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Diane's DiaryApril 5 Saturday I didn't get a good night's sleep and was up reading for several hours. The latest Caribbean Compass came out so I stayed up reading it. Steph bought me 4 lbs of shrimp from the market so it took me several hours to clean it. I walked over to Lady J to tell them all the info we had on VZ. Their boat deal fell through so they may be going. They do have a backup offer so maybe that will work. We spoke so long I only got to take a quick 5-minute swim in the pool. But it still felt good to have a pool again. I made a wonderful dish of shrimp with artichokes and sun dried tomatoes for dinner. I've made it before and it's definitely a really good one. We rented another movie for tonight "Under Heavy Fire" but it was awful. April 6 Sunday I started doing some hand laundry this morning- soaking the clothes in Oxiclean in boiling hot water (try this for whites only. For colored clothes use water from the faucet. I had some old colored clothes bleed onto others). Anyway, Larry is still working on the keel. Will we ever get out of this marina? I walked over in the AM to borrow Mima's sander. After lunch, I did some finances. Then I did some hand laundry and hung it out to dry overnight. April 7 Monday I did more hand washing of laundry. I soaked everything in Oxiclean first to get the stains out. I walked over to Peake's and Tardieu Marine to get some things Larry needed. Larry took the rust off our propane bottle in the AM and repainted it. Then he had me walk over to Tardieu in the PM to get some other things. I did more laundry and hung it all up to dry. Life on the hard definitely is not easy and I can't wait to leave here. April 8 Tuesday Well, we wanted both our propane tanks to be filled before we left and they didn't get returned today as normal. So, since we had no stove, we ate out for dinner. We went to Joe's Pizza and even managed to stay on the diet. I finished waxing the transom today. Yea, no more compounding and waxing! The boat really needs a paint job as the gelcoat can't be brought back to it's original look but we'll have to stick to what we have for now as we don't want to pay to get it painted. Larry did some more faring today along with working on the blisters. We had about 100 of them. Of course we don't know how the yard redid the bottom before we bought the boat so don't know if the work was properly done or not. Anyway, we stopped at Mima for a drink after dinner. Then we came back and I started watching "Red Dragon". I didn't finish it as it was getting late so I will continue it tomorrow. Larry didn't want to watch it but it was really very good and I enjoyed it. It wasn't that scary at all. It was the original Hannibal Lechter movie and was well worth seeing. So, if you haven't rented it- do! April 9 Wednesday I did some more hand laundry this morning. Then I walked over to Budget and the store here in the marina to price a bunch of boat parts Larry needs. We are going to buy all the supplies to get the boat varnished in VE. We got a price quote of $2.50/hr from a local contractor in PLC that some friends on Plenum used. Also, Mima used him for some other boat work and he seemed to be good. We definitely need the floor done very badly as it was never done originally and looks terrible. We would like to get the whole interior done if we have time but we'll see how it goes. Tom and Steph came over for drinks around 5 and left around 8pm. Anyway, I also walked over to Tardieu to return my video and also get another. We rented the Banger Sisters and really enjoyed it. I borrowed a pressure washer from S/V Caribee and pressure washed the starboard side of the bottom paint in preparation of painting it within the next several days. April 10 Thursday I walked to Budget Marine and back to the boat shop here to get some more prices for the boat items Larry wants to get before we leave. I returned the video the Banger Sisters we had enjoyed so much. Then I took the bus down to Price Smart and West Mall to get some things we needed. Larry worked on rebuilding the head. I also took US cash out of a machine there. We had heard the exchange rate would be higher IF we have US cash so we're trying to bring as much as we can. I can only get $500USD per day though and you have to be very careful with the money- I hide it in my bra! Anyway, we went to Mima for Larry's birthday since they will be leaving soon and won't be together on his birthday. They wrote a very nice poem for him as a birthday present that I am sure he appreciated. We all had a good time and we will miss them when we leave but know we will be together again so it won't be that bad. April 11 Friday Larry worked on rebuilding the head while I took the free bus to the supermarket. We were fortunate to have the same driver who brought all my food directly to the boat again for me. That really saves me a lot of work. Anyway, I walked to Peake's after lunch to get some supplies for Larry. While I was there, I stopped at the bar to watch some cable TV from the US about the war. It was very hot out today- the winter is definitely over and the higher trmperatures are coming in already. I cleaned the port side of the hull in anticipation for painting the hull on Saturday. I also walked over to Tardieu and rented another movie- "the Winds of Terror" about biological warfare. Considering what's going on in the US at the moment, it couldn't have been more appropriate. We both enjoyed the movie. April 12 Saturday Disaster today- more about that in a minute I made bacon and eggs for breakfast today and some sausages that we could have for dinner. Since we were going to be painting the bottom today, it was easier for me to cook up the sausages early so I would just have to reheat them for dinner. We walked over to Mima at 9:30am to help cast them off and say goodbye. Hopefully, we'll be seeing them in a few weeks in VE so I wasn't too upset about them leaving - I know we will see them again soon. Anyway, we went to Budget Marine after they left to get all the varnish supplies we need for VE- we spent about $650 in supplies! We have heard boat supplies are very hard to get and are very expensive in VE so we were told to bring our own. They gave us a 15% discount instead of the normal 10% if we paid cash so I went to the bank and got some and returned to the store. Since it was a large order, they drove me back to the boat. In the meantime, Larry returned to the boat to start to put the blue tape on the hull so we could start to paint. However, he noticed the paint on the part of the hull where the cleaning solution from the stuff YSATT gave us to get the oil off the hull, was soft! We were both very upset as he realized this paint would have to come off before we could paint. Don Stollmeyer, the director of Power Boats, happened to be working on his new catamaran he was building right behind our boat so we called him over. He also agreed the paint would have to come off. He said we should not paint the boat or we would be wasting our money since it would probably have to come off. We were both upset as we hoped to launch on Monday and get the hell out of Trinidad. I can only take so much of this country and their attitude. They will yes you to death as to when things will be ready however; NOTHING here is ever ready when they say it will be. Also, the workers work on Trini time- even slower than Caribbean time if you can believe that! Actually, Don was extremely nice and offered to get us contractors to help us get the old paint off for FREE! We could not believe this. We were very happy about his response however, we were not happy at staying here longer plus incurring all the extra expenses for materials and time on the hard. Plus, that means we won't be leaving here for at least another week. Also, next weekend is the 4-day holiday weekend so if we don't check out on Thursday, we have to pay overtime if we leave before Tuesday. Also, the yard is closed Friday through Monday for the long holiday. So, we were not very happy sailors tonight. We have been on the hard over a month now and I am really sick of it. I am tired of just doing boat work and climbing up and down the ladder. See all you folks at home think the cruising life is so easy but it is far from that. |