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Diane's Diary8/16 Thursday Well, the girls & I (Mima , Just Dessert, Helen & I) went shopping today into Port of Spain. It seems like it's safe in the daytime but there's no way I would walk around at night. We all had various stores we wanted to go too but all stuck together. We went to American Airlines (for me), the bank, 3 fabric stores, an art store & had lunch at TGIF. I bought some more material to get some shirts made. TGIF is just like it is at home so it's nice for homesick Americans to get their own food. Actually, their prices are cheaper than the US but still expensive for Trinidad. A burger, fries, & unlimited diet cokes was $8USD, a typical Trinidad roti lunch & soda is around $3 USD. Anyway, this is the second time we were there & it was really great to have a good ole American lunch. Now if they only had a good NY deli here! Anyway, we did a lot of walking & I was really tired when we got back to the boat. But, it was Joyce at Second Tri 50th birthday that night & Steph & I wanted to give her a small birthday party. It was just the 6 of us but Steph & I bought her cards & flowers, Jack bought the cake. Apparently, fresh cakes are very expensive in Trinidad- he paid $50USD for the cake! Ouch! I made eggplant parm & Steph made the pasta & salad I think Joyce was really happy we had the party for her. Tropical Storm Chantal passed by us last night but luckily brought only rain & lightning & little wind. The storm surge into the anchorage was actually the worst part. It was supposed to turn into a hurricane but luckily, didn't do that. 8/17 Friday I went with the free Members Only bus to the True Value food shopping mall & supermarket. I really didn't need to go food shopping but I wanted to bring our Teva's in to get resoled so I went. I only bought a few things at the supermarket. In the afternoon, Larry & I went to the woodworker so we could get some teak pieces made. We also dropped off the material at the seamstress - I'm getting 2 tank tops & a tank dress. Larry is getting another shirt. We got them all made from rayon. We got back to the boat around 4pm, just in time for Jack & Joyce to come by so Larry can look at their computer. Joyce & I went swimming & took showers. When we came back to the boat around 6:30 they were still working on the computer. They left around 7pm though I had invited them to stay for a meatloaf dinner. 8/18 Saturday Jack from Second Tri came over at 10am to help Larry put up the wind generator. I cleaned the pole with Never Dull before Jack came. The wind generator is really too heavy when it's on the pole for me to hold up. Just as he came around 10am a huge thunderstorm hit with lots of rain. Actually, it rained most of the day but luckily they were able to get the pole up in one of the breaks in the rain. I had a lot of food to cook as I couldn't fit it all in to my freezer so I made a huge tray of chicken cutlets & chicken marsala. I also made black bean soup & egg salad sandwiches for lunch & invited Jack for lunch. I was tired so I took a nap - something I rarely do here. I went walking on the treadmill for around 40 minutes. We had a quiet dinner at home by ourselves, watched some TV & were in bed before 10pm. 8/19 Sunday I made a big breakfast of bacon & eggs. Larry worked on reinstalling the wind generator, I worked on my logs & did emails in the morning. S/V Freestyle came by at 3pm so Larry could look at her computer- it looks like its dead but Larry will try again tomorrow when she gets some software. Bridget from M/V Gabrielle stopped by, John is home so she is by herself. This afternoon I worked on my logs. At 4pm I went to the gym & walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. We actually get our local TV station from NY here so I like to go watch the news while walking on the treadmill. S/V Mima & Just Dessert came over to paint & afterwards took a swim. Tom from Mima had hurt his leg & when Dawn heard it had blisters we all went rushing over. It wasn't that bad so we all stayed for a few drinks. We got back to the boat, had a quick dinner, watched some TV, & went to bed by 9:30pm. 8/20 Monday We were up at 8am- we are sleeping later & later with the AC. When we are on the hook (for you land lubbers that means anchored out- which is about 90% of the time) we usually go to bed around 9 & are up with the sun around 6am. It's totally different with AC & cable TV though. When we don't have TV I don't really miss it. But there have been a lot of nights when I really wish we had AC. I checked our electric use since we pay for electric here- we are using about $1USD worth per day- not too bad. I cleaned the stainless steel for the bimini awning & around the cockpit & waxed them all also. We had wanted to see this nature photography slide show but the price went up from about 1.50USD to 10USD- we felt they are trying to rip the cruisers off. That's the problem with Trinidad - they think the yachties will pay anything. Things used to be much cheaper so Trinidad got the reputation that it was a good place to get some work done. But now the prices have been increasing so much a lot of the work is no longer cheap. The Trini people are extremely nice but they do not like to tell anyone NO so they take on more work then they can possibly do & do not meet deadlines. Its extremely frustrating getting work done with this attitude. So, anyway I told Trump Tours who was organizing the lecture that we would not go because of the price increase. Only about 15 people showed up so maybe they'll get the picture & revert back to the old price the next time. Anyway, Larry & I washed the boat today. We did not wash it since we got here, although the rain has done a good job, so it really needed it. We didn't finish cleaning the boat till almost 6 so I took a quick swim & shower. Steph came over to borrow some video's & books for Tom since he has to stay off his leg. |