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Sarah February 8, 2001
Only read this if you are ready for some engine venting!
Margarita was making her way down the Eastern Caribbean
islands - Antigua to Dominica to Martinque to St Lucia.
The plan was to be based in Bequia while Neill took a week to go
stateside and work. Peace and calm,
sun and school with some mild, clean chores thrown in was the plan.
Margarita had other ideas. In St Lucia an examination of the engine
compartment showed that she had been spraying oil out of her dipstick during the
overnight motoring. What a mess!!! She had done a similar thing once before way back in Spain,
so we hoped a cleaning of the breather would fix the problem.
But, lots of gunk and paper towel later she was still spraying.
Neill begged the diesel mechanic from the Rodney Bay boat yard to come
and pay a house call. "Out
with the engine" he says, and maybe get the carpenter to cut a passageway
for the engine.
"This should be great" I'm thinking, "Neill in Colorado
and I'll have people cutting the boat up". Three weeks in Rodney Bay did not appeal either.
Brown, still, lagoon water, artificial Marina surroundings, mosquitoes.
Lots of very close yachties. The
book said there was a great mechanic in Bequia.
We called him up and laid out the problem "sounds like we got to
change de rings". I got a time
commitment out of him and reassurance that getting the engine out with a crane
boat would be no worry. "It's
your call" says Neill, we could wait till I get back or do it where you
like. So we decided to go down and
see, and if the guy seemed OK go ahead. If
not, come back up to Rodney bay when he got back. So off we went for an overnight to Bequia - with the oil cap
off so we didn't blow all the oil out of the dipstick. A fine, oily mist covered the engine compartment though.
The wind was uncharacteristically calm and the sea swelly, so we needed
Perky more than we would have liked, and limped along slowly when we could.
Crossing the channel between St Vincent and Bequia in the morning we saw
a whaling boat - after pilot whales (kind of like Flipper)
they had three dead ones in the boat and a harpoon mounted up on the
foredeck, and we just about ran them down as they tried to get the dolphins that
were riding our bow wave. We willed
the dolphins to swim deep, and noticed with satisfaction as we pulled away that
the whale boat had missed a shot and fouled it's prop with the harpoon line.
A bit mean, since these are poor islands, and they do eat the meat, but
we are rather fond of dolphins.
We sailed in about lunchtime and things got busy, I checked
into customs and immigration while Neill worked at gathering all his files and
bits and bobs for a week of work in another universe. It is hard to remember
what you need for that other life. Luckily
he didn't have any clothes to pack. His work clothes lie in a box somewhere, hopefully in
someone's house, we can't remember where, it was a year ago he last used them
after all. We went in to reconfirm
his tickets because my mother was sitting on my shoulder, only to find his
airline is not allowed to land at the local airports, and if we hadn't checked
he would have got there too late to catch an alternative. Anyhow, Neill met the mechanic, Tyrone, who seemed great, and
he made assurances that the job could start on Monday. By dinner everything
seemed fine until Douglas - checking Neill's itinerary - found that he arrived
in one airport a couple of hours after he took off. An hour in the pay phone
didn't get us to anybody who could tell us anything.
So I took Niell to the ferry at 6.00 AM not sure how he would fare.
We had our own challenges.
Lets see how things went:
Saturday: check out where to buy things in town. snorkel
the mooring to make sure it is secure since the engine is coming out soon.
Find that it consists of three
major engine parts secured to each other and mooring block with convoluted bits
of chain and shackles. It is only 8 feet deep (our keel is just about resting on the bottom,
which is wierd), but tiring to investigate as it takes so many surface dives to
follow the puzzle. There is an eel
living in one of the engine blocks.
Sunday: The stove won't light for toast and tea.
Blocked gas line. This means disconnecting the hoses in the propane locker and
behind the stove, attatching the dinghy pump to one end with duct tape and
blowing out the liquid propane glue. This
always happens when Neill is away. And
I am not so dextrous with wrenches as he when I am upside down into the propane
locker.
