Saturday, November 26, 2011

While it was not time spent with family, we joined up with about 60 other cruisers and headed over to Clarks Court Bay for the Cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck. They also arranged transportation for us from here so at about 12:30 we jumped in a van and headed over to pick up our good friends John and Ginny from Wind Shepherd who had just arrived from Trinidad on Tuesday morning. The tables were loaded with food, and the tables and chairs were jammed together, so you had move carefully to get anywhere… There were lots of people we knew, and many we didn’t, some we liked a lot, and a few…well, you know…so in other words…just like home. Oh, except it was 85 degrees, and rainy with no breeze, so we were all sweating like crazy. To our dear ones at home we missed you, and were thinking of you.

Friday was a shopping day for me. Jim stayed with the boat as Mike was coming back to get our impeller covers which need a little work, and washed the rest of the boat. Wendy, from Nihanni River told us about a product that she uses to clean the deck….well – we tried it and Hallelujah! It works like a dream! For all the time Jim has spent hand scrubbing our various boat decks…on his hands and knees…this is a truly momentous occasion for us. You take this stuff, and rub it on with a sponge or brush, then wait 30 min to 3 hours, depending on how dirty, and who you talk to…then wash it off with a desk brush and hose. It takes NO scrubbing and works like magic! You might have to reapply on really tough spots, but otherwise – to all our friends with boats get yourself a bottle of FSR (fiberglass stain remover) your days of slaving while you scrub the deck are OVER!

Today, we started early and by 6:15a were on the deck raising the mainsail and getting the reefing lines put in. There was a little breeze, but not too much and since we were facing directly into it it was no problem. This is good, because to run the reefing lines and frame the outhaul I need to be on the very top aft end of the bimini…not my favorite place to work if the boom is swinging madly around! We got the reefing lines tied in, the outhaul secured, then fixed the one little screw we dropped while hanking on the main sail, then we fitted the sail with the first reef. For the uninitiated, a reef is a way of shortening the sail, making it smaller, so you can sail comfortably in bigger winds. For a catamaran, since we don’t heel over telling us when we have too much sail out, we have to reef when the wind gets to a certain speed - otherwise something’s gotta give, like your sail blowing out (sail blowing out = BAD) SO we fitted the first reef in so when we leave Grenada we are ready for winds up to 26knots…after that, we go to the 2nd reef point! We have 3 reefing points on the mainsail and getting the lines in, making sure they are not tangled with each other, and tied in the correct spot is no problem, IF you’re not working just on the edge of your reach sitting 20 feet off the water on the top edge of the bimini frame (the one we just had fixed) wondering how strong it really is. In other words, I am REALLY glad when I do it right, and can climb down.

We finished by 8am, and ran over to wave goodbye to Doug & Wendy who are on their way this morning. Then headed to the bakery for a much deserved breakfast!

Next chore…recover our berth cushions!

I practiced with the forward berth cushions, so now it is time to take the cushions from our aft berth, add a slab of memory foam on top and sew what was 4 cushions, and a big pain to take off and replace when working on the engines, into two long, super comfortable, easy to put a sheet over cushions. I brought down two King size memory foam toppers to do this to both the aft berths….but there was an unfortunate incident that involved cardboard box handles and the sea, and well, only one is left. (you think with all the packaging they put on those things they could actually SEAL them, but no.) Anyway, doing this requires us to haul all the material, cushions, foam etc, out to the dock behind the boat, lay it all out, measure it, mark it, cut it, pin it, then haul it all BACK on the boat and sew it. The hauling, measuring, cutting etc took about 1.5 hours, every minute of which I kept asking Jim…is it going to rain yet? Are we ok? Are those clouds a problem? It turned out fine, with just a tiny sprinkle just as we finished up. It took a few hours to finish the sewing and the cushions look GREAT – and more importantly…they fit perfectly! Now we are just excited to get to bed and enjoy sleeping on memory foam again!

PS – New photos in the “Getting the boat ready” photo section.