9 1/2 weeks

As previously mentioned in the last update the "blowout" had changed the nature of the pour sequence. The septic slab was not poured and all attention was directed to the driveway. After Denise returned home in the first week of April, Thor and I were left with a short punch list while waiting for concrete. I had previously put in my order and paid for it expecting to pour in about ten days.



Work proceeded very quickly in shoring up the upper and lower retaining walls. One blow out was enough!

The repaired lower wall.

Then we waited for concrete. The ten days came and went. The normal run of excuses, rain etc. Thor had to leave. He had hopes of jumping down to Antigua for race week and getting a crew position to either sail to Europe or back to New England. It's a well worn trail. I did the same back in 1974 and ended up sailing the entire Caribbean jumping ship in Panama and heading up to Guatemala. Years later I was to sail the South Pacific on the same yacht--the Diogenes--out of Sausalito no less. Go figure.

Bad news, good news, bad news. Thor didn't find any boat worth sailing on and returned to St John to plan his flight home. I was still waiting for concrete after three weeks and counting. What to do besides sitting here at Turtle bay in Caneel.

What to do? The lower deck!

Previously when the pool had been dug we distributed the earth to grade the deck to the level of the beams I had built and poured. Basically all we had to do was lay in the rebar and attach it to the existing foundation slab and tie it to the rebar sticking out of the beams. It was at this point I decided to cantilever the deck out three feet past the footing beam to extend my drip edge. Besides gaining a wider deck, at additional expense and labor, it allowed more of my fill slope to be protected. Just the thought of having a level work area was enough enticement to get the work done before the concrete arrived. I added to the concrete order bringing it up to 30 yards.

We laid a double grid seven feet wide through the center. Average pour depth was probably 12". I'd rather just pour extra concrete than try to get everything to six/eight inches. I used all my old galvanizing from my gravel chute for the floor in the center.


They are always inspecting the work.

In other great news, the road up the mountain was to be graded and paved--finally. This has been a rumor for years. The new Governor said he would get it done. Supposedly the money was allocated years ago when the road was designated a federal emergency access road. Is any of this true? I have not a clue. From my truck's perspective it can't happen soon enough. After more than 1500 trips I don't know how many more are left in her. It's hard to convey how difficult the road can be. It changes weekly depending upon the weather.

The view from Dr. Bob's driveway. The really only level part of the road.


Bad news again. The concrete got delayed once again. Thor had to go home. Now the waiting begins again. And wait I did for another 5 1/2 weeks. I can barely talk about it. I heard every imaginable excuse. From broken axles, hospitalizations, no sand, sunken barges, the wrong sized gravel to wrong parts from Puerto Rico. Worse still I was told a new excuse one or two days prior to my expected delivery date each week. After a while you start to take it personally. I don't do that well. I go to places I shouldn't. Yes of course I confronted the people, within reason, but what are you going to really do when they are the only folks that have what you need. Not to mention every delay has always cost me something--mud slides, money, warped forms, extra labor to name a few. What would it be this time?

So there I sat, stewing everyday. Waiting and waiting. I could go to the beach? Don't I wish. That only makes it worse as my mood got darker every day. That's all I'm going to say about it.

Before and after. I let the rain wash my work clothes. It's good for about three washings. Then they walk to the laundromat.

The bright spot, they started the road repair expecting it to take ninety days to grade and pour the .3 of a mile that gave the road its reputation.

The road before it was graded.

These guys along with several other heavy equipment operators were going to ruin my day.

During the middle of the tenth week Jeff called and said he was coming in the morning. Sure Jeff whatever you say. As always bring extra crew. I pay Jeff for crew. How smart is that? Had I not had this arrangement I would have been paying a crew one day a week to sit around and do nothing the previous nine weeks. I learned that lesson a few pours back.

He actually showed up!!! I'm speechless. While they set up the pumper truck Jeff and I go down the hill to talk to the road crew to arrange for the cement trucks to get by as they come up. They know the drill.

