Stream's Web Diary Special Tarset Grumpies Edition
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Mon 13 Jan 2014 17:43
I'd hate everyone to think that life is always good and there is never anything worth grumbling about here in the sunny Caribbean. Far from it! Where can I begin? Well, how about the weather?
We do appreciate that temperatures back in the UK are considerably below those we are enduring on a daily basis here in St Martins, but the warm (generally around 30 degrees) weather does have it's drawbacks beyond having to source and consume large quantities of liquids.
What can I say about the wind? We are experiencing what the meteorologists refer to as "The Christmas Trade Winds". Now the Trade Winds normally blow from roughly the North East or East through the winter at around force 3 to 4, that's a gentle to moderate breeze for you landlubbers, between 7 and 16 km/hr. For us sailors that's a great wind and will allow Stream to perform well, with no stress and full sails. The Christmas Trades obviously occur around this time of year and are characterised by the fact that they are stronger than the usual Trade winds, typically blowing at force 5 or 6, which is largely what we had when crossing the Atlantic a month or so ago. The meteorologists refer to these winds as "Fresh" or "Strong" breezes and for us, when sailing, give great conditions with a reduced sail area but excellent speed on most points of sail. Unfortunately we are not sailing at the moment! These fresh to strong breezes do make the hot temperatures more bearable but require any headgear to be well anchored and produce a variety of problems when working on the boat. Much of the last week has been spent on general maintenance and repair of bits and pieces around the deck, requiring the use of various materials. These fresh to strong breezes will blow anything not secured over the side. I have actually lost polishing rags, tops of tubes and pieces of cord, and had pots of cleaners blown over, but have managed to save a screw driver merrily rolling towards the toe rail and a watery grave. (He has also had to go diving several times to retrieve his towel from the watery depths, and that was pegged on!)
These Christmas Trades also make life very difficult when using the dinghy. This is a 3.6m inflatable with an inflatable keel and 5 hp outboard motor, which makes it perform quite well, given that it has to be rolled up and stored in a cockpit locker. Unfortunately the present winds make the sheltered waters around Simpson Bay rather choppy. The dinghy copes with these conditions magnificently, cutting through the waves with ease. Unfortunately in doing so it produces larges "splashes" that then strike anything coming towards them. The thing coming towards them is the contents of the dinghy, namely Sarah and myself at the moment. In the early days this was not a problem as Sarah made a very effective shelter for me, taking most of the spray. Unfortunately after a particularly wet trip into the "inner lagoon" to visit Budget Marine, "The Largest Marine Chandlers in the Caribbean", for essential spares, where Sarah "waddled" around the store due to wet undergarments despite removing her shorts outside and wringing them out, she is now more aware of positioning in the dinghy and I am having to take my share of the waves. (I have to say I did take her for lunch afterwards, but she never really seemed to be comfortable for some reason!)
The hull of Stream is showing signs of her over 6000 nautical miles since any TLC and her port side is particularly bad for some reason, with bad discolouring due to salt and sun. This is now being tackled by some vigorous "elbow grease" and the marine equivalent (10 times the price!) of T Cut. In order to reach the hull the dinghy is being used, secured fore and aft to the stanchions on the deck. Imagine the spring clean of the car. A good wash, T Cut the odd blemish and then polish. What do you need? "Avoid direct sun" and a dry day. Do you see my problem? As it happens the direct sun thing isn't a problem as I'm doing the shady side, but the dry day! For the last two days, the heavy shower that we used to have early afternoon has become "showers" lasting through the day. Imagine the scenario, load dinghy with dry cloths and my "marine T Cut", move into position and then secure dinghy. Start applying the "potion" with "backwards and forwards" movements (I always used circular motion when polishing the car for some reason). (Darrell seems to have missed the Karate Kid movie or he would know how to "wax on and wax off"!) Change position in dinghy to reach next bit and container falls over due to movement of floor. Mop up spilt potion and start applying again. When a small area completed get dry cloth and remove potion with vigorous rubbing to reveal a shiny hull. Not too bad, but this is a major exercise as Stream is 45' long and dark clouds are gathering! Within 2 minutes it is raining heavily. Try to keep dry cloths dry. Try to find cap of container which has disappeared down between floor and side tube of dinghy. Application cloth has now blown off tube of dinghy and is floating in the water, temptingly out of reach. Try to climb back onto deck of Stream ( over 1 meter above water level) from moving dinghy, now being rocked by increasing waves as the wind picks up even more. Manage to get onto deck by putting feet on first and then using brute strength to haul rest of body into lying position below guard rails. I am now lying in rivulets of water washing across the decks. Gather together bag of "dry" cloths and retreat to cockpit. The rain stops within seconds of arriving under the Bimini. Back to dinghy - much easier getting in from deck if somewhat inelegant sliding bare feet down recently treated hull. Hull is now wet and so work cannot be started until it has been dried. This process was repeated 3 times in less than an hour before I took the hint and the dry cloths ran out and decided to wait for more settled weather, which has yet to come.
