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Diane's Diary1/23 Wed It was rainy & squally all morning so I didn't take my usual walk to get croissants & baguettes. Steph & I waited for the rain to stop & went over to the supermarket by dinghy. We wound up staying a few hours because we kept getting on & off showers. I invited Mima over for dinner tonight & made brie with pasta. A very good dish. It's been nice having our dinners together as Steph & I both take turns cooking. It gives us both a break from cooking so much. We wish we could get the guys to cook & do the dishes but that will never happen! (Ed. Note - I do the dishes.) Larry installed the new boat part & it works! We will leave the marina for the anchorage as soon as our month is up on 2/8. In the meantime, we are enjoying the marina - it's really nice not having to worry about electric. 1/24 Thurs I got a bad night's sleep last night. We have this guy on a decrepit boat from Dominica near us that has no respect for anyone else on the dock. He has loud speakers in the cockpit & blares his music all day long. He has girls coming on the boat at night & they stay up late talking very loudly. Everyone on the dock is annoyed with him. Someone must have said something to the marina because one day they moved his boat over to an area so he wouldn't bother anyone. Anyway, I finally got back to updating my financial spreadsheet for the year. I want to figure out what we spent last year. Everything has to be categorized & translated back into USD - this is the hardest part. Then I'll enter it all in an Excel spreadsheet. I tried to take a short nap this afternoon but a new boat came in next to us with all these kids & was making all this noise. Steph & I took a long walk with Clem around 5pm. I should go with her every day- it's nice to take a long walk. We had dinner on Mima tonight Steph made chicken curry, which was quite good. I didn't think Larry would like it as he doesn't like curry but he did. Steph just didn't make it very spicy for him. I have a very bad sore throat I can't seem to shake. 1/25 Fri I still have a very bad sore throat I wake with every morning along with a bad cough. Steph went to Fort-de-France with Lady J. They invited me to go but I really didn't want to, as I didn't really like it when we were there the last time. So, I stayed & updated our financial records. I also made a nice breakfast of bacon & eggs. Eggs are very expensive here- over $2USD for medium eggs so we don't have eggs very often. I made bar-b-que pork for dinner & invited Mima for dinner. Actually, we went to Mima & had it over there. 1/26 Sat I'm still not feeling well; I can't seem to shake this sore throat & cough. I didn't get a good night's sleep as I kept having coughing fits. Finally, I got up & found the cough syrup, took some & it seemed to help. Larry helped Tom with his bilge pump. Mima was supposed to leave by now but the wind has been really ripping- about 20-25 knots with 7-9 foot seas. Doesn't sound to bad but the seas really make the trip uncomfortable. As long as you are in the lee of the island, things don't seem too bad. But, once you are out of the lee, look out, the waves make the passage very uncomfortable. So, Mima is trying to wait for a good weather window to head north. After seeing the winds, I am convinced it was better for us to go north & see Venezuela next year. I think S/V Great White Wonder was right - the winds really make sailing in the winter months uncomfortable & the anchorages in Venezuela would not have been as good with all that wind. Anyway, we had a potluck leftover dinner with Mima tonight. It was good that both Steph & I didn't have to cook much- they have a microwave & could nuke everything. Oh, how that makes leftovers so easy! 1/27 Sun I'm still sick with that same sore throat & cough so I took it easy today. We are renting a car tomorrow so I don't want to have to stay home if I'm still sick. Tom & Larry went to the grocery store. No, that is not a mis-print. Larry did indeed go to the grocery store! He doesn't do this very often - I think he only went to go with Tom. I wanted to take a nap but the kids next door were making noise so I couldn't sleep. I started entering all last years expense numbers in an Excel spreadsheet. It takes along time to data enter all the numbers & check for errors. But, I'm almost done. It's been a very interesting analysis to see where all the money went. We spent more money than budgeted but I bet most cruisers did the same. The biggest unforeseen expense is boat repairs. Also, food is much more expensive here than at home. Surprising, we hardly spend anything on entertainment but that's because our main entertainment is spending evenings with other boaters on each other's boats. Funny, at home we meet all our friends out somewhere, but here we just go to each other's boats because people don't have the money