|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiaryMarch 23 Sunday Well, we both decided to relax today and take it easy. The problem with living on the hard and working on the boat is that you never get away from the boat and sometimes you just get sick of working on it. Anyway, I did about 18 emails, which took about 4 hours. I also did some analysis of our expenses - that took some time. We watched the video K19 that Mima rented but lent to us. We had seen it in the movies in VZ but it was very good and we both enjoyed watching it again. March 24 Monday I worked waxing half of the port side of the boat in the AM. Then, I washed a bunch of clothes by hand presoaking them in Oxiclean with hot water. There is no hot water in the washer here so if I just do it this way and then continue to wash the rest by hand it's not too bad. The machines are almost $2 and this is just for cold water! We left at 3:30 to pick up our rental car in Crews Inn. We are going to go up to Asa Wright for an overnight as we always enjoy it up there. Also, we just need to get away from the boat for a while. Anyway, we decided to go out to dinner tonight to TGIF and invited Lady J to go with us. We stopped at Price Smart first so I could stock up on a big provisioning. We know that paper products are not very good in VE and there are other things we can't get there, so we just got them here. Some of the things we can't get in VE are: paper products, real Clorox, Tide detergent, Tampax tampons, cheddar cheese, big jars of salsa, good spaghetti sauce, real sour cream (the VE stuff is terrible), grape jam, egg noodles, chocolate baking chips, and taco shells. Also, all cleaning products since I know the brands I prefer. Anyway, we went off the diet, as we will be unable to stay on it while we are up at Asa Wright. We'll leave early for Asa Wright. The fee has gone up and now the overnight with the room and all the meals is $16US higher- it's now $116USD. High but still worth it for all the wonderful birding we get to see. March 25 Tuesday We left at 8am but did hit some traffic getting into POS with rush hour and people trying to get to work. But the traffic wasn't too bad. They have actually paved the terrible road going up to Asa Wright. It still has a lot of twists and turns and is extremely narrow but it improved the road a lot. We got up there around 9:30 and were able to get out old room- the Cocoa Suite. It's a lot bigger than the standard rooms with a huge bathroom and is not to far a walk to the main house. We have never been up here during dry season before and it was a big difference. The trails were dry which made hiking easy. It was also a lot cooler. Plus, there were tons of birds around the feeders. I guess in rainy season the birds have plenty of food available but in dry season they don't so they hang around the feeder a lot more. We saw tons more birds at the feeders than we did the last several times we were here. There were hardly any overnight foreign guests due to the recent war. But there were lots of school kids, which were not good, as they make too much noise on the trails and scare the birds away. Anyway, we decided to just take the trails ourselves, as we know the place so well we really don't need a guide. We hiked in the morning, had lunch, and then took another hike. We joined the afternoon tea and sweets at 4pm, watched the birds for awhile and then went back to our room until dinner. Dinner was at 7pm. We requested a special meal since they were serving goat for dinner and we don't eat that so we got fish instead but the meal was not very good. After dinner, they had a wonderful video on the witchcraft of Trinidad, which we both enjoyed. We went back to the room after that and promptly went to bed, as we were tired after the long day. March 26 Wednesday Well, we both didn't get a good night's sleep and were up before our 5:45am wake up call. For some reason, we both don't sleep well here. Maybe it's because we're not used to sleeping in a normal bed again! Anyway, we went down to watch the birds at 6am as tht is feeding time and is usually great but they weren't any more plentiful at that hour then during the course of the day. The birding was so good at the feeders this time; you didn't really need to stay overnight to see the birds. We had a lunch today and this time they charged us for it- $16USD and it definitely was not very good and not worth the money. If we did it over again, I would have just come up early and stayed for the day only. It would have saved a lot of money. Plus, the food was not that great and it wasn't worth going off the diet for it. Oh well…. It still felt good to get away from the boat for a while. Anyway, we went for an 8:30 hike with the best birder they have- Makesh. He definitely knows all his birds! After the hike, we had lunch, took a fast shower and left the grounds at 1:30. We stopped in a hardware store in POS on our way home and then West Mall. Larry wanted to get a haircut before we left Trinidad. We were back by 5pm and stopped to see Mima on the way home- they are using the car tonight to go to a Chinese restaurant. We decided not to go as we really don't like the Chinese food here in Trini- it's expensive and not very good. We didn't have dinner prepared at home so we just stayed off the diet and ate at Joe's Pizza. It was nice to have Italian food again- I miss pasta the most being on this diet. March 27 Thursday Well, we went right back to the diet this morning- no more goofing off! I was actually up really early for me this morning - 7:30am. I put away all the food I bought at Price Club and unpacked our bags from Asa Wright. I went with Steph in the car to Hi-Lo in West Mall- Larry didn't want to stop at the supermarket yesterday. We left at 10 and came back to the boat at 12:30. I made some of our favorite eggplant and cheese for dinner along with chicken fajitas. Larry walked over to Mima in the late afternoon and had a few drinks on Mima. He was bombed when he got back, could hardly eat dinner and went to bed at 8pm. Unfortunately, Eric happened to cal tonight on Mima's cell phone so she brought it over. Larry barely remembers speaking with him! Eric will call back another night so they can have a better conversation. March 