|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's Diary2/14 Wednesday Valentine's Day I bought us a nice bottle of Moet for $20 bottle- it was the expensive kind. I checked the prices for a new dodger piece at the 2 different sailmakers. They both said it would take 1-2 weeks for them to get to it! Jenny, Trish & I went to Marigot by bus. I went to the wine warehouse & bought more wine. We stayed home tonight & had our champagne & watched a video. 2/15 Thursday We got our mail & PC today. It cost us about $70 to receive it. It sure was nice to get news from home, our mail & the PC. Now we can get to work updating our website & can connect to our SSB email. We had drinks at the SMYC to listen to Eileen sing. She sings songs about cruisers. We bought both her CD's.Then we went to Pizza Hut with Jenny & Tony. Y2K laundry was supposed to pick me up today but he never showed up. I finally got a hold of him & he missed me. He'll pick me up at 9am tomorrow. The pay phones here don't work well at all. 2/16 Friday Y2K laundry picks me up shortly after 9pm. I get a manicure & pedicure for $20. We had Side by Side over for drinks. 2/17 Saturday Jenny & Tony are going to leave next week so we decided to have them over for a bon voyage dinner. We have really enjoyed their company. I will be really sorry to see them leave. For me, this is the worst part of cruising so far. Just as you really get to know someone & enjoy their company, they leave. I definitely do Not like this!!! Anyway, we went swimming at the Princess before they came. I made the salami's, penne ala vodka, & brownies. They bought the wine. We all had a great time. 2/18 Sunday Most stores are closed on Sundays & the bus runs infrequently so we tend to have easy Sundays. I went for an early morning walk & swim at the Princess. Then I came back & took a nap. In the afternoon, we visited Free Radical to borrow some CD's for the new laptop. We went to a potluck dinner at the SMYC & had a good time. It wasn't as crazy as it usually is on Friday nights so we really got to meet everyone more. This seems to be the place all the cruisers hang out. There seems to be a big difference between the cruisers & charters. The cruisers really don't want much to do with the charters. Also, everyone is leery if a charter anchors nearby as many charters do not know how to anchor properly. 2/19 Monday We left the lagoon on the 9am bridge so we could test the watermaker. Larry worked on the holding tank which we thought was smelling. But it turns out it was the holding tank hoses inside the boat near the nav station that smell. Guess they will have to be replaced. I tried putting an air freshener near there but it doesn't seem to help any. Larry cleaned the water line- it was disgusting. We had heard the lagoon water was polluted & not to swim in it. Guess this confirms it. We finally got the watermaker going. YEA!! The watermaker is supposed to make 8 gal hour but is only making 5. It draws a lot of amps also. Larry hasn't figured out if we can use it while running the engine. That would be better as we wouldn't have to drain the battery to use it. In this hot climate, we use a lot of water. I am drinking at least 2 qts of water day. Great White Wonder invites us over for drinks with Stage Sea. 2/20 Tuesday Stage Sea leaves this morning. I am really sorry to see them leave as I really enjoyed their company. I hope they keep in touch! We only made about ½ tank of water but go back into the lagoon on the 11 am bridge. I go to Marigot with Passagio via dink. I called Dad for his birthday but got the day wrong! I thought today was his birthday but is tomorrow! Sorry about that Dad. I was so intent on not forgetting his birthday that I got the date wrong. I went to the wine warehouse again. We are trying the different bottles so we can know which kinds we like to buy a bunch of. 2/21 Wednesday We had lost our center panel in the dodger window in the huge winds last week. North Sails told me to come back today. I went to see him yesterday but he wasn't around. He does not have a dink so I had to go pick him up. He charges $40/hour just to come to the boat! Oh well, we feel we cannot wait until we get to Trinidad to replace it so we have to spend $130 to get a new one. We also put up all the panels on the bimini & it seems one of the side panels is missing. We don't know if we ever got it with the boat, as we had never used the complete bimini with all the side panels before. I also got gas for the dink myself. I took the bus into Phillipsburg. The US aircraft carrier is in town & we heard on the net that they give tours. However, we understand that with the recent bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that they may not be giving any tours to the general public. I figure it's worth a shot to try. When I get there, I find out that they are not giving tours to the general public but if a find a sailor that's willing to do it we could get a tour. That's easier said then done as they are on R&R & if they give a tour it's on their own time & they have to change into their dress whites. I ask several guys but none seem willing to do it & I can't blame them. I don't know if I would want to do it either. So, I went to McDonald's for lunch. While eating I saw a bunch of school girls go up to 2 black guys & a girl to get autographs from the guys. I ask the girls to come over to me & ask if the guys are celebrities. No, they are off the ship. There are 5 cruise ships in port today but these guys don't look like they are off the ship. So, I ask them if they were off the JFK & they were. I ask if anyone would like to give a tour as we would really like to see the ship. One guy said he would do it Friday at noon. Turns out he was from Lakeview LI- the town next to mine from home. I'm thrilled we are going to see the ship! Great White Wonder invites us over to the boat along with about 20 other cruisers for Mexican night. I made brownies. It's a good thing I made a dessert, as mine was the only dessert. Most other people brought appetizers. Everyone was a cruiser so we all had a good time. 2/22 Thursday We got 69 gal of water. We must have had an air lock in the tanks as we should have taken on much more. I updated my logs in the PC, went to the Business Center to check our email, & picked up the finished piece for our dodger panel. Side by Side invites us over for drinks but they are located in Marigot . With our 5HP dinghy engine it takes us 30 minutes to get over there. We stay only for 1.5 hours as it takes so long to get back & we don't like to dinghy so far in the dark. As it is, we wind up coming home in the dark anyway. 2/23 Friday We go to the hotel early so I can take a walk & Larry can swim. Unfortunately, a megayacht wanted to come in where our dinghy was so they cut the cable & ruined our lock. Now we need to get a replacement ASAP. We had invited Side by Side to see the JFK also. We get there around 11:30. Will our guy show up? We all really want to see the boat. It turns out they are giving tours today to invited guests only. The boat gives out tickets to various churches, schools etc. If they have room on the tour & our chaperone doesn't show up, we can get on. We all decide to wait. Our guy never shows up. However, we get on the 1pm tour with the help of Tony from the control room. We meet him while standing there & gave him our boat card. We even invited him to come over & visit us on our boat. He graciously gives us & Side By Side a coin from the JFK. You bet we will treasure that!!! We told him to stay in touch. He has already emailed us & we are thrilled. Hope we can stay in contact! Anyway, the tour was wonderful & one of the highlights of our trip so far. Most people on the tour were foreigners so I guess the tour meant more to us being American. We asked a million questions! I was surprised many of the younger crew did not know the story of the PT109. We found out they call the ship the Big John. We happened to tell a crewmember we were down in St. Martin by our own boat & he asked if we had seen the Combat room. We had not so he brought us up to see it. How thrilling! We saw the enlisted crew quarters & were surprised how small they were. We all really had a great time. The only drawback to the whole day is the video camera is not working!!! Larry had the digital camera but the video camera would have been nice also. We're going to see if it can be fixed. We had to stop at Ace Hardware to get a new dinghy lock- we buy chain & a chain covering- $53 for both. Ouch!! |