Hot, humid, sunny mostly, rains sometimes, when it does, it rains hard.
We dinghy over to Clarke’s after breakfast and are very concerned that “No problem” has turned into a problem. No sign of sanding activity on our boat, they haven’t even put the tarps up. There is no power at our site. I find Martin’s phone number and call him: “No problem” he is on his way. We need to start painting tomorrow (!) if we are to finish in time for launch on Tuesday. That means they have to finish sanding today (!) and we think that is impossible. Martin shows up, I help him and Desmond rig up the tarps.
Time to test my dinghy patch job. I pump up, looks good, then I hear the hissing sound and sure enough, air is still leaking around my patch. A slow leak we could deal with but this is not a slow leak. I glue the snot out of it and hope it will hold – won’t know for sure until Saturday.
Christy and I dinghy across the bay as we plan on taking the bus around town to pick things up and we have an appointment to see a dinghy at Prickly Bay at 1:00 pm. No problem,
Meanwhile, I have been in contact with Ricky, our customs broker who tells me unequivocally that we are NOT going to get our barrel before the weekend. So far things not going according to plan.
The bus trip works pretty well – EC$5 for the two of us to take any bus. Beats EC$60 for a taxi every time. The #2 gets us near Port Louis, we disembark and walk down the short hill to stop in at Island Water World.
Sure enough, they have corrected their pricing on the Highfield dinghy we wanted – the price was wrong but we could have bought it for the wrong price. Now it is the correct price, about US$600 more than it was the other day. The Achilles dinghy, better quality and slightly smaller is a little bit less so that is looking attractive. They will deliver too.
Off we go on the #1 bus that takes us around Grand Anse and drops us by the road to Budget Marine and Spice Island Marine. The market lady is there and we buy a cold drink and some veggies. We realize no way we can walk around to Prickly Bay Marine in time (easily a very hot 30 minute walk) so Christy tries to raise Chris to see if he can meet us here. But I manage to flag a guy down who agrees to drive us over in his runabout. Offer to pay but he declines. Thanks bud.
We meet Chris at the Prickly Bay dinghy dock who takes us for a ride in the dinghy he has for sale. It is very old and leaks air (a bit, says Chris). Many patches. He pumped it up in the morning and I can tell it is softening already, clearly a daily job to keep it filled with air. We go for a spin, the old Yamaha starts well and runs well but I think it’s a vintage age too. For US$1100 I don’t think this helps us. Plus we’d have to drive it out around the headland in the full ocean to get it to Clarke’s. No problem says Chris, done it a few times. OK. That would be an experience for sure. One you would hope both you and the dinghy would survive.
We walk back to Budget (turns out there is a shortcut, still 25 hot minutes) where we can have lunch, stop in at the hardware stores and catch the #1 + #2 back to Woburn Bay. The Mediterranean pizza we have it awesome as we dodge a big rainstorm. While there we have to make a decision about the dinghy. No way we can acquire and float a dinghy by the weekend. I have an idea and call Bob and offer to rent his dinghy for a few more days – it’s either that or we rent a car. Bob is gracious and says we can continue to use it no charge. Another breather for us.
Since we don’t have our barrel, we need to replace all the painting gear that’s in it with new stuff. We go as cheap as we can, picking up equipment at Top Value and Ace. Both about the same price.
We load up, catch the #1 back to Port Louis and stop at the grocery for some supplies and a gift for Bob and Mina. We have a bottle of wine but also get a good bottle of El Dorado rum as a gift. We’re going there for dinner tonight.
Walk up the hill by the gas station and there is the #2 bus and the driver waves us over. It’s about 3 pm and it’s starting to get busy as this is like a Friday with tomorrow being Thanksgiving. We’re in the back of the bus with all our stuff and thankfully, no one back there needs to get out before we do. 10 minutes later we disembark at Nimrod’s and congratulate ourselves on navigating the system and saving bucks.
Martin has been calling me for the past 45 minutes or so but I keep missing the calls. We get over to Clarke’s and they are all done, tarps down and the sand job about half of what we expected – in many places the algae is not even removed. A bit of a scrum ensues and we convince Martin and his main guy they did not do what was agreed for the price and we are not going to pay them the EC$1000 they think we owe them. They did about 2 hours work, maybe 3. We give them the tarps we bought which are worth almost EC$500, but Martin is definitely not happy.
They seem to have absconded with our scissors.
Another lesson learned – if you hire one of these guys you need to write down exactly what is agreed to.
Christy and I are hot and tired too but it looks like we have work to do before we can start painting with the primer tomorrow. We need some more sand paper to finish off what they did not so we pick some up at the chandlery.
We head back to Bob’s where we get cleaned up for dinner. Arrive about 5:30 pm (“you’re a touch early” – though dusk is what we understood). While Bob and Mina prepare, Christy and I look off their amazing veranda at their amazing view. This place is a dream. The main floor living area is large and, for the moment, wide open to the sea. They can close off half of it in inclement weather and have drop-down blinds when it is really windy or too hot. But for the most part it is open. The second floor (below us) is their living quarters with 4 bedrooms and below that is the pool deck and another apartment of some sort. The pool deck area is beautiful with a nice cabana for shade.
Dinner is great, the company very good. They seemed pleased with the rum gift as they know it is good quality. Mina drinks rum, Bob does not but we know their friends will. We don’t stay too long as everyone is tired and they have to pack for a New York trip on Saturday.