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Diane's DiaryDecember 21 Saturday Day 21 of VZ strike Well, this obnoxious boater running his gas deck generator at all hours of the morning in Scotland Bay shatters our peaceful anchorage here. He was running it at 5:30 am this morning and woke us all up. Since I was up anyway, I listened to the BBC but there wasn't anything about VZ on it. I went back to bed but was tired the whole day. We put up all our canvas this morning including the awning. There is no breeze at all so it's really quite hot. We had a brief heavy shower in the evening for about a half hour. We also cleaned part of the water line. I made an excellent sun dried tomato beef burgundy for dinner with some of my Venezuelan beef that came out excellent. I will miss buying meat so cheaply and with such excellent quality. December 22 Sunday Day 22 of VZ strike Well, our obnoxious boat neighbor woke us all at 4:30 this morning turning his generator on. The guy is definitely a nut case. I worked on the PC for a long time today trying to catch up on my logs. Once we get into the marina, I will probably watch TV at night so I won't type too much. Also, we have a lot of boat work to do so I won't have time to type during the day. I took a dinghy ride around the anchorage and saw this VZ boat so went over to tell them how sorry we are about the strike. He was French living in VZ and wasn't too nice. We had Ariyl and Sojourner over for cocktails. Ariyl accidentally lost one of my good Destiny engraved wineglasses overboard. I felt really bad as they are a beautiful set and I can't replace it down here. December 23 Monday Day 23 of VZ strike At 930 this morning, we took a dinghy ride into Chaguaramas. By our fast dinghy, it took about 20 minutes and is a rough trip. We would never have attempted it with our old dinghy even with the 15HP. Anyway, I called my parents and Aunt for Christmas to let them know where we were and also in case we couldn't call on Christmas if it was too rough to dinghy in. We also went to the bank, new Budget Marine, Joe's Pizza for lunch (and met our friends from Jacobite there), Crews Inn, and Internet café. We didn't get back to the boat until late in the afternoon. December 24 Tuesday - Christmas Eve Day 24 of VZ strike We had an oil spill here in Scotland Bay- don't know where it came from and it really doesn't matter except it's all over our brand new dinghy, outboard and boat hull so we are both disgusted. They had a bad oil spill about a month ago also. Trinidad just can't seem to control these things nor do they have any warning devices for this. We spent a long time in the pm trying to clean everything. In the morning, I made Swedish meatballs and my special brownie recipe. Ariyl invited us over for drinks for Christmas Eve but we were too tired and disgusted from all the cleaning to go over there. I made escargot and we had a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Tomorrow we are going into Chaguaramas and have also been invited to Sojourner for dinner. December 25 Wednesday - Christmas Day Day 25 of VZ strike Well, today just didn't seem like Christmas. I guess I just miss everyone at home at this time of the year. Even though I enjoy cruising, celebrating holidays without friends and family back home is very difficult. This is the first year we didn't exchange gifts with each other and I really missed it. However, all the stores were closed in VZ because of the strike and we didn't have any time to shop year in Trini since we just came in. Anyway, we went into Chaguaramas by dinghy but almost turned around, as it was a very rough dinghy trip. We managed to get in, although Larry wanted to turn around, because it was so rough. I just said I wanted to call everyone for Christmas so we continued. Anyway, I spoke to my parents and left a message for my Aunt since she wasn't home. We went over to Motu and Lady J for a drink. We stopped by to see Jacobite but they were getting ready for Christmas lunch at their marina so we left. They invited us to stay but we had to get back. We went over to Sojourner along with 4 other boats, with every one bringing a dish so it was very nice. We stayed till about 8:30 and all had a good time. We got back to the boat and found we had visitors in our absence - bats! These are just fruit bats but they go after bananas, which we had. Next time we go out at night we'll close the boat up if we have fruit onboard. They just ate part of the banana but I'm glad they didn't leave their calling cards also- if you know what I mean! December 26 Thursday - Boxing Day Day 26 of VZ strike Another holiday here in the ex-British islands. We had ANOTHER oil spill this morning. Just after we completed cleaning up the last one! This one seemed to be worse also. We are just disgusted as it takes hours to clean off and leaves a permanent stain on the dinghy and hull. My local Trini friend Rex stopped by but we were too busy trying to clean up the oil damage so we couldn't talk much. Hope we get to see him again. The whole bay was very crowded with local Trini's making lots of noise so it was not very enjoyable. Larry was in a foul mood as he was very upset about all the permanent damage to the boat and dinghy. We spent a good part of the day cleaning it up too. December 27 Friday Day 27 of VZ strike I took the dinghy by myself today into Chaguaramas. This was the furthest I had ever been by myself in the dinghy and I was a little nervous about going. I brought the hand held radio with me in case I had any problems but had none. I checked our Crews Inn reservation and our slip is still occupied but they promised we could go into another slip on B Or C dock next week. I did a few more errands and got back to the boat before noon. I took a nap in the afternoon, as I am not getting a good night's sleep with the stupid boater running his generator at all hours. December 28 Saturday Day 28 of VZ strike We took down all the canvas, took the engine off the dinghy and prepared the boat to move over to Chacachacare island- site of the old leper colony, which closed 30 years ago. We always