Hi again ALL,
Well I left Tyrell Bay bound for St Lucia early, hoisted the mainsail and sailed past close to each boat I had made good friends with, had a special send off from all. 'Jambaiala' a very big Carriacue sloop gave a salute as I left, being a lot faster she left after me and overtook me, pic)1
Peter who owns her now told me of his sadness when he spotted G.L. at Antigua, for he had bought a 12 ton Gauntlet called 'Muresse' in which he completed a circumnavigation taking 5 years!
Pic ) 2 is sighting St Lucia at 0557hrs next morning as the Pitons appeared after a severe squall.
Having arrived at Rodney Bay, the first job on my work list is to repair the toe rail that the toe boats pulled off when G.L. was rescued from the reef in 2011
!!! yes, it took that long to find the teak at an affordable price! following pics show the story of that little job. pic 1, the plank on deck next to the hole it will fill.
after having it cut, the piece is offered up for the first time.
then accurately marking and cutting the hooked scarf joint.
The teak is 4 1/2" wide x 1 1/8" thick x 14' long, not at all easy to bend a complex shape with when you see how far it has to go. But having glued and screwed the joint, the process is started.
a quick sand to check the joint is good.
the screws are 6" long x 3/8" and go through the plank edge + covering board into the top hull plank, approx 10" centres, the bending round and lifting up drilling and screwing went on for two days!
until finally at the knight head and screwed home.
then the capping rail has to go on after plugging all the fasteners, 14 screws were used on the plank, magically sourced in July 2012 in St Thomas USVI.
and at last it is finished
but not quite...cutting and fitting two newly acquired fairleads (in Grenada) and blocks to match on both sides, and the finishing sealer can be applied.
I am now up to date, and as I write this, I have had to go and do the complete boats rails, which is in progress, the new bit showed up the rest!
Roy
