was also so excited to learn the knot that we were using to tie the batteries to a rope to lower them to the ground and spent ages practicing it and begged that he be allowed to tie the knot every time from then on. (We have seen him since and he admitted to practicing the knot at home on his baby brother!)

 

This at least dealt with the heavy work side of changing the batteries, but as is the nature of such things all the terminal posts were slightly larger and new link cable had also to be made and so I had a busy day in the bowels of Serafina in some pretty uncomfortable heat. Poor Sarah in the meantime was busy as ever polishing the hull for which she is again receiving plaudits from other cruisers working on their boats, so it a shame that there isn’t a prize for this.


One big downside to the long hot wet summer here seems to be the huge increase in the mosquito population and this is a good deal worse that when we here in May. Sarah still appears to be immune whereas I am clearly the dish of the day. Despite applying every repellent known to man, I am being eaten alive it seems.

 

Quite a few other folks like us getting ready to launch and our nearest neighbour is Jim who comes from Chicago and trades in ‘hogs’. He has left his wife back home so he can get on with all the work and like so many others is astounded by Sarah’s dedication to the cause.

 

Darkness falls very swiftly at 6.00pm so there is at least a finite end to the day’s travails, so then it is time for a shower which is invigorating by virtue of the fact that the shower block here  only has very cold water on offer. And for the first two nights there was no lighting either.

 

On Sunday we had a warm and very humid and overcast morning followed by a still and blisteringly hot afternoon which was pretty draining, by at least by nightfall we did feel that we had broken the back of the worst jobs.

 

Launch date is the 8th (Thursday).