28 Friday Well, I finished compounding and waxing the port side of the boat. Now I only have the transom left. Anyway, we are dog sitting for Clem on Mima tonight. Today is Tom's 60th birthday so they are staying the night in Crews Inn to celebrate. We went over to their suite for a rink. I had never seen the suites before and they have big jacuzzi's and are very nice. I could use a night in a nice hotel like this! Anyway, I also made diet chocolate truffles today. Along with chicken Italiano, and cucumbers and sour cream. We copied a bunch of charts we didn't have for the Western Caribbean and PR, the DR etc. Sure it's illegal but unfortunately, charts are very expensive and we cruisers would go broke if we had to buy all the charts we need. It's different at home as we don't need to many charts. March 29 Saturday I had a terrible migraine headache and wasn't feeling well the entire day. We have had terrible fires that have come very close to the marina with thick black smoke and ash getting all over the boat. I wonder if this had anything to do with it? Anyway, I laid on the settee for a good part of the day today and didn't do much. March 30 Sunday I cleaned the refrigerator in the morning and then did 2 loads of laundry by hand. It was a nice cloudy day out so it was perfect for doing boat work. I never thought I would pray for cloudy days here in the tropics but the sun is so hot it's a relief from the unrelenting heat when it's cloudy. Anyway, Larry worked on the keel again today but a bunch of the epoxy didn't cure correctly since he mixed it wrong. It will all have to come off again so I guess we will be here longer. Darn, I was really looking forward to leaving also- I can only take the Trini mentality for so long and then I get fed up with all the bullshit. They are very nice people but not one of them knows how to run a business. Everyone says it will get done tomorrow but it never does. I prefer VE to Trini any day! Anyway, we had Cheryl and Randy from Caribee over for drinks tonight- they spoke to us about the western Caribbean. Sounds really nice but I don't know if we have the time to go. We have all the charts in case we decide to go anyway. March 31 Monday Well, I did some more hand laundry today and finished it all. I also did some emails and worked on the finances. April 1 Tuesday Larry worked on the keel again- he had to grind all the bad epoxy off and decided to do more work on the keel while he was at it. I did the finances and caught up in my logs. It's very easy to get behind on that stuff here. Peake's had not been giving us the 10% discount on the items we were entitled too. So, I walked over with all my receipts only to find certain items didn't "qualify". Oh well, at least we got something back - about $20USD. I also went into the bar and watched the war for a while. We have hardly been getting any news about what is going on at all. Anyway, I had to speak with Jesse from Members Only, as he wanted to talk with me about Price Smart. They are going to cut out the free transportation for cruisers to their store - they claim they are not making enough money with giving free transportation. So, if we want to go from now on, we'll have to pay about $4USD per person roundtrip. That doesn't sound like a lot but we can take a local bus roundtrip for less than $1.50. So, it's more expensive to use Jesse and it's he who will lose money on the deal. Cruisers will only go with him when they have a big shopping otherwise, they will take the bus by themselves which is exactly what I will do since I don't need a lot of things. Also, Price Smart's business will decline, as cruisers will ask someone else that's going to pick up a few things for them. In turn, the other cruisers will get them stuff when they go. These stores down here are not too intelligent and don't understand how cheap the cruisers will be from now on. Personally, I think we should all boycott the store until we get them to return free transportation but I don't think this will happen. It would hurt Members Only and Jesse has been very good to the cruisers. We watched the video Insomnia tonight with Robin Williams- we both really enjoyed it. April 2 Wednesday Larry did some more work on the keel today. I did some finances and reviewed the checking account. I had to walk back to Peake's today as I didn't have my charge card yesterday to get the discount. I walked over to Tardieu and rented another movie for tonight " Catch me If you Can". It was really terrific and we highly recommend it! I went over to Mima and stopped at Lennox woodworking to get our cabinet we had made for videotapes. It looks nice and will hold 24 videos. April 3 Thursday I went into POS today to get my watch fixed- fortunately, it was only the pin that had fallen out so I wasn't even charged anything so that was very nice. POS was very crowded as a Holland America cruise ship was in town. Larry and I have taken HAL before and really liked this cruise line. Unfortunately, it really made POS very crowded plus the pickpockets were surely out in force with all those unsuspecting tourists around so I was extra crowded. The "bad" guys had no idea I was not from the cruise ship so I was very careful and had no problem. If I had known the ship was here in port today, I would have come another day. Anyway, I looked at some more fabric but didn't buy any. I stopped at Price Smart on the way back. Since we know have to pay for the shopping bus, it's much cheaper to just take a local taxi on our own as long as you don't have a lot of stuff to carry. Anyway, I made some eggplant and chicken alfredo- enough for several meals. April 4 Friday I took the free shopping bus to the local supermarket. I was lucky the bus driver brought my packages directly to the boat so I bought lots of club soda and liquids, which is very heavy to carry. This really saved me a lot of carrying heavy packages so I purposely bought lots of liquids. Of course, we still had to get them up the ladder into the boat so this definitely was not easy. In the afternoon, I took a long hot walk over to Echo marine to get some things for Larry and also stopped at Peake's. It was probably around a 1/2 mile but walking in this heat definitely takes a lot out of me. |