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Diane's DiaryJanuary 22 Wednesday Day 53 of VZ strike Well at 7am someone was knocking on our boat. Who could this be? We had just barely woke but had not even gotten out of bed yet. Well, it was our good friends on S/V Mima! We had just spoken with them on the SSB yesterday and they said they weren't coming for a while yet they came today. We were really glad to see them again. I had already had plans to go to Price Smart this morning so Larry helped them get into their slip at Tardieu Marine. It is half the cost of CI however, there is no cable, no pool, no decent bathrooms or showers so I will take CI any day. Anyway, we went over later in the day and all had an early dinner at Joe's Pizza. We were really glad to have Mima around here again. January 23 Thursday Day 54 of VZ strike I did 3 loads of laundry today that took me almost all day to do! Our slip is far from the laundry so I have to keep walking back and forth. I got 2 machines at once but had to wait for a third one so this made doing the laundry take much longer than normal. I folded all the clothes and put them all away and cleaned up the boat some. I did manage to get to the gym and pool before S/V Jacobite came over at 5pm for drinks. We really did not have much of a chance to visit before this so it was good to talk and see them again. We all had a good time visiting. January 24 Friday Day 55 of VZ strike I called Mom this morning- all seems well with Dad but he is still in the hospital and probably won't come home for a few days. Larry went to the other side and went to the Internet café, Chaguaramas Metal Works, and to see Mima. I did more cleaning of the interior teak. It takes much longer to do as we are living on the boat so everything needs to be removed before I can clean and wax it. I finished the aft cabin, head, foyer, and galley. I went to the gym in the afternoon and walked on the treadmill, did the bike, and worked on weights. We went to Mima around 5:30 for dinner. We enjoyed catching up with them on everything. January 25 Saturday Day 56 of VZ strike Steph and I went to the market at 6:30 this morning so I was up around 5:30am. We rarely get up this early unless we are doing a passage so this was too early for me. I bought some large shrimp for $6USD per lb, tuna at about 1.50 and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. I also bought 2 bunches of beautiful anthurium flowers for about 2USD. They look so beautiful. For dinner, we went to Sails restaurant with the dinner coupon I won along with Mo 2. We had a wonderful meal especially since we didn't have to pay anything except for the tip. If we had to pay for the meal. It would have cost about $40USD so I was glad we got the free dinner. It was good but wasn't worth $40USD. January 26 Sunday Day 57 of VZ strike Well, we had a very lazy day. The movie Pearl Harbor was on TV so I wanted to watch it and we did from 8:30-11:30 am. After, Larry went to the ham study group. Tom and Steph went also and came over to the boat afterwards for the afternoon so I didn't get to play dominos. After they left, I went into the pool. After dinner, I did some emails. January 27 Monday Day 58 of VZ strike Lady M 3 came in from VZ today and we helped them get on to the dock. We had arranged to go to TGIF with Lady J and Mima so wanted to leave around 11-11:30 so we could get a table before the lunch crowd came in. I finished oiling the bathroom and foyer and then was walking over to meet them along with Lady J. Larry had gone to help Lady M 3 get into their slip. Unfortunately, they ran into the boat ahead of them while trying to "parallel park" their boat into a slip and ruined the couples wind vane. So, they also had to move the boat to the other side as the slip they came into already belonged to someone. So, we didn't leave here until after 12 but luckily we did get a maxi that took us directly to TGIF for only 1TT more than we usually pay- .16USD per person so we took it. It was really nice having a big hamburger and sundaes again but the place it definitely not cheap. It cost about $35 for all this! Can't wait till we get back to VZ to get some cheap meals again! We have decided to go on diets tomorrow so this was our last big splurge. We went on the Atkins diet a few years ago and both lost a lot of weight. I lost about 40lbs and Larry lost 80. Yes, that's right- 80! I put most of it back on again so I feel I really need to lose the weight. I definitely feel sluggish from being overweight so I know it's time to start the old diet again. We would have started sooner but I wanted to use up all the food we brought back from VZ. Food is expensive down here so I didn't want to waste it. January 28 Tuesday Day 59 of VZ strike Well, we decided to go back on the Atkins diet today so this is day 1. We have both gained some weight and thought it was time to lose it again. I'll let you know how we do. I cleaned the interior teak with Murphy's oil soap and then oiled it. It will take a lot longer than it usually does when we are home since everything needs to be taken out of the way before we can proceed. January 29 Wednesday Day 60 of VZ strike Today we are dog sitting for Clem from Mima. They want to bomb the boat since they have coach roaches so everyone needs to be off the boat. Foreign animals are allowed in Trini - just not off the boat- so they had a real problem about what to do about Clem. Fortunately for Clem, Aunt Diane and Uncle Larry came to the rescue and she stayed with us for the day. She does not like to be left along though and howls when you leave unless you give her a pieced of bologna. Larry said she still howled anyway. We brought our dinghy cover back to Alpha canvas to fix, as they did not do the repair correctly. I cleaned and oiled the starboard side of the boat. I went to the gym and pool. We stayed home and watched a movie tonight. January 30 Thursday Day 61 of VZ strike Well, I