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Diane's Diary11/13 Tuesday- MY BIRTHDAY! Larry gave me a nice birthday card- well, you can't find individual cards "to wife" here but it was a birthday card. I went to the 10am book swap. I wanted to trade some videos but someone just swiped my " the Way we were" video I wanted to trade. I asked for its return on the net the next day but the thief never gave it back. It definitely put me in a bad mood on my birthday. That is the last time I go to any book swap- mostly everyone has old stuff anyway. I would rather trade it among friends. Anyway, Legacy stopped by; they are leaving for Tobago today. Most of the other cruisers are starting to head north now as the winds start increasing & start coming from the north in December. Alpha canvas finally stopped by to pick up the material. We are going to have covers made for the dodger windows, the sail cover restitched, a textaline cover made for the middle dodger window (it will allow wind in but keep the sun out), & a middle piece to bridge the gap between the dodger & bimini (we never got this piece when we bought the boat & didn't know it was missing at the time). We went out to dinner at Joe's pizza with other cruisers - Dazzler, Just Deserts, Amadon Light & Jacobite. Dazzler gave me a bottle of wine & a nice card, Just Deserts homemade chocolate candy, & a small tape measure from Amadon Light. It was all very nice & I appreciated them all thinking about me. Afterwards, we all sat in the cabana at Coral Cove & had a few drinks. It was a nice birthday. 11/14 Wed Today is Divali Day- a public holiday & Hindu day of celebration. Divali is called the Festival of Lights & they light up everything with small clay candles. Crews Inn even gave us a small candle. At 4pm we went with Members Only on their tour. Approximately 200 cruisers went & we had like 5 huge maxi buses. The tour stopped at a Hindu Temple where we got an explanation of Hinduism & the holiday. Women could not show their knees or wear sleeveless blouses. Men had to wear long pants but not jeans. Then we drove to a Hindu village in Chagunas where we had dinner- just vegetarian foods like chick peas (they call it channa), pumpkin, roti bread & anew other things. The food was not very good. Then we could walk freely around the village to see all the wonderful lights. It was very beautiful & we enjoyed looking at all the houses all lit up. It was extremely hot & humid in the village. We left around 9 & got home after 10pm. While the tour was very interesting, we paid almost $30 for the 2 of us & I don't think it was worth the price. 11/15 Thursday Well, today we had a dentist appointment with Dr. Barthelow in the West Mall for an exam teeth cleaning & x-rays. HE did an excellent job & the cost for both of us was $100USD. My dentist at home charges that price for one person! Unfortunately, Larry has a cavity & we couldn't make an appointment until 11/30 because he's only in this office 2 days a week. Also, we have decided to go back to Asa Wright for my birthday present so it was hard to reschedule. However, we felt is was important to get it done here while we had good medical care. So, it looks like we will have to stay in Trinidad longer than we expected. After the dentist we walked around the mall, had lunch at McDonalds, went to the supermarket & then back to the boat around 2:30. We went to the potluck later that night at Crews Inn. 11/16 Fri S/V Jacobite gave me a ride to the other side of the anchorage. I walked to Fortress to pick up the screens we had cut in two, Budget Marine, another marine store, Shari the sewer, then went to Coral Cove where I got caught in a terrible rainstorm & had to wait it out. Fortunately, Carrie form Dazzler & later Dawn from Just Deserts also wondered in. I took out lunch from Joe's Pizza since the rain was relentless & looked like it wasn't going to quit. Finally, it stopped & Dawn gave Carrie & I a ride to Crews Inn. That night was the Employee-Guest Talent show at Crews Inn & since it was almost directly in front of our boat we went. S/V Cameron came into the anchorage today- we had not seen them since Grenada. They were the ones who helped rescue our boat when it dragged in Anse Mitan Martinque. Both Cameron & Jacobite came to the show. It was actually quite good & we had a wonderful time. The food was ok & inexpensive. However, about halfway through it really started to pour out again. I had my doubts the rain would stop but it finally did & they were able to finish the show. The prizes were very good also. It was definitely a nice evening. 11/17 Sat Well, I finally got around to putting Cetol on the handrails & companionway. I'm going to use at least 4 coats of the stain followed by 2-3 coats of clear. It will make the boat look so much better. I never got to do the companionway before we left home & it had been looking a bit sorry looking. Larry played chess with Paul from Autumn Wind. I started inventorying our food supply so we could restock the things we are missing. I made the Lloyds ribs form the US for dinner. While they were quite expensive at almost $18 USD they were very good. I used to eat them at home also. We watched a movie I had swapped for, U571 that was very good. My local Trini friend Rex Stollmeyer, warden for the US Embassy, gave me a beautiful kingfish he just caught today so I marinated it for dinner tomorrow. 