Monday: Nothing. I
finally call the mechanic on the radio and find out he has gone to a
neighbouring island for the morning. Call
him later and he agrees to see me at five.
There went the first day. It
turns out he wants to wait until the new parts have been located before we even
take the engine out. I talk him out
of that and make a date for the next morning.
He tells us to cover the floor and walls with cardboard after removing
Douglas's and Bronwen's bunk mattresses etc.
So we ask around town and find a couple of cardboard piles and haul them
back to the boat.
Tuesday: Up early, first of all to tape down all that
cardboard, and then to remove everything from over the engine and pile it up
forward on my bunk (bins of parts and tools, spare oil, fowlweather gear,
jackets). Then the kids and I set
about trying to remove the forward companionway (staircase).
We pulled that out and stored it on deck. then we decided we could take
off the fibreglass top to the engine. It
finally came out after removing bunches of little bits of wood moulding.
We were all ready for Tyrone at 10 AM feeling very proud of ourselves.
He shows up at 10:30 looking way too clean.
A couple of hours with our engine changed that a bit.
He put in a good 3 1/2 hours work, taking everything off the engine he
could, and decided he was all ready for the crane boat.
We have to put back the mattresses in the aft cabin for the kids.
My cabin is now off limits so I'll sleep in the main salon.
Wednesday: We get ready again with the cardboard and
mattresses. No word from Tyrone.
I call him on the radio. No
crane boat. It had left town on another errand.
Thursday: No word again, call the shop again: No crane
boat. Incredibly fed up with living with hunks of engine and chains and
cardboard and tools all over the place in a constant state of readiness for the
crane boat (such as a chain pulley system in the kitchen). We all find it hard
to focus on school etc in this state of upheaval. I storm over to the shop to
see Tyrone. We had quite a
satisfying confrontation but I could never be sure he was being entirely
straight with me as the story kept changing a little bit.
Anyhow, he said be ready to move with the assistance of a speedboat in
the morning over to the dock (the engine is completely disconnected and useless
now).
Friday early: Oneill the sidekick comes by and says to be
ready with bumpers and lines as we are going to move. I feel reluctant to leave my safe mooring, the weather is
quite gusty and Margarita can be hard to keep nose into gust without much boat
speed. No other way to move this
project along though. I sent
Bronwen over to ask a friend boat - the Loblollies to come and lend a hand and
moral support. The helping
speedboat "Speedlink" comes by. He
at least seems to be very competent. We
tie him on tight to port and get
all our docklines and bumpers ready. Douglas
in Ieuan and Chester and Peter in their dinghy are ready to help where needed.
And Mark is helping on board Margarita, with helpful ideas like having the
anchor ready to drop fast. It actually all went brilliantly, and the kids, as
usual, were essential, handling bumpers and lines and operating Ieuan as
pushboat. Speedlink and his boat
provided plenty of power, so Margarita was easy to keep well behaved, and we
docked alongside the craneboat right by town, felt like we were going to drive
up onto the beach. The mechanic actually seemed to know what he was doing
getting that engine out. Except, on
wondering what was causing a holdup, I went below to look and found him emptying
the engine oil into the engine pan without any effort to catch it, so he lost a
couple of points there. We rush
around with bits of cardboard ready to protect bits of the boat not adequately
covered. Finally Perky pops out
with no trouble, and seems tiny lying on the floor of the crane boat.
We went back and tied up on the mooring with no mishap and some relief.
Emily, the sailing dinghy, had capsized in our absense and been rescued
by Peter and Chester.
Tyrone and I then have a minor hasstle in the afternoon
about parts as he has run into a dead end - he tells me to have my husband bring
the parts back from the states after all. That's funny, Neill has left his hotel and is beginning his
journey home in a few hours. There
is no way I can reach him until I
pick him up from the ferry in the dinghy. So
I call a number in FL we have and get assurances that parts can be shipped
Monday. But, Tyrone is not ready to
tell me what I need yet. Tomorrow
he says. Douglas and I spend three
hours cleaning the oil out of the engine compartment.
