Pandora has been in Trinidad for two months now and work is progressing well. I have been in touch with Amos, who is overseeing the projects, on a regular basis including weekly video briefs, reviewing the details of what has been done.
All and all, I have been impressed with the attention to detail that is going into the job.
Amos estimates that the jobs will be completed by late August or early September. The work was begun in May so that’s a lot of days and with so many communications, I am confident that they have been working hard to keep the job on track.
The transit of Beryl through the SE Caribbean, not far to the north of Trinidad, has been shocking as we have learned more details of the devastation wrought by the massive storm.
In my last post I wrote about some of the details and showed images of the destruction in the wake of the storm.
Cruisers have really stepped up and are delivering relief supplies to the stricken islands.
And at least one large yacht has also carried some of the bigger items such as generators.
Years ago when the BVI was trashed, it is rumored that much of the aid, particularly money, did not make it to the intended recipients, which was very unfortunate. It is also difficult to coordinate the arrival of aid from individuals verses more established organizations. I hope that this time things are handled correctly. Clearly, there are a lot of well intentioned people doing their best to help.
I can only imagine how long it will take for the islands so severely damaged to get back on their feet.
This video is by a local vet in Carriacou who has been posting videos regularly. His latest post illustrates that ten days after Beryl trashed the island, cleanup is well underway but that there is so much that will need to be done to get the islands back to some semblance of normal. As I look at the footage of the damaged boats, I can not imagine how there will be an infrastructure in place to repair them any time soon, much less get them back into the water.
I heard about a Salty Dawg member’s boat that “mostly” survived the storm but the hull was punctured by the jack stands that were holding it up. And, surrounded by s many destroyed boats, they have no idea how they will be able to get the boat back into the water any time soon.
A friend told me that after many years keeping his boat in the Caribbean, Trinidad actually, his policy was canceled and now he has a new policy that does not distinguish a “hurricane box”. This means that he can go wherever he wants at any time. The bad news is that there is no payout for damage from a named storm, regardless of location or timing and this even applies to a Nor’easter outside of the hurricane season. Simply stated, the insurance companies are happy to underwrite you but if the boat is lost in a storm, you are on your own.
He was told that he could get storm coverage for an extra fee but with coverage already so expensive, any additional fees are likely not practical.
This change, and I expect that it will be more common than not, will surely make storing boats in any area that has even a remote likelihood of being hit, a really bad idea. The fact that Trinidad has only limited storage options suggests that many who want to keep their boats south for the summer will have a tough choice given the history of storms damaging boats in Grenada, traditionally considered fairly safe.
I was curious about why Trinidad has generally been safe from storms and did some digging. The primary reason is the islands proximity to the equator and the inability of storms to develop in that area. While Trinidad is at 10 degrees north of the equator, intense storms do not generally form there. This short video provides some explanation of this effect.
And while Trinidad is rarely hit by hurricanes, there was one notable exception in 1933 when an unnamed hurricane devastated the island. This was an extremely rare event but with warming conditions, who knows. This report is an interesting look at the history of storms in Trinidad.
On the other hand, just 80 miles to the north, the Island of Grenada has been hit a number of times in recent memory, most recently when Ivan passed right over the island of Grenada in 2004 causing enormous damage. This link highlights some of the notable storms to damage the island. That was a long time ago and people forget.
Even though Ivan passed just to the south of the island of Grenada, the damage to Trinidad was not significant. In part, this was because to be hit by the south side of a hurricane is generally nowhere as damaging as the northern quadrant where the wind speed is added to the forward motion of the storm. On the southern quadrant of the storm, the wind speed is subtracted from the forward motion. This means that no matter how close to Trinidad a storm hits, it is not as likely to cause as much damage as it will in Grenada, even though it is less than 100 miles to the south. The physics of the Coriolis effect will not allow it to pass south of Trinidad. It’s just too close to the equator to allow a storm to be sustained that far south.
See this graphic of Ivan’s track when it devastated Grenada. And follow this link to a detailed look at Ivan and the destruction in his wake.
