Admiral 40, Oceans Dream / Hot, Hot, Very Hot!
10/10/2009, Peakes Yacht Services

OK, so we were entertaining ourselves with a game of 'themed' Scrabble whilst having a sundowner on the trampoline last night ... can you guess the theme based on the photo?! Another form of entertainment since returning from the UK is the good old British sitcom. We came back laden down with DVDs galore ... including such classics as Fawlty Towers, The Vicar of Dibley, Cold Feet (32 episodes) etc and for the more serious viewing, we have David Attenborough join us occasionally! At the moment, we've got really hooked on Michael Palin doing his Phileas Fogg bit in Around the World in 80 Days. What is it with his white trainers though? Bit of an 80's fashion faux-pas for sure!

Whilst in Trini, we continue to keep in touch with loved-ones by Skype. On occasions the link can be somewhat intermittent however we've learnt the earlier we call the UK, the better the signal seems to be - a good time seems to be when it's 07:00 with us (5 hours behind GMT). However, based on a few recommendations from fellow cruisers, we have recently invested in a 'Wirie'. This is basically a wifi antenna which should allow us to 'see' and access signals we've not been able to previously. It was ordered about 10 days ago and we know it's arrived in Trinidad. Sometime over the next few days we shall begin the process of tracking it down ... is it at Customs? Chaguaramas Post Office? Carenage Post Office? Who knows!

For those of you who keep an eye on oceansdream.co.uk, we update with photos every now and then but in reality, we've not been that 'snap-happy' of late. We've seen much of what there is to see here in Trinidad but as soon as we set off again, we'll be updating the route and other relevant pages.

Some of you have asked what happens to our mail and despite being on the other side of the Pond, we continue to receive post in the UK (although we did manage to get it down to a minimum) and our 'Personal Assistant' (Adrian's daughter - Harriet) does us the honour of scanning anything that might look important and emails it across for us to deal with as necessary.

A question was also raised about prescription medications and the quantities GPs in the UK will supply when travelling. With an NHS prescription they're not too keen to give more than a three month supply of medication. However, it seems every GP is different as some are known to provide a prescription for twelve months! We topped up our 'supplies' in South Africa, they were cheaper to buy there than privately in the UK.

Prior to leaving Oceans Dream for the summer, we spent a few days polishing the hulls (in fact, ALL fibreglass) with some wax and a damp cloth and leaving it to dry. This created a protective layer so that any dirt/dust/filth heading in the direction of Oceans Dream, would sit on top of the wax. Now back on board what is, a pretty mucky boat, we're keen to polish the wax off but have decided to leave it until the last minute before we 'splash'.

So, what news on the 'to-do' list? Well, a line has gone through each of the following: grind back screws, sort new leak in skylight, fit table centre pull, make frame for Flexiteek (going on floor in heads), measure and cut keel shoes. Those are the jobs the guys completed. We've cracked on with fitting a new cleat, meeting a guy about a dinghy cover (subsequently ordered), fitting non-return valve on water pipes, spray-painting the anchor chain at 5/10m intervals, fitting 'wings' to dinghy outboard motor, meeting guy about sorting engine & exhaust, sizing up emergency steering pipe with silicone, cleaning saildrive boots (in preparation for new ones), investigating cost of anti-foul with local suppliers, cleaning, shopping, and of course ... socialising with other cruisers!


Warranty Work - Chapter 2 ~ KEELS

When we arrived in Trinidad we realised that we would have to lift Oceans Dream to fix the leak in the port hull. We decided that we would commission a survey in order to ensure we didn't miss any other faults that were beyond our 'amateur' eyes.

We arranged to be lifted at Peake Yacht Service in Chaguaramas and engaged the services of Billy Wray an American surveyor based in Trinidad. Billy joined us on our trip from the anchorage to the travel lift dock to assess Oceans Dream's handling. You may recall that we had had issues with her wanting to turn to port all the time. We made our way into the travel lift dock with only a few inches to spare either side of the concrete walls. The diver went down to locate the slings and soon Oceans Dream was being lifted and moved to a place on the hard.