started cleaning the port side of the boat so the work is really progressing. We seem to be doing well in our diets although it's only been a few days so far. I feel better already. January 31 Friday Day 62 of VZ strike At 9am I went downtown with Steph and Jackie. The guys hate to shop so since Jackie has been afraid to go downtown by herself, Steph and I took her shopping. I think Jackie had a good time as she had never been downtown before and bought lots of fabric. We went to West Mall also. I left them at 3pm, as I wanted to get back to the boat as I had planned on playing dominoes at 6pm and still wanted to take a shower and swim. Diane went to dominos at 6pm and Larry stayed home to study for the ham test. They ordered Joe's Pizza for delivery - this is the one restaurant that is hard to resist. It was really hard to see everyone eating all that wonderful food and we had a salad. UGH! Oh well, hopefully we will both be svelte soon. Last time we went on this diet Larry lost 80 lbs and I lost 40lbs. Larry kept most of it off but I gained most of it back. So, time to lose it all over again. February 1 Saturday Day 63 of VZ strike My Dad is in the hospital so I called him this morning. Hope everything will be OK! I am thinking of going home if all is not well though. We'll have to see. I have almost no winter clothes here so I know I would freeze. Plus, it's been so cold in the US and we are so used to the warm weather it will be a big adjustment. Anyway, I did some more cleaning and oiling of the teak and did some general cleaning. Larry worked on replacing the hinges on the port lockers. We had Mima over for dinner and all had a good time. Since they are across the water for us, if we go out at night we only take the dinghy since it's unsafe to walk. So, we haven't seen them too much in the evening. We used to eat together every night in Laguna Grande but we don't want to keep the dinghy in the water since it's so filthy so we don't get together too often for dinner. February 2 Sunday Day 64 of strike Well, today the strike in VZ finally ended. Unfortunately, it appears that Chavez has won so we are not happy with this. He is definitely crazy and leading the country toward Communism. We hope things will go back to normal soon so we can go back to VZ shortly after Carnival. Anyway, I hurt my back and was up at 5am when I couldn't sleep any longer. I finally went back to bed at 7 and slept until 9am. We saw someone we knew, a yacht broker, from Annapolis. He helped sell our old boat a Sabre 34. Anyway, we had Mo 2 over for dinner. Crews Inn had their all-inclusive fete today but we didn't go. First off, the tickets were about $40USD per person for the drinks and food for 8 hours. They had lots of music but it was way too loud. Since we are on diets we can't eat any of the food they will have and we certainly aren't drinking right now. So, we didn't feel it was worth it since we could hear the music rather loudly from our boat. They promised the fete would end at 10 and by 10:30 it did. February 3 Monday My back is still hurting me again so think I will take it easy today. I am sure it's from lifting some weights in the gym. I've been trying to go to the gym on a regular basis because it speeds the weight loss process up. Anyway, the local boating newspaper, the Caribbean Compass came out today with my article on Isla Blanquilla in VZ. There were 3 large color pictures so I was really pleased. She changed a few adjectives I used that I was not happy about but all in all it was a nice article. For those of you interested, authors get paid $50USD per article plus $5USD per picture so I earned a big $65 for writing the article. Considering the time I put into it, you definitely do NOT write for the money. But it's very satisfying having something you wrote get into print. I always enjoyed creative writing in High school. February 4 Tuesday Ben from S/V Adventure had a car so he took me shopping to Price Smart this morning. It's nice to be able to come and go quickly to the store. Usually we are gone form 9:30 and by the time we get our groceries and come back to the marina, it's around 1-1:30pm so this is definitely a lot quicker. I got food for several other cruisers as they get food for me when I just have a few things to pick up. Several of the cruisers came over this afternoon to pick up their food. I went to the pool at 4pm as we were invited over to the Road for a goodbye party. They are going to England to work for 2 years so wanted to have a big goodbye party. We had a great time and even managed to keep on our diets! Larry had gone downtown this afternoon with Mima to the hardware store. So as you can see, the days really just go flying by with lots to do. We are rarely bored in Trinidad! February 5 Wednesday Larry went to the Internet café this morning so I worked on my logs and did some emails. In the pm, I went to the gym and pool for a quick workout before we went to the Taste of Carnival number 1 that started tonight. It was really very good and we both enjoyed it a lot. It was well worth the admission price of $4USD per ticket. It is an introduction to Carnival especially for cruisers so it was very enjoyable- Larry got some really good pictures. I even brought our own food so we could stay on the diet. I knew if we had to wait till 8:30 to eat when we got home we would be starving. Glad we brought our own food, as there was nothing we could eat on the diet there. I had a migraine headache today so wasn't feeling very well. February 6 Thursday Larry went to the Winlink meeting this morning. It described the Winlink email system if you pass the ham test. Larry has been really studying hard for the test so I hope he passes. I watched Mima's dog Clem this afternoon again as they are bombing the boat again. They still have roaches. I still have my migraine headache and was up reading half the night. So, I took a nap this afternoon to try and get rid of my headache. |