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Diane's Diary4/17 Wednesday We were up around 7:30 this morning. I made bacon & eggs & we listened to the cruisers' net. It's nice to be back in Trinidad again - welcome back to unlimited water & electric (we pay for electric). The free bus to the local Price Club is on Wednesdays only so I decided to go today since we are very low on food. I went & Larry stayed on the boat doing various things. I spent over $300USD buying food & other things. It was great being back in a US style supermarket again. I bought lots of food we had not had since we last left Trinidad. It was like being a kid in a candy store. I got back to the boat around 12:30 and our friends on GWW were on the boat. I enjoyed seeing them again but it was bad timing, as I wanted to put everything away & they were sitting there talking with us. While I was at Price Club, Larry was supposed to wash the boat down so we could put the awning up. But, friends we knew kept stopping by the boat to say hello so he didn't get a chance to finish. It was nice seeing everyone again, but we wanted to get the awning up ASAP. S/V Jacobite, Just Dessert, & Cameron stopped by so we didn't get anything done until after lunch. After lunch, Larry finally got the boat washed & I put away all the food. We met Just Dessert at Joe's Pizza for dinner. It was nice to come back to a great cheap meal. We each had chicken cutlet Parmesan, spaghetti, garlic bread & salad - for $7USD each! The bill for both of us for dinner was $16USD. Wish we could get all our meals for this price. The food is good & the prices reasonable. We usually eat here about once a week. S/V Jacobite was going to leave Trinidad the next day so we stopped by & had a drink with them before heading back to the boat. It was nice catching up with them again. Hopefully, we'll meet up with them in the future! We didn't get back to the boat till after 10pm & both of us were exhausted. I guess we haven't caught up from the night's sleep we missed coming down here. 4/18 Thursday Laundry day! The last time I washed clothes in a washing machine was when we were here in Trinidad last December. So, everything on the boat needed a good wash. Clothes do not seem to get as clean when you wash them by hand. Crews Inn is one of the only laundries with hot water. I did 6 loads of clothes. But while I was using one of the washers it broke, as it wouldn't spin the water out. Naturally, these were the towels so they were hard to wring out by hand. Crews Inn gave me another token so I washed them again. Then, a dryer I was using broke with the towels in it naturally so I had to get another token, which CI gave to me. I wasn't having much luck with the laundry today! But we finally got all clean clothes. While I was in the laundry room, Larry put the awning up all by himself. He started fixing the chain plates - rebedding them all. He fixed 2 in Grenada last year & now decided to do all the others. It's just more preventative maintence on the boat. I tried to take a nap in the pm but couldn't sleep with all the banging Larry was doing. 4/19 Friday Larry went to the Internet café in the early am to check what he needs to do to renew his NYS drivers license. His license is expiring next week on his birthday so we needed to get this done ASAP. A cruiser going back to the US will mail it for us. We knew he needed to get an eye test but he needed to get the correct forms. While he was doing this, I cleaned the boat & call the optical store to come in. We went into Port of Spain so we could get the eye test. We then walked over to TGIFridays to have one of their terrific burgers. They are more expensive here than in the US but we were glad to have a good American hamburger again. We walked back to the maxi bus so we ended up walking around quite a lot. We got back to the boat in the late pm. 4/20 Saturday I made a huge tray of eggplant Parmesan today that should last us for several meals. It's nice to have good mozzarella cheese & eggplant again. I was tired from frying up all that eggplant & cleaning the kitchen up after that mess so I tried to lie down to nap for an hour but couldn't sleep. GWW stopped by - they sold their boat so it looks like they will be leaving soon. We will definitely miss them. Their son lives in Sacramento so hopefully, we will see them some day when we go to visit Eric. The hardest part about this cruising life is meeting friends & then never seeing them again. It's definitely the part I like least. I have gotten used to it but certainly don't like it. However, when you do see old friends again, it's great catching up with them again & you renew the friendship again very quickly. Anyway, I swam 20 laps in the pool, took a shower, ate dinner & watched some TV. We went to bed at 9:30. 