Jeff calls for the first truck to be sent. Typically it takes about 35/40 minutes to get here, weather and traffic permitting. After the first truck arrives they usually send the next one and so it goes until the pour is finished. I've got four trucks coming. Waiting for the first truck we have a little time to relax and get ready. The calm before the storm so to speak.

After about ninety minutes Jeff calls to find out where the concrete is. Where's the truck? We don't know we sent it over an hour ago! (of course there is no cellphone coverage coming up the mountain) With that Jeff and I jump in my truck and race down the hill to find the truck.

Not good! Sure enough the road crew is blocking the truck with heavy equipment while finishing a trench. The screaming and yelling starts. I just watch, it's in a language I don't understand. Jeff is not to messed with when he puts aside his buzz and his rasta love. Let's just say the equipment started moving very quickly. Here's the best part, there's not one concrete truck but two with another waiting at the bottom of the hill. Majestic screwed up and just sent trucks without checking.

What should have been a leisurely pour, if there is such a thing, with some hard work pouring the deck and slabs has now turned into a race with very hot concrete and I mean very hot--it was going off in the trucks. Stateside this pour would not have happened. The concrete would be discarded. But we ain't in Kansas anymore.

The first truck backing down the cul de sac. The truth is, it's a minor miracle that they can even get here. Jeff says I have the worst pour when you combine location, slope and the amount of pipe to lay, on island. I'm sure of it. It's hard on the equipment and workers. No doubt I get bumped at the drop of a hat.

Backing into the pumper truck.

Everyone is frantic now. If anything goes wrong we are all screwed, the trucks and the job. There is no room for error. We start with the deck. How hot is the concrete in the first truck? We poured 10x15 sections and we only had time to screed them with a 2x4. We could not bull float them no matter how much water we spread about. Same with the pool slab. Forget the septic, we didn't have time to put the pipe out and back. I called to cancel the last truck. Thankfully knowing our predicament they had not sent it. It had six yards.

Next to go was the lower retaining wall. We caught a small break as they changed trucks. I tried everything to smooth out the pool slab while they then jumped up to the upper retaining wall. Everyone was working as fast as they could trying to break down pipe and get to the upper wall. It can set up in the pipes.

As the lower picture below shows it plugged itself and didn't fill up the wall. Also by having to cancel the last truck we ran short on the other end of the wall which still stands unfinished waiting for my next pour.

The other end where we ran out of concrete. We are about two feet short of the top over the last ten feet.

At least the blow out wall is fixed.

Finally a level deck to work on. The small pool/jacuzzi will be under the blue tarp at the far corner.

When it was all done I had two unfinished walls, an unpoured septic slab for the second time and a deck and pool slab looking like lumpy gravy. If that wasn't enough I had concrete chemical burns blistering on my right arm and shoulder, both thighs and my ass from where I had accidentally sat down while straddling the upper retaining wall trying to screed the top. I could not sit right for a few days. I don't know what was worse, that or having to pay for this SNAFU.

So I did what any grown man would do, I cried and booked another flight home. I say another because I had already cancelled two flights with the concrete delays. Folks don't understand the chain reaction delays cause. This time it cost me two flights, Thor had to go home, a hectic pour with shoddy results, thanks to the road crew and majestic sending trucks without checking, unfinished walls that can't be back filled leaving the upper deck delayed, a septic still to be poured and Majestic owing me six yards that they may forget about by the time I organize another pour.

The silver lining? The road work continues. The parts completed feel like a magic carpet ride. I still have to pinch myself. Electricity, a paved road, cell phone connectivity and a wireless computer hook up, I don't care how slow it is. All that in less than two years where previously there was nothing.

I busied myself taking down some forms and smoothing out the pool slab with my hammer drill while waiting for my flight. The drill made short work of the slab and keyways for the coming walls.

Someone lost control of this short 2x6 when they were pouring the small columns inside the small room we made for the pool equipment.

At last off to the ferry to catch a plane.

I have since found out by reading other accounts that other folks have suffered even longer concrete delays all with the same excuses. In some cases they had to pay the crews. Yes I know I should have gone to the beach.