Waiting for Godot
OK, today's culture question: who wrote Waiting for Godot? Anybody out there actually read it or maybe even seen it performed? If so, you know how we've spent a good deal of the past 3 weeks here in St Lucia, only substitute "parts" for "Godot".
Actually, before I bore everybody with the usual recitation of what's broken and what we're waiting for to repair it, I will say that we had a very pleasant Christmas and New Years. Maryann's daughter Theresa arrived on Christmas eve, after having to make a last-minute change to her travel plans, given our failure to make it to Guadeloupe. We had a very nice week, exploring the west coast of St Lucia, including the 18th century fortifications on Pigeon Island, the very lovely and very secluded Marigot Bay, and the area around Soufrière, particularly the spectacular Pitons (namesake of the local beer). By the time this is posted I think the latest batch of photos will be up on the site.
Theresa flew out on the morning of the 31rst. We had anchored adjacent to the small airport in Castries, the island's capital, so it was a very short taxi ride to the terminal. Castries is also the destination for the cruise ships which come in a never-ending stream during cruise ship season, October through May. On any given day there might be 5 enormous cruise ships in town, and since there's only room for 3 at the docks, the other 2 have to anchor outside the harbor. Oh, and if you're the Queen Mary 2 you have to anchor out regardless, because you won't fit in the harbor! We saw her originally in Crown Bay on St Thomas earlier this year, and once again anchored outside Castries when we arrived from St Vincent. Truly enormous.
St Lucia seems quite prosperous, especially after St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. Not quite so natural-resource-rich and industrialized as Trinidad, but well-0ff in the mold of an earlier year Hawaii. The banana crop is still number 1 here, but tourism is number 2 and is catching up. Simply amazing the differences we see just across 20- or 30-mile channels. The poverty in St Vincent is pervasive, though I have to add that things aren't nearly as prosperous outside the northwest corner of the island.
We've learned that St Lucia is the wedding capital of the Caribbean, with an average of 10 cermonies a day, year-round. Based on the pasty-white Europeans that abound, it's also quite popular as a winter tropical getaway. There are worse places to have to wait.
But waiting But is what we're doing. When we arrived here, we had a fairly short list of things that needed attention: a new dinghy and outboard, repair the jib's shredded UV-protection strip, get the generator working again, install the new LED tri-color/anchor light, and repair the mainsail where a batten had worked its way through the sail's leech (the trailing edge of the sail). While we were here we had our new refrigeration give us some grief, but topping off the refrigerant and tightening a connection seems to have solved that.
We ordered the new outboard on the 17th, and I think we took delivery on the 18th, which was pretty phenomenal. But then these islands live and die by their Yamaha outboards, so I guess that wasn't so surprising. We ordered the new dinghy on the 18th and it might just possibly arrive this afternoon. Maybe. The local dealer couldn't get a tracking number, and "those people (the distributor) are just so disorganized". This from one of the most disorganized ex-pat Brits I've ever come across - actually being an ex-pat Brit has nothing to do with it, other than it gives it a humorous tinge of a Monty Python sketch (think Minister of Silly Walks). But he did give us a loaner dinghy while waiting for our new one to arrive and that's been essential.
Oh, even if the dinghy does arrive this afternoon, it'll be tomorrow before we see it, as it has to pass through customs, and get delivered here from the airport. The dinghy will be duty-free, as parts for a yacht-in-transit are not charged duty. Ah, but there is the customs broker!
We've had a couple of FedEx packages arrive with eagerly awaited parts. Now even with tracking numbers it's sometimes difficult to actually find the package. Even when you have the signature facsimile of the receiving person you might not find the package for a few days. But once found, there is no way for us to retrieve it. We don't have the requisite paperwork. Only these quasi-official brokers seem to possess the correct paperwork. And the broker charges something like US$60 to retrieve the package, fill out the correct paperwork, and walk it through customs where we have to open the package for customs inspection. I asked about us filling out the paperwork, but apparently the forms are only available to brokers. So each "duty-free" package costs us big time.