The recognised way to support a catamaran on the hard is to rest her on wooden planks underneath the keels, with anti-tipping stands fore and aft. Admiral had not given us any instructions to the contrary. In a few minutes Oceans Dream was sitting on her keels and the slings were being removed. Fortunately one of the travel lift operators noticed that there was some deforming of the hull just behind the keel and he quickly called for her to be put back in the slings.

This picture illustrates the extent of the 'dishing' of the hull.


... And with the resulting cracks internally. The webs had been glued in not tabbed and glassed as is the norm.


We sort guidance from Admiral Yachts on how to support her out of the water and enquired why she could not sit on her keels like all the other cats in the yard. After many reminders and some weeks later we received the chocking information we had requested.

We have written before on this subject but suffice it to say that the catamaran's designer stated that his design ensured that she was strong enough to rest on her keels. Admiral Yachts considered that this was not a desirable feature and as it wasn't referred to in the spec they were going to do nothing about it! Admiral Yachts did tell us that they were waiting a response from the designer but when we asked the designer about this he told us that he had had no requests for information.

Despite numerous attempts to get Admiral Yachts to accept that this characteristic was part of the design, according to the designer, and so there was a significant shortfall in the capability of the catamaran as built by Admiral Yachts - but we failed! In the end we have had to fund the strengthening work ourselves and are greatly appreciative of the support given to us by the designer in achieving this.

This picture illustrates the keelson and strengthened ribs that were inserted to transfer the forces from the end of the keel to the rear bulkhead.


Our final words on this issue are these:

If you want to be able to beach your catamaran or hold her on a drying mooring then we could not recommend you buy an Admiral 40.

Having gotten over this setback our surveyor went about his work and gave us his report some 10 days later - there were more that 50 defects, many described as being serious and requiring attention before going back to sea and a host of examples of poor quality workmanship.

Enough said - next time we will outline these faults.

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Admiral 40 Oceans Dream /34 deg C, and Heavy Rain.
04/10/2009, Peakes Yacht Services

Saturday afternoon saw us down at the Roti Hut in the PowerBoats boat yard as guests of Gary and Grace who have run the hut for the last 11 years. They had agreed to give a few of us cruisers a cookery lesson in the art of roti cuisine. We prepared and cooked, a chicken curry, potato and channa curry, green mango curry, pumpkin, bodi and dhal pouri as well as making roti dough to make two types of bread- one filled with dhal pouri and the other to make 'buss-up shut' (vernacular for "burst-up-shirt," because they resemble torn-up cloth)!

Having prepared our dough and set it aside to rest we began to prepare the curry sauce. To one side was a huge dish of freshly blended garlic - we like garlic but this was looking extreme! Nevertheless the first ingredient into the hot oil was a really good dollop of garlic, followed by curry powder and finally a little water. The mixture was rapidly heated until it took on a different texture, colour and above all aroma. Then it was time to add the ingredients. Grace led us carefully through each of the recipes with Gary fetching and carrying. Soon the open air kitchen was awash with fantastic aromas and colours as the various dishes were cooking away. It was Gary who then took over as he prepared the curry paste for the chicken - his speciality. With four pots all bubbling away we were handed back to Grace to show us the art of making the two types of roti.



After a couple of attempts at gathering the dhal and the roti dough together, we were soon rolling it out in preparation for the quick blast it required on the 'tawa' (flat pan made of cast iron used specifically for cooking roti) before sitting down to enjoy our feast! It was delicious, VERY filling and actually, quite complex - with all the different dishes necessary to make just one true roti. We shall have a go at making some on board in the coming weeks but have a feeling we'll still pop by the Roti Hut on the odd occasion!

Moving on, the weather is extremely hot at the moment - up to 35 deg C and the humidity rises to more than 90% most days with the odd thunderstorm thrown in - still as long as there is lots of ice for the rum punch that's fine.

For those of you who have requested further information, we have decided to add a few lines on the warranty work carried out on Oceans Dream at the end of each blog over the coming weeks. We shall include links to video footage along with pictures we have taken. See below for today's installment.

WIshing all our readers, friends and family our very best wishes.
Adrian and Jackie

WARRANTY WORK ~ cont'd....

Having made our way across the South Atlantic we had already identified a number of issues, which could best be summed up as leaks!

Leak 1. Water coming into the port engine bed. This had been identified on the sea trial but 'corrected' by Admiral Yachts. We were going to have to lift her to identify this fault although Admiral Yachts professed that it really wasn't that serious!

