Jules
01/03/2012, St. George's, Grenada

I was wrong ... Mike did end up going back to Venezuela to pick up the other freighter. They left on Friday 17th Feb. after numerous phone calls and assurances that they would be able to leave Venezuela straight away.

They arrived in Margarita on the Saturday evening, tied up alongside the freighter, met the agent and officials, and were told they'd get clearance in the morning ... as soon as the drug squad had brought the sniffer dogs and underwater cameras on board and searched both boats.

They'd had a relatively good run down there. The 'only' issue on this leg being the Lister generator which went haywire and blew up the two fridges, the PC monitor and power pack, the laptop charger and the charger for the sat. phone. And the Yanmar turbo oil seal which leaked oil into the engine, ended up running away and nearly seized up. Apart from that all went well.

The drug squad were on board by 7.30 am Sunday, all 11 of them. Apparently the officers were fine but the young pups doing the search ended up taking a phone from James' cabin, which was in a box, in a holdall, in a cupboard under his bunk. They also took a watch and a pair of new sneakers from the freighter. (Mike's phone has also gone missing, which is causing no end of problems trying to contact people, only he thinks he had it after the Venezuelans left so we have no idea what's happened to that.)

By early afternoon the tow was underway with two of the freighter crew on board the Buzzard to augment Mike, James, Tony and Scott (an American friend who'd gone along to help). And they made fairly good progress, considering the freighter was twice our size and laden with 1,200 tonnes of cement, most of which was in the bow.

I got a sat. phone call saying all was well and they should be back in around 32 hours. Unfortunately, just past Los Testigos at 8 pm, the main oil-line on our Callesen sheared off. I can only imagine what that night was like. They were without power for 18 hours while Mike and James did what they could. Mike had to lower the dinghy and go alongside the other boat (in the dark, in 3m swells) to get the pipe brazed (which didn't work), and then again to get some hose and more oil to replace that which had sprayed round the engine room. (And the outboard got smashed on the crane bringing it back on board.)

Eventually it was fixed, during which time they'd drifted 40 miles in the wrong direction. At one point Scott said he was worried the freighter was going to hit the back of us because they continued going when we weren't. Of course I knew nothing of this until Mike called on the Monday to say all was fine again.

They eventually got in to Grenada on Wednesday at around 7.30 pm, I sat on Angie's balcony and watched them come over the horizon as the sun was setting. They anchored out alongside the freighter for the night and prepared to bring them in to the dock the next day. Only the swell was too big for cruise ships and they came into the dock instead, and then it was the weekend. So we spent the weekend on standby, which was just as well because they dragged on the Friday afternoon and we had to help them re-anchor.

First thing Monday Mike went back alongside them to bring them to the dock. And whilst they were pulling their anchor the chain snapped and they ended up having to leave the anchor there. Really does make you wonder about some of these boats.

While we were at the dock we got water and were then ready to leave and go back out to anchor, only apparently the Port Authority had other ideas. Because the freighter has no engine working we were required to stay tied alongside for the duration of the unloading in case of emergencies. The unloading was supposed to take 2-3 days. It's already been 3 and they've only just started the second hold, oh and it's raining so they can't work anyway. The noise and cement dust is really starting to get us, as is the throbbing generators from the container ship next door; makes it feel like we're back in Chaguaramas.

Not quite sure when they're going to be finished but it may be a bit of a problem because we need to leave on Saturday morning to go get more fuel and head up to Carriacou. The owner of the freighter has known about this prior commitment all along but nobody expected this part of the job to take so long ... although we really should know better by now.

Anyway, while the Buzzard was having adventures on the high-seas I stayed with Angie in her apartment over-looking Grand Anse beach, and tried not to be overly anxious. On the Sunday I went to Hog Island to say goodbye to some friends who were leaving for Trinidad, and to see June and Jeff, June's been back over three weeks and I've still only managed to catch up a couple of times. I was supposed to be having a quiet afternoon but Hog took hold, as usual, and I ended up staying on Tiempo with Pete.

The next day we sailed round to St. George's, had lunch at The Nutmeg and went to see a local art show. All so civilised ... wonder why Mike and I don't do things like that.

On the Wednesday the boys got back I went up to the local hospital to give blood as a friend of ours has been in for a couple of weeks and has needed several blood transfusions, and they're running low. There was quite a queue of yachties lining up to do the right thing, and apart from the mosquitoes in the room it was all relatively painless.

Last Friday I had to go to the dentist for a second opinion about my front tooth. Apparently this dentist could see something on the x-ray: I have an abscess which has been there a while and has been eating into the gum and loosening the tooth. Great. I'm on a course of strong anti-biotics and have a series of root canal appointments booked to start next week, lucky me.

In amongst all this we've been trying to repair damaged parts and services. We've replaced the relay and now have one fridge working, and we've bought new chargers for the laptops and the sat. phone. Mike's sourced and ordered a brand new 15kw generator which should be, fingers crossed, shipped from Florida at the weekend and be with us by the week after. Now all we have to do is move the tool box and one of the air-compressors, take out the Onan (which never did work), and build new brackets to mount it on.

Not sure what's happening with Tony since he got back from Indonesia. He hasn't seemed particularly motivated, almost to the point of laziness, and this morning has said he wants to return to Indonesia next month. Makes me wonder if his missing his flight wasn't an attempt not to come back at all. Only now we have to pay Julie for the extra flight she organised, and he wants us to spend another $2,000 sending him home again. After only working for us for a month, and sending $300 home already? Crew ...

So ... I guess that's enough for now. I've been a bit side-tracked from the new blog but will hopefully get back to working on it soon.

Love to everyone ....

