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Diane's DiaryMarch 7 Friday I helped Larry fix the boom today- he had the gooseneck bolts reinforced but then we had to get it back on which wasn't very easy. Finally, I asked our next-door neighbor to help and with the 3 of us, the job was very easy. We just needed a third person to help. Anyway, we are going to haul on Tuesday. Today I cleaned, vacuumed, and oiled the teak forepeak. Larry walked over to Power Boats to pay for the haul out- they will not haul you unless you pay first. I went to the gym, as I had not been there on a regular basis since before Carnival. Unfortunately, the gym instructor is not here anymore- we don't know if he quit or was fired but do know he was unhappy with the job. That's to bad as we liked him in the gym- he helped me a lot with using the weights. I wish we had a gym on the hard - I've done so much exercise and am finally getting in better shape so would like to continue with a gym. Oh, well, we'll be to busy on the hard anyway. We want to get in and out of the yard ASAP. March 8 Saturday I put all the things back into the forepeak. I washed the canvas we had in the forepeak but unfortunately, the Oxiclean stuff I used to clean the canvas with turned it another color- it was white and is now yellow and blotchy. Thank goodness it's in our cabin so you don't see the stains too bad. That's the last time I use Oxiclean to clean canvas! Anyway, I washed the snorkeling equipment out- we should have done this when we came into the marina but didn't. I also filled the water tanks. It's amazing how much more water we use when we are at the docks. When you don't have to be careful about how much water you use, you tend to use a lot more. Anyway, we left at 7pm for the Champs In Concert. We both enjoyed this show though it was all the people we had already seen- we just got to see all the winners. Actually, we only saw 1 winner we hadn't seen before- that was the kids Junior Parade of Bands. The tickets were less than some of the other events but you could definitely skip this event. As a matter of fact, hardly any cruisers went. Many cruisers are leaving now and more leave each day so it's really emptying out. Anyway, we didn't get home until 2pm- way past our normal bedtime! March 9 Sunday Well we are getting the boat ready to go on the hard tomorrow. We took the dinghy out of the water, took the engine off and cleaned it again. After lunch, I did 5 loads of laundry. Only Crews Inn and Coral Cove have hot water in there laundry so it really makes a big difference trying to get the clothes clean. We definitely are harder on our clothes down here than we are at home. Anyway, we were both tired from the long day. March 10 Monday Well, I cleaned the boat, put the laundry away, called the dentist and stopped at the car rental place for Mima. Mima has a rental car and wants to keep it a day longer. We left at 1:30pm the go see "The Recruit" with Mima. It was nice to go to the movies again and the movie was good although a bit confusing. Afterwards, we went to Ruby Tuesday for an early dinner. Larry went off the diet to celebrate his passing the Ham test but I stayed on it. He is losing weight faster than I am- his ketone level is a lot higher than mine. So, when I cheat, it takes me a lot longer to get back into ketosis so I don't like to cheat very often. If I cheat for 1 meal, it takes me several days to get back into ketosis so it's not worth cheating. March 11 Tuesday Well we are going on the hard today at 1pm. At 9am I went to the gym since I didn't go yesterday. I took a fast shower, paid the Crews Inn bill with Mima. She paid the bill on her charge and I took the money out of the checking account and gave her cash. They were having problems getting money out of their account. Anyway, we left at 12:45 to position ourselves to be ready to get into the haul out spot only to find another boat in the spot! They claimed they had a hard time doing some things and weren't ready when they were supposed to be. I think the yard should have made them wait until after we were done! Anyway, by the time we waited for them and got lifted out into our new "home"- it was 3pm- too late to start anything today! So, I just fried some eggplant and made chicken picata for dinner. Tomorrow the real work starts! Hope we get out of here quick! March 12 Wednesday Well, I was up at 7:30 and went to work at 8:30 after the morning radio net. I tried to get the oil slick off with the stuff YSATT gave us. This didn't work so I tried FSR. That didn't work. I asked the launch driver Ray and he said try Cif (it's like soft scrub but half the price). So, I went to the Power BOAts store and bought some. It worked! Unfortunately, the stuff the YSATT gave us left a wet looking stain on the hull. It took me all day long to do this. I had to climb on Cinammon's Fresh Step box all day long to reach the top of the waterline as it's just a little out of my hands reach. March 13 Thursday I got a bad night's sleep and was up at 7:30. I did a lot of cooking- made sausages and eggs for breakfast, jello, hard-boiled eggs, my own salad dressing (from the Atkins book- very good actually), cut up string beans, and prepared the red snapper. I did all this right after breakfast! I helped Larry find all the blisters on the boat- we had about 100 all together! When we bought the boat, a complete bottom job had been done by the yard the previous year so these blisters should not have happened. Of course, we really don't know how the yard did the bottom job or if they even did it correctly. We also know the warm water down here definitely affects the bottom and we have kept the boat in the water all year down here when we only keep the boat in the water about 6 months of the year at home. March 14 Friday I went to the free supermarket run to Tru Value this morning. I walked over to Mima later that afternoon. I compounded 2 sections of the boat. Since I don't have my electric waxer here, this is a lot harder on my arms. The boat is really ready for a paint job and is really only about $3000USD for a paint job in VZ, which is dirt-cheap, compared to the US where it would cost over $20000. But we don't want to spend the money at this point so will just get the interior varnished instead. Labor prices are dirt cheap in VZ right now with all the problems. We will get the varnish work done for $ 2.50/hr - the