… is where it’s at now. After six days at Port Louis marina (there’s a current offer of book four days, get two extra days free) we shuffled off round the corner to Prickly Bay, the reason being to sort out the outboard problems – and PB is the nearest place for that. Of course, the Law of Sod being what it is, now we are near a Tohatsu mechanic and have access to a good chandlers, the fickle thing is behaving itself.
While at Port Louis (the nicest, cleanest marina we’ve found so far) we made the most of our hire car and took a close look at the island – easy to do since it’s so small – 344 square kilometres is the official figure. The central rain forest area is one of its loveliest features and is well, just very, very foresty – and thanks to the sweat-lathering high humidity levels, very, very plush and lush and drippingly green. Plants that we use as house decoration back in the UK are found here growing wild and about twenty times as large. The Grenadians themselves have a well-deserved reputation for being friendly and fairly chilled out – which makes it a relaxing place to hang out. In short, we like it here.
The only fly in the ointment is the weather. We are in the rainy season now, and spend a good deal of the day rushing round opening and closing portholes and hatches between the deluges. The exercise is probably good for us, but I can think of more fun ways to stay fit. (The fact is we need to get ourselves sorted with suitable awnings and soon. So, tonight I drew up some designs; tomorrow I’ll get out the sewing machine and make a start.) The frequent showers and occasionally heavy squalls so drench the air, everything (including us) is covered in a fine film of condensation – humidity on a scale that makes it hard to keep anything dry for very long. But it’s hard to grumble when the sun is rarely off duty and a brief rest on the tramps brings the much-needed drying, cooling breeze for comfort.
Oh, but have we been busy little bees, us two! Despite the enervating climate, like so many liveaboard yachties, we’ve been beavering away at the TBF (To-Be-Fixed) list and making a lot of satisfying headway. In the previous blog post, I mentioned we’d cured a long-standing leak. As of two days ago, you can make that two. Recently, Dick had to throw away a whole cupboard of clothes and shoes that were very badly mildewed, because of another wretched fridge plumbing arrangement, but today, that same cupboard is dry and smelling sweet and should stay that way.
And on the subject of smelling sweet, let’s hear it for baking soda! Cheap-as-chips basic Bicarb has removed the dank odours caused by these long-standing leaks, very thoroughly and very quickly – so it’s not just an old wives’ tale, as an odour absorber, bicarbonate of soda really works. (Ha! Tragic, isn’t it? – some people get their kicks from booze or cocaine, whereas I get mine from sticking my head in a cupboard and sniffing in dry, de-odoured air!
We have several issues with various pieces of kit that don’t work properly – but more about this later. However, we are at least making inroads into understanding why our AIS and VHF aren’t up to speed. Both are essential for safe cruising, yet neither of our units has a range beyond 2 miles, which is, frankly, ridiculous. But a cheap temporary aerial purchased here in Grenada, unceremoniously stuck out of a porthole, gives us over three times that range with the AIS, and kept track with a boat that travelled on the other side of the headland, so it’s clearly not the radio or the AIS unit at fault, but the aerial or the installation. We hope to get this completely cracked by the end of this week.
Emails continue to fly between us and various manufacturers to sort out various other equipment failures (eg, our Blue Sky Controllers, FloScan – neither of which work as they should), since AfricanCats emphatically insist their installations have all been completely perfect and therefore none of the failures (bar the leaking diesel tank which they have graciously put their hand up to) can possibly be their problem; it can only be a matter of unit failure, or – and get this – our own stupidity in not being able to make them work. Well, that not said in so many words, but as good as. Here is a quote from Gideon in the AfricanCats private forum today:
Hallo Dick
All your equipment works but the user should make themselve (sic) familiar
to get optimal use this equipment.
If you purchase a new car or tv set or any other technical equipment
the same should be done. [...]Gideon
And then he promptly closed the thread, so denying any right to reply.
Hmm … so let me get this clear then: We have no leaks (just puddles of our imagination?) and the AIS and radio and solar panel controllers are all humming merrily away doing what it says on the tin, if only we bothered to spend more time reading the manuals.
Oh well, that’s alright then.
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Hmmm,looks like African Cat’s after-sales service is of the same calibre as the rest of their service….!
Good to see you are sorting it all out so well yourselves. So what’s the actual method with the bi-carb?
Hi there Judy …
To be fair, when it comes to sending replacement parts, AFC have been pretty good so far, so no complaints there (of course, many of those they can simply reclaim the cost from the manufacturers.) The difficulty arises when it is the installation of something that is clearly at fault. They just don’t want to know – stating absolutely categorically that everything was done perfectly – which is a joke. Ergo, if something requires reinstallation, and you, the customer, haven’t the tools, expertise, whatever, to do it yourself and need outside help, then it is you, the customer, who must pay for it. That’s clearly not fair, but it’s the blatant denial of the truth that really irks: their installations have been far from bloody perfect in far too many instances! However the icing on the cock-up cake, was they instructed staff NOT to tell us about some very serious faults they knew existed. We know, because some of their staff, who obviously have more integrity than their employers – actually sent us anonymous tip-offs!
Re. the baking soda. Just sprinkle a thick layer of the stuff in a shallow but fairly wide container – anything that will give a large surface area (if there’s a lid, leave it off, of course.) Then pop it inside the cupboard or drawer or closet you want to deodorise. Somebody told me that it’s best to mix the bicarb up each day, as the top layer absorbs most smells and you want all of the stuff to go to work.
Edit: Since replying to you, Judy, I feel obliged to point out that African Cats have subsequently agreed to pay for the re-installation of any faulty parts. And we commend them on so doing. Thank you African Cats.