The verdict is in; if you haven’t seen “Troy” yet, keep waiting, for as long as possible. Moving on, we have established ourselves in the boatyard at Chaguaramas, Trinidad. Our first full day was rainy with occasional precipitation and intermittent drizzle. Fortunately, our work detail was scraping, sanding, and wiping the bottom, where we were somewhat sheltered from the rain. We got plenty wet while washing the hull anyhow, making today’s bad weather a moot point. Still, we’ll need several consecutive hours of sun for a successful paint job, and that particular meteorological scenario looks increasingly unlikely with the passing of each day in this, the “dry” season.
During one of the lighter sprinkles around lunchtime, we walked over to the excellent roti shack conveniently located inside the boatyard. There, we were pleased to encounter a married couple that we first met in Bequia, who happen to own the same kind of boat as us, a Valiant 40. Because of the relatively small number of these boats made, and a blistering problem peculiar to this type of boat, there is something of a fraternity among Valiant owners.
Invariably, discussion turned to strategies for dealing with the blister problem, resulting in a revelation that chagrined us greatly. Trinidad is known internationally as the place to have repairs done on yachts, and one of their specialties is stripping the hull down and building it back up, good as new. Not only does this result in a beautiful, solid hull, but it also raises the market value of the boat far beyond the cost of the work.
In the U.S., such a procedure would cost somewhere between $40,000-$100,000. This couple in the roti shack was having it done in Trinidad for $5,000. Ironically, this is almost the exact same amount we spent on the supplies for the half-assed patching job we spent three weeks on in the summer dust of Fort Pierce, FL. On one hand, the discovery that we could have someone else do a vastly better job than we did for less money will certainly prove useful. On the other hand, it’s absolutely galling that we toiled so needlessly, and so ineptly, during the summer. Nevertheless, there have been no holes in our work yet, and we’ll wait until we put a few more dents in the hull before having it redone by the pros.
After the tasty rotis, Aaron brightened up the white freeboard above the waterline. That, combined with the morning’s work and powerwash, has the boat looking much better, and it should look great once we put a few fresh coats of paint on it. This time, we’re going with black. After a brief vetting of dinner options, we tossed a coin, then overruled the coin and went to Joe’s for our customary meatball and mushroom pizza. On our first visit, the wait staff put ketchup, mustard, and hot sauce on our table with our pizza. Unfamiliar with the culinary customs in Trinidad, we put the condiments on our pizza and enjoyed the result so much that we haven’t stopped since.
This evening, we managed to catch the end of the F.A. Cup match between mighty Manchester United and lowly Exeter City, which was a real treat. Our schedule from here will largely depend on the weather, but there’s a lot to do and we’re anxious to get it done.