10) Chaguaramas, Trinidad

February 11, 2005

            I worked on the boat this morning for a little while and did not make much progress again. Some things are missing and can’t be installed, etc.  It is a bit frustrating.  Today they continued sanding the bottom.  They are still many days away from completion.  Jeff expected to put the boat in the water on Monday (today is Friday and the weekend is here again).  Late this afternoon Jeff went with the guy in charge of the bottom and bought the paint.  Marine bottom paint is very expensive and for this 44’ boat he spent a little over $1,000 for just the primer and paint.

        
Someone worked on this new refrigeration system today.  They managed to get the freezer to work correctly.  The refrigerator works if you connect it straight to the battery.  There is a problem with the main fuse/circuit control panel.  The electrician has to ‘fix’ this problem. Apparently, it’s difficult to get them to do work.  The electrician is still involved installing a new larger alternator and voltage regulator.  Some of his parts came in to customs today.  He is also waiting for a spacer to be manufactured because the new larger alternator has to be pushed farther away from the motor.  Without the spacer the alternator will destroy belts from misalignment.  There is no arrival date for the spacer.

 

Jeff.

Jeff and I took a dinghy ride over to the Crews Inn Marina customs area to receive parts.  That went fairly quickly since the electrician showed up and got it through.

We then went and saw three other businesses that were in the same area.  We talked to the refer guy and got the story on the system they are installing.

We talked to the guy handling the electronics/navigation equipment.  There seems to be a problem.  Jeff bought a processor (and didn’t know why or what it was) that allows a laptop to be plugged into the navigation system on the boat.  The processor is coming from England and won’t be here until maybe Wednesday 2/16.  (The original pitch to us crew was that the boat would leave without a doubt on 2/15).  You need the $1,400 software in the laptop to interpret the information from the sensors on the boat to get the most out of the system.  Jeff does not have a laptop and did not know anything about software.  He told the guy to mail the part to his home in Los Angeles.

So, this boat will travel using only the chart-plotter slaved to GPS with no hand-held back-up GPS.  That’s still an OK way to go but why spend all the money on this system and not use all the features.  But, the paper nautical charts are incomplete in that they cover large areas but not smaller areas with the fine details and do not allow for departures and approaches to land due to their scale.  

I have yet to see or be advised about route and weather planning.  And, the new equipment that is supposed to be installed as well as all systems are untested and uncalibrated and it has been proposed to "practice and test on the way".  Keep in mind there is no West Marine or anything resembling a marine supply store that we take for granted.

There is a problem with the anemometer (wind meter) on the top of the mast.  It does not work properly/consistently.  The boat needs to be ‘turned on’ to find out if it works.  It sounds like someone will go up there and replace a chip.  Some of these jobs overlap and no one steps up to the plate to make it happen.

            Most of the navigation and electronics are still missing.  And, we are finding out that there are problems with the circuits causing an electrical anomaly with the refrigerator.  It is very frustrating to look at these pictures and see the condition of this boat when the crew is here and ready to go.

The refrigerator on the right is still being worked on.

           

 

            My first impression is that this is a boat under construction and far from ready to make a potentially difficult and dangerous offshore ocean passage.

 

       
            The water-maker that is installed under the slats on the right was removed today and taken to the ‘shop’.  Jeff admitted that he ‘pickled’ it wrong.  You have to ‘pickle’ it for long-term storage with a special chemical cocktail.  If it is not pickled correctly then the saltwater organisms grow on the membrane and destroy it.  My impression today is that the membrane must be replaced.  The water-maker is inoperative and its successful operation is suspect. 

            The freshwater holding tanks should be cleaned and sterilized.  This boat has been sitting in the tropics on the hard for months and it is reasonable to assume that the water might be tainted.  The old diesel fuel should also be cleaned to remove growth and debris.  We discovered that the fuel-water separator is located in the lowest part of the bilge and requires a mirror to gain access.  Fuel spills will occur upon removal for cleaning.

Pete was gone all day today.  He took the bus into town to meet some friends he has that live on Trinidad.  Then they traveled to the southern end of the island to meet more people and have dinner.  It took him two hours by bus and taxi to make it back to his room.

He showed up around 11 pm local time and stopped in our room to see what was up.  Jeff and Pete talked about a lot of things and out of the blue Jeff started talking about the life-raft, not the dinghy.

He basically prefaced it to the both of us and said what do you think of this; he checked on the raft today at the certifier’s (life-rafts must be re-certified annually, inspection, flares, batteries, supplies, etc. replaced).  They said it needs to be replaced, they would not repair it and that it is beyond repair.  He didn’t agree with them and thought they were trying to make a sale.

This particular raft was manufactured in 1990 and now we know it has had a rough life.  It is an offshore model, as opposed to a coastal model, and has two main inflatable tubes around the perimeter.  The idea is that when one fails you still have the other to keep you afloat while you repair the first.  He actually said that he has spent enough money already and was not going to buy another raft.  He said that we were 4 young strong healthy guys and if we have to use this raft we can each share hand pumping the tube that has failed!  He actually proposed going to sea with a liferaft that the certifier said has to be replaced.  He was going to go to sea with a liferaft that has already failed!  He asked them to paint on a rubber repair or just put some giant patches all over…

Then I find out that the antenna on the EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) has broken off.  It cannot be repaired.  It has not been re-certified as it too has to be on an annual basis.  I asked if it was registered and he said he did not know.

When you purchase an EPIRB with the intent to use it you must register it with the application that comes with it.  That information goes into a database and is identified with that vessel and that name.  There is also a primary contact as part of this database.  When you go to sea on a passage you tell your primary contact the schedule.  If the EPIRB emits a signal the maritime search & rescue will call the primary contact to verify that the vessel is at sea and that this is a viable emergency.  They will not respond to many blind signals for lack of resources. Logic says to make sure the database is current for the best chance of a rescue.

Pete and I discussed in-depth that we could overlook many of the incomplete and inoperative items and still successfully move this boat from here to California.  But, we also agreed we would not go to sea on a boat without a life-raft or an EPIRB.

Jeff actually proposed that we think about it.  He thinks that it’s not that big of a deal sailing through the southern part of the Caribbean and that it’s an easy sail.  Long story longer, Jeff looked through a local catalog and found out that life-rafts are special orders.  Uhm, duh.  They are not sitting on shelves rotting.  They are made to order so they are as fresh as possible.  There are not many crew members that will get on-board vessels without a life-raft or EPIRB.

There are many many many missing parts, pieces, items, hardware, fittings, lines, ropes, chain, wires, etc. on this boat.  There are many many many projects that are not completed.  This is a boat that the owner declared would be ready to depart on 2/15.  We who are here relied on this and those down the line are relying on it.  There is a guy that flies into Bonaire on 2/23 to meet this boat.  This boat most likely will not make it there on time.  Jeff is convinced that everything is great and he’ll be leaving this next week.