{"id":10746,"date":"2020-03-08T13:23:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T18:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=10746"},"modified":"2024-03-07T19:23:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T00:23:45","slug":"cruising-boat-repair-in-exotic-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=10746","title":{"rendered":"Cruising: Boat repair in exotic places."},"content":{"rendered":"

As I write this we are tied up in the Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia where we plan to stay for about ten days while we wait for our new fridge compressor to arrive and be installed.\u00a0 Wish us luck as it’s supposed to ship FedEx tomorrow, Monday.\u00a0 Fingers crossed as he has blown by prior deadlines.<\/p>\n

It’s been a long and winding road, waiting for the unit to ship.\u00a0 Part of the problem is that the company that made our system, Glacier Bay, went of business more than ten years ago so I am only able to get replacement parts from a small company in CA that purchased the rights to the products and now sort of makes them to order, in a garage I suspect give the fact that it’s taken more than 6 weeks since I ordered it, for them to finally ship.<\/p>\n

Getting parts for boats in the islands is notoriously difficult as anything sent has to go via something like International FedEx or by ship in a container and then, once arrived, cleared through a local agent.\u00a0 In the case of St Lucia, at least there isn’t duty to pay as the parts I have ordered are going to a “yacht in transit”.<\/p>\n

Some islands, like Grenada, apply extra import duty but St Lucia and many other islands understand that boats are portable and can go elsewhere if they are competitive and don’t apply extra fees to things shipped in for boats that are transient.<\/p>\n

So, the latest news has our unit shipping, all 40 lbs of it, on Monday and I am told that it will arrive here on the island on Wednesday or Thursday.\u00a0 \u00a0The next step in the process will be for the local agent to clear the package which I am told, from the “horses mouth” that this will happen quickly, in a day or two.\u00a0 Once it’s here, I have an installer lined up who seems to be very responsive so I am hopeful that we will have everything resolved by the end of next weekend.<\/p>\n

The good news about the “waiting part” is that marinas in the Caribbean can be quite reasonable, in this case, the weekly rate per foot is something like $.75\/ft per day with the weekly rate at buy-a-week and only pay for 6 days.\u00a0 And, it gets better as with a week you get three bonus days at no charge, which works out to about $25 a day for our ten day stay.<\/p>\n

Of course, water and electric are extra and can really add up.\u00a0 However, all and all a day on the dock here is about 1\/4 of the cost of tying up to a mooring in Nantucket and here we are on a dock and a nice one at that.<\/p>\n

And, even though it’s inexpensive, it’s a really nice marina with beautiful floating docks. \"\"Here’s Pandora all snug and tied up.\"\"Just about everywhere we go we are approached by locals who offer to do work on our boat.\u00a0 Here I hired a guy, one of many that approached me, to clean Pandora from top to bottom.\u00a0 A key part of this was to polish the stainless, which had gotten a bit dingy and spotty over the last few months.<\/p>\n

When I was in Antigua I hired someone to clean her and we agreed to a price of $250US for a job that took nearly two full days which was still a good deal.\u00a0 \u00a0However, here in St Lucia, rates are even lower and I was able to get the job done for half of that price and he even supplied some of the cleaning products himself.\u00a0 He’s a very nice gay and spent all day yesterday working hard and today showed up with a helper to finish the job.\u00a0 Again, he was here for much of the day.<\/p>\n