And this newscast clip, broadcast as Beryl approached the eastern Caribbean, is a good explanation of why such a strong storm formed so early in the season.
For those that might wish to keep their boats in a fairly safe place during the hurricane season, there is a question of available space. The fact is that the yards in Trinidad were basically full when I arrived in May and had been so for some time so when nearly 100 boats headed south from Grenada to escape the path of Beryl, there was no space left to be hauled, even if they wanted to. There is clearly an opportunity for someone to open a new yard in Trinidad but there really isn’t a lot of room in the area for expansion.
So, back to Pandora and how the work is progressing. The work is going very well and I am having video tours of what’s going on every week with Amos, who walks me through the details of what has been accomplished to date.
Since my last post the re-coring of the decks is done and the finish coats of epoxy are being applied after the area is fully leveled.
Once the surface was fully faired, a number of coats of primer are applied and then sanded with long boards to be sure that are no dips or raised areas. This is backbreaking work and takes many hours.
I have a video of him using the larger board, the one he is sitting on, but you get the feel for what I am talking about.
After all of the deck areas are fully leveled and match the areas that were not damaged, a layer of fabric and more epoxy will be applied and further faired. By applying another layer to the undamaged deck areas, this will insure that this problem will not recure. When the new decks are fully painted and the cabin top is sanded down and sealed, a non-skid surface will be applied and then sealed yet again with a layer of Awlgrip paint.
After months of work, the decks, cabin top and the entire cockpit and transom will be painted. And, that doesn’t even count all the work being done down below, varnishing and some work on the headliner. And, don’t forget that the entire hull, below the waterline, has been stripped and prepared for priming and two coats of bottom paint.
Oh yeah, and there is a spot on the cockpit floor that needs to be re-cored. All of this adds up to being a huge job and I feel pretty good about how it is going.
All and all, Pandora will emerge in better shape than when she was launched in 2007 and ready for many more years of service.
In the next few weeks I have to decide when I am going to head to Trinidad to inspect the work close up. I expect that this will happen in late August or early September.
When I think about what’s going on with Pandora and try to relate that to those who have lost their boats and the locals that lost their homes on islands where nearly every structure was destroyed, it drives home just how easy I have it.
I never seriously thought about leaving Pandora anywhere but Trinidad and seeing the path of destruction that Beryl slashed through most of the islands between Grenada and St Lucia, is a reminder of just how bad things can get.
Anyway, back to the US and what I am up to right now.
As I write this I am in Onset, MA on the western end of the Cape Cod Canal waiting for a weather window so we can make the overnight run to Rockland. Most of the other boats in the Down East Rally are here with us and waiting out a rainy day. We expect that we will be able to make the run beginning on the morning tide in the Canal and arrive in Rockland on Monday late Monday morning.
The fact that we are waiting for Beryl, or what is left of her to pass, is a sobering reminder of her power when she ripped a swath of destruction from the most eastern parts of the Caribbean, more than 2,000 miles south ten days ago, moving through the Gulf of Mexico, making landfall in Texas where millions remain without power an up to New England.
The wind that we faced for several days in the Gulf of Maine was not all that terrible, in spite of including gusts in excess of 30kts, as it is from the South West. If I was here with Pandora, designed for strong winds, we would likely be on our way. I did hear from a friend who was making the run a few days earlier on a boat somewhat larger than Pandora, who shared that conditions were breezy but manageable.
The problem is that the little trawler that I am on isn’t really designed for “sporty” conditions and George, the owner, isn’t about to test it out. With that in mind, we plan to head north tomorrow when the winds have passed and the seas should be calm again. Not so perfect for a sailboat that needs wind but for us, perfect.
With all that is going on in the Caribbean I am certainly glad that I made the decision to leave Pandora in Trinidad or I might be worrying about what to do about a destroyed boat instead of dealing with more manageable projects to make here perfect.
For now, it’s nice to spend time in Onset, secure from the wind and waves. Not a bad view. I’ll take it.
