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Diane's Diary2/13 Wed Today is the last day of Carnival thank goodness. There has been loud music coming from the beach till all hours of the night so we haven't been sleeping well. At 10am I took a walk with the ladies from Lady J & Piano. We walked for about an hour. We walked up to the hotel & had a quick dip in the pool since Lady J needed to get back to the boat. It was great to go swimming in a fresh water pool again. There were a lot of people in the pool so no one said anything to us. Actually, we have been told in most of the islands that since we are white the people assume we belong there & don't say anything. But if we were black we would probably be questioned. Just a fact that is sad but probably true. Anyway, I was tired from our long walk so I took a quick nap for about an hour. Tonight was the last night of Carnival & we had this would be the best parade so I wanted to go. Larry decided not to go so I went with Piano. The parade was very cute- it was black & white night tonight so everyone was dressed in those colors. They had 2 huge trucks (one looked like the garbage truck) with huge speakers on top blaring out music. So, that was where all the noise was coming from the last few nights! Anyway, they had kids playing homemade instruments & later a big band came. All they did was continually drive around the small town & everyone followed. It was a lot of fun & we joined in for a while also. Unfortunately, Jan from Piano was not feeling well so we went back to the boat after an hour. We heard the music for many hours afterwards so I am sure it got better as the night wore on. We got back around 7pm & I spent 2 hours on the computer writing my book on cruising the Caribbean. 2/14 Valentine's Day They do not have Valentine's Day here in Martinique. A bunch of cruisers went over to the Caritan Hotel for lunch but we decided not to go as it was too expensive. We had heavy rain around 5am that woke us both up as the rain came raining through the front hatch. With the hatch cover on, the hatch doesn't close all the way & water leaks in. Larry got up & stayed awake but I drifted in & out of sleep. This morning I oiled the remaining teak inside the boat. Larry worked on the alternator & regulator again- seems like we're still having a problem & don't seem to know what's wrong. Larry sent another email off to the US. We had a special Valentine's dinner on the boat- penne a la vodka & champagne. One of the cruisers plays CD's broadcasting on a FM channel. He played this morning & then this evening. It was nice to hear the "radio" again- we are definitely getting tired of hearing our same old CD's. 2/15 Friday I went for another walk with the ladies again this morning at 9:15am. We would go earlier but everyone likes to listen to the various nets on the SSB. We walked behind the Club Med near the various hotels there- I didn't even know they were back there. Then we walked through the Club Med & back to town. It was a long walk but we all enjoyed it. It started to rain several times so we had to seek shelter. The bank was finally opened today so I was able to get some money. We always keep US cash that we could use in an emergency although the exchange rate would not be as good. But another cruiser would have lent us a few euros until we could get to a bank. We went swimming with showers in the afternoon. The hull needs to be cleaned but it has been too windy to clean it. It's very difficult to clean the bottom if the boat is rolling. I made some tuna for diner I had leftover from Trinidad, Mima's eggplant dish Larry liked so much & Zatarin's rice for dinner. 2/16 Sat I worked on my book again this morning. Larry worked on installing a switch for the regulator. He thinks the switch is bad but unfortunately we can't get a new switch here. So, we will bypass the ignition switch until we get back to Trinidad. I took the dinghy into town & ran out of gas. I rarely drive the dinghy especially since we have been having problems with the engine. Luckily, I had the handheld radio with me & was able to call S/V Lady J. Jim came but by the time he did, someone else had towed me in. He gave me gas & we got it started. Unfortunately, when we went to pick up S/V Piano to play bocce ball, the engine quit on the way over. We got a tow back to the boat. I went to play bocce ball when Piano picked us up & Larry stayed to work on the dinghy engine. He couldn't get it fixed. 2/17 Sun Well, we are captors on the boat until we can get the dinghy engine started. To show you what the camaraderie among cruisers is, S/V Lady J offered to lend us their spare dinghy engine until we get our new engine in 2 days. That was extremely nice of them! Actually, we would probably do the same thing for other cruisers. I would just be worried they would leave & not give the engine back! But, Lady J knows us well enough to know we wouldn't do that. We really need our dinghy engines out here. It is far too windy to row around the anchorage. Cliff from S/V Concerto came over with his dinghy when we called him to ask if he had any spare gasket material. Larry has been helping them with their computer so they have been helping us out too. The cruising camaraderie is totally different from cruisers back home. Here we need each other because part supplies are harder to get, we all don't speak the same languages & good repairmen are few & far between. The repairmen know cruisers are just passing through so if it breaks down after we leave we are out of luck. But all the cruisers we have met are always willing to help each other out. So different from the Wall Street dog eat dog mentally. It's very pleasant & is definitely one of the best things about cruising. 