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.