By Request

Certain people have told us that we have been neglecting the blog and that she and Joe and Heather and Griff - whoops - did I name drop!! were not sure whether we had sunk or not so here goes.

We had not realized it had been so long since we blogged so there is some stuff to catch up but part of the reason we haven't blogged is when you stay in one spot for any length of time things run together and we don't want to bore you with daily grind type of stuff. Anyway, this is what has happened.

First of all we moved our spot in the marina - couldn't stand being in "money boat row". Actually, we needed to move because we had booked until the 14th in that spot but knew the work wouldn't be finished by then and the spot was reserved by another boat after that so when we were offered a spot across the way that gave us more time we took it. Bit of a dicey move because it is fairly crowded between rows and to make things harder, the tide was coming in and there was a significant current so that when we tried to pull into the spot, we were pushed away from the lane. Our second try a very nice man in a dinghy offered to act as a tugboat and he pushed our front end against the current and we made the docking.

Things we have done - an update -

Autopilot - we found out our 75 year old assistant is in the process of selling his business and the new owner has become our 2nd assistant. David, our 75 yr old is a super nice person and knows his business but is very slow moving and has a balance problem. Of course we don't want to say anything because it would take away from the effort but sometimes it is very hard not to jump in and say "I'll handle that part, particularly when it involves stuff inside the rear hatch. Dennis, the new owner, has the same problem with David but again doesn't want to offend the dignity of a man who is dedicated to what he does. The result of this is things got a little behind. Hopefully, however, on Monday afternoon we go out for the sea trials and are then done. The new autopilot has great features such as adjusting itself for the wind, like a windvane autopilot, and it has the ability to follow a course between waypoints and even to tack if necessary when a waypoint is reached and of course the standard things like setting a course with the ability to make as little as one degree changes in heading. Enough sailing talk. It will be a great thing to have.

Cushions - we decided to re-cover our salon and main cabin cushions so Cheryl went into town with a friend and bought the materials. We got a few estimates and decided to go with Mervin - probably to a great extent because he looks so cool. He is a very talented and personable person too however and we are very happy with the end result. The cushions now have zippers instead of velcro for easy removal for cleaning but a solid hold when they are on.

Varnish - we had bought some varnish to re-do the companionway hatch cover and the doors into the companionway and we also intended to re-do the salon table, the nav desk and my work bench. They looked okay but needed some work. I started to work on the hatch cover with the intention of sanding the top coat of the old varnish off, applying an undercoat and then putting on 3-4 coats of marine gloss varnish. We had the same general plans for the interior work. When I started to sand the hatch entranceway, however, I discovered that the last job that was done, they had sanded but not applied an undercoat and as a result the old varnish started to peel down to bare wood (teak). What this meant was that I would need to peel ALL of the exterior woodwork before continuing with the job in order to keep a uniform colour to the finish. This would have been okay if all of the varnish was strippable but alas, it wasn't. They had done a proper job on part of it and a poor job on part of it so that meant a MAJOR sanding job. It turned out that we had someone available (Ronnie) who, for a good price, would do the entire job, so since there were other things I wanted to do (and I hate sanding) that took care of that. Ronnie also cleaned and polished all of the stainless steel on deck.

The result - new gloss finish on the companionway, cmpway hatch cover and doors and the stairs. New rubbed effect varnish finish on the salon/dining table, nav desk and work bench top. It looks great!

Outside covers - I think we mentioned that we had put up the sun cover over the stern portion of the deck. Well, we decided we needed something to keep the rain off the front portion. The rationale for these covers is not just for when we are on deck. Since we have been in Trinidad it has rained for at least 2 hours a day and prior to this on other islands we had a fair amount also. Problem - every time it rains we have to run and close hatch covers. This is a pain in the patootie, particularly at night when we are sleeping (Rob - you would have found this out on your upcoming visit if we hadn't fixed it!!!!). So, again, Cheryl was off to town with friends to buy material. She was able to get some light coloured material that does not fray and is waterproof in Port of Spain and then borrowed a bit bigger sewing machine from a friend (ours is good for light material). She is a marvel with that machine. After a day's work by Cheryl (with lots of assistance from Griff) we now have a cover for the front. It drapes over the spinnaker pole, which we let down from where it is normally kept strapped up the mast. It extends out 90 degrees from the mast, we drape the cover over it and then fasten the edges to the toe rail. Bob's your uncle!! We got enough material to re-do the back cover also (at present it only keeps out the sun) and to add a flap to keep the back hatch protected and our bedroom dry but we will wait to do that.

Cheryl also made two more cushions for the settee and two more dresses for herself. What a lady!!

