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Diane's Diary11/28 Wed I went to teach the kids in school today - my last week since we are leaving Trinidad. I gave the 2 girls I taught some candy as a going away present. My "girl" was a pannist & so had arranged to give us a pan concert. We really enjoyed it. I hope she sticks with it- her father plays pan professionally so maybe she will. I took the bus into POS to buy some more fabric in case we don't come back to Trinidad. I spent about $20USD for 5 yards of fabric that matches our boat pillows & curtains, & 5 yards of fabric to make shirts or dresses. Then I took the bus to West Mall, went to Peppercorn's, McDonald's for lunch, supermarket, got a haircut, & went to the bank (this is the only place to get US cash out of an ATM) I got back to the boat around 3pm & was exhausted. The heat definitely tires you out very quickly. 11/29 Thurs I continued with my Excel food inventory spreadsheet. Then I made some biscuit mix, flan for the potluck tonight, & minestrone soup. I went to the bank & walked over to Alpha Canvas to pay his bill. For $200USD he repaired our sail cover, made a centerpiece for the bimini cover, 5 dodger window covers, & 1 textaline window cover. We supplied all sunbrella, zippers, textaline & snaps. We were pleased with the work & would definitely use him again. He would not even let us pay him partially when the work was completed - he said pay him all when we finished. If we were dishonest (which we are definitely not) we could have taken off without even paying him. In all the time he's been in business, he said this only happened once. It's good to know most cruisers are honest. We went to the potluck tonight- our last one! Most cruisers have already left Trinidad so there were only about 15 people there. Most of the cruisers left starting the beginning of November. Most everyone told us when the wind starts switching to the north, usually in December; it's hard to go north. So, most leave by the middle of November to allow a weather window. Going north from Trinidad to St. Martin usually takes about 10 days sailing only during the day, according to our friends on S/V Great White Wonder. Most cruisers want to be in a place way before Christmas. The Christmas winds pick up anytime between Dec - Jan bringing high winds, rough seas & northerly swells. Last year they came to St. Martin while we were there around the middle of January & lasted a month. One day we had 48 knots in the St. Martin lagoon. With our little 5HP engine, it sure made things difficult! So, I am anxious to get moving also. It's strange being here without all the multitude of cruisers. It feels like it's deserted. Plus, we miss all the friends we made while we were here. 11/30 Fri Larry went back to the dentist this morning. He had one cavity that affected 3 teeth & was charged $100USD for the visit. Considering how expensive dental work is in the US, I don't think that's a bad price. I went to the supermarket on the free bus to pick up the last things I need before we leave. S/V Jacobite gave me a blow dryer they didn't need so I defrosted the freezer with it. It sure makes defrosting go a lot easier with it! I had borrowed a blow dryer from other cruisers when I needed it. I also cleaned out the refrigerator & did general boat cleaning since we have unlimited water at our disposal. Larry went to the internet café this afternoon. It only cost about $3USD per hour to use the internet here - that's the cheapest of all the islands. For comparison, St. Lucia is 30 EC per hour- approximately $11USD per hour. So, we try to use the internet where the rates are the cheapest however, we usually need to connect at least once or twice per month. We went to Joe's Pizza for the last time tonight with S/V Legacy & Jacobite & than on to a wonderful pan concert at Sails restaurant in Power Boats. It was fantastic. Sails restaurant was celebrating their 5th anniversary so they brought a pannist inn to play. He is supposed to be one of the best pannists in Trinidad. He had 3 other pieces in his band with him. It was a fantastic concert & we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We were glad we were still here to see it. 12/1 Sat I went back to the fruit & vegetable market for the last time today to stock up. I bought 6 lbs of shrimp at $5USD per pound & lots of fruit & vegetables all reasonably priced. You can get a beautiful arrangement of anthrium flowers for about $1.50 USD. We went to the big Hi-Lo supermarket also & I stocked up some more. Think I am just about all stocked up & spent out! Fortunately, most of this food will last us for months. I came back to the around 10am & put all the food away. I also cleaned the 6 lbs of shrimp, which took 2 hours. We had a wonderful shrimp dinner. Since I was up at the crack of dawn, I was tired this evening so we went to bed at 9pm. 12/2 Sun We were both very tired today. Seems like we never get a day to just sit & rest. The intense heat here definitely drains you