May 2009 - Caribbean Compass

— Continued from previous page
But more importantly, they introduced us to what
is now our new home. In the depths of the marina
yard where Springtime was moored lay a neglected
lady of dilapidated beauty. The story was told that
the original owners of Sparrow, a 34-foot Seafarer
yawl, had sailed many a mile on the cute yacht, but
had purchased a larger vessel and had been trying to
sell little Sparrow for years, and had reached a point
where they were selling off equipment.
Above: Dom making locker covers with wood left over
from a recently built catamaran
Top right: Dom’s parents helping Alex (at left) bed the
toe rail
With encouragement from Niels and Ruth aboard
Baraka, I sent the owners an e-mail, suggesting that
Dom and I would take the boat off their hands. The
response came: “If the boat is indeed still on the hard,
you should consider her yours! Regards, Ron and Mary-
Ann.” No one could believe that we had been GIVEN a
boat! But that’s not where the generosity stopped.
I arranged to launch her from her berth at the
Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA) and tow
her around to Power Boats’ yard at Chaguaramas,
where we had been given a very special arrangement
in light of the circumstances. The day before the move
I spent plugging all the through-hulls with greased
rags and wooden plugs, and stuffing the centerboard
casing with more greased rags and then covering it
with rubbish bags taped to the hull. At 5:00AM on the
morning of the launch, I, Dom, Thomas, Terry (a fellow
South African cruiser) and Malcolm, the owner of a
towing vessel whom we had met the night before, sped
around the headland from Chaguaramas to TTSA in a
Boston Whaler.
Already Sparrow was looking as if she had a new
lease on life. Dom and Johness had scrubbed her hull
and decks and emptied her interior of all the rubble
that had been left by people stripping what they wanted
from her. (It had taken me several hours extracting
the oil-and-diesel cocktail from her bilge and in the
process getting a few mouthfuls’ taste by accident.)
She was delicately carried from her place of dilapidation
to the shoreline where she rested happily half in
the water while a final check for leaks was performed.
It was the most perfect of mornings. The water was
glossy turquoise and shimmered in the morning sun
without the disturbance of any whispering wind. The
tow line was secured between the two boats and
Sparrow once again felt the water moving beneath her.
It seemed that guardian angels were looking after us,
because as we glided in to the slip at Power Boats with
the momentum we had gathered from towing, the wind
Alex fitting the engine
raised its breath to a steady breeze.
It took a solid three-and-a-half months of hot and
sweaty work on the hard at Power Boats to finish the
jobs that needed to be done. With endless assistance
from people from all over, Sparrow’s make-over was
made possible. We renovated her interior with leftover
wood from the recently built catamaran Wild Vanilla,
making bunk beds, locker lids, companionway stairs,
a nav table and switchboard box. The cabin walls we
sponged with orange enamel paint and in the process
half the paint was accidently spilt on the floor, hence
the colour scheme turned to orange. The cushion covers
are made of inexpensive cotton from Trinidad’s
many fabric shops, which we then tie-died in reds,
blues and purples. The cooking-utensil holder and
spice rack were designed from offcuts of the local
woodworking shops.
Her bowsprit and mizzenmast, along with a hard
cockpit roof, were removed, restoring her original
pretty lines. All the rigging was redone and her sails
patched. All the ropes and halyards onboard were
donated by the Budget Marine rigging shop. Her topside
colour was determined by two pots of British
Racing Car Green polyurethane paint that were on
special, which we rolled on with one roller, later also
used for the antifouling.
In total, the resurrection of Sparrow has cost
approximately US$6,000 and would not have been
possible if it weren’t for the generosity of others. We
were given our Taylor stove, a Raychart GPS, the foam
for our saloon seats and bunks, a MP3 CD/radio, all
our deck hardware, a Navik windvane, cutlery and
crockery, pots and pans, a gas bottle, and many more
bits and pieces that have all helped put the Sparrow
puzzle back together.
Thomas removing masking tape from the newly
repainted topsides
Our story bears testament that if you are able to stay
in Trinidad for long enough, you can put an entire boat
together with what other people donate or discard.
Sparrow has spent the last year on the hard while we
were overseas working and getting married, but now
we are looking forward to the adventures the we will
share aboard our little yacht. We would like to send a
BIG thank you to everyone that has been involved in
the resurrection of Sparrow. You know who you are.
Wishing fair wind and calm seas to all.
MAY 2009 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 31