On Nov. 15 we arose at o-dark-30 and idled our way out from Crews Inn, Trinidad.   Out through the darkness, through the choppy waters of the Boca and into the Caribbean Sea, straight north for 82 nautical miles.  We arrived at Prickly Bay, Grenada, at about 3:30 pm, just barely too late to check in.  We contacted the electrician Alan Reynolds, with whom we had been put in touch by Richard (Partners).  Alan came to the Bay Saturday afternoon and I picked him up and dinghied him to the boat, where we made preliminary plans for him to help install three solar panels on the pilothouse roof.  Using Alan’s specifications, I visited both Budget Marine and Island Water World in order to secure the appropriate wires and screws and bolts and deck wire clam.   I also went to Technick at Spice Island Marina to commission the construction of aluminum “legs” for mounting the panels on the roof.  I provided 9 feet of aluminum strip that we had purchased in Trinidad, at a cost of $22 American dollars.  The specs we had arrived at after our arrival in Grenada required perhaps another foot or so, and I asked Technick to simply provide the extra and add the cost to the total.   Over the next days Alan came out on several evenings after his regular job in order to run the appropriate wires.  For most of our time in Prickly Bay, the waters were uncharacteristically calm.  When our luck ran out, we moved over to Hog Island (on Nov. 21), but first needed our aluminum legs.  Barb picked up the legs after an afternoon of “women’s dominoes” at De Big Fish. She returned with the legs and some shocking news.  The total cost had been $473 American dollars, including a charge of $15 for the extra aluminum.  The fabricator said it had taken over seven hours to make the legs because our aluminum had been too rigid.  He said he had not charged for some of the work and had discounted the labor by 20%.  Richard also had Alan install 2 solar panels on Partners, but they were in Carriacou at the time.  The total cost to Richard for the legs, including materials and labor: $70. I don’t think we will have fabrication work done in Prickly Bay again!  Saturday, Nov. 23, Alan (who we heartily recommend) came to Hog Island and we completed the installation. Tune in to later posts for an analysis of effectiveness of the effort.

While anchored in Hog we did some socializing, of course.  Chris and Yani (Magus) were there, and we had them over for pizza and a movie.  We joined Mike and Cynthia (Minx) for Shwarmas near the University, fish & chips at Taffy’s in Clarke’s Court Bay, and saw them again at a pot luck at Clarke’s Court Bay Marina.  A pot luck that was very sparsely attended, I might add, presumably because everyone else had remembered the Rum & Beer Festival at a different venue.  And of course Dwight & Stevie stopped in and spent time with us every afternoon.

When I was not messing with solar panels or socializing, I was varnishing the cap rails.  As I have mentioned previously, the ruts were very deep when this project began.  Even after much sanding before doing any varnishing, some ruts remained.  So it is taking many sessions of varnishing and sanding, varnishing and sanding, varnishing and sanding, in an effort to get a smooth surface.  I am not there yet.

On another note: here is an update on the outcome of our car accident in August while in Norway. The total cost of the damage to the car was $6,477.  We sent American Express the electronic version of all of our paperwork and accident photos right after we filed the claim. We were told by American Express that they would handle all communication with Europcar and we would get weekly summaries.  Week after week we saw that Europcar was not responding to AmEx’s request for more information.  Of course a lot of the information they requested was ridiculous, such as a police report, salvage value, etc..  Barb called them numerous times but was told that they understood all of the documents were not required and to have patience.  One day we got a note that the claim was being closed since it had been inactive too long. It would be reopened as soon as some progress was made. Barb hit the roof and began regular communication with AmEx and Europcar.  It turned out that Europcar had not billed us since it appeared they were waiting on all the tolls to be logged that had been automatically charged (by camera or sensor) during our passage along Norway’s highways.  Barb asked them to please bill so we could get the claim progressing.  When the bill was finally submitted, it was a combined total of the rental and the damages, so she had to go back and get them to break apart the charges.  She got that statement to American Express and thought all was well.  After a period of inactivity, she called to see what the latest delay was.  It turned out that the claims person never saw the original documents Barb had sent two days after the accident and wouldn’t proceed until those were filed.  After reviewing the date and time it was sent, the email was found, the attachments read, and finally the claim progressed.  A week later we got notice that they were paying $4,877 of the charges but would not pay the Norwegian damage tax of $1,219.  At this point we were happy that something got paid but Barb called about the damage tax and learned that they cannot/will not pay the tax.  We were bummed but about a week later discovered on our AmEx statement that Europcar had refunded the damage tax.  And the foreign transaction fee also disappeared.  Halleluia!  So after all that hassle we can say that the credit card car collision rental insurance did work.  Would we use it again?  Yes, but we will ensure that we have liability insurance too since who knows what would have happened if another car or other people had been involved in the accident.  We will also read more carefully the details of the rental contract (unless it is again in a foreign language, in which case we will once again be dependent on the competence of the rental staff — competence sadly lacking in our original Europcar experience.)