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Diane's Diary8/28 Tuesday I called United Airlines this morning & made flights to go visit Larry's brother, Eric in CA. We can't call 800 numbers from a foreign country so the only way to call United is to call my United Airlines credit card (we call collect) & them ask them to transfer me to the United reservations office. I sewed the bimini some more that Larry wanted me to do. At 12:30, Mima picked me up with the car- she took me, Just Dessert, & Dazzler to the mall. I got my haircut for $6USD but they don't even wash or blow dry it. It was an OK haircut but Connie on Kristali did an even better job. We also stopped at West Mall & I bought some souvenirs to take home. We got back around 5pm. I went to the gym & walked on the treadmill for about an hour, went swimming & took a shower. I made a key lime pie for our potluck dinner tomorrow. 8/29 Wednesday I sewed some more in the morning. In the afternoon, I rode Sojourn's bike to Calypso Canvas to return the snaps as I can get them cheaper in town. I stopped at Mima so he could teach me how to use the snap machine. It punches the holes & puts snaps on canvas. I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes then had a quick swim. Second Tri is leaving today- we will definitely miss them & hope we can catch up with them in the future. We went to the potluck at Coral Cove at 6:30pm for dinner. Wally, on Dazzler became a US citizen today. 8/30 Thursday Shari the seamstress, found some of the fabric I gave her was damaged so I took the bus into Port of Spain myself to exchange it. I knew I couldn't wait to do this until we came back from the US. I also bought some more snaps. I stopped at Pizza Boys for a quick lunch near TTYC since all the fast food restaurants in PoS were already crowded. I was tired when I got back to the boat but I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes & went for a quick swim. We went to the Crews Inn potluck but only stayed about an hour. I brought a corn soufflé with me. We watched a little TV when we came back & went to bed at 9pm. I didn't get a good night sleep though & got up in the middle of the night. I was so tired I slept until 8am. 8/31 Friday Today is Independence Day in Trinidad so everything is closed. I sewed the handrail covers. Larry put on the new spice racks, TV stand, & magazine rack. I walked on the treadmill for an hour & took a quick swim. I made some shrimp for dinner & we watched some TV. 9/1 Saturday More sewing! I made covers for the jerry covers, fenders & some other sewing projects out of Sunbrella. I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. I made shrimp scampi for dinner. At $4USD per pound shrimp is pretty cheap, but it takes a long time to peel it. It's probably what we would call medium size shrimp. Oh well, we do love shrimp & it's a pleasure to have it so cheap. 9/2 Sunday We packed to go home. We are taking a lot of things home with us that we don't use frequently so it took us a long time to get everything together. I also cleaned the boat as I don't want to come back to a filthy boat. I also walked on the treadmill for an hour. The gym has a TV so it's a pleasure to be able to watch TV while I walk. Plus, the biggest advantage is it's air-conditioned. 9/3 Monday I made Eggplant Parmesan today. The eggplant here is wonderful & this is one of my favorite dishes. Larry went over to PowerBoats by dinghy to use the computer, as it's cheaper over there. He also stopped by Mima & the seamstress. Our clothes at the seamstress still aren't ready yet & Larry told her we are leaving Thursday. Hope she has it finished by then! I had a pair of shorts made for Mom for taking care of our cat, Cinnamon. We really appreciate they're taking care of him. I wanted to bring him on the trip but the vet thought it was not a good idea since he's 17 years old. I hope he remember us when he sees them. 9/4 Tuesday I did 3 loads of laundry today so I would not be confronted with dirty clothes when we came back from the US. Also, we heard that Crews Inn has the best washing machines & some of the others don't have hot water. I tried to complete the sewing with Tom's machine but had problems with the tension that I could not adjust correctly. So, Autumn Wind drove me to Mima so I could return the machine. Larry had already folded up the dinghy since we are going home. The machine is very heavy & I could not have carried it over to Mima since it's about a 15minute walk away from our boat. I stopped by Shari but she still had not completed the sewing. We had Mima over for dinner tonight. Everyone liked my eggplant parmesan. 9/5 Wednesday We hauled the boat today at 9am at PowerBoats. Just Dessert helped us get into the dock. I don't ever remember seeing any of our boats taken out or put into the water & it's definitely scary watching them move the boat. Larry had to disconnect the roller furling so that took some time. Unfortunately, we had to come all the way back to Customs & Immigration after we arrived at PowerBoats to sign off the boat. PowerBoats would not give us the letters stating the boat was left in their care until the boat was actually hauled. PowerBoats lent us a dinghy to get back to Customs but it was a hard dinghy & I didn't feel comfortable using it by myself so Larry drove me over to customs. We also stopped at Crews Inn so we could pay our bill. I noticed Crews Inn had overcharged us approximately $30USD by incorrectly calculating the electricity costs. They also incorrectly totaled the 2 pages of charges when they added it together. I pointed out the errors to them & they made all the adjustments. I walked over to Shari - she still had not finished all the sewing & I had to wait for it. I was upset I had to wait for it as we had so much left to do. Ken from GWW called us & said the article he wrote about Larry & I was in the September's issue of the Caribbean Compass that was just released. I wanted to bring a copy home so I tried to get it. I found out it was not being released until tomorrow. Great- we were leaving in the morning how would I get it? I found out the Boca newspaper office in Crews Inn had it, as they are the distributors. If I could walk over, they would give it to me. Another thing to add to the list of things to do! However, I was able to get a ride both ways so I was very fortunate that I didn't have to walk over in the hot sun. It's about a 20minute walk in each direction but less than a 5-minute dinghy ride. Larry was busy doing things on the boat - emptying the water tanks, & checking everything. We are fortunate that Mike from Just Dessert will watch our boat while we are gone. We gave them the lock combination but not the marina. There is no reason why the marina has to enter our boat & we would rather they didn't have it. There have been a lot of thefts lately on boats in the hard at Peake's Marina. It hasn't happened yet where we have hauled at PowerBoats but we would rather reduce our chances by having someone watch the boat & not giving anyone the combination. We did give the marina & Just Dessert the phone numbers to reach us in the US. We ate at Joe's Pizza tonight. A salad, main course, sodas, garlic bread, tax & tip costs about $15USD. All the cruisers go there since it's so cheap because it's the only decent cheap restaurant in the area. The food is good also. However, I do get tired of eating there. 9/6 Thursday Our flight is at 11:30am & the airport is approximately 45 minutes from the boat. A cab costs $20 USD & that's the same price to rent a car for the day. So, we cruisers try to help each other out. Since we have to pay $20 anyway, we pay the money to the cruise. They pick us up from the airport & have use of the car for the day. All they have to do is pay for the gas. It helps both parties. However, we were lucky today. Our friends from Autumn Wind have rented a car for the entire time they are in Trinidad & we volunteered to take us to the airport. Vivian, Paul's wife, is back in the US, so I think it gave Paul something to do. Anyway, we really appreciated the ride. We are looking forward to going home to see friends & family. It's been almost 9 months since we have been home. Even though we have traveled a lot this has been the longest time since we haven't been home. I hope our cat Cinnamon remembers us! I really miss him a great deal & wish he were here with us. I don't think he would like the sailing part though! We are going to NY & to CA to see Larry's family. We'll be back in Trinidad on 10/3 so that's all for this part of the log for now. |