Grenada - update

We’re still in Grenada. Let me explain…

Our original intention was to leave Grenada at the end of September or early October.  As usual the weather had other ideas as a succession of tropical storms and hurricanes headed to the States causing either too much wind and swell where we are, or sometimes, none at all. Either way, sailing wasn’t on the cards.

We also know that we’ve been very quiet recently – it’s too hot for words. Everyone seems to have air-conditioning, we have four fans. We have literally been moving so slowly that one day just blends into another and it’s difficult to get anything meaningful done. To give an idea, the temperature inside the boat is often 40C and in the sun – forget it – we don’t want to know!

The mate and I agree that without hurricane season and insurance requirements that we wouldn’t come to Grenada at all, but that’s how it is, at least until we think of another plan.

That said, we prepared our lines, stocked up with food, checked out and got everything ready as on Wednesday 16 October as we were ready to leave for Bequia (we like Bequia). I pressed the start button on the engine and - oh no – it turned over so slowly, it was never going to fire up. The mate and I looked at each other, damn, we’ll have to stay in Grenada. The good news was that we could almost certainly solve our problems here; the bad news is we missed our weather window to head to Bequia and the yacht club, where we are berthed, has just put its prices up by 25%...

Whilst all this was going on, we have been trying to organise something to be delivered to St Lucia (item to be revealed in another blog) where my great friend Phil will be visiting us from the UK for a few days. Phil’s flight arrives on the 18^th November and so we must be up there before then, via Bequia and hopefully Mustique; although the latter may not be on the cards now as there are some more waves coming across the Eastern Caribbean which may delay our Grenadian departure further… long sigh... (nb a wave is sort of trough, that can easily form a tropical depression which is the precursor of a hurricane).

Anyway, onward – could we find a replacement engine battery? No we could not. Stargazer has a relatively small start battery (in size at least) in order to maximise the domestic battery bank space. It was nearly new when we left the UK and has always been charged properly so I decided to stop looking for a replacement and test the existing battery properly. The mate joined in with this process as ever since discovering the delights of using a multi meter she has ‘taken over’ that part of the operations process. Her family in the UK may be very surprised to hear that the mate has taken an active part in electrical matters. Although I have to say, she still hasn’t plucked up the courage to operate the solar switches.

On testing the existing battery, I discovered a very loose negative connection on the Victron bus bar (don’t ask). I suspected this was a cause of sluggish engine turnover so after leaving the battery overnight and seeing that it was still fully charged we started the engine again. This time the engine turned perfectly and the lowest voltage during the operation on the battery was 10v (which is fine) but it struggled to fire up. Ah, thought I, this will still be a bit of air from changing the primary fuel filter. At the time we bled the system and ran the engine for  maybe half a minute and regarded it as job done (I must leave things running for longer on the next filter change to make sure all the air is out. My problem is that, ever since I was a young man messing around with my cars that I hate starting and stopping cold engines – it’s when all the wear takes place!)

Anyhow, the mate and I have a strategy to reinstall the battery, fix it more firmly in position, as it was its slight movement that weakened the negative connection on the bus bar. I’m pretty certain that we’ll have this all sorted over the next day or so, so I’ll stop boring everyone about batteries and engines. Even as I’m typing the mate’s eyes are glazing over – she just wants to go to the beach…

I’ll just let you know what happened at Customs when I went on Tuesday to check out and Thursday to check back in:

Tuesday

Customs officer – when are you leaving sir?

Me – tomorrow, but within 24 hours from now.

Customs officer – OK sir, you need to pay the October permit of $50EC.

Me – OK.

Thursday

Custom officer – hello again sir, I thought you’d left?

Me – sorry I had engine starting problems and couldn’t leave the harbour. By the time we’d got things sorted out I couldn’t come to see you yesterday as you’d closed.

Customs officer: OK I can cancel your check out and you have to pay the October permit of $50EC.

Me: But I paid that on Tuesday.

Customs officer: Sorry sir, you are just checking back in and you have to pay it again.

…Only in the Caribbean…