So far we've gotten our mail packet (with some sewing-machine parts, a mounting bracket, and some prescription medications), a part that will hopefully allow us to get the generator working once again (the part was mailed from the UK to Trinidad, and arrived a week before we left - nobody told us it had arrived; then it took nearly 3 weeks to get it "overnighted" from the marina in Trinidad here), and a new pump head for our watermaker, which has been out of action since we left Trinidad. Each package has been an adventure to receive.
And then, of course, each repair leads to others. The jib was repaired by the local sail loft, saving us a bunch of bucks since he managed to repair rather than replace the UV protection canvas strip. But putting it back on the roller furler was blocked until I could get the mechanism to stop binding. At least this was one case of where reading the manual actually gave all the info necessary to correct the adjustment.
The generator part, a simple cover for the salt-water pump housing, finally arrived yesterday. This was the part that took Coral Cove Marina 3 weeks to forward to us. It was only the work of maybe 5 minutes to install the new cover, then another 2 minutes to break an O-ring on the salt-water pump itself! So today we ordered replacement O-rings. They cost about 35 cents each. The FedEx bill will probably be US$40. We're hoping that just maybe the package will bypass customs (and another US$60 for the broker) as they don't seem to bother with soft-sided envelopes. Still, it could turn a 35-cent part into a US$100 part!
We also received the stainless-steel bracket for mounting the new LED anchor/tri-color masthead light. Haven't worked up the nerve to head up the mast again to do the actual replacement. That's a long way up there and the wind's been blowing pretty well for the past month or two! See the pictures in Maryann's last update.
We also need to repair the mainsail. We seem to get enough flutter on the leech to where the battens want to work their way up and out through the sail cloth. We have some kevlar tape that will hopefully make short work of that repair. And once we get the O-rings (tomorrow, maybe) and the new dinghy (also hopefully tomorrow), we'll be able to get this show back on the road. Guests coming to meet us in St Thomas in 46 days; gotta get moving again!
Actually, before I bore everybody with the usual recitation of what's broken and what we're waiting for to repair it, I will say that we had a very pleasant Christmas and New Years. Maryann's daughter Theresa arrived on Christmas eve, after having to make a last-minute change to her travel plans, given our failure to make it to Guadeloupe. We had a very nice week, exploring the west coast of St Lucia, including the 18th century fortifications on Pigeon Island, the very lovely and very secluded Marigot Bay, and the area around Soufrière, particularly the spectacular Pitons (namesake of the local beer). By the time this is posted I think the latest batch of photos will be up on the site.
Theresa flew out on the morning of the 31rst. We had anchored adjacent to the small airport in Castries, the island's capital, so it was a very short taxi ride to the terminal. Castries is also the destination for the cruise ships which come in a never-ending stream during cruise ship season, October through May. On any given day there might be 5 enormous cruise ships in town, and since there's only room for 3 at the docks, the other 2 have to anchor outside the harbor. Oh, and if you're the Queen Mary 2 you have to anchor out regardless, because you won't fit in the harbor! We saw her originally in Crown Bay on St Thomas earlier this year, and once again anchored outside Castries when we arrived from St Vincent. Truly enormous.
St Lucia seems quite prosperous, especially after St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. Not quite so natural-resource-rich and industrialized as Trinidad, but well-0ff in the mold of an earlier year Hawaii. The banana crop is still number 1 here, but tourism is number 2 and is catching up. Simply amazing the differences we see just across 20- or 30-mile channels. The poverty in St Vincent is pervasive, though I have to add that things aren't nearly as prosperous outside the northwest corner of the island.
We've learned that St Lucia is the wedding capital of the Caribbean, with an average of 10 cermonies a day, year-round. Based on the pasty-white Europeans that abound, it's also quite popular as a winter tropical getaway. There are worse places to have to wait.
