|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's Diary6/26 Wednesday For some reason, we were up very early this morning- Larry at 6 & me at 7. I started cutting the material this morning to make the sport a seat covers before I left at 9:30am to go food shopping to the Price Smart. We went to Joe's Pizza for dinner tonight with Kiana & Just Dessert. We invited Mima & their friends on Survival but they wanted to sit outside & smoke & both brought their dogs. The rest of us were just hot & wanted to sit inside so we did. 6/27 Thursday I finished the second terry slipcover for the sport a seat. They came out really good. Do you think we will be able to sell them? Maybe, we definitely will check it out when we go to NY. Larry set up the wind vane so we can use it on the way to VZ. He also fixed a leak in the water pump. I did some laundry so everything will be cleaned before we leave here. Everyone told me that in VZ they do not have do it yourself laundry. So, I want to do all the laundry we are still here. Hopefully, we will be leaving within the next few days. I cleaned the awning with Ivory Snow. I read in one of the new sailing magazines we got, to wash sunbrella with either Ivory Snow or Woolite as all other detergents are to harsh for the fabrics. Well, it really helped clean the awning. We invited Mima & survival to out potluck. Actually, it was so empty it was just us & Kiana so it was very nice. Later, 2 other couples we didn't know joined us. It was nice there were so few people - we felt like it was our own private party. 6/28 Friday Do we leave today? We have been working our tails off but we still aren't ready. If we don't check out today we will have to pay overtime to clear out over the weekend. I made some bakes ziti so we could have it all ready. I hand washed all the rayon tank tops & dresses I have. I was tired & tried to take a nap in the afternoon, but customs had some really loud music playing so I couldn't get to sleep. Crews Inn closed the main building where the reception, showers & laundry are, to fumigate the building. It will be closed all weekend. I gave GWW a bottle of wine to celebrate their new boat. Lady M III came in on Wed just as I was leaving for Price Smart. So, this morning I called her & spoke to her for a while. They are over in TTSA so we don't get over there too much since it's not safe to walk at night. Anyway, Steph came over in the PM since she just got back Wed night & I really haven't had a chance to speak with her. It was good to see her again- I missed her companionship. Anyway, Larry went on the Internet for awhile & then went over to Mima to have a drink or two. 6/29 Saturday Well, we decided not to check out, as we really weren't ready. Guess that means we will have to stay the weekend, as we will have to pay overtime charges if we check out after 4pm Friday. I decided to make some baked ziti, as it's nice to have dinner already made when we sail into a harbor after a long passage. The last thing you really want after a long passage is to cook so it's good having dinners already made. I hand washed some clothes this afternoon. Crews Inn closed the main building which houses the reception, front office, laundry & showers for the entire weekend as they are fumigating it. So, we have to take showers in another building where the showers aren't so great but they will do for just the weekend. I want to do another load of laundry before we leave as the laundry is much more expensive in VZ & they don't have any do-it yourself Laundromats. I got a toothache this afternoon. Hope it clears up so we can leave. Larry went over to Mima this afternoon. I called Master Card to review some charges. I finished cleaning the interior of the boat & cleaned the starboard side of the hull. 6/30 Sunday Well, I still have this stupid toothache- it was bothering me so much I had to lie down & take a nap this afternoon. Guess I'm going to have to call the dentist tomorrow. Hope this doesn't delay our leaving! Larry went over to Mima this afternoon. I cleaned the port side of the hull. We heard that Larry's brother Eric is in the hospital with viral meningitis. Hope he's all right- I know you can die from it! 7/1 Monday Well, I called the dentist & got an emergency appointment. He was in another office than where we usually go. This one was in downtown POS. But luckily, I was able to take a bus there. He drilled & took x-rays but was not able to find anything. He wants me to come back on Wednesday. Great! That means we can't leave for a few more days! I wasn't feeling well from all that drilling so I just lay down after I got back from the dentist. However, we had several people who came by the boat to see how I was feeling so I didn't get to rest for too long. I knew they all meant well but I just wanted to rest. 7/2 Tuesday Well, I went shopping with the wife of the new owner from Great White Wonder- Mary Lou. They had contracted for Cosmos to take her shopping for the day. We went to the following stores: fabric, kitchen gadgets, Malabar meats, Price Smart, grocery, bakery & vegetable market. We were gone from 10-4pm. It was way too much shopping for me & I would have done it much differently but Cosmos had his own ideas of where we should go. We also went to Jenny's restaurant at my suggestion. I was exhausted when I got home. I know my shopping limitations & thought this was too much to do in 1 day & I was right. A few hours of shopping are definitely the right amount. After that, you get tired & it becomes a chore. But oh well, it was a free ride so I guess I can't complain. 