Comments [5]

Jules
16/02/2012, St. George's, Grenada

We're safely back in Grenada after our Venezuelan odyssey.
We finally left Margarita on Wednesday 8th February after nearly a week in Pampatar. Mike and Audrey had to fly back because the time was running out for when they had to get to Miami; none of us had any idea we'd be away so long. They managed to get the only two seats available for the rest of the month, no idea what would have happened if they hadn't managed it.
Our first leg was to Los Testigos where we were hoping to get some fuel as we were running low. We left just before dark and the tow lasted 14 hours through the night, we were averaging 3.5 knts as we didn't want to get in before daylight. We let go of the freighter and we both anchored in our usual bay. Even before the anchor was down we had one of the locals that Mike met last time he was there alongside giving us live lobsters.

By the end of the day we had amassed another three lobsters and quite a few fish and filled up the fishermen's water barrels for them. We ate well that night ... well those of us who liked lobster anyway. And came away with two more lobsters and even more fish.

Unfortunately there was no fuel around so first light the next morning we went alongside the freighter and took enough from them to see us back, on the basis that it would take anything up to 36 hours. We also replenished the freighter crew with water and what provisions we could spare (the seven guys on board had had a hard time and were not the happiest bunch in the world, then again, neither were we at this point).

By mid-day we were heading out on the final leg of the journey. Six hours out and we ran out of water ourselves. Eight hours out and we realised something wasn't quite working right. Mike knew from past experience that the first stretch would be slow going due to the 2.5 knt current, 3 m incoming swell, 25 knt winds, and the way the sea shelves up around Los Testigos. However, no matter what adjustments he made to pitch and RPMs we were still struggling to get over 2 knts.

The pattern kept up all that night and the next day. By this point we'd been travelling 40 hours, were being pushed west and were still 58 miles from Grenada. Oh, and the fuel was getting low again and we'd had to start re-cycling our filters and what fuel we had left sloshed in the bottom. At this point Mike made the executive decision to try and get help and called our friend in Carriacou that runs tugs. Luckily, oh so luckily, Troll was in Carriacou and able to come out. Within an hour they had let go of the barge they were towing and set off to our predicted co-ordinates.

Eight hours later, just after mid-night Saturday, they arrived. It took an hour or so of bobbing about and manoeuvering to swap bridles between us and them, for the freighter to let go of our rope and for us to pull all 200m back on board.

Finally we were out on our own and doing a respectable 6.5 knts back to Grenada. I did the watch, hand steering 'cos the auto-pilot was playing up, from 2.30 am to 6.30 am so that Mike and the boys could get some sleep and by 10.30 we were anchored in St. George's. We put the dinghy in so that we could run Devon and Phil into shore and guess what? We had a bloody great floating rope/fishing net spreading out around the prop ... which sort of explained why we weren't doing so well on the tow.

Mike went into check in with immigration and then we went to meet up with Mike and Audrey for a few well earned beers at Port Louis.

The next day was customs and then making sure that Totong was actually on his flight. We'd had a call on the sat. phone on the Saturday from Twent and Julie saying they were in Jakarta and Totong had missed his flight! Julie, bless her, managed to get him on another one that would connect him to the one from London to Grenada but we didn't have confirmation he'd actually made it. In the end it turned out he did and we picked him at the airport at 4pm Monday.

He was pleased to be back but was sick all the following day. Guess it was jet-lag plus ... I'm not sure what. Anyway, he seems ok now thankfully.

Tuesday (Valentine's Day) we went in to St. George's to organise water and get provisions. Then I had to go to the dentist and Mike went to meet the pilot and go to the dock. He organised to get two lots of water, one to take out to the freighter and one for us. Only, as usual, everything took so much longer than anticipated and he only managed one pick up that day. I finally met back up with him at 8.30 pm that night at Port Louis. We did manage a nice meal together but both of us were so tired.

Yesterday the pilot was back out at 7.45 am to take us back to the dock for more water. And I took advantage of the yacht club laundry to get three weeks worth of washing done. I sure know how to have fun !!!!

In between all this, ever since we arrived back in Grenada, we've (well Mike) has been trying to organise to go fetch another freighter that's broken down and is also in Margarita. It's looking increasingly like we can't do it as the Venezuelan paperwork expands, it's almost the weekend already and it's Carnival in Venezuela starting next Monday.

Oh, and just for something different, a local Carriacou sloop T-boned us while we were at anchor at 11.45 pm last night. They managed to bend in the gunwhale on the port side mid-ships and crack the gunwhale cap. Mike and the rest of the crew we're up straight away but I didn't even feel the impact I was so fast asleep, I just heard all the shouting afterwards, as did Toby.

Love to all ....

Comments [3]

Jules
05/02/2012, Pampatar, Venezuela

A very brief update from Isla Margarita.

We spent a wonderful week at the Bequia Blues with friends who took us up on their sail boat. On the way back (last Wednesday) we got a call to say a freighter had broken down between Grenada and Trinidad and could we go pick it up.

We set off 6 pm Wednesday to the given co-ordinates only it wasn't anchored, as we'd been told, but still drifting. By the time we reached it it was 10 miles off Margarita and the Venezuelan Coastguard were in attendance.

We were told we had to tow it into Pampatar so that they could check out the boat (theirs not ours). That was Thursday at 10.30 pm and now it's Sunday and we're still waiting for clearance. Hopefully we'll be leaving tomorrow at some point.

As well as James and Devon we have Mike and Audrey and Phil on board who thought they were coming for a couple of days. Luckily they're all ok with being prisoners on the Buzzard and we're managing to have some fun too.

Never thought we'd be back in Margarita but so far so good and we've managed to meet up with Charlie and even buy a case of rum and some beer, although the prices have definitely risen since the last time we were here two years ago.

Internet contact is really sporadic but I'll try to update when I can ... and fill you in on all the wonderful things that have been happening.

Love to all ...

Comments [1]