But waiting But is what we're doing. When we arrived here, we had a fairly short list of things that needed attention: a new dinghy and outboard, repair the jib's shredded UV-protection strip, get the generator working again, install the new LED tri-color/anchor light, and repair the mainsail where a batten had worked its way through the sail's leech (the trailing edge of the sail). While we were here we had our new refrigeration give us some grief, but topping off the refrigerant and tightening a connection seems to have solved that.
We ordered the new outboard on the 17th, and I think we took delivery on the 18th, which was pretty phenomenal. But then these islands live and die by their Yamaha outboards, so I guess that wasn't so surprising. We ordered the new dinghy on the 18th and it might just possibly arrive this afternoon. Maybe. The local dealer couldn't get a tracking number, and "those people (the distributor) are just so disorganized". This from one of the most disorganized ex-pat Brits I've ever come across - actually being an ex-pat Brit has nothing to do with it, other than it gives it a humorous tinge of a Monty Python sketch (think Minister of Silly Walks). But he did give us a loaner dinghy while waiting for our new one to arrive and that's been essential.
Oh, even if the dinghy does arrive this afternoon, it'll be tomorrow before we see it, as it has to pass through customs, and get delivered here from the airport. The dinghy will be duty-free, as parts for a yacht-in-transit are not charged duty. Ah, but there is the customs broker!
We've had a couple of FedEx packages arrive with eagerly awaited parts. Now even with tracking numbers it's sometimes difficult to actually find the package. Even when you have the signature facsimile of the receiving person you might not find the package for a few days. But once found, there is no way for us to retrieve it. We don't have the requisite paperwork. Only these quasi-official brokers seem to possess the correct paperwork. And the broker charges something like US$60 to retrieve the package, fill out the correct paperwork, and walk it through customs where we have to open the package for customs inspection. I asked about us filling out the paperwork, but apparently the forms are only available to brokers. So each "duty-free" package costs us big time.
So far we've gotten our mail packet (with some sewing-machine parts, a mounting bracket, and some prescription medications), a part that will hopefully allow us to get the generator working once again (the part was mailed from the UK to Trinidad, and arrived a week before we left - nobody told us it had arrived; then it took nearly 3 weeks to get it "overnighted" from the marina in Trinidad here), and a new pump head for our watermaker, which has been out of action since we left Trinidad. Each package has been an adventure to receive.
And then, of course, each repair leads to others. The jib was repaired by the local sail loft, saving us a bunch of bucks since he managed to repair rather than replace the UV protection canvas strip. But putting it back on the roller furler was blocked until I could get the mechanism to stop binding. At least this was one case of where reading the manual actually gave all the info necessary to correct the adjustment.
The generator part, a simple cover for the salt-water pump housing, finally arrived yesterday. This was the part that took Coral Cove Marina 3 weeks to forward to us. It was only the work of maybe 5 minutes to install the new cover, then another 2 minutes to break an O-ring on the salt-water pump itself! So today we ordered replacement O-rings. They cost about 35 cents each. The FedEx bill will probably be US$40. We're hoping that just maybe the package will bypass customs (and another US$60 for the broker) as they don't seem to bother with soft-sided envelopes. Still, it could turn a 35-cent part into a US$100 part!
We also received the stainless-steel bracket for mounting the new LED anchor/tri-color masthead light. Haven't worked up the nerve to head up the mast again to do the actual replacement. That's a long way up there and the wind's been blowing pretty well for the past month or two! See the pictures in Maryann's last update.
We also need to repair the mainsail. We seem to get enough flutter on the leech to where the battens want to work their way up and out through the sail cloth. We have some kevlar tape that will hopefully make short work of that repair. And once we get the O-rings (tomorrow, maybe) and the new dinghy (also hopefully tomorrow), we'll be able to get this show back on the road. Guests coming to meet us in St Thomas in 46 days; gotta get moving again!
posted by Ken at
7:48 AM |
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