7/3 Wednesday I went back to the dentist again this morning. He can't seem to find out why the tooth is still hurting. His suggestion was to just leave it for now & it will either get better or worse. That seems like the right thing to do- I don't want to have root canal if it's unnecessary. So, when should we leave? Tomorrow is July 4 & after 9/11 last year, it would be nice to celebrate it with other Americans. So, it looks like we will leave either Friday or Saturday. Another cruising boat S/V Ariyl wants to come with us so it would be nice to have their company We went to Joe's Pizza for the last time. We took the dinghy out of the water so, since it's not safe to walk around at night; we decided to have lunch instead. After lunch, Larry did some last minute shopping & I visited Just Deserts, Mima & Survival before heading back to Destiny. After speaking with several local Trini's about the US July 4 holiday, it became apparent to me that not many Trini's know the history of the US. Most of them did NOT know where the US got its Independence from! Crews Inn is having a big July 4 party tomorrow so I asked if I could do a short speech on US history. They said yes so I started to write my speech on the PC tonight. Steph & Megan from Survival came over to swim in the late afternoon also. July 4 Thursday Happy Birthday USA I finished my speech last night & meet Joyce from Mood Indigo this morning to go over it. Joyce is going to sign the " Star Spangled Banner" after I give my speech. She has a beautiful voice. We have heard them perform a few times & they are terrific. At 11am, a bunch of us went to the movies to see the new Star Wars movie playing in POS. S/V Kayana, Mima, Just Deserts, & Survival all went. Some of us took the maxi bus while Survival rented a car for the day. We all enjoyed the movie- for $2USD it's a real bargain going to the movies. However, we all felt this Star Wars movie was not as good as some previous ones. We went to TGIF afterwards but I was worried about getting back in time, as I had to give my speech at 5:30 & we got back at 5pm. Anyway, the speech seemed to go well. One of our cruising friends, S/V Aryl taped all the festivities so we hope to get a copy of the tape. CI had food, a wonderful pan band, & fireworks also! While they were not the magnificent ones we get in the US, they weren't bad! We got back to the boat around 8:30 tired from all the days activities. We were sad we couldn't be with all our friends. July 4 certainly meant more to me this year after the events of 9/11 & I think a lot of other Americans felt the same. 7/5 Friday Well, we spent the day getting ready to leave tomorrow. We filled the water tanks & will give them a last refill shortly before taking off to make sure they are really full since we now we will be using some water before we leave. I filled 23-2ltr bottles of water for drinking. We know it won't be until we get to Puerto LA Cruz (from now on called PLC) until we have access to water again so we want to make sure we have enough. I cleaned the oven with oven cleaner (what a messy job. Here's where I really miss my self-cleaning oven!) & The stove. I did 2 loads of laundry so everything we have is clean. We had to wash the boat & the awning from all the residual debris from the fireworks! It looks like it didn't damage anything though! We cleared out of customs. I tried to get a stain cleaned on the nonskid in the companionway but couldn't get it cleaned no matter what I tried. I defrosted the freezer again since we have the electricity now. I can turn the refrigerator on high after it's cleaned to get the temperature back down immediately. With the severe heat down here in the tropics you don't want to keep food out of the refrigerator very long. Plus, after you defrost it, the refrigerator is warm so you want to bring down the temperature ASAP. The refrigerator is a big drain on the electricity so it's better to defrost it when in a marina. 7/6 Saturday We're leaving today- finally! About a month after we planned on leaving. Oh, well, at least we're finally off today! But it couldn't be helped with all our medical problems. Oh well, at least we are both OK health wise & that is the bottom line. CI is letting us stay in our slip until we depart at 6pm. This way we don't have to go out & anchor for just a few hours before we sail for VZ. We did some last minute prep work - taking long showers, getting rid of garbage (this will be more difficult to do in VZ as we'll be at a remote island for several days with no place to dispose of garbage), topping off the water tanks, & paying our CI bill (ouch!). We walked over to meet Mima for lunch at the shark & bake. I know I will miss them but I know we will definitely meet up with them soon so I'm not as sad as if we were never going to see them again. I wanted to get a nap in today as I realize it will be a long evening since we won't get into Los Testigos until around 9am tomorrow. However, with all the last minute things, I didn't get a chance to lay down. Steph came over at 6pm to help us cast off our down lines - that was very nice of her. Kiana & Just Dessert were in their dinghy to give us a hand pushing our bow with the dinghy when we couldn't swing the boat around to get out of the slip well. Anyway, we are sorry to leave all our friends but we know we will see them all soon. It was 6:25pm when we finally cast off our lines. Since there is no twilight here in the Caribbean darkness falls quickly after sunset. It was almost dark when we finally passed through the Boca Channel. This body of water always has a lot of current associated with it & is always rough. Tonight was no exception. We hit pretty step waves right on the bow naturally which made for a rough start. My stomach was not happy right away & I knew I would get seasick due to the uncomfortable motion. The wind was NE about 18 knots with seas about 7-8 feet. When we finally turned the boat east towards Venezuela, the motion got better but the wind was out of the NE not E as it should have been so the motion was not as comfortable as I expected. Larry had promised me an easy downwind passage. I should have known better we have never had one of those sails yet! Anyway, I did get sick as a dog for a while I was on watch. I finally had to ask Larry to take my watch so I could lie down & hopefully settle my stomach, as I felt terrible. Larry never gets seasick so he doesn't understand what it feels like. I hate the feeling but no matter what drug I have tried nothing seems to work. I think I will try the patch for our next long passage though - maybe that will work better. Anyway, the wind died around 10pm & we had to motor the rest of the way if we wanted to arrive while it was still daylight. Larry had cleaned the prop himself while the boat was in CI. Normally, we don't like to go in the water there as it is polluted but the 2 different guys we hired never showed up. It's a good thing we did clean the bottom since we had to do so much motoring & the bottom was really fouled. The water in Charagumas is very polluted one of the chief reasons the boaters don't swim there. Anyway, we finally arrived in Los Testigos about 9:30am- both tired but glad to be in VZ at last! |