Spinnaker pole - the reason we were able to use the spinnaker pole for support now and couldn't previously use it for anything - the people who had the boat before us never used the spinnaker sail and obviously never sailed wing on wing (a sail out each side of the boat - used when running nearly downwind so that the maximum wind is used. The main sheet is put out on one side with a prevent line to keep it from swinging around - we mentioned that before - and the foresail is put out the other side using a whisker pole or a spinnaker pole to keep the tack of the sail as far out to the side as possible). Anyway, when we asked Simon, the previous owner, by email about the spinnaker, he said he had never used it. It was "the spawn of the devil".

Since we will be going West for a significant portion of time we decided we needed to be able to either sail wing on wing or to run a spinnaker sail (the prettiest picture in the world) but we had found out from previous attempts that the catch on the spinnaker pole that would allow us to release it from the bottom of the mast was frozen. Just so you know (and of course you do care!), our spinnaker is stored so that the "free" end is fastened to the mast at the bottom with a trigger type catch. The pole runs up the front of the mast to where it again attaches to the mast. Here, however, it fastens to a slide that begins about 4 feet off the deck and goes up the front of the mast. You release the bottom catch, pull the spinnaker pole forward away from the mast and as you do, the top end comes down the slide until it reaches the end (4 ft off the deck). You fasten a halyard to the outer end of the spinnaker to keep it parallel to the deck and you can then swivel it either port or starboard so use as a kind of forward boom. The end on the slide is attached to a pulley system so when you want to put it away you can pull it back up the slide. Another one of the many things you probably never wanted to know about sailing!!

Anyway, bottom line is we got a rigger to come over and fix the release so we can now use the spinnaker pole so we are set to sail downwind. By the way, we also have a whisker pole which we can use to ...............never mind.


That is what has been going on with the boat. Last Friday we finally took some time to see some more of Trinidad. We went on a tour of Port of Spain, ate lunch at Fort George where we were treated to a magnificent view of the coastline from Chagauramas on the northwest corner of Trinidad to the Caroni Swamp (where we saw the Ibis nesting ground) which is down the coast to the south of Port of Spain. After eating lunch up there we went to visit a small pan factory (one man operation) and learned some fascinating facts about that whole musical genre.




Details following - Cheryl is much better than I am at that.


The tour of Port of Spain provided us with lots of history of the country. Rediscovered by Christopher Columbus for Spain, then taken over by the 'Brits'. Trinis say rediscovered because it was originally discovered by the Amerindians from South America in pre-historical/pre-european days. Both the Spanish and English used slaves from Africa to work the land. The 'Brits' also brought people over from India as indentured servants to replace the slaves after emancipation. Trinis are now 40% Negro, 40% East Indian, 10% Chinese and the remaining 10% others. We learned some about carnival, the big celebration usually in February at the start of Lent - the same as Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

When we were stopping for our lunch, at a take-out Chinese restaurant, we drove past Maple House, the Canadian High Commission. I decided I would walk the two blocks to it and take some pictures. I had taken 3 pictures and then noticed a guard walking down the steps. I took one more and he came across the street to tell me that picture taking was not allowed. I asked if he wanted me to delete the pictures and he said yes. As you can see, being the good Canadian that I am, I obeyed. The funny thing was as I walked past the guard in the security booth he asked me to take his picture.



After lunch we headed to the pan factory. What is a pan you ask. Another brief history lesson. The African slaves used to communicate using drums which the British outlawed because they were afraid of a slave uprising. The slaves started using the Tamboo Bamboo. This was various lengths of bamboo which were tapped for sounds. Then that was outlawed. The people then discovered they were able to make music by tapping the bottoms of biscuit (cookie for Canadians) tins. Then they found out that if they made the bottoms concave the sounds changed and they could tap different parts of the tins to get different notes. They went to bigger and bigger tins so they could get more notes. Finally during World War Two they started using oil drums and that is what is used today. So after all that to answer the question what is a pan? A pan is what a steel drum is called.

The Factory

The factory we went to was essentially a one man operation. He worked out of a shipping container with a lean-to attached - not what I envision when I hear the word factory. The process of stretching the bottoms of the oil drums remains the same - either dropping a cannonball repeatedly on the bottom or using a hammer to make the bottom concave. The depth of the concavity and the depth of the side determines the pitch of the pan.

Tools of the Trade

Pan music started in the 40's and the focus was on acheiving the sound popular then, big band music. To no one's surprise, they were very successful. A pan band has the sound of a full orchestra with the various pans called tenors, double tenor, guitar, cello and bass. The tenor is the highest pitch about 8 - 9 inches deep in concavity and side depth and about 29 notes on it.

A guitar drum - 5 inches deep and 16 inch side

The bass is only 4 inches deep, but uses the full drum for the side. It only has 3 or 4 notes on it. In order to get the full scale a bass player would play up to 12 pans together. A full pan band/orchestra can have upwards of 300 players and can play classical music as well as the calypso/soca music of carnival. We hope to pick up some pan CD's before we leave.

Playing the Pan