2/18 Mon At 9am we went into town. We had breakfast at the bakery, walked to the market for some fresh vegetables, & over to get dinghy gas. We had to walk about a mile to get gas. No big deal you are probably thinking. Well, that's true except carrying the 2 gallons of gas is very heavy. S/V Piano invited us over for cocktails tonight. When we got there we found it was Ghislaine's birthday! They did not want to tell us before we arrived, as they didn't want us to make a fuss. I certainly wish they had, as I would have liked to get her something. But that's exactly what they didn't want us to do! We had a wonderful time celebrating her birthday! 2/19 Tues We had to jerry jug more water this morning. We don't have much wind or sun so we don't have enough electricity to run the water maker. Larry ran the engine for 3 hours today & monitored the engine the entire time. He is pretty sure now that the problem we have been having lately with the regulator is the engine switch as he has run all sorts of tests. Unfortunately, we cannot get a new engine switch here & will have to wait until we get back to Trinidad. But at least he knows what the problem is which is our biggest concern. We went to bocce ball on the beach at 3pm. I made a chicken italiano recipe from my "of Tide & Thyme" cookbook. I had made this recipe at home quite often & we really like it. Chicken cutlet is fairly expensive at $5USD per pound though! I pressure-cooked some vegetables & they came out good. We had very little wind the whole night & the boat was rolling a fair amount. 2/20 Wed Today is Dad's birthday. We wanted to catch them before they left the house so we called early. We called several times but got no answer so I finally left a message on the answering machine & said we would call again tomorrow. We didn't want Dad to think we forgot about him on his birthday. We try to remember birthdays out here since we can't send cards or gifts. I didn't sleep well again last night. We are not getting much wind so the boat is really rocking. I will be glad when the wind returns! Besides, we need the wind to generate some power! We took a walk up to the shrine today & got a beautiful view of St. Anne. Larry brought the digital camera & we got some good pictures I think. S/V Lady J was kind enough to get some groceries for us when they went into Marin today so we invited them over for pasta with Brie. Larry has now become addicted to Brie cheese! The pasta with Brie recipe is very good but you have to like Brie. Now I have to figure out how to get the Brie to melt better into the pasta! Oh well, we like this recipe so much we will definitely be making it again. 2/21 Thurs We went into town at 10am this morning & I called Dad for his birthday. It was good to hear the sound of their voices. Sometimes you just need to hear voices rather than just doing emails! We also called the Yamaha dealer about our dinghy engine. Hopefully, the engine will be in next week! We played bocce ball on the beach at 3pm with all the other cruisers. It's not that I love to play bocce ball so much as it is a chance to socialize. Most of the others feel the same way except there are some that are die-hard bocce ball players. Oh well, we all have a good time anyway. We got back to the boat around 5:30, took showers & had a nice bottle of wine. Lady J brought us the Caribbean Compass newsletter from Marin since we can't get it in St. Anne. I enjoy reading this monthly cruiser paper. We got an email from someone in the US saying my picture is in the latest issue of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine! I am a star & didn't even know it! I think it was a picture of me with NYC in the background. I'm dying to see it! We are also in the February issue (page 42) of the SSCA bulletin as recommended Commodores. We have never had our name or picture in a sailing magazine & now we have 2 in the same month. Plus, I wrote a response to an article in the Caribbean Compass so now I may be in that also! Maybe this is our start to fame! You never know! 2/22 Fri It was very windy in the anchorage last night, which kept us up for part of the night. The wind was blowing up to around 25 knots. However, it was great for the wind generator. We do worry when the wind blows this much that the anchor will hold but no problems. I did dive on the anchor so we know it is lying on its side. But we haven't moved an inch. Must be very good holding here. We jerry jugged some water in the am as the water is free here & we have been using a lot of it. Also, we don't want to use all the electric up just to make water when it is free & easily accessible. I had Larry & another cruiser edit my letter to the Compass & make changes. At 1:30, we went over to S/V Koncerto. Larry has been helping them with their PC & Anna promised to cut my bangs for me. S/V Mima had cut them a few weeks ago but I wasn't really happy with they way they looked so Anna just touched it up a bit. At 4:30pm we joined all the cruisers at a beachfront cottage one of the cruisers friends had rented for the week. There were quite a number of cruisers there & we all had a good time. We came back to the boat around 6:30- shortly after sunset while we could still see. We had a very light dinner since we had so many munchies at the cocktail party. |