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Diane's Diary3/1 Fri Well, we got our new dinghy engine last night. The guy showed up on time, as promised at 5pm. Showing up on time is a first here in the Caribbean. He even drove us to get gas as it has a 5-gallon gas tank with the new engine. It would have been difficult to walk back from the gas station carrying a heavy tank filled with 5 gallons of gas. We bought the engine in the dinghy & drove it back to the boat. We didn't get back to the boat till 6pm- to late to start the engine up & Larry wanted to read the book again. He had previously borrowed the manual from Lady J to read up on it. Anyway, Larry started working on the engine around 9am today. He was very frustrated, as he couldn't get the filter back on because the new engine had different fittings. Lady J came over & gave him some fittings to make it work. We all were looking at the engine when Larry started it for the first time. He pulled it several times & it didn't work. Now Larry was upset- had we gotten a lemon? Finally, someone realized Larry hadn't put the kill switch on! Without this, the engine would never start! This is a safety feature on all new dinghy engines so that if the driver falls overboard, the engine automatically stops. Good feature except we didn't have this on our old engine so we really didn't know about it. When Larry put the switch in, the engine started right up! He was very happy with is new toy & drove it all around the anchorage. We have to break in the new engine like a car though- it uses a 25:1 oil ratio for the first 10 hours. Plus, you can't open the throttle all the way up until after 10 hours. We are both glad we bought the new engine. I wish we had gotten it a year ago! S/V Antara came into the anchorage yesterday. They had invited us over for drinks last night but we couldn't make it as we were waiting for our engine. Linda & I had been corresponding over the Internet while we were both still working. We have been in email contact since & it was nice finally getting to meet them after all these years. So, we went over to them for drinks last night. 3/2 Sat Larry is having fun with his new engine running around the anchorage. It is nice to have such speed & power & we can get the dinghy up on plane which means we get wet less. We hate getting salt water on us. It really is nice to have speed! Jackie & I took our morning walk around the loop followed by a quick swim in the pool. At 3pm, we went to Lady J along with S/V Pearl. We had not seen Pearl since we left Trinidad so it was nice seeing them again. We had a good time catching up. We had so many appetizers that we weren't hungry for dinner. We got back to the boat around 6:30 & had a light dinner. 3/3 Sun Today St. Anne hosted the Yole racing boats. We took our dinghy near the beach & stayed on it to watch the races. We had a great position & had a fantastic time watching the races. They had 2 races - one with 2 masts & the other with only 1 mast. The physical strength these sailors need is amazing as it's quite difficult. Many of the boats capsized. Larry got some excellent shots with the digital camera. We had S/V Anatara over for drinks, as they wanted to see Destiny- we both have boats designed by Bob Perry. 3/4 Mon I walked over to the Club Med with S/V Piano this morning. Larry was going to go also but he had to wait for S/V Mystique to come over. She wanted pictures Larry had taken for the local Yole Association & the Caribbean Compass newsletter. We went to jerry jug water this morning at the fish market & one of the guys (not a local fisherman) said NO. We were upset, as this was the only place other than taking the big boat into Marin where we could get water. We have a water maker but we haven't been getting enough sun & wind to run the water maker also. Besides, this water was FREE! We asked the bakery where we go every day if they could give us water & they said OK. We got 12 gallons. We had S/V Piano over for drinks last night. They will be heading north soon to cross the Atlantic so I don't know if we will see them again. But, you never know! Sometime, they want to take the boat to NY & we have invited them to visit us if they do. 3/5 Tuesday S/V Piano was going into Marin today with the big boat so they offered to tow our dinghy while we went with them around 9am. This worked out great as the hard part is going into Marin going against the wind - if you don't leave St. Anne before 8am the wind will increase & you will get wet unless you have a good dinghy. Coming home the wind is at your back & you don't get wet. After we anchored with them, we stayed for a cup of coffee. At 11am, we left with all this wind right in our faces & got wet on the short