11 August 1994 Hog Island
Margaret’s final exam. She was panicking and stayed up late last night revising. It’s very hard to learn something technical in a foreign language and she struggled with interpreting the exam questions, which I must admit are very verbose and designed to catch you out. It took her 2½ hours, but she scored 98%! I did OW4 with Margaret and we saw lobsters again. There is one nice large lobster that I’ve got my eye on – the hunting season starts in 20 days!
I did OW5 with Glenys and Margaret. Margaret took her mask off and inhaled some water. She started to panic and I had to take her to the surface. She then came back down and removed the mask and replaced it perfectly. Glenys did all her stuff with no problems. Filled 3 tanks. We went for a drink on “Filia” to celebrate and drank too much red wine.
12 August 1994 Hog Island to Mount Harman Bay
Bit of a hangover this morning. I did CW1 and CW2 with André Bluteau from “Petit Bonheur”. As soon as I had finished we motored around to Secret Harbour and filled the water and fuel tanks. I got 2 tanks filled. We then anchored in Mount Hartman Bay.
Gary came for dinner and we stayed up until midnight, getting drunk and putting the world to rights. Gary is still only earning £500/month and works 7 days per week, 12 hours/day. Bob is taking over the dive operation at the Ramada Hotel in 18 days and still hasn’t employed any staff! It will be interesting to see what happens.
I managed to get a rough estimate of the cost of a new petrol engine for Gerry’s Bauer compressor. It’s about $700 by the time I get it delivered which would put the total cost too high. Glenys has agreed that it would be a good idea for us to have one, so I’m going to look into buying a new one which will cost $2500 to $3000.
13 August 1994 Mount Harman to Hog Island
A bit dull this morning. We upped anchor and went around to Hog Island. I did CW3 in the morning with André and then OW dives 1 and 2 with him. Bill from “Rajah Laut” had his windsurfer assembled and I went straight from diving to windsurfing.
What a mistake! I had a great reach out of the anchorage, but when I gybed, about ½ mile out, I stalled the board and went in. I then spent 20 minutes trying to water start (not enough wind) and to haul up (waves too big)! Eventually I made it back after hitting the fin on the reef several times. I was in bed, exhausted, by eight o’clock! I filled 5 tanks. I told Gerry that I didn’t want his compressor.
14 August 1994 Hog Island
I did Modules 4 and 5 theory with André. The weather was so awful that we decided not to do CW4 and CW5. I went over to “Rajah Laut” to swap some games with John. Gerry had tried to fill some tanks with his compressor, but couldn’t get it to pressure up. He said that he was sick of it and did I want it for $200! Is the Pope a Catholic! I’m now the proud owner of a Bauer Varius with a 220V motor which I can’t run, I don’t know if it works and God knows where we are going to store it!
The boys went playing, so Glenys and I had a nice quiet Sunday lunch with a bottle of wine. We went to the barbeque late afternoon.
15 August 1994 Hog Island
I did CW4 and CW5 with André and then we all went into town. I trudged around trying to find a 5hp petrol engine. I eventually found a Briggs and Stratton in a hardware store but they want £625 for it! Hopefully I can get one via Outfitters or in Trinidad.
We had lunch in the Nutmeg and met Dee and Marina from “Marina Em”, who we first met in January at Hog Island. We went to the beach for a few beers with “Rajah Laut”.
16 August 1994 Hog Island
I did OW4 and OW5 with André and certified him. That’s 5 certifications in 16 days which isn’t a bad start to Dive Glencora! I took John from “Quest” and Annie from “Saga Boy” on an escorted dive. Annie hasn’t done much diving and wanted me to refresh her memory. I made her do partial mask clear, reg recovery and hovering. We went for a nice swim. She was good and we had a nice dive. I got paid $35 for just going diving which is amazing! John is an old school, he-man type diver and took off his BCD at 12 metres (without telling anyone beforehand) to adjust his tank position.
Filled 5 tanks. My diving order book is now empty, so I asked Bob if he needs any help and he said probably in a couple of days. There is a tropical storm (Chris) at 40°W, 11°N which is moving this way. We’ll have to keep an eye on it.
17 August 1994 Hog Island
At 0500, tropical storm Chris was at 12.1N 42.9W moving 285° at 10 kts. It is 115 miles radius with winds 40+ knots. We are at 12°N 61°W so it should pass well to the north of us.
I switched on the computer to plot the hurricane’s path and to my horror I found that the bottom half of the display is faulty again. This is a new computer so I am either blowing up something because of my power supply arrangement or there is a design fault with the display. I spent the morning writing a snotty fax to Watford Electronics demanding my money back.
In the afternoon Glenys, Tony from “Marina Em” and I went for a dive. The visibility was awful and we didn’t see much. To my horror, my tank floated loose as I was navigating us back to the dinghy.
18 August 1994 Hog Island
I went for a day’s diving with Scuba World. I persuaded Peter from “Tekaroa” and John from “Naia” to go on the Bianca C with us. We had a strenuous dive on the Bianca C – the anchor wasn’t on the wreck and there was a stiff current. Pete and John were allocated to me but during the dive John latched himself onto Bob when he got low on air. The dive was a bit chaotic!
I did a really nice Discover Scuba dive on the quarter wreck in the afternoon. There was a guy called John on the dive. He’s an instructor who has run various dive operations in Grenada, Canouan and St Vincent. At the moment he’s running a yacht called “Jenny P” for someone. I asked him about a 5hp engine and he said that he’d got a spare one – you could have knocked me down with a feather! Glenys came over to pick me up and we had a few beers at happy hour.
19 August 1994 Hog Island
I spent the day trying to see if I could get the 5hp engine going and looking for somewhere to stow the compressor. I had a bad day and achieved nothing. The engine is in poor shape so I won’t buy it and I’m going to have to make a new watertight coffin to store the compressor on deck. I’ve got no information back from Outfitters or Airtech in St Thomas about prices for new engines.
Glenys and the boys went into town to look at the “The Simon Bolivar” which is a 250ft, 3-masted tall ship from Venezuela.
20 August 1994 Hog Island
I took the compressor over to “Marina Em” because Tony has got a 240V generator which can run the electric motor. The compressor didn’t pressure up but after 4 hours of dismantling, cleaning and putting back together we got it working. A couple of reed valves had stuck. I messed about in the afternoon and we then went to the beach for a barbeque to celebrate “Tekaroa’s” first anniversary cruising.