It has been a thing to ponder for us how the super yachts, that's sailing boats over 25 metres, always look so pristine. Obviously, we have watched the crews polishing and cleaning the boats, but we have marvelled at the state of their hulls. Which unlike the present state of Stream are usually perfect and unmarked. Well we now are more enlightened. Having spent a couple of hours watching one from Valletta, Malta, being moored stern to with no motor. This involved lots of shouting from the pontoon to the two dinghies that were being used as mini tugs to keep her positioned. The lifeboat who had towed her in and their diver who was freeing mooring ropes from under the boat and attaching them to various buoys. As the crew on board stood with fenders looking unsure what to do as the captain ran back and forward over the deck. When all was settled we noticed huge scratches down one side, where she had hit the outer quayside the evening before when she had entered the marina under sail and hadn't quite stopped in a control manner. I was quietly relieved that all yachts have the odd bad day. But then, within five minutes, the make over started. A man on a work platform started taping around the scratches, sanding down and applying the base coat. He returned the next morning at 7am to do the next layers. Thus by the end of a few days of cosmetic surgery she is back to her pristine condition. Whereas Stream needs to wait for us to get the paint brushes out to address some of the issues with the hull. The crew on this super yacht are quite friendly. One has the bearing of a supermodel with legs that go on for ever, imagine a Russian Jodie Kidd, and speaks many languages fluently. As we are berthed nearby we are on speaking terms. Much to our consternation, she is under the impression that we never do any work, as every time she passes we are having a drink and a chat in the cockpit. She never seems to pass when we are hull cleaning, servicing the windlass or mending the various bits and pieces on the boat.
As we were waiting for settled weather we decided to hire a car for a tour of the island. Fortunately the marina is close to the terminal for the inter island ferries to St Barth's and Anguilla and so there is plenty of choice of car hire companies. We arrived at 08.30 and had the pick of companies. We decided to go for AK Hire run by a gentleman called Fatso (he wasn't) who traded out of a booth which was smaller than the average loo and was full of papers, files and a computer the result of which it was barely possible to get into. His price for a Toyota Yaris was reasonable and included "extra insurance" and we even managed a discount for "marina residents" and cash up front. The car, to put it bluntly, had seen better days, but, unlike our taxi on Saba, had very good tyres (2 new ones), working air con and looked like a local car rather than a hire car, in that it had the obligatory dents on the corners and a missing wheel trim that we soon discovered was rolling around on the parcel shelf. I would like to say a little about the roads. You know how the condition of the roads often changes when you cross a border? Think of going into Scotland with all the extra money they get from our Government how good their roads are. Sorry didn't mean to get started on the "Scottish Issue". Well, St Martins is half French and half Dutch and very different the two halves are, with the Dutch going for Casinos and Adult Clubs and the French much more a low key tourism, but neither seem to bother much about their roads. The main roads are generally of a UK standard, but are similarly suffering from lack of investment with some huge potholes, but their traffic management seems to be by speed bumps every 100m or so. This would not be so bad if they were all the same, but they vary from the insignificant to the alpine in size, or as Sarah would have it hugely fat sleeping policemen, likely to be more dead than asleep due to their obvious obesity problem. Some are pyramidal in shape, some more like a concrete drain pipes and some, just to confuse the innocent tourist, are concave and also seem to serve the role of a storm drain judging by the state of the road either side. If you dare to go onto side roads be prepared for gullies across the road carrying small streams with cliff like edges. It is very easy to see why the local cars are in the state they are.
When we returned the car we had to travel half way round the island to find a petrol station that was still open at 16.30 on a Sunday to top it up back to "five bars". We needn't have bothered. Fatso greeted us like long lost cousins (I did wonder how many of his cars never get returned!) and he never even checked the car when we handed in the keys saying it was "ours for ever". What a nice man!
To finish on a positive note, it is nice to be trusted sometimes!
(Now people will understand why I would be glad that Darrell headed off to the Holly Bush every Tuesday night to vent his grumpiness. So I didn't have to put up with the dark mutterings and irritation. He needs to get into island mode and be more chilled with the vagaries of Caribbean life. Some hope! I will have to investigate setting up a FaceTime link with them all on Tuesday so he can get back to normal.)