wanted to come explore the old ruins as we heard they were fascinating. But once you get into the marinas at Chaguaramas you get hooked and it's hard to get out if you are paying for a slip. We left around 10 and get in around 11:30 as we explored several other anchorages on the way in. We transited with Ariyl and Beauty and the Beast. Then we had to put the engine back on the dinghy and the canvas up again so we were tired by the time we finished this all and just rested the rest of the day. December 29 Sunday Day 29 of VZ strike We left at 9:30 for a hike up into the nun's quarters and church. Trini's haven't saved any of the buildings and everything that wasn't of any value has just been left to rot. It's a real shame as the buildings must have been beautiful once but now the jungle is taking the entire island back. Many of the roofs have collapsed and it's just a matter of time before everything is destroyed. We really enjoyed walking around and found it fascinating. We would have continued hiking around but there were a lot of locals since it was Sunday so we just stopped by to see Ariyl since they are leaving for points north. I made spaghetti and meatballs and Sojourner came over for a drink. December 30 Monday Day 30 of VZ strike We took a long hike from 9-12 into the ruins of the leper colony with Jan from Sojourner. The abandoned buildings were really fascinating and we all enjoyed it. We saw the infirmary, 2 churches, nurse's quarters, laundry and various other buildings. We thought it was fantastic and very interesting. Normally, we would never take anything, however, it's apparent the Trini's don't care about it so we took a few patient records, and a medicine stopper. The Trini's even took the marble from the altar! The buildings are really deteriorating very badly and most of the roofs look like they will collapse soon and some already have. We all really liked the hike though it was a bit spooky walking around the ruins. We had lunch, took a short nap and then we went into the water to clean the oil off the hull. It appears the boat is permanently stained with the oil residue. We will have to work on it further when we get on the hard. Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with some of the chop meat I have leftover from VZ. December 31 Tues New Year's Eve Day 31 of VZ strike We wanted to take the long hard walk up to the lighthouse this morning but it looked as if it were going to rain so we didn't. It did rain for a long time so we were glad we didn't go. I made a sun-dried tomato appetizer, egg salad, and crab cakes as we are going to go over to Sojourner for cocktails and then back to our boat for dinner. I will bring the appetizer with us to Sojourner. I did a bunch of emails in the pm. January 1, 2003 Wednesday - New Year's Day Day 32 of VZ strike Well, since there were only us 2 boats in the harbor, it was a very quiet New Year's Day. I actually had a hangover and was not feeling well the whole day. We wound up staying on Sojourner till midnight- we had snacks but no dinner and continued drinking from 5:30pm so even though we didn't have a lot to drink, not having enough food lead to a hangover. It was cloudy and overcast so it was a good day to do nothing. In the pm we took a dinghy ride and then came back and prepared the boat to go into a marina tomorrow. Yes- water, electric and cable TV here we come! I am particularly anxious to do the laundry. I did 2 small loads sending the laundry out in Margarita in Oct so we have tons of laundry- it's overflowing! January 2 Thursday Day 33 of VZ strike We were up early and got the rest of the boat ready to go into the slip. We kept the awning up since it wasn't that windy and we weren't going too far. We decided to trail the dinghy behind us as we were only going 5 miles and may need it in case our slip wasn't ready. We listened to the security net and pulled up anchor at 8:30. We had a big tide and current against us so it actually took around 1.5 hours to get into Crews Inn. We got our old slip back- A7. We did our hookups to electric and water. It was nice to be plugged in again. Larry immediately started washing down the boat as it had not been washed with soap and water since we left PLC. I immediately headed to the laundry room- all our clothes need to be washed very badly. Since the humidity was so high in Margarita we had mold growing all over the boat. Some of our clothes in the laundry even got moldy. Gross! Anyway, we wanted to get the boat washed before we put the AC in. We finally got the AC in late in the day. We were exhausted by days end. I had the crab cakes already prepared from the other night so we just had them for dinner. We watched TV- first time we have seen American TV since we left the US in Sept. We saw TV in Spanish in VZ. January 3 Friday Day 34 of VZ strike Well, we both didn't get a good night's sleep- don't know if it was from the sound of the AC, being in a marina, or having the hatches closed. Also, we are not used to having TV so we are staying up late and watching TV. I did 2 more loads of laundry- I am finally getting caught up with laundry. I put the other laundry away, and cleaned up the boat some. We were both tired so just stayed home watching TV tonight. January 4 Saturday Day 35 of VZ strike I was back doing more laundry again this morning. I had to wash the slipcovers for all the cushions- they were absolutely filthy and makes me glad I made slipcovers, as we really needed them. I also washed the towels- they had lots of stains all over them that I am trying to get out. We had Motu over for drinks and all had a good time. January 5 Sunday Day 36 of VZ strike We decided to take it easy today. We do so much boat work when we finally get into a marina that sometimes we just need a day to take it easy. Hard for those of you at home to understand that boat work is so hard but it really is- especially in this hot climate down here. I finished cleaning the slipcovers. I made a meatloaf and than we were off to play dominos from 1-4. After dominos, I walked on the treadmill for 50 minutes. We spent a quiet night at home watching TV. |