Now Pandora is really clean and all the stainless sparkles.\u00a0 \u00a0He was even able to get some stubborn over-spray paint off of the bowsprit that was left there when the boat was painted in the US.\u00a0 The guy in Antigua couldn’t get it off but somehow he did.\u00a0 And, the anchor, after so much time in the water had become very discolored.\u00a0 Not now.\"\"And speaking of the paint job.\u00a0 My new paint took a turn for the worse when a young couple ran into me with a small Hobie catamaran from the nearby Sandals resort out in the bay, where we anchored the first night when we arrived in St Lucia.\u00a0 It was quite windy and they lost control of the boat as they raced along near Pandora.\u00a0 In spite of my fending them off twice, they finally rammed me and put some nasty scrapes on the aft port quarter that will have to be repaired when I get home. Those who need service parts may consider visiting sites like https:\/\/coastalyachtmanagement.com\/service-parts\/<\/a> to get high-quality boat parts. And those who are looking for an exceptional boat storage facility may consider Shadow Storage<\/a>. Moreover, those who need exceptional protection for their boats may consider wrapping solutions from shrink wrap services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the water sports manager at the Sandals resort was very diligent in helping me quickly file a claim.\u00a0 Within a day he had hired a surveyor to assess the damage and two days later saw to it that I was paid.\u00a0 After only three days all of this was done and the couple send money to us to cover the damage via Venmo, a total of $1,400, not a trifling amount.<\/p>\n

I felt badly for the young couple but with may new paint job, I hated to have scratches so am glad that they were willing to cover the damage.\u00a0 Had they put up a fight, I doubt that I would have been able to find a way to enforce the claim.\u00a0 So, one more thing to address when I get home.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s time for me to learn how to repair scratches as hardly a year goes by without a new one or two.\u00a0 In anticipation of getting scratches, I had Pandora painted with Alexseal specifically because it’s supposedly somewhat easier to repair than other harder paints.\u00a0 Details to come on that score, I guess.<\/p>\n

I can tell you that things could have easily been worse.\u00a0 One of the boats that we have been cruising with had major engine problems about a week ago and are now waiting in Martinique for a new engine to be installed.\u00a0 Another is making plans to limp back to Trinidad to get a crack in their hull fixed.\u00a0 They tangled with a piece of floating line, while towing the boat that lost their engine, and the tangled line wrenched their prop shaft and cracked the hull.\u00a0 Now they can’t use their engine and had to be towed to anchor in Martinique by me and a friend with our dinks. \"\"Once we arrived where he wanted to anchor, we both backed down to set his anchor.\u00a0 \u00a0Cruisers helping cruisers and boat repair for yet another in exotic places.\u00a0\"\"Setting aside the inevitable damage, 0ne of the fun parts of cruising is seeing friends along the way, some new and some from prior years.\u00a0 \u00a0 This season we have been buddy-boating with a number of couples and in particular, Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo, who we first met on our initial trip down the Intra Coastal Waterway our first year out in 2012.<\/p>\n

Kalunamoo is here in the marina across from us.\u00a0 \u00a0They are also here for boat repair in exotic places.\u00a0 In this case, to their engine, hopefully beginning tomorrow. \"\"It’s pretty amazing that everywhere we go there is someone we know.\u00a0 \u00a0 This is a photo of the group that we were with for several weeks.\u00a0 We had the gang over for drinks on our last night kin Martinique before everyone headed their own way.\u00a0 \u00a0 \"\"And when we aren’t hanging out with friends, it’s, you guessed it, boat repair in exotic places as I have also been tackling a number of other smaller projects. I’m\u00a0 chipping away at the list and still have a few more to go.\u00a0 However, we have plenty of time as we expect to stay here in the marina for the rest of the week and their is a great ship’s store in the marina.<\/p>\n

Perhaps when I have a break from, y0u guessed it, boat repair, we will rent a car and tour the island with Bill and Maureen.\u00a0 Tuesday looks like a good day.<\/p>\n

So, for now, it’s what it always is, boat repair in exotic places.\u00a0 I sure hope that the compressor ships tomorrow so we can get on with this and find a new place to fix things.\u00a0 Of course, it’s only a matter of time till something else breaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I write this we are tied up in the Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia where we plan to stay for about ten days while we wait for our new fridge compressor to arrive and be installed.\u00a0 Wish us luck as it’s supposed to ship FedEx tomorrow, Monday.\u00a0 Fingers crossed as he has blown by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10746"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14196,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10746\/revisions\/14196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}