Trompeta is up for sale

Had a meeting with Brian Duff yesterday the yacht sales broker from BVI Yacht Sales. He has taken lots of photos of Trompeta and will add these to her listing details which are already on their website. We have been over to check on Trompeta every day and she seems OK. It is a very sheltered and protected dock so the strong winds of the last few days have not been a problem. We hope to have a buyer soon as the broker already has two interested people and she has only just gone on the market!

BVI again

We sailed Trompeta from Grenada to St Lucia overnight Friday and anchored off Pigeon Island Rodney Bay St Lucia on Saturday night. Good sail from St Lucia to Dominica and made Portsmouth by early evening but it was dark so it was a good thing we were greeted by Titus a boat boy who led us safely to a mooring buoy. Dominica still has one of the lowest charges for moorings at US$10 per night! Next morning we left at first light to sail up to Guadeloupe. Made the anchorage at Pigeon Island mid afternoon in good light which is just as well as the approach was littered with fishing pots so not a good place to enter motoring in the dark! The anchorage was alright even if the wind did turn us around during the night as the anchor was well set. Another early start the following day to make the last 200 odd miles up to the BVI and the wind was very light and right behind us so a poled out genoa was the best option which meant it was slow so we did motor for a large part of the journey. We reached the BVI through Salt Island passage and dropped anchor in Road Harbour at 10pm Wednesday night. The next day Peter cleared in with customs and paid our US$200 to import Trompeta for a year. We now have to empty the boat ready for sale. Trompeta is now on a dock adjacent to Village Cay which is a short dinghy ride away from Heartbeat our charter boat at The Moorings.

Trompeta back in the water!

All went well yesterday at Grenada Marine although putting the sails back on was a fiddly job so so we did not manage to get away until after 2pm but we had a good downwind sail around the corner to Port Louis which is where we are now. Peter decided to change our start battery as it was reading low so Island Water World supplied one whilst we were on the dock at Grenada Marine. There are a couple of spare raw water pumps for engine and generator which had new seals put in which we received back before leaving. Very good technician called Green ran up both the engine and generator whilst we were still on the hard and these have performed well now we are back in the water. Plan is to leave this morning to head up the island chain to Tortola. Not sure yet if we will stop en route as the winds are forecast to be light over the weekend so we may just make a straight run for the BVI which will be a better wind angle rather than trying to curve around the islands. It all depends on conditions and how tired we feel!

Grenada again

Arrived back in Grenada Monday afternoon and Peter called into the boat yard to check on Trompeta and I carried straight on to the hotel La Sagesse where we are staying for a few nights whilst the boat is prepared for launch. Yesterday was spent chasing up outstanding jobs and getting ropes and lines set up. The stack pack went back on so it is ready for the main sail. It is a little too breezy to put the sails up when the boat is in the cradle so we have to wait until she is in the water. The mechanic has just about finished in the aft cabin so today I should be able to clean up and make up our bed. The boat was anti fouled with two coats of Seahawk Islands 44 which is the same that we used in St Lucia at the start of the rally and it lasted really well. Today we are having the boat polished all over so she is shiny and smart for our trip up the island chain back to the BVI. Peter will set up as much as he can so once she is in the water it is just the sails to put back on. We may possibly launch later today but more likely it will be first thing tomorrow to give Grenada Marine staff chance to fit our new bow thruster propeller whilst she is still out of the water.

Back in Grenada

Arrived back in Grenada Tuesday so after a night in La Sagesse we spent yesterday in the boatyard at Grenada Marine catching up with the staff on jobs done on Trompeta. We are pleased to report the boat has been well looked after and apart from a lot of dust is very tidy. Have taken the opportunity to make a proper inventory list and check what stores we have on board! The sail loft have completed minor refurbishment work on both sails and these were returned to us in good order.

Today we will spend another day at the boatyard just finalising outstanding jobs before launch at the beginning of December. We have time off work to fly down to Grenada on 2 December to check and launch the boat which will have been anti fouled before she goes back in the water. We then plan to sail Trompeta back up to the BVI where we can keep an eye on her whilst we are working.

Trompeta ready for Hurricane season

Trompeta is finally secured in her cradle at Grenada Marine for the Hurricane season. We left Port Louis on Wednesday and had quite a tough sail into wind and tide to reach St David's Harbour so it took us 5 hours in total but at least we sailed and did not motor like the last time. Our intention was to pick up a mooring buoy in the harbour but when we looked around it seemed we would get more protection if we anchored so that is what we did - in very muddy sand - as we discovered when we came to lift the anchor on Friday! The two nights at anchor allowed us time to take the sails off in preparation for haul out. Friday morning dawned and we were in the slip for 9 am to get lifted out of the water. It all went very smoothly and the boat yard workers are clearly practised at what they do so it gave us confidence in what to us was an unknown place. Friday saw a team of people visiting the boat to agree what needed to be done whilst the boat is out of the water. Grenada Marine offer a full care taking service so we are having a monthly boat check and a fortnightly battery check initially. The yard will update us by e mail on a regular monthly basis so we know what work has been done and how much to pay. This way we pay as we go along and there are no surprise bills. Peter has arranged with the Volvo Penta mechanic to replace various things on the engine which is being ' winterised' as is the Generator. The water maker was pickled already by Peter and we have added water purifier to the water left in the tanks ( around 50 gallons!). Our plan is to leave the boat here in her cradle tied down until the end of November which is the official end of hurricane season. We get the benefit of full insurance cover this way. Grenada Marin will apply anti foul just before we come back so they ask for a couple of weeks notice so this can be freshly done for our return. Whilst the boat was in the boat yard we have been staying at a lovely hotel called La Saggesse which s a Nature Retreat and one of the top 10 places to stay in the Caribbean ( according to the Sunday Times). It was lovely t ave 4 nights of pampering and a beach right on our doorstep going to sleep at night listening to the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach. The only downside is the sandflies which come out at dawn and dusk to nibble you! We had the company the first two nights of Tim who had an Oyster boat in Grenada Marine also on the hard. Tim flew back to London on Sunday so the last two nights we have had the place to ourselves. Today we took our final swim in the sea before lunch as we are due to fly home tonight so will get picked up from the hotel at 4.30pm for our 7 pm Virgin flight home.

Grenada

Hurrah we are finally here in Port Louis Marina Grenada having left St Lucia yesterday around 6am. In the end it was a fairly easy sail once we got some wind. The trip down th coast of St Lucia was slow as no wind so motor sailed for the first 3 hours but then once past the island some good strong wind down to St Vincent and we were making steady progress under sail alone. The engine behaved itself so fingers crossed all is well on this. Now we are here in the Marina we will take the opportunity to get the boat clean and tidied up before heading south to St David's Harbour where we are due to be hauled out of the water on Friday. The plan is to arrive there maybe as early as Wednesday so we can get the sails off and the deck cleared for lifting. There is a good chandlery here in St Georges so Peter will be able to stock up on bits he needs for the storage. We used a Damp Rid bag in each wardrobe and in the cabin whilst the boat was in Marigot Bay and these kept the inside nice and dry but as we only have on bag left it will be good to get some more here if we can. Although we do not have a cockroach problem it is always wise to set traps whilst the boat is in storage so we need to buy some of these also. Bedding and towels will be vacuum packed in a storage bag to ensure they stay dry. Clothes need to be sorted out as we have to decide which we carry back to England and which we leave here. Some of our clothes including our Moorings crew uniform are already stored in our lock up room in the BVI. There are probably lots more jobs to do but these are just some of the ones that come to mind now.