a lot more. We get accomplish half of what we do in any given day back at home because of the heat. I made bacon & eggs for breakfast. Then I used Murphy's oil soap & cleaned the companionway, aft cabin & head. I vacuumed the boat also. I am trying to get as much cleaning done since we have unlimited electricity & water. When we are on the hook, we are very conservative about their usage. Jacobite had asked us if we wanted to go to the Christmas party at the fisherman's cooperative near Crews Inn but we had decided not to go since we wanted to finish everything on the boat. Now we are sorry we just didn't take the time to go, as we just needed a break from boat chores. We did walk over to Coral Cove marina to see S/V Amadeon Light this afternoon & Bill showed us videos he had taken of French Guyana - famous for the French prison in the "Papillion" movie. We stayed talking awhile. They have a beautiful Toshiba 40 custom built for them that has a gorgeous collection of Waterford crystal onboard. When we walked back to Crew's Inn, S/V Autumn Wind invited us over for a farewell drink. OK, twist our arm - so we went. We had a shrimp dinner & then off to bed around 9pm. 12/3 Mon We were up by 7am again this morning. I washed the exterior of the boat & the topsides. The sides of the boat are filthy. One thing we are very surprised on this trip is how much boat maintenance is involved. What a lot of work! S/V Dazzler came by - they went to Chacacare island for a few days & had already checked out. Well, customs came by & asked for their papers. Since they had already cleared out & weren't gone in 24 hours, they made them come back to customs to clear in & out again. Fortunately, they didn't charge them any fees. I was glad to see them, as I hadn't gotten a chance to say goodbye the last time as I was teaching the kids at school. S/V Pearl also stopped by - so much for working on the boat! Tonight was the fabulous Christmas party for all Crews Inn guests. We were glad we stayed for it, as it was fantastic. They normally have a free managers cocktail party once a month on the last Monday in the month but this we their special Christmas party. They had the same pannist playing as Sails restaurant did the other night, plus an open bar with free booze (usually it's just free rum punches for 1 hour only) & a great buffet dinner. They also gave us each a small poinsettia plant & Christmas card. Crew's Inn is more money but definitely worth it. We are very glad we stayed here. If we come to Trinidad we will stay here again. I tried to call Oppenheimer Funds but they have no way to call them collect. How frustrating! Toll free numbers do not work outside the Caribbean. 12/4 Tues Well, we both have a mild hangover this morning from the excellent party last night. We rarely have that much to drink. I washed the sides of the boat again. I helped Larry with the dinghy & engine, & vacuumed the settees. The dinghy engine is still acting up so Larry had it looked at & then brought it to a mechanic. It was $10USD to fix - the mechanic adjusted the mixture & changed the lower unit oil. Hope this is definitely the problem! I had taken a break from vacuuming when, at 4:30pm someone knocked on the hull- this is not unusual as people knock all the time. But it was S/V Great White Wonder back from Margarita! We hadn't seen them since before we left for the US. It was great to see them again. They stayed till around 6 & we had drinks. They will come for dinner tomorrow night so we'll talk some more then. Good seeing them again. I made eggplant after they left so we'll have eggplant parmagina for dinner. 12/5 Wed I didn't sleep well last night. Our friends on GWW gave us some things to think about concerning the winds in Venezuela during the winter. They told us the harbor in Margarita is uncomfortable during the Christmas winds. Another boater said when the northerly winds come in the winter; the entrance from Puerto La Cruz harbor becomes dangerous & difficult to safely leave. GWW said the best way to go from Margarita is straight up to St. Martin unless you can get good winds going back to Trinidad. But, since the wind is easterly most of the time & the current is against you, it's difficult to get back to Trinidad. One of the things Larry & I wanted to do on this trip was go to Venezuela. But, it just seems the winter is not the right time to go. GWW said most of the anchorages, particularly those facing north, are not comfortable in the winter. We trust GWW as they have been cruising done here for 7 years. SO, the question becomes, do we take another year & head north some & come to Venezuela next year or just go home next August as originally planned? We'll have to think about this one! The Kick 'em Lenny volcano in Grenada became active today with a stage orange alert. This means it could blow within the next 24 hours. Just Great! If we do head north we need to go right past it unless we transit on the windward side of Grenada, which is likely with the winds picking up at this time of year. Should we go north or west? Stay tuned! 