Leak 2. From the skylight in the main saloon. This large expanse of acrylic was seated and held in place with Sikaflex but whenever it rained we were able to catch a few buckets full of water - clearly this too needed to be addressed.

Leak 3. The most perplexing. Water started flooding in from the air-conditioning duct in the forward port cabin. Removing the duct revealed a substantial volume of water was held in a void which was formed between the hull and the bridgedeck. Whenever it rained or when the sea was breaking over the deck the water overfilled into the cabin. After a lot of head scratching we realised that there may have been problem experienced with the starboard locker when the diesel tank split. When the tanks were fitted into each locker the side was not sealed and allowed water into the areas behind and below each locker.

Leak 1 was eventually identified as a pilot hole drilled through the hull that had not been filled when the starboard engine was fitted. A simple mistake maybe but Admiral Yachts would not accept that filling the hole was not the only repair required.


Location of the 'forgotten pilot hole'

The engine mounting brackets and bolts had been sat in saltwater for nearly 3 months and there was very evident corrosion. Despite the recommendations of our surveyor, Admiral Yachts initially refused to address this issue until we sent them a video illustrating the point - click here to view the video

Leak 2 was sorted by cutting back the sealant and replacing it - subsequently we have had to do this in other areas of the skylight.

Leak 3 caused us the greatest anxiety. Admiral Yachts' approach which countered that of our surveyor was to insert another scupper in the floor of the locker. This was surely not going to solve the hole in the locker wall as we suspected. Admiral Yachts knew there had been a similar failure in the starboard locker when the fuel tank leaked and to address this in the port locker would require cutting out the existing water tank. This was going to cost and Admiral Yachts were not prepared to pay. Despite the project manager working on behalf of Admiral Yachts endorsing our view that this needed to be properly repaired by removing the water tank, Admiral refused to budge. After many frustrating debates we in the end decided to fund the repair ourselves. Accordingly we had the tank removed, the unfinished wall of the locker sealed and some very wet formwork replaced. Without this there is no doubt that we would have continued to suffer from the ingress of water and had we fitted the scupper as suggested by Admiral Yachts it would have achieved nothing as there was a false floor upon which the water tank sat! The most distressing aspect of this was that Admiral Yachts just wanted to 'bodge the fix' and despite numerous requests for a drawing of how the locker and tank were constructed and fitted none were forthcoming - we don't know for certain, but strongly suspect that they do not exist. Still we are now happy that we have made good what was a potentially ongoing problem.

... and finally. Most of the locker doors have over the first few months warped to the point that they no longer fit the frame. Admiral Yachts agreed to replace the doors which we had to measure as it appears everything is 'freehand' and not built to a plan - is this what you call bespoke? Anyway, having sent off the measurements the replacement doors eventually arrived. The picture below says it all and we won't be fitting the new ones!!


Warped? You can say that again!

In our next blog we will describe the challenge of getting Oceans Dream onto the hard.

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Admiral 40 Oceans Dream /34 degs C with heavy rain
26/09/2009, Peakes Yacht Services

Our apologies for going AWOL and for not updating this blog, but in reality we didn't have a lot to tell.

In July, after an epic "title fight" that certainly lasted more than 15 rounds, we threw the towel in with Admiral Yachts. Basically, whilst there was still outstanding warranty work (particularly with regard to the decks and stress-cracking), Admiral Yachts just sat in their corner and refused to see the customers point of view as well as that expressed by their own Surveyor. We had a number of threatening emails saying that they would cease paying our storage costs ashore as well as making statements such as 'we will not do any further warranty work after next Friday'! Without detailing every punch, we decided in July that we would take the very meagre cash settlement we had negotiated, as by now our lives were being ruined by the constant bickering. The totality of the warranty work could, with the right approach have been completed inside six weeks. Instead of which, it has taken over six months and we have decided to finish it off ourselves without the constant prevarication from Admiral Yachts.

