Getting Ready to Go (Part 2)

The last week has been very frustrating as we have had to revise our departure date a number of times due primarily to the problems with our fridge which no-one seems able to fix.

Initially we had scheduled the fridge guys to come in on Monday the 18th which would allow us to depart on the Wednesday 20th.  This kind of worked out because we were running a bit behind with a few of the other jobs.  However come Tuesday the fridge was still not working so departure blew out to Friday.  We threw in the towel with the mob we were using called Viking and who had been messing with the system for the last seven weeks and got another guy in on Wednesday.  The problem with this is that it takes at least 24hrs to see if the system is working and by then the guys are long gone and booked for the next few days.  The next guy seemed to know what he was talking about and regassed the system, moved a refrigerant line about and said “she’ll be right”.  Well next day she wasn’t right and he was busy.  So Friday comes around and another tech Stuart from the marina comes onboard.  He finds a problem with a leaking valve, fixes that, regasses the system and says” now she’ll be right”.  Two hrs later Stuart is on another job and warning lights start flashing.  He tells us he cannot return until Monday morning earliest.  That would mean a departure for us of earliest 27th.  Scott is beginning to tear the little hair he has left out.

Out of sheer frustration Scott had a troll around the internet to read up on the system and guessed that maybe the problem was the electronic controller.  We pulled out the old one, managed to get a new one locally and voila - we now have a functioning fridge.  Very lucky this time.  

The delays did have some benefits.  Calley has found some mates in the marina and so she is not seen from morning to night.  She runs around the marina with her friends playing at the pool, beach or one of the boats.  The rest of the family work on the boat.  Below decks is finally coming together and looks great with the new upholstery.  The hull and topsides has been washed and polished.  Scott and a local guy did the hand washing and polishing of the hull.  Scott was absolutely ruined after that exercise.  He is convinced that its a case of the mind thinking he is still 20 years old.  Sam has been cleaning out and washing the lazarette (a big deck locker where everything which does not have a home lives).  Nic has been busy down below hanging curtains and trying to find a storage slot for  the myriad of items we seem to have accumulated.  End result though is that the boat looks great.

New look saloon

And main cabin

Everyone has made the transition back onto the boat with relatively little trouble.  There have been no cries of despair over the lack of space and the house in Grenada with its huge rooms and swimming pool is now a distant memory.  Everyone is just keen to get started again.  We do have a trip to New York to look forward at X-mas.  We will be leaving the boat in St Lucia for two weeks and will fly up to New Jersey to spend X-mas with Scotts family.

This week we also started the process to get the boat on the market and are speaking with the broker which we bought the boat from back in 2012.  We wanted to get this started early as we think it will take some time to sell.   

We will leave Grenada on the 25th November.  Not sure exactly what will be our destination at this point but probably North into the Grenadines.   Hopefully will be able to start blogging a bit more regularly now.

A big Happy Birthday to our dear nephew, Ross, who turns the Big 10 today. Happy Birthday, Ross!

New look decks

Dulcinea polished and gleaming