Well, Christmas is the time to be merry, a time for giving, a merry time for someone to give us a new engine for Oceana?
After limping into Charlotteville, Tobago we set about making the best plans for fixing the engine, hoping to be out of there in a couple of days or so. Now, followers of our column will know that "a couple of days or so" is a euphamism for "lets stay a month and go snorkelling and spear fishing, take in a few of the local hostelries and what about that great night club here every Friday night?" So thats what we did. Aided and abetted by our friend Lion (a local fisherman/drinking companion) we had a great time just liming (to lime is to hang out, to meet with friends usually at or near to a bar)and learning to water down the 75% rum with beer so that it isn`t too strong.
So during this time, we ummed and ahhed and twiddled our thumbs trying to decide where to sail to in order to repair the engine. We finally decided to sail to St. Martin - 500 miles away so we could work and repair the engine. In true Oceanic spirit we set sail on the 3rd December for.....Trinidad! We had a small donation to the engine repair fund and sailed right up to the anchorage in Chaguaramas to drop the anchor. It had been a hard old night though, with either squalls and rain or no wind at all.
Since then I took a crash course in engine mechanics and stripped down the engine to find a broken crank shaft. Shit.
So then, back to square one.
Which brings us back to Merry Christmas. Christina has taken a delivery job from Guadaloupe to Tortolla and she will stay up there or on St Martin in search of work while Ubatuba and I bolt the engine back down and pressgang someone to help sail Oceana up island in the new Year. Oh well, nevermind hey, worse things happen at sea.
