|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiaryApril 13 Sunday We were both really upset and depressed today about the bottom paint. We were both looking forward to leaving also. One of the washing machines is not working properly- it doesn't take tokens so it's free. I presoaked all the stuff in hot water with Oxiclean and then took all the wash to the laundry. It's better to do this all on weekends when there's no one in the yard as there's less dust in the yard and you can hang your clothes up on the lifelines to dry. It's extremely dry here right now and hasn't rained in months so everything is extremely dusty- it gets inside the boat also. I did about 8 loads of laundry this way. I had to time the machines just right because if I wasn't at the machine when it stopped, another cruiser would put their clothes into it. So, it was a lot of up and down the ladder for me all day long. I also defrosted and cleaned out the freezer and refrigerator. Larry worked on installing the head. If it wasn't for the bottom paint problem, we would be leaving tomorrow as everything else is done. One of the seacocks was frozen but he managed to undo it. He also changed the engine oil and zincs. All in all, it was a very busy day and we were glad to sit down at night to watch the video "XXX" I rented- it was pretty good but I wouldn't have paid to see it in the movies. April 14 Monday I got another bad night sleep. I don't know why but I can't seem to get a good night's sleep lately. I was up reading from 3-4am when I couldn't sleep. Anyway, I spoke to Don Stollmeyer around 8:45am- I tracked him down in the yard. He came back at 9:15am with a contractor to look at the problem. They would only be able to give us 1 worker today and that would be in the afternoon. That's better than nothing but at this rate we will be here for weeks. Larry and I tried for about 3 hours each but we really didn't have the proper tools to scrape the bottom paint off. I was very frustrated and angry as I think we'll be here for weeks. But in the afternoon, when we were having lunch, we suddenly heard someone working on our boat. Great! However, by 2:30 we had 5 guys working on it and they were told to finish it all today! Now that's great customer service- we could not have expected that response so quickly from any yard in the US. I really didn't think they would get the whole job done in a few short hours but they actually did. I stayed the whole time to supervise while Larry ran to the store a few times. They got the old paint off with this huge scraper, then sanded all the bad areas. It was a very dusty, dirty job. Glad we didn't have to pay for all of this! They finally finished at around 6:30pm. OK, now that's done, however, now we have to put the barrier coat and bottom paint back on. That's not too hard except you have to work under time frames - you have x hours from the time you finish the barrier coat before you apply the bottom paint. So, it looks like we aren't going to be able to launch before Saturday at the earliest. Even though the yard is officially cloed on Saturday, they said they would get someone to launch the boat if we were ready. That was extremely nice of them and we will try to be ready but everything needs proper drying time. Plus, you have to wait at least 1 whole day for the bottom paint to dry before you launch. April 15 Tuesday- Tax Day! I used denatured alcohol to clean the boat bottom before Larry can put the barrier coat on. I walked to Budget Marine and the bank to get a few things while Larry put the first coat of barrier coat on. We can't put the second coat on today as the first coat of bottom paint needs to go on within x hours so we don't have enough time to do it in one day. April 16 Wednesday After making bacon and eggs for breakfast and cleaning up, I walked over to Tropical Marine as one of the fisherman was selling fresh swordfish- less than $2USD per Lb- a real bargain. We haven't had swordfish in such a long time, I bought 5.5 lbs. I also walked over to Coral Cove, Budget and Peake's. Larry wanted another coat of bottom paint. Larry finished 1 coat of the barrier coat and had to wait x hours before he started the bottom paint. This had to be done in one day or we would have had to sand the area before we applied the bottom paint so no way. Our friends on S/V Kiana came into Trini today but we were too busy to help them get into the anchorage. April 17 Thursday The normal Friday supermarket run was today because the store is closed tomorrow for Good Friday. I went and so did Lynn on Kiana so it was nice to catch up with her. I wanted to run to Price Smart as I discovered we needed a few things I forgot and she wanted to go too so we went together. We took longer than I would have if I had just gone by myself but that's the way it goes. Larry painted some more barrier coat today on the keel and more bottom paint. He wanted to have at least 3 coats of paint on the problem areas and especially on the bow, which gets a lot of wear. April 18 Friday - Good Friday Today is Good Friday so everything is closed. Larry did more painting with the barrier coat and bottom painting- it took all day. I did some emails in the morning as I am very far behind in my correspondence- my logs also. I walked over to Kiana in the PM as she lent us a few videos to watch. It's obvious we're not finished with the bottom paint and drying times so now we are stuck here for the long 4 day holiday. It will be nice to have some videos to watch. We watched the movie "Red Corner" tonight and it was very good. April 19 Saturday