same labor is $7USD in Trinidad and is $65/hr! Wish we had more money to get everything done or we would! One of the local Internet cafes rents movies- they are all bootleg movies from the US but very cheap - only .50USD per movie. Plus, they have a lot of new ones. A lot of the movies have been recopied often so the pictures aren't crispy clear but you can still see them good enough to watch them. Anyway, we watched " My Big Fat Greek Wedding" tonight and really enjoyed it- it was very good and we're glad we saw it! It was in the movies here less than 2 months ago! March 15 Saturday I went to the market at 6:30am. This is definitely very early for me as I am never usually up at this ungodly hour! I usually don't get up until 8am. Anyway. I bought 10 lbs of shrimp and cleaned it all when I got back to the boat. I had a migraine headache so took a nap in the afternoon and that made me feel better. I made some chocolate truffles with the Atkins recipe and they came out pretty good- I definitely liked them and would even eat them even if I weren't on the diet. They are not too sweet- just the way I like them. I will definitely continue to make this recipe. Anyway, I put away all the vegetables I bought from the market, made diner etc. After dinner, we watched another movie I rented " the long Kiss goodbye" with Gina Davis- OK but not great, lots of action though. Anyway, since we don't have TV on the hard it's nice to at least have movies to rent so cheaply- even if they are bootleg ones! March 16 Sunday I did more compounding and waxing of the hull. The scaffolding is very heavy to move around so I compound and wax each section twice before I move the scaffolding. It's very tiring as I have to hold my arms up over my head so wears me out more. I continued making the truffles for Steph's Bday- Tom told me she likes chocolate. I was going to make her a chocolate cake but they went on the diet too so I tried this recipe and was very pleased with the results. March 17 Monday St. Patrick's Day Today is Steph's Bday so we're having them over for dinner tonight. I'm going to make a shrimp dish that's on the diet along with the eggplant dish we all seem to like. I did some more compounding and waxing today. Since it hurts my arms so much, I try to do a section each day so I don't get exhausted. Larry walked over to Dockyard Electrics to get a boat part and I walked over to Peake's to get more compound. We had Tom and Steph over for dinner and the meal seemed to be a big hit with everyone. March 18 Tuesday I did some more compounding and waxing today. I walked over to Crews Inn to check out of customs. Why did we have to check out when we had no intention of leaving? Why- because you need to make an appointment at least a week in advance to ask for an extension on your papers. Plus, they charge $50 USD for both of us to do it this way. So, we'll go back in a day or so, say we had boat troubles upon leaving and check in again. We really don't like to do things this way, but it couldn't be helped- plus, we've saved $50 and we should only be here about 1-2 weeks longer than our 3 months usually allowed. They also charge about $8USD per month just to be in Trinidad, which we find not too unreasonable. I also visited Lady J- they think the boat has been sold but have to wait to see if the deal will go through. March 19 Wednesday I worked on compounding and waxing the boat the whole day. I did 2 coats of wax on half the starboard hull and compounded the next half. That's all my arms would allow, as I was exhausted after I was done! What a lot of work! Then I walked over to Mima and returned a video, stopped at Alpha Canvas as the hole they made for our dodger handrails is too small, and stopped at Chaguaramas Metal Works. We went to Joe's Pizza for Steph's birthday along with S/V Global Embarka. Lady J was supposed to go but they weren't feeling well. Even though we were in our favorite Italian restaurant we stuck to the diet. Actually all 4 of us except Fred were on the diet and stayed with it. March 20 Thursday Larry thinks we may have a problem with the skeg- hope not as that would be a big problem. I had to go to the Dentist so I couldn't stay to help him. I called Tom and he was going to come help as Larry was having problems with getting the bolt off. But thank goodness, there was no problem! This could have been a big problem too so he was really happy everything was OK. I went to the dentist, got my haircut, and did some other things. I have also been taking US cash out of the bank- we heard the exchange rate in VE would be much better if we have cash- by 500B. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but 500B buys a beer so it actually is. We really feel bad for all the VZ people with all these problems; we know it must be extremely hard on them. March 21 Friday We were interviewed by Tim Murphy of Cruising World magazine. He is here doing a story about Trinidad, and VZ. He took pictures and all so it will be interesting to actually see the story. Maybe we'll be in it. At the very least we'll know all the cruisers who are! Afterwards, we both walked back over to customs to check back in and had no problems at all. We were actually afraid they were going to give us a hard time but they didn't. We didn't even have to pay the extra $50USD for an extension. We stopped to visit Lady J and I got to go swimming- I really do miss having the pool and the gym. We stopped at the grocery and to see Mima and have a drink on the way home. We watched another video tonight- "Windwalkers" Great story but the movie could have been a lot better. March 22 Saturday I walked over to return the video and then on to Crews Inn to return some books to Lady J. I watched some TV for a little while, as I was interested in the war. We don't have TV on the hard and the only TV here is in the bar of the marina next to us so we don't go over there too often. It definitely bothers me that we are unable to hear the latest news from home. We are not getting very good reception on the SSB radio in the marina - probably due to all the masts. I waxed some more of the boat in the morning and then again in the afternoon. It's just to hot to do it in the middle of the day- especially since you are not supposed to use wax in the direct sun. We watched another video tonight- Men In Black 2- not nearly as good as the original but definitely worth .50USD to rent it! |