12/6 Thurs Well, we talked about it last night & it's settled - we decided to stay in the Caribbean awhile longer!. This means we will have to rent our house out again & we hope this isn't a problem. We would like to get the same rent or more. We hope my parents will continue to watch Cinnamon for us & continue to do our bills. Also, we hope Cinnamon is still in good health when we come back from this trip. Anyway, we both decided we really wanted to see Venezuela & who knows if we would ever get out here sailing again. After the WTC disaster, life seems to take a different perspective. Hope we are making the right decision but I think we are. Anyway, we will head north tomorrow & go north as far as Martinique. We will meet our friends S/V Kristali for Christmas & stay for a few months. Then, we will head back south; go to Trinidad early & head to Venezuela for the summer. In November, we'll head for St. Marten & start making our way home. We hope to be back home in the spring of 2003. The house will still be rented out so we will just live on the boat until the lease is up. Anyway, that's the plan, which of course as we cruising sailors know, can change any month, day or minute. We will definitely miss all our family & friends but we are very happy out here. Actually, if we had the money, we might just stay out here forever. But since we don't, we are going to have to come home & go to work someday. Anyway, today was departure day from Trinidad. At first we didn't enjoy Trinidad but like our friend GWW said- it grows on you. For the first month, we were concerned with trying to get things fixed & estimates done on the boat. Once we came back from the US in Oct, we knew who we were going to use to do the canvas work & had gotten recommendations from friends on contractors, things started to go better. Also, we really enjoyed seeing the countryside. Since we are definitely going to stay another year, we will definitely go to Trinidad again. We would like to spend more time at Scotland Bay & we didn't even get to see Chacacare Island. We don't have as much boat work to do next year & if the bottom paint holds up well, we may not even haul the boat. Well, after putting everything away on the boat, topping off the water tanks, clearing customs, taking last "good" showers, paying our Crews Inn bill, getting duty free booze ($13USD for case of Carib beer, $5USD for 750ml of Bacardi rum), getting ice, & removing the rented AC, we didn't leave Crews Inn until 12:30- 1.5 hours after checkout. However, they were very good & didn't say anything. We motored over to the new fuel dock at Power Boats that just opened 2 weeks ago. The fuel dock was closed for lunch time & wouldn't reopen until 1pm. There were 2 boats already at the dock & even though there was more room at the dock we were not sure of the water depth there so we waited. In the meantime, we got drenched with a normal afternoon rainstorm. We fueled up at less than $1USD gallon for diesel - the cheapest we found anywhere in the Caribbean so far. The only place it's cheaper is Venezuela- we heard it's about .40USD per gallon there. We used the Baja filter to ensure the diesel was clean & this is a very slow time consuming practice. However, we know of one boat at least that had gotten water in their fuel in St. Martin. They were leaving the lagoon, the engine stopped & they were drifting towards the mega yachts. They quickly had to run & throw out the anchor before they hit the boats. So, we always try to use the Baja filter. We finally left the fuel dock around 2:30 & motored toward Scotland Bay- less than a one-hour motor. It was quiet & peaceful in the Bay with lots of birds & not too many boats. Our friends S/V Jacobite were already there so we anchored close to them. We were supposed to head west to Margarita with them but now we are heading north. We relaxed with a late light lunch, had a beer & rested. Jacobite invited us over for drinks but since we didn't have our dinghy in the water they picked us up. We went to bed by 9pm exhausted from the days events. 12/7 Friday I made some chili & turkey enchiladas this morning so we would food for tonight & tomorrow night after our long passage. I made a crabmeat avocado salad for lunch that was delicious. We wanted to just rest & take it easy for our long passage to Grenada tonight. Even though the weather forecast was not ideal I wanted to leave anyway. Since we already checked out of Trinidad, we were allowed 24hours to leave the country. But we know from other cruisers, that customs comes out to Scotland Bay & Chacachacare over the weekends to see if anyone has not checked into the country yet. There is a huge fine if you do this. For us, since we just checked out, they would probably have us go back to customs on Monday & this would delay our departure even more. We left the anchorage at 5:15pm with sails up in East-Northeast wind 15-20 knots with seas of 5-7 feet. Goodbye Trinidad! See ya next year! |