to spend to go out. 1/28 Mon Today we rented a very small car with Mima for the day for 23Euro's or almost 21USD. The car was a very small 2 door manual car but we managed to survive for the day. We drove over to the east side of the island onto one of the peninsulas - beautiful views & coastline but it was very rough. We saw this beautiful, but decrepit estate where the owner used to lure unsuspecting boats in the old days onto the reefs by misleading them with lights. It was interesting & had great views but wasn't worth the 2.70USD admission charge per person. We also went food shopping & both of us spent a lot of money. It's so much easier to shop when you have a car & are dockside. We both stocked up on things. Plus, the price of food was cheaper than in Marin because we went to a gigantic supermarket. We got back around 5pm, put all the groceries away, & drove over to St. Anne at 6:30pm to meet Lady J for a pizza dinner. Tom gave Larry lesson on driving a manual transmission so Larry drove to St. Anne's. The pizza was good but not at all like ours back home - first off they use Swiss cheese, almost no sauce & very thin crust. Anyway, we all had a good time sitting around talking. Larry drove back to Marin also. It was really nice having a car again. It was very difficult to get a car at these cheap rates. We waited almost 2 weeks for this one. Gas is very expensive also- about $5USD per gallon! We used $13USD of gas, plus 21USD for the car so the entire rental was 36euro or 16USD per couple. In Trinidad we can rent a car by our self for 20USD & gas is very cheap just to give you a price comparison. 1/29 Tues Steph came over & talked to me in the morning. Larry worked on greasing all the winches. I updated my logs in the afternoon. It takes longer than you think to do all this typing. Things are much easier now that I have my own computer that I can use whenever I want instead of sharing it with Larry. I made Swiss cheese omelets for breakfast since I bought 30 eggs on sale. We went to Mima for dinner of shrimp pasta Al fredo - very good & I think I will start making it especially since we can get all this wonderful cream - it's UHT cream, which lasts forever & is terrific. You can only find it in the French islands though. I will bring lots with me when we leave Martinique. 1/30 Wed Steph came over again this morning & we had girl talk without the guys. I cooked chicken cutlets as we have invited them over for dinner for chicken cutlet with mushroom & wine sauce. Larry worked on greasing the winches again- it takes a long time to do each one. I finished reading the 2 books Steph lent me- " Little Altars Everywhere" & " Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Girls" I enjoyed reading them both. I updated my logs from 2-4pm. 1/31 Thurs I waxed the starboard side of the deck in the am. It took me a few hours to do. I was tired & took a nap in the pm. Then, when it got cooler out, I waxed the portside in the afternoon. I still have the cockpit to do. I bought a bottle of 3M liquid wax from Mima since we can't find the bottle of wax we had on the boat. The boat looks a lot better now- I had not waxed it since we were here in Martinique last May. It is amazing how much maintenance is required on the boat. We work on something on the boat at least every day. We went to Mima tonight for chicken fried steak that Tom made for us- it's a southern dish. We had never had it before & it was very good. We both liked it. 2/1 Fri At 10am this morning, Steph & I took their dinghy over to St. Anne's. We picked up Jackie on S/V Lady J & had a ladies day out. We walked around town & I bought the USA Today. Strangely enough, we can't get a US newspaper in Marin but can get it here in St. Anne. But, they have no Internet café in St. Anne so you have to come over to Marin to use the Internet. Very strange. We went for lunch to the little bakery we always get bread at. We walked over to the Caritan hotel & sat for a while & just talked. It was nice to just have a girl's day out & we all had a good time. It was very windy getting back to Marin & we got soaked even with Mima's good dinghy as we had to slow down to let some windsurfers pass in front of us. I was completely wet when we got back & had to go back to the boat into the shower right away to get all the salt water off. Steph made a piecrust & I made a crabmeat quiche. Bacon is pretty good here - small little pieces but it's perfect for bacon & eggs or quiche. The next quiche I'll make will be quiche Lorraine to take advantage of the wonderful Swiss cheese & bacon. I'll save the crabmeat for other dishes. This crabmeat is what I have left from the US but I only have a few cans left. Crabmeat is very expensive here in the Caribbean so once this is gone I won't get anymore. We all liked the quiche but somehow Steph's crust didn't brown. Larry had spent the day installing a new rope clutch. |