11/18 Sun We were up at 7:30am & made bacon & eggs for breakfast. I waited the required 24 hours & put on another coat of Cetol stain on the handrails & companionway. S/V Cameron stopped by for a visit just as I finished my Cetol. I do it first thing in the morning as the rain seems to start only in the afternoon. I also did 2 more loads of laundry. In this intense heat with little wind, we sweat a lot & can only wear a shirt for one day before it need to be washed. Larry went to play chess with Wally at 2pm. I did some emails & at 4:30 went to the gym, pool, & showers. I got back to the boat around 6pm. Now that winter is here, the sun sets sooner everyday so it's dark before 6pm. I made the kingfish for dinner & we both enjoyed it. 11/19 Mon I put another coat of Cetol on this morning. I'm up to 4 coats of stain now although one coat got ruined with the rain. I had ordered a rental car for 9am this morning but Michelle, the rental girl, is never there until 9:30. However, even though I ordered the car in advance, no car was available until around 11:15 & that's only because she gave me one of the workers cars. The car literally was on fumes, so by the time we gassed it up, it was 11:30. Our appointment with the Wildfowl Trust all the way down near San Fernando, was at 1:30pm. We wanted to stop at Price Club first for a few things I needed to make Thanksgiving dinner & have a quick lunch. It took us 45 minutes to drive to Price Club & about another 25 minutes further to the Wildfowl Trust. We enjoyed the Trust & thought it was very worthwhile although not have as good as Asa Wright. We did get to see macaws they are breeding. We also saw Scarlet ibis' in cages for breeding & 3 roaming free around the grounds. It was a quiet place in the middle of the oil refinery with lots of birds. We got a tour just as we were finished hiking around ourselves. We got to the Trust about 2 & stayed till 4:30. We drove back to Chagaramas & got back around 6pm. We stopped by at Coral Cove to speak with Dazzler & Larry wanted to watch a chess match so we stayed for an hour. Since it was too late to drive into Port of Spain for dinner we just ate at Joe's Pizza. We got back around 8:30- too late for me to take a shower & get my hair dried in this humidity. 11/20 Tues Well, we had the rental car until 12 this morning but she let us keep it for another hour until 1pm. We went into Port Of Spain to a hardware store but they didn't have what we needed so we went to another store. We were looking for the water saving device to fit our new faucet- we had the device it just didn't fit our new faucet. We also stopped at Peake's Hardware store in POS. We went to TTSA for lunch the local sailing marina that some cruisers stay at. Unfortunately, it's a maxi bus ride away from most of the boater activity in Chaguaramas. It's not a far walk - it's just not safe to walk. TTSA charges cruisers $60USD per month to land the dinghy & for use of the showers & facilities. They have a swimming pool but the cruisers are not allowed to use it. I prefer Crews Inn even though its a lot more money. In the one-year we have been cruising we only stayed in marinas twice before we got to Trinidad & that's because we had trouble with the boat. It's definitely worth it to stay in a marina once in awhile. S/V Kristali came into the anchorage today but unfortunately the winds were up & Chaguramas harbor is not a good place to anchor anyway - the holding is not good & the bottom is fouled with debris. Since they were only staying overnight, they didn't want to spend the money to clear in so they went to Scotland Bay instead. We were very disappointed, as we wanted to see them. We could have driven out to Scotland Bay but we were all hooked up to shore power & it isn't so fast to disentangle ourselves. I made Swedish meatballs for Thanksgiving dinner. We have been invited to Just Deserts for Thanksgiving along with some other cruisers. 11/21 Wed I volunteered to teach the kids at the school again today from 8:30-11:30. I got a lot out of teaching the kids & I hope they do too. I got a migraine headache this afternoon & had to lie down for a while. In the year we have gone, I have only gotten these headaches periodically. I used to get them much more frequently at home. Just shows you what no stress will do to you! I did manage to make the stuffing for Thanksgiving. I didn't have my cookbook with my regular recipes with me so I had to wing it. Hope it comes out good! S/V Autumn Wind invited us to go with them to a Thai restaurant tonight. The food was very good & the atmosphere nice. However, even with drinking only water (we had a few drinks before we went out) the bill was $60USD. We don't spend that much too often! |