It’s been awhile since our last blog post and much has happened in that time; we sailed back to Grenada for hurricane season, we celebrated carnival, we prepped the boat for our 6-week trip home to Oz and we hauled out at the new (not quite finished) Clarke’s Court Boatyard. We then spent six glorious weeks in Melbourne satisfying homesickness by visiting family and friends. Oh, and we also bought a land-home whilst in Oz, but more about that another time. Now, to focus on Kool Kat’s makeover……
On return to Grenada we set ourselves up in an apartment on the road to Clarke’s Court Bay. We have air-conditioning, a huge oven, a large washing machine and even a bath! I know our cruiser friends are drooling right now! We hightailed it down to the boatyard asap and it was so satisfying to see Kool Kat safe and sound and that all our prep work had paid off: no mould or mildew developed during our absence. 🙂
Mal has dodged the rain squalls and taken the 15-20 minute walk down to the boatyard every day, sometimes twice, to discuss, liaise, oversee and, basically, project manage Kool Kat’s ‘treatments’. Of course, we had a list we knew she’d love but, as is often the case, other jobs just happen to appear.
Wayne and Maverick from Turbulence came to replace the diamonds part of her rigging, the boom bails, bearings in the furler and pins in the traveller.
When it came to replacing the pins it was obvious the wear and tear on the traveller meant a new traveller car was needed.
Meanwhile, I’ve been toing and froing to town either to the dentist for some scheduled work or for food shopping. There’s alot to buy when you return to the boat because you give away lots of fridge goodies and other perishables when you leave. Glenda from Black Butterfly showed me the easiest way to get to the no.2 bus route and where to hop off to catch the no.1 bus, which would take me to the dentist. I love bus trips on the islands – they’re hot, noisy and often reckless, but they’re always interesting and I usually have a laugh!
OK, back to Kool Kat’s treatments. Martin did a great job polishing her hull and top-sides. Mal met Martin years ago at Grenada Marine and remembered what an excellent job he’d done boat polishing. So, when he met him again during Carnival at Port Louis Marina, Mal arranged with have him to give Kool Kat a lift.
Martin brought along Robert who’s experience applying bottom paint was quickly evident and we are very happy with his work.
X-Marine did some nipping and tucking:
Robert cleaned her props with Mal replacing the anodes:
Larry at Nabela re-stitched her cockpit awnings and helm seat cushion, created a new helm seat backrest, and made a rain awning and throw cushions from the Sunbrella fabric generously given to us by Wendy on Nahanni River. Thanks so much guys, it looks great. Photos not available yet but will include in future post. 🙂
And, Qualitek gave her a facelift with new black hull-stripes, larger KOOL KAT font and a brand new super-cool logo.
We want to thank everyone who has worked on her as we’re very appreciative of a great job and a big thanks to Clarke’s Court Boatyard for their friendly, can-do attitude. We’re just waiting on some of the nip and tucks to be finished and are scheduled to splash on Tuesday.
Woohoo, she feels like a new cat and we can’t wait to get her back in the water! Hope to see you out there sometime 🙂
Two Aussies and a Kat in a spicy blue Sea 