Larry is still busy painting the water line. I have offered to help but he doesn't want me too. I don't think he likes the way I paint. So, I did some cooking- made jello, hard boiled eggs, salad dressing and marinated the swordfish. Io also cleaned the bathroom and the boat and caught up on some logs. We watched another movie tonight- "Paradise Road" which was also pretty good. April 20 Sunday - Easter Sunday Well, it didn't really feel like Easter as we had no plans to do anything special at all. Larry finished painting the bottom of the boat today. I walked over to Crews Inn to call Mom and Dad and Aunt Mary. It was good to speak with them all. I weighed myself at the same scale where I started the diet on, but I've only lost another 2 lbs in 2 weeks so I've lost about 20 lbs all together. However, I have lost 4" on my chest, 7" on my waist, and 4" on my hips so I'm not doing too bad. But somehow the scale is not going down very far and that's frustrating. I visited Lady J to say goodbye as hopefully we'll be leaving on Tuesday. I also went in the pool for a while which was very enjoyable. April 21 Monday - Easter Monday Another holiday-we don't celebrate this in the US. Larry patched the boot stripe today- it took the entire day to do. A lot of it was coming off and some spots were from the workers trying to sand right below it- they couldn't help nicking the boot stripe in places. I did a ton of laundry- everything I could while I still have a washer. I also made chicken italiano, eggplant, chocolate truffles and cleaned up the boat. Since we have unlimited water here, I wanted to take advantage of it and do all the cleaning. We were both tired at the end of the day but everything is done except all the little last minute stuff like filling the water tanks, clearing out of customs and washing the boat down. We both can't wait to leave tomorrow. We will launch late in the day as I need to clear customs, return Lynn's video's, etc. April 22 Tuesday Launch day- yea! We were both up early to get everything done. I decided to defrost the freezer one last time as it's best to keep up with this every few weeks so it doesn't build up. I filled about 12 empty 2 liter coke bottles with water so we would have an extra water since it's better to have it on hand and we go through a lot for drinking purposes. After I defrosted the freezer, I hosed the boat down. It's absolutely filthy after being in this dusty yard for the past 6 weeks. Larry was involved doing last minute prep work. I also paid our yard bill. After lunch, I walked to Kiana to return her videos and then went to Customs to check out. I stopped at YSATT to give them copies of all our expenses incurred in removing the bottom paint- almost $500USD. We think YSATT and the company that made the product should reimburse us for all these extra costs. They are a Canadian company so this is better than being a Trini company as we would never get any money then. I have my doubts we will actually get anything back at all though. In the US we would, but here in Trini, I have serious doubts. While I was at Customs, 2 of the cruisers helped Larry move the AC down below. I helped him the last time but it's just a little too heavy for me. He also filled the water tanks. I went to the CI supermarket and was lucky to get a lift back to the boat as I had 18 club sodas which were very heavy! I wanted to use up the last of our local currency as hopefully we won't be needing it any longer. We also took our last long shower for a long time. On the boat, we take quick showers so we can conserve as much water as possible. So around 3pm, we launched. By the time we actually got in the water, it was around 4pm. Thankfully, all systems appear operational and we can get the hell out of here! We motored the one hour over to Scotland Bay and entered another world. It was so quiet and peaceful compared to the boatyards. However, they still had forest fires here. Trinidad seems to be on fire this year- very little rain and they don't have enough water to put them out so they just leave them burn. We just relaxed and enjoyed the setting and had a drink. It's great to be back in the water again. April 23 Wednesday It was great to be back in the water again but I got a horrible night's sleep- probably due to a combination of not being used to moving boat again, no AC, the smoke from the burning forest fires, and no wind so it was hot. Anyway, it took us all day to get everything put away in order to transit tonight. By the time we finished everything it was late in the afternoon and we were both exhausted. To do a night crossing was possible but since we were both so tired anyway, I suggested we just spend another night here. Larry agreed as he also was very tired. We are here for fun and not to beat ourselves up so it seemed like a good idea to just rest tomorrow and leave tomorrow night. We got an emergency email from our friends Plenum in PLC. Could we get some mineral spirits for them and bring it to VE? Unfortunately, we got the email when we were in Scotland Bay and we didn't want to take the dinghy down just for one day. Luckily, we saw Doug, the owner of KISS wind generators, which we have, and he got it for us. We invited him to stay for a drink and he did. April 24 Thursday We didn't do much today but just rest. We didn't want to take the dinghy down for a few hours so we just stayed on the boat. It was really nice to finally have a nice quiet relaxing day again. We left the anchorage with the sails up at 6pm. VE here we come- I can already taste that lomito right now! |