Saturday: Tyrone is not ready yet. "I'm taking the engine apart like I told you".
Then we have a little discussion about money - I question whether we
actually reached the estimate for engine removal, since it took well less than
two days worktime. He tells me I
can fix the engine myself if I like and storms out.
I tell the female shop assisstant that I am sure looking forward to my
husband returning and she says yes it is better to let the guys handle it.
Neill gets back with a fresh attitude.
He believes I have been under a lot of stress and may have been a little
tense. Maybe.
So he is going to go in there and start off on a new foot.
I say I may well go to the beach the day the engine goes back in.
Monday: This works well at first, it is actually a holiday
even though Tyrone was working, and the shop is pretty laid back.
Neill buys them a six pack in the afternoon and they even get the parts
ordered. Good progess!
He tells Tyrone he wants to have a meeting about money.
We still have no idea what this will cost.
Tyrone tells him to come back tomorrow.
Tuesday: Neill goes in and Tyrone is out.
He goes in again and Tyrone tells him to come back in the afternoon and
pick up the engine to take it on the ferry next day to St Vincent to have the
liners removed. What about our
meeting? I've got to go now, come
back at 5PM Are you sure? Yes.
Neill rows in at five and the shop is locked, nobody is anywhere and the
engine is not to be found, at the shop or on the ferry.
Wednesday: Neill calls the shop on the radio and they say,
hurry up you have to come and get the engine for the ferry! How can
communication be so hard!!!!! Tyrone
happens to drive by on his way to
another boat and Neill asks him what is going on and where was he yesterday.
"I was there, I had to go to a meeting at 5."
They have some further discussion and once again Tyrone storms out - or
rather drives off in his dinghy telling Neill if he wants to do anything with
the engine he knows where to find it! I
am feeling somewhat vindicated, and very glad to stay well out of things.
This is a guy who has been written up highly in the
cruising guide books. It turns out
that on talking to local residents both white snowbirds and black locals such as
taxi drivers, this is all normal Tyrone behavior.
He seems to have a screw loose somewhere. We are trying to get an island mentality, but this is beyond
island. Well, we have been here
over a month now, the parts are actually on the island as of today.
We just hope that at least Tyrone's mechanical ability is as good as we
hear and he can put Perky together again. At least we are not engineless at
Easter Island!!!
Meanwhile, engine trials aside, Bequia is a very good place
to be stuck. We get a great long term rate on the mooring(!),
the people are very friendly and low key, the anchorage very sheltered,
and the water crystal clean. There
is plenty of wind and sun, so that we can live indefinately without an engine
using our solar panel and wind generator, and run everything as normal on the
boat, including the computer. (No fridge - we have to buy ice, now is when we
wish we had a 12 V fridge). The town is small, but convenient and has everything
we need, and a fair bit of action, with music playing somewhere every night,
especially if you like steel bands (we are reaching our limit to tell the
truth). There was an internatioinal blues festival one night with very good
music. And there are several good dinghy docks around the bay, so we don't even
have to haul the dinghy up and down the beach. We get water delivered to the
boat - an expense, but less than being in a marina by a lot. The windsurfing and
dinghy sailing are very good. Some of the local, windsurfing guys are very good
and fun to watch, with their dreadlocks flying. We look pretty
novice in comparison. There are plenty of nice walks around the island with
wonderful views. We are getting to
know some of the local characters a bit, and there is always something to watch
- it is a very active place, yachts of all sizes coming and going, local taxi
boats with names like "Dennis the Menace" and "Outernet.com"
and "Why worry". And we
have been lucky with other friendly kid boats coming and going. As soon as we are set to go we will stop a night or two at a
couple of other Grenadine islands, and then make our way over to Panama.
No doubt a year from now we will wish we could be stuck in Bequia with
engine troubles. But maybe getting
the car fixed will be a lot easier!
Love and best wishes and Spring is coming - Sarah and the
Margarita crew.
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