We felt we deserved a bit of a break, certainly from living on the hard and so decided to spend a few weeks back home in the UK, via New York to begin to acclimatise ourselves back into civilisation (i.e. shopping!). Our time back in the UK with family and friends enabled us to recharge our batteries and to put the last six months of our lives into perspective. We soon appreciated that despite the financial loss, the battle with Admiral Yachts just wasn't worth it. Over the coming weeks we will record some of the more significant failings which we have had to address. We are particularly grateful to Oceans Dream's designer - Angelo Lavranos, who gave freely of his advice in addressing the design parameters that had not been met by Admiral Yachts in the build of Oceans Dream.

The most significant of these was the inability for Oceans Dream to bear her weight on her keels. This is a characteristic of all catamarans enabling them to beach easily and to be kept in drying moorings. David Bird (CEO of Admiral Yachts) insisted this was not in the specification despite the designer confirming to us on a number of occasions, his design was such that it made provision for this key capability. Admiral Yachts insisted they would NOT address this issue and so we have had to 'go it alone' with the technical guidance of the designer. For us, this was the most frustrating part of the last six months, along with of course, the other 50 warranty issues.

Now back on board we look forward to finishing off the remaining work with the hope we'll be able to re-launch in three to four weeks. We will update the blog with some pictures and video links to illustrate some of the work. For those of you who have a particular interest, then drop us a line and we will happily give you the unexpurgated version!

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Admiral 40 Oceans Dream /34 deg C, and rising.
28/06/2009, Peakes Yacht Services

Having spent the last couple of weeks enjoying some fabulous sailing in East Caribbean, we now appreciate even more what we have been missing.

We flew to the beautiful island of Martinique. Lovely cheeses, wines and breads with the majority of people struggling to speak any English - Adrian's schoolboy French came in handy! We took a taxi to St Pierre where we stood on the beach and frantically waved to our friends M and Bob who were anchored out in the bay on what would soon be our home for the next couple of weeks, Lady Liv, a Jeanneau 43. Bob and M run charters in the Caribbean and a link to Lady Liv's website can be found to the left of this blog.

Sadly, the historic town of St Pierre was destroyed in a pyroclastic blast in 1902 when the volcano Mount Pelee erupted, killing over 30,000 people, almost the entire population of the town. Just one person survived, Ludger Sylbaris. Sylbaris was in prison, in solitary confinement and locked in a single-cell, partially-underground, bomb-proof magazine with stone walls. His cell was without windows, ventilated only through a narrow grating in the door facing away from the volcano. His prison was the most sheltered building in the city, and it was this fact which saved his life. Four days after the eruption, a rescue team heard his cries from the rubble of the prison. Although horribly burned, he survived and was able to provide an account of the event. Sylbaris was pardoned of his crimes and found fame when he joined Barnum & Bailey's circus, touring America recounting the horrors of the explosion, and becoming a minor celebrity. Absolutely fascinating.

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We anchored overnight off the town of St Pierre and then next morning sailed south to Rodney Bay in St Lucia. After Jackie's time there with her parents a few weeks ago, we quickly found the good places to shop to provision the boat for the coming week. From there we headed to the Pitons on the south of the island and anchored outside of the bat caves. We enjoyed a sun-downer (rum punch of course!) and watch the bats setting off on their feeding frenzies - fruit not blood we hasten to add!



We set off early the next morning sailing close to the majestic Pitons where M gave Adrian a tutorial on the use if his Nikon camera (M's a professional photographer). As we headed off down the coast towards St Vincent, we were entering the land of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean. We made a slight detour into Wallilabou to see what remains if the set. Much of the set is still standing and it's clear the small village makes the most of its appearance on worldwide screen. After a few more hours, we were making our way into the stunning Admiralty Bay on the island of Bequia. Here, we went ashore to stretch our legs and wander around the small community set amongst the lush 'jungle'. We also took the opportunity to sample some local rum punches as it was '2-4-1' at the bar that overlooked the Bay. This was a bit of a disaster as they were so strong, we didn't really need to have more than one but of course, couldn't refuse such a tempting offer! The following morning, after a late start, we set sail for Tobago Cays. En route we caught sight of Moonhole, an isolated community founded by American architects. The houses all blend into the landscape of steep rocky cliffs, and have been described as "live-in sculptures". Each house is individually designed and made of local rocks, woods and flotsam combed from Bequia's beaches. The original house was built under a natural arch and was abandoned when a huge boulder fell from the ceiling and crushed the empty bed. The other houses grow out of the rocks without straight lines or right angles and there is seldom glass in the windows and there is no electricity.



