Sprit from Hell

To reset the scene, My yacht is resting on the hard, while a crew of painters work on the bottom paint and a crew varnishes the top sides. Sitting on four horses is my great log waiting to be fashioned into a beautiful new bow sprit when a message came to me that I received a wonderful three week charter in Turkey for top dollar! The problem was I had to be in Rhodes Greece to pick them him in 33 days. A quick calculation if I may. I had roughly 6000 nm to cover. My vessel covered approximately 350 nm in 24 hours making a straight trip 18 days. That is if everything including the weather was perfect. However, I would have to make a couple of stops. 2 days in Antigua to pick up my crew and supplies, 2 days in the Azores to resupply and rest, 2 days in Gibraltar at the mouth of the Med, then 2 days in Palermo Italy for fuel and supplies leaving me four days of leeway before the guests stepped on board to begin a three week cruising vacation. I'm tired just thinking about it! First I had to get the old bow sprit off the boat, fashion the new one then replace it and tune the rig! I had just three days to do it before the window closed and I would be late and anger the guests and the broker. Ouch!
This was a time before cellphones and the internet so we relied on a message board system. I called the crew agency in Antigua and had them post a notice for my crew that I would be arriving a couple days late but not to worry. I had also arranged for two new crew members/Charterers actually to join me on the crossing. I always booked a no frills adventure charter for sailors wishing to get a crossing under their belt so they could brag to their yacht club members that had crossed the Atlantic. They paid to be crew and were treated as such. The money covered my expenses for the crossing. Smart? Yes and no.
I employed a forklift to take down the old bow sprit. I idea was in spite of my extensive measurements I would have the original as a template to copy, but when the forklift went to turn the old bow sprit fell off nearly killing the bottom painters and shattered into three large pieces. All the king's men couldn't but this rotten stick together again! Undeterred and feeling reinforced in my decision to change the bow sprit, imagine if this broke in the middle of a storm in the Atlantic and my rig came tumbling down, I forged ahead still confident I could make my deadline.
With every bargain comes some kind of problem. Those of you that have worked with teak know it is a very hard and oily wood, but what I didn't know was green teak was nearly impossible to work. Armed with a chainsaw, circular saw, a full compliment of awls, scrappers, chisels, drills and 1.5 hp router I was impotent in the face of green teak! With the clock ticking and my window closing I cut, chipped, scrapped and cursed my way to fashioning a workable sprit for two and half days. I fore swore rum and lived on coffee, roti chicken, fried plantains and candy yams while I worked into the wee hours of the morning.
Finally on the third day, I had reassembled the bow sprit onto my yacht, even adding a couple of extra turns on the port spider stay to compensate for sun coming from the South as the next month sailing would be east and I didn't want the sprit to look south. Rushing around like a mad chicken, which I might add roam the shipyard with impunity, the lift dropped my baby into the water. It was time to leave Trinidad. I only wished I could have spent more leisure hours on the island. I thanked the guys in the shipyard, who were wonderful and set off for the fuel dock to top off with some cheap diesel fuel before making the run to Antigua, but the fuel dock was closed for repairs! I would make a quick stop in Grenada for fuel and be on my way!
Tomorrow White Squall and greasing the wheels.