Hello Again Folks,

That's right we're back onboard our second home here in Prickly Bay, Grenada getting ready for season three of the life and times of SeaSparrow. I have been told to get my act together and start up the blog once again so here goes.

We left Nova Scotia on the 7th of January this year in what was a rather pleasant winter up to our departure so good luck the rest of the way - can't be as bad as last year right?... right! I'm sure all will be fine. We left about a month and a half later this year for several reasons the first being we wanted to stay home to spend Christmas with family and friends. Secondly, Nova Scotia weather in mid April, when we usually return, is becoming increasingly lousy as the years go by, so we will now return the end of May when hopefully the snow and ice is finally gone. Lastly, we planned to depart after the World Junior Hockey tournament which shows even the best laid plans don't always work out - next year boys. Since our arrival we spent 4 days in a motel beside the boat yard, 4 days in the boat yard while on the hard, and we splashed last Friday the 15th. The lead picture for the blog shows SeaSparrow as she currently sits at anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada.

Lots of time in country so what have we been doing with ourselves you ask? I can assure everyone we have been very busy getting the boat back in shape and getting sunburned along the way. Here's a couple of pics below to give you a flavour of what the boat looks like after an extended period being laid up in a boat yard. The boat is always filthy on the outside and also dirty inside, so cleaning means working on everything inside and out. The good news is the inside remained dry with no uninvited guests in the form of bugs plus no mould. This is a big deal down in this part of the world so the precautions we took before leaving seem to be effective as this is two years in a row with great results.

Before

After

Before

After

Salon

Port Head/ Shower

Not all went swimmingly well however, as there is always some stuff that needs fixing. Last year the starboard engine starter battery was dead when we returned to the boat so to ensure both hulls are treated equal, this year the port battery decided to die. This is an easy repair but very expensive as if anyone has bought a marine battery you'll know what I mean - you can buy multiple car batteries for the cost of one marine battery. We also needed to repair a fairlead for the lines that hold up the stack pack (the stack pack is basically a bag that holds the main sail) before we could put the main sail back on. The picture below shows the old and new fairleads which is easy to replace as it only takes two screws - the tricky part is this fairlead is 50 feet up the mast. We got our first trip up the mast out of the way early this season.



The last repair I'll mention relates to the track which the genoa sail goes up when hoisting this sail. Since buying the boat we have had a really hard time getting the genoa up or down which indicates something is wrong as this sail should be very easy to handle. If we've learned nothing else since starting this boating thing it's that if something doesn't seem right, it isn't. This time we engaged the experts at the rigging shop in the yard, Turbulence, and asked them to have a look. The track the sail slides in consists of five separate sections and we knew the interface between the first and second sections was slightly misaligned. Turns out there is a little metal section inside the genoa track where two sections meet that keeps everything lined up. Over time these metal sections can wear allowing the sections to get out of alignment. The pictures below shows a new section and the old we replaced as well as the track misalignment.




What is simple in theory - separate the two sections, remove worn metal joining piece, insert new joining piece, reattach section - rarely works out in a simple fashion on a boat. This simple job took the experts two hours and three trips up the mast to fix the problem. That said it was the best money I have spent as if I tried to do this myself I would have wasted at least a couple days, got really pissed off then would have gone to Turbulence. By eliminating the first two steps my disposition and blood pressure are in a much better state. Watching these guys go up the mast was a thing of beauty and worth the cost of admission. When we go up the mast Debbie cranks me up with the winch and bosun chair and to get to the top probably takes about ten minutes. The Turbulence guys don't use a winch just a bosun chair and safety line with the guy going up basically climbing the whole way. We took a video (unfortunately you can't post video to this blog site) and from the deck to the top of the mast was a total of 55 seconds. Here a shot of Wayne from Turbulence working on the genoa track.



This is Piper our newest member of the family and crew. This is a shot of her as a pup back in May 2015.



Piper is a great dog and if you remember our last canine crew member, Stella, you may see a resemblance. We got Piper from the same breeder we got Stella and in fact Piper is Stella's niece. We had planned to have Piper join us in Grenada to start her sailing career but unfortunately so far this hasn't been achieved. The problem we have run into is the logistics behind trying to fly a dog into this island or any Caribbean Island for that matter. Piper is now sufficiently large that she must fly cargo and very few airlines fly pets cargo into the Caribbean. After trying to figure this out ourselves before leaving Nova Scotia, we had no luck in cracking this Rubic's Cube of pet transport so we asked an expert in the field. This expert gave us a quote of $2700 to fly Piper to Grenada and she would have to endure 5 or 6 six stops along the way. We nixed this plan and Debbie's sister Wendy and her husband Mike have graciously taken in Piper until we can find a way to get her to the boat or until our return. This sucks but Wendy has an older dog, Sasha, that Piper gets along great with so we know she will be well taken care of and happy. SeaSparrow and dogs has not been a happy story so far but hopefully we can find a way to change the narrative. If anyone has a solution to this transport problem let us know.

I mentioned earlier that we have been busy on the boat but we also engaged some professional help to get things done. If you are perceptive you may notice a couple of items that have been changed in the lead photo of SeaSparrow. First of all, we had the hull painted again but this time black. The paint is a long saga on SeaSparrow as you may recall we had a paint job last year as well but the yard painted the boat blue instead of black as we requested. Spice Island came good on that error and didn't charge us for the paint however, when we hauled out at the end of the year a large portion of the paint had come off. This was after only five and half months of sailing where we should get 4 or 5 seasons out of a paint job for the amount we sail. Seahawk, the paint supplier, gave us 4 gallons of new paint to redo the boat and this time the colour is black. So we have had two paint jobs without paying for any paint but we have had to pay the labour both times. Hopefully this paint will hold up. The second item you may have noticed is a new yellow stipe on the side which adds a bit of colour to the boat. We wanted to make the other stripe a dark grey but the local company didn't have any dark grey or black - that's the Caribbean mon. The last job we paid to have done was a wax and polish of the hull which was done in the yard.


Stanley Polishing SeaSparrow's Hull

One of the guys doing the work came out to the boat at anchor yesterday and did the rest of the boat on the side at half the cost. So after all the hard work and long days we feel SeaSparrow is in better shape and looks better than at anytime we have owned her. Sails are on so time to get sailing.

The end of the above paragraph brings us to my last point for the blog - what are our plans for the season? Good question and as always it depends on the winds and the boat. Right now we are expecting our oldest son Dustin to show up here I Grenada in early February then we will make our way to Martinique. We will drop Dustin off in Martinique and pick up our friends Kevin and Sue and their daughters Gael and Leigha. They will stay with us for about a week in Martinique after which we will continue to make our way north. Eventually we plan to be in the BVI's by the 3rd week of March where hopefully cousin Sean and his wife Carla make their much awaited return to SeaSparrow along with friends Bev and Shane. I think I have recovered from Sean's last trip but just barely. Looking forward to the adventures that lie ahead in Season 3.

Jeff

P.S. - Next blog will have an awesome bingo story which may or may not involve sheep. Stay tuned.