“Please Don’t Stop The Carnival” True story by Edgar Roe

Let’s Go Sailing, But “Please Don’t Stop The Carnival” !!!!!

It’s 2.22am Tuesday, August 18 & I have to relate my adventure’s of the last few days before they become too distant in my rather ’short memory’ to recall !
A couple of weeks ago I decided that it was wise to to take my J24, “Loose Cannon” out of the water here in Rodney Bay, StLucia, & store it safely on dry land, out of ‘harm’s way’, The main reason for this is because I am departing on Wednesday, Aug. 19 for a couple of months “Down Under” – my first journey back home for more than two & a half years.
‘Red Pants’, Frank & I, plus possibly a few others, discussed over, probably far too many ‘Pitons’, how it would be best to remove “Loose Cannon” from the rather dilapidated dock in the Rodney Bay Marina area, to dry land.
We finally decided that it was unwise to use “The Piton Pilar”, (barge) Red Pants’ current excuse for earning a decent living, from the water to the dock side land.
Frank convinced me that with ‘Hurricane Season’ arriving, it would be wise to lift ‘Loose Cannon’s Mast’  so as to reduce wind-age, should a hurricane arrive while I was “Down Under”. We didn’t want to run the risk of having “Loose Cannon” blow off the trailer in 100 plus mph winds in some as yet ‘unnamed hurricane’ did we !!!
So, the search began for a trailer to place ‘L C’ on so that we could tow the boat to a safe haven ‘on shore’.
The StLucia Yacht Club grounds are the home for three J24 trailers, plus the shipping frame which “Loose Cannon” arrived in StLucia on, approximately six years ago.
“Grayling”, one of the SLYC owned J24’s, owns one of those trailers and, even though rust was evident in most areas of the trailer, it appeared to be capable of doing what was required – just renew a couple of rear end supports welded at ‘Rytes’ engineering shop, tow the trailer to the IGY boatyard for the ‘Lift & Tow’ and away we go !!!
Hugh was kind enough to offer to assist with the tow from the SLYC yard to the engineering shop & this proceeded with a minimum of fuss – just a ‘Low Low Gear 4 Wheel Drive Tow’ over the top of a lot of timber and metal  before forcing one of the wheels to unlock after more than six years of ‘no use at all’ !
Friday morning duly arrived and after a good night’s sleep, I was ready to get the job done and move on to Soufriere, in the south of St Lucia for a relaxing weekend away from sailing, with my friend Noreen, for the first time in many months.
At 8.00am I was at the boat and soon ready to meet ‘Red Pants’ at the ‘Piton Pilar’ barge for the mast to be lifted.
Everything appeared to go extremely well and the mast was lowered to the deck of “Loose Cannon” with a minimum of fuss, except that I did notice that the mainsail halyard fitting was still at deck level, just above the mast collar.
‘L C’ was duly towed to the IGY Boatyard for the 1.00pm lift and everything appeared to be ‘Tickety Boo’ !
Wonderful says E R to himself !
Hugh and I collect the trailer from ‘Rytes’ engineering shop at 12.45pm with new rear end pads welded and proceed towards the IGY Boatyard.
I lead the way in my car so as to alert security at the boatyard of the imminent arrival of the trailer.
Bad move !!! – The near side wheel falls off the trailer after only 100 yards – right in the middle of the road at the roundabout outside Johnson’s Hardware.
Five hours later, after considerable phone assistance from Ted,the SLYC Bosun & Peter L at his dealership/workshop and finally a drive into Castries to Bandag to purchase a new set of bearings for the roadside wheel, I was able to make  the trailer roadworthy again.
Whilst trying to figure out how to install a new set of bearings into a wheel for the first time ever, I became extremely thirsty with the afternoon sun beating down on my ‘bald head’. My bottle of cold water had ‘long gone’ along with Hugh who still had a business to run and promised to return when this minor problem had been resolved.
With hands full of grease, my cell phone begins to ring and there on the other end of the line is my friend Peter, alias Mickey M, who wants to wish me ‘Bon Voyage’, thinking that I am leaving for ‘OZ’ sooner than planned. Other than the problem at hand, my greatest desire, at that moment in time, was for a ‘Super Cold Piton’, which ‘Mickey’ duly delivered in a matter of minutes from his home just down the road.
So, it’s now 6.00pm and with timber supports and hydraulic jack returned to Lawrence at Uli’s workshop, Hugh returns from his family beach party to tow the trailer to the boatyard for the ‘lift and tow’.
It’s way too late to get the boat onto the trailer now, so I make a quick dash to ‘Cafe Ole’ for a couple of cold Pitons before cleaning up and off to Soufriere for the weekend.
Saturday morning arrives and Ricky, who is in charge of the Travel Lift at the IGY Boatyard tells me that one of the trailer tires is now flat.
Oh my god, what next says I, while enjoying a wonderful brunch down near Soufriere at the Ladera Resort.
Trevor, who crews for me, was kind enough to go and get some air into the tires – problem solved for now !
Monday morning and I am down to the boatyard by 8.00am after collecting the electric car tire pump from Ted which Frank kindly loaned, just in case the tires were flat again – and they were !!!
While pumping the tires again, I needed to get something from inside ”Loose Cannon’s” cabin.
To my amazement, when I entered the cabin I noticed for the first time that the base of the mast – from deck level to keel was still there !!!
Without the slightest noise, the mast had snapped at deck level when “Red Pants”, his co-worker and I were lifting the mast with the crane on the ‘Piton Pilar’ last Friday morning. How lucky was I that the mast had not broken while sailing in 50mph winds just a couple of weeks prior, or even during the previous weekend’s racing to and from Marigot Bay
Hugh duly arrives at about 9.15am to tow the boat - and away we go !
Not too far though, because we got barely outside the gate of the boatyard when the axle collapsed on the trailer, leaving both trailer wheels at an acute angle and no chance of any further progress. Another few cell phone calls to Bosun Ted for advise as to what would be best to do and help duly arrived.
Forget any further use of that trailer other than to get it back into the boatyard and go to find another one capable of doing the job.
Charles, SLYC Commodore, kindly offers his trailer, which is also parked in the SLYC grounds, so off I go to get it ready for Jerry to help with his truck to tow it back to the boatyard.
All is ready by the time Jerry arrives, so off we go again – well, we did get about 30 yards before one of the wheels fell off this trailer too !!! Sorry Charles !
So now we only have one trailer left and that belongs to “Jabal”, which Nick sails. Nick kindly offers the use of it, so away we go again !
Ricky, at the boatyard, is now ready with the travel lift to transfer “Loose Cannon” from trailer to trailer and that goes without a hitch.
Apart from a minor incident when the trailer uncouples itself from the tow-bar on Hugh’s car we slowly make our way to the new ‘resting place’ for “Loose Cannon” until my return from Australia in October.
By this time it is raining heavily and we are all soaked but who cares !!!
Hugh kindly offers to drive me back to collect my car from outside of the boatyard, so I call Jerry to tell him to meet me at Cafe Ole for a few beers ‘on me’.
Jerry calmly answers the phone and tells me that, with the Grayling trailer in tow, his car has just skidded with the extra weight of the trailer behind and smashed into the rear of a car driven by a lady just outside of JQ’s Mall !!!

I should add that the “few beers on me” ended up being 57 beers on me at Cafe Ole with the likes of ‘Red Pants’, Becky, Noreen, Rob & of course, Jerry.
What’s next ???
Edgar.