The Tobago Cays are a group of small islands surrounded by a large reef and famous for their clear blue water, reef-life and turtles which feed off the seagrass. Upon (careful) anchoring, we were soon spotting turtles swimming past our hull and immediately slipped overboard to swim with them. That afternoon, we took the dinghy to swim on the coralheads inside the reef. We snorkeled with large numbers of fish, some rays, eels and a nurse shark living around the coral all in about 20 feet of water. We returned to Lady Liv and enjoyed another lovely supper before going to bed after another memorable day.

In the morning we took the dinghy through a small gap in the reef to swim with some of the larger fish - including a couple of barracuda. Here in the deeper water with visibility down to 60ft or more the shoals of fish were in their hundreds and seemed happy for us to swim amongst them. Our final swim of the day was with the turtles in a protected area of the lagoon where we were able to watch and swim with them as they fed on the sea grass.

From Tobago Cays, we sailed the short distance to Union Island where Bob jumped on a plane and headed for the UK (to return 4 days later).



We then sailed across to Petite St Vincent (PSV), a private island with 22 cottages, no TV, no telephone, but a charter schooner by the name of Jambalaya (see: www.windwardschooner.com) on which we crewed for 2 days. Jambalaya was built by her owner Jeff and local craftsmen from the island of Petite Martinique. She took three years to build from wood harvested in South America and from the island of Carriacou. Nearly 80ft long and with five sails set, she made easy work of the local seas. It was a great privilege to sail on this beautiful schooner as well as meet some of the guests staying on PSV. We would love to return one day.



With Bob back on board, we headed further south towards Hillsborough on Carriacou (belonging to Grenada). As we approached Hillsborough to clear Customs and Immigration, we noticed a lone man in a small boat clearly in difficulty. As we kept an eye on him, we noticed his outboard wasn't running and the engine cover was off. To his relief, we turned towards him as he soon hailed us for a tow. He was destined to drift a long way had we not spotted him and he was greatly relived as he tied on the towing line for the 2 mile journey back to a moored fishing vessel. Our good deed for the day. Having checked in and out and enjoyed a Fathers Day rum punch with the Immigration Officers(!) we headed onto Tyrrel Bay on the southern tip of the island.

Tyrrel Bay is home for a large number of cruisers who live permanently on their boats (liveaboards) and some of them resemble the equivalent of a human scarecrow! They carry their belongings, junk an' all both inside and outside of their boats ... something we will try and avoid! We went ashore to have supper at the Lost Turtle restaurant which involved negotiating a pontoon at 35 degrees. Alright when we arrived but somewhat challenging on the way home! In the morning Bob and M took us to the extensive mangrove swamps which grow on one side of the bay. These are a haven for wildlife as well as providing a bolt-hole for yachts riding out a hurricane.

With some final provisioning we headed off for our final port of call at the southern end if Grenada. We sailed on the windward side (Eastern) in order to get the best winds. After an 8 hour sail we arrived at Prickly Bay. Here we spent a quiet night in the knowledge that we'd be leaving at 04:30 for the 85 mile crossing to Trinidad. We were aware there was a tropical wave (some of which form into full blown hurricanes) which we had to outrun on our journey to Trinidad. We left on time and we well on our way as the sun rose. Throughout the day the winds steadily grew and we steadily reduced sail. For a short period we experienced 30 knots of winds but as we approached the Trini coast just before sunset, the wind died to allow us a peaceful motor back to the moorings in Chaguaramas. It had taken us 14 hours and we were all pretty shattered. Having moored up Lady Liv, we came ashore and were pleased to see Oceans Dream was safe and sound. Our thanks to Bob and M for a wonderful sail through the Windward Islands, we had a fabulous time.

Whilst we had been away we had managed to catch sight of an email from Admiral Yachts sent on 17 June saying that the balance of the warranty work would be completed by 19 June. This surprised us but we were clearly still pleased to hear of this positive news. It was with great disappointment when we arrived back in Trinidad on 23 June there were still some major warranty projects yet to commence. Amongst these are the repair work to the decks, the fairing of the hull joins and the re-tabbing of the webs in the port hull. The next few days will see us trying to complete as much of this work as we can. The guys arrive early on Monday - we hope.

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