4/21 Sunday It was a very quiet day today. The marina is only about a quarter full. Most of the cruisers haven't come back from the north for hurricane season yet. It's good because we can get work done now but it's somewhat lonely without our friends. I made some sourdough biscuits & biscuit mix. I wrote some letters to Citibank & Mom & Dad that a cruiser returning to the US will mail for us. Larry worked on the chain plates. I worked on updating the expenses & my logbook. In the afternoon, I went to the gym & walked 30 minutes on the treadmill & swam 20 laps. I want to start exercising regularly & try to diet some. We had leftover eggplant Parmesan for dinner & watched some TV at night. Funny, when we don't have TV, we don't miss it yet here in the marina we turn it on a lot. Well, we know we certainly won't be watching TV for a long time when we leave Trinidad. The marina in Puerto La Cruz does not have TV & that's the only marina we will probably stay in for the next year. So, we will watch all we can now. I actually miss reading at night as that was what we were doing at night while we were at anchor. I would read & Larry would work on the PC. 4/22 Monday We went to bed at 9:30 last night & got up around 8am this morning. We seem to sleep longer in Trinidad than while we are at anchor- I don't know why. We left the boat at 9:30am. We have our dinghy in the water but only use it when we have too. They discontinued the evening shuttle so it's not safe walking to the other side of Chaguramas Bay at night. So, whenever we go to Joe's Pizza at night for dinner we will take our dinghy. Since we have it in the water, we will also use it to go to the marine stores- it saves us from walking around 15 minutes one way. It's not that we are too lazy to walk but that the sun is just so hot. When we are not using the dinghy, we try to keep it up on the halyard as much as possible since the water is so dirty here. We stopped at Alpha Canvas- we want to get some canvas done as well as get new mattresses for both cabins. The mattress in the aft cabin is probably original to the boat so it is probably 18 years old. The last owner replaced the mattress in our cabin but since we have been sleeping on it every day for the past 1.5 years the mattress definitely needs to be replaced. Both of our backs hurt & we are sure this is because the mattress is getting worn. Remember marine mattresses are definitely not as good as the ones you buy for your house & definitely do not last as long. We also stopped by Shari the seamstress. I gave her a tank top she made me last year that is too tight in the armholes & needs to be repaired. We walked over to Budget Marine so Larry could get some prices. We ate a roti lunch at Coral Cove. The last time we had a roti was when we left here in December. I went over to Power Boats to ask them if they could contact my friend Rex & let him know we were back in Trinidad. I went to Fortress woodworking to find out about the cat I rescued last year. To my delight, Woody is doing very well & is living on another cruisers' boat. I saw him & he looks terrific. Unfortunately, this cruiser is going back to Sweden for a visit & is not taking Woody with them. BTW, the owner for Fortress wrote an article in the April local boating paper & thanked me & all the other cruisers that helped out. I hope Woody will get another good home. After all the oil got on him I never thought he would survive so it's nice to see he did so well. After we had lunch, we dinghied back to our boat. Larry went into the water to put a plastic black bag over the prop so barnacles won't form. Last year, after only one month in the marina, the prop was full of barnacles. I cleaned & defrosted the refrigerator. 4/23 Tuesday In the am I made lots of phone calls at the pay phone- Rex, doctor, dentist, lab test for Larry, & Angostura Bitters to arrange a tour. I went over to Black Cat to see their new kitten. Last year, their cat died while they were here so I was glad to see they got another cat. Larry is still working on the chain plates. In the pm, I hand washed all the rugs on the boat- they were filthy. I also washed some towels that had turned pink from something in the wash. I was lucky - all the pink came out. It was amazing the difference with the towels I hand washed in Clorox vs. the ones that were not done in Clorox. The non-Clorox towels looked dirty compared to the Clorox ones - I had never really looked at the difference with using bleach or not but now I will certainly make sure I use it. Also, Trinidad has bleach that is much cheaper than Clorox but after you open it, it no longer smells like bleach so I don't think it's very good. From now on I will use real Clorox. I'm sure you all wanted to read this section on bleach! But, I did think it was interesting & worth mentioning. 4/24 Wednesday The AC is not working properly so it's getting hot inside. Larry went to Price Club with me to look at a few things so I didn't get a chance to call the guy we rent the AC from. Unfortunately, he can't come today & it's getting very hot inside the boat. Too hot to work down below so we will have to take it easy. We both didn't sleep well last night. We had to open the windows since it was so hot inside the boat but unfortunately our boat is right under the restaurant so it's very noisy. Normally with the AC on, the noise doesn't bother us, but it kept us both up last night. When we got back from Price Club I made Chicken Alfredo & helped Larry with the chain plates. I went to the gym & walked 40 minutes on the treadmill. Then went swimming. The temperature inside the boat is up to 85 with no breeze coming into the boat at all. |