"Barnacle Bill"

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Wed 1 Apr 2009 11:34
14:05.486N 060:57.814W
Glad to be going south again! For a few days I thought I was heading back up into the realms of 50N!!!!!! Anyway, be that as it may...... we're now back in Rodney bay after a very slow motor-sail from Trois Islets. Although Trouters still sails OK with a decent wind the performance under engines has been, well, dismal. Diving underneath the boat yesterday, I found out why. Apart from a barnicle-encrusted stbd hull, both props could be described as 'an octopuses garden'. I cleaned off what I could using a snorkel and this morning will use the scuba gear to complete the job.
Met up with Tiger Frightener and was invited to a very pleasant meal onboard. Larry 'volunteered' to check the Kiwi props for me and grease them up (using his dive kit), so this morning we'll both be 'ministering' to Trouters, which hopefully will improve performance all round.
The plan is to go down to Marigot tomorrow, then by the weekend down to Bequia. Other news is that Mark (Multihull World) has located a new water tank guauge sender, so arrangements are in hand to get that sent out to Bequia. Looking forward to going to the Tobago Cays for some peace and quiet. The weather is still 'iffy'. It's always warm, of course, but the winds are still strong (around 20/25kts) and there are fairly frequent rain showers overnight. Apart from that, all is going well (except the price of beer, that is, approximately £19.70 a case for locally brewed Heineken).