dinghy ride into the Stardust dinghy dock. Larry worked on the computer at the Internet café for 1.5 hours & I looked at the news. We went to lunch at a little sidewalk café, which was only OK. By this time, it was 1pm & everything was closed for lunch. We waited at the marina until the stores opened up at 2pm. We would have gone to the supermarket during this time as they do not close for lunch, but we would have gotten wet coming back to the marina by dinghy, as we would be going against the wind. We finally went to the marina stores & then it was off to the supermarket. Coming out of the Carenage & heading back toward St. Anne we didn't see the green mark & went up on the reef. Luckily, there was little damage to the new engine- just a small nick in the prop. Also, we were lucky we didn't do damage to the dinghy. Fortunately, we only hit the side of the reef & were able to get off very easily. No harm done to anything except our pride & the fact the sun was in our faces so we couldn't see the reef or the mark. We decided to get water at 6pm, as maybe the fisherman wouldn't be there this late. We dinghied over & saw S/V Janteck on our way there. We had helped them out a lot with in Trinidad making phone calls to the US, as they did not speak English that well. Anyway, they invited us for drinks after we got water. We didn't get any water as people were in the fish market & we didn't want to ask. But we did go over to Janteck for a few drinks. 3/6 Wed Today was the Ladies lunch in the Caritan Hotel at 12. 19 Ladies went to lunch followed by a swim in the hotel pool. I had a pizza for 9 euros - pretty expensive but that did include tax & tip. It was Ok but they made it with Swiss cheese, very little tomato sauce, skimpy toppings, & a thin crust. No way can it compare to Maria's Pizza back home. We are both craving a good pizza & will get one in either St. Lucia or Bequia. Pizza in Trinidad is just ok unless you go to Pizza Hut. It was nice getting together with just the ladies. How come the guys never arrange a walk or lunch for themselves? Guess we gals just like to get together! Anyway, everyone had a nice time although the service was very slow & we were there about 2.5 hours! Walking back toward the town dock, I saw the boss from the St. Anne tourist office at the fish market. I asked him to ask if we could get water right then & they said OK. So, I called Larry to come pick me up & bring the jerry jugs also to get water. I will be glad to get back to Crews Inn again & have unlimited water right from our dockside hose! 3/7 Thurs Larry & I took a long walk to the Club Med this morning. I convinced him to go so he could see 'the Sights" our word for the topless ladies on the beach. So, he went to see " the Sights" & we saw plenty! I had to get him to put his eyeballs back in his head! We also walked over to get dinghy gas. We were able to fill up some soda bottles with water at the campground. Our new engine uses a lot more gas but it certainly is nice to have all that power. Anyway, I prepared a chicken italiano dish for dinner so all I would have to do would be put it in the oven when we got back to the boat. We went to bocce ball & had a good time. I'm definitely getting to be a much better player. Tonight we had lots of rain, which kept us getting up & down closing the hatches. The boat just gets too hot with the hatches closed. 3/8 Fri We had lots of rain last night with very little wind again. We didn't get much sleep having to get up every 5 minutes to open & close the hatches. We were both up before 7am & so decided to jerry jug more water. It's better to keep the tanks as full as possible. I did some hand laundry - only the essentials, as we didn't want to use up a lot of water. Even still, I used up 12 gallons of water & I was very conservative with the water. When we get back to Crews Inn I will wash everything then but in the meantime, we should be able to make it back there without having to wash any more laundry. When we are in the Tobago Cays the only thing we will be wearing will be bathing suits. I wanted to go to the happy hour party they have on the beach every Friday at 4:30pm but Larry didn't want to go so we didn't. 3/9 Sat We went to jerry jug some more water this morning & the fisherman put the hose on the one faucet that doesn't work. We couldn't remove the hose unless we had a screwdriver, which we don't carry with us. Luckily, another cruiser was there & had a hose. Just as Larry & I were finishing, a guy told us we couldn't get it any more. Another cruiser had started to fill their jugs & the guy turned off the hose on them. We don't understand why getting water is such a big problem for them as we know the fisherman don't pay for the water. |