|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiaryMarch 18 Thursday We went to the doctor early this morning for Larry. He got a terrific answer - no surgery for now. So I am sure he was very happy about that! The doctor still wants to monitor him though. So he's not out of the woods yet. He doesn't know why the PSA level is so high. So, since Larry seems to be OK for now, we talked about it and than decided to go back to the US for a quick visit. Larry hasn't been back in almost 2 years but I went home last year when we had to put Cinnamon to sleep. We were within walking distance to the American airlines office so we went to make a reservation. Larry has enough points to fly to CA for free and still come meet me in NY. I actually didn't want to go back to the US now, as we will be spending more money if I go home too. But Larry was reluctant to stay at my parent's house by himself when he goes to NY. Not that he has anything against my parents; it's just awkward staying at someone else's house. Wish we could just go back to our old house, open the door, and have it exactly the way we left it! That's never going to be - it's not our house anymore! We decided Larry would spend a week visiting his brother and I would fly to NY by himself. It would have been too expensive for me to fly to CA too. Also, then we would have had to stay in a hotel and that would cost even more money. So, I'll visit my girlfriends and do my own shopping while I'm in NY. When Larry gets to NY, we'll visit his friends and do his boat shopping. So Larry has a ticket for April 14 but I am still wait listed. We wanted to fly home for Easter but couldn't get a flight at a reasonable cost. We walked over to Plaza Mayor to call Mom and Dad to see if those dates are OK with them. We had lunch, went to the supermarket and got back to the boat at 2pm. I then had to leave soon after that to go back to the dentist. I did some shopping after the dentist and got back to the boat around 5pm. March 19 Friday Well, I had to fax a copy of Larry's passport to AA this morning so he could get his free ticket. Arnoldo, the dock master, bought me a beer this morning. He was on vacation and had bought all the ladies in the office a beer so he bought me one also. That was very nice of him. I kept trying to call AA all day to see if they got a flight for me yet. If I can't get a flight within a few days of Larry's maybe we'll just change it to another date entirely. Anyway, we went to Exito in the PM. I was never thrilled with this store and don't think I'll come back again. The prices are not that much cheaper than Unicasa and we don't have to take a taxi. Plus, the taxis waiting outside the store want a premium to drive us back to the marina. March 20 Saturday I went to the mini-market early to call Mom and Dad again, get the weekend paper and some bread. The bread and paper go quick so you have to get them before 10am. Anyway, I got a migraine headache and so had to lay down the rest of the day. I did go to the pool around 4:30 and just relaxed. In the evening we watched a terrible movie someone lent us- called "All the Pretty Horses"- it was pretty bad. March 21 Sunday I made some nice cheese omelets for breakfast. I did some emails in the morning. For lunch, I made some great quesadillas and some brownies in the PM. I worked on the finances and logs in the PM. We watched the movie "Wag The Dog" that S/V Happy Hours lent us. We had seen it before but enjoyed watching it again. March 22 Monday I defrosted the freezer and cleaned out the refrigerator this morning. I went to use the phone in the mini-mart to call the US but it wasn't working again. Seems like every time it rains, they have problems. I worked on my logs for a while and than went to the dentist in the PM. Unfortunately, she never showed up! So, I went to get some fresh meat and walked around PLC for a while. I also bought some T-shirts to put our Destiny logo on. March 23 Tuesday I made a strawberry pie this morning from my favorite recipe book. We tried it later but didn't think it was so great and wouldn't make this recipe again. Anyway, it was a miracle - we finally got cable TV today! Naturally, they wanted us to test it out while Larry wasn't on the boat but the technician was here and he wanted to know if it worked. So, I found the cable cord we had bought a few years ago for the cable TV in Crews Inn. The marina has it here but I'm not sure if it was free - maybe they just wanted a deposit on the cord. Certainly can't blame them for that- cruisers would steal it if there were no deposit. Larry was off getting the garbage can cover fixed. Elias accidentally broke it while it was being varnished. However, the yard did a terrible job repairing it and Larry didn't say anything. If it was me, I wouldn't have paid for the job and make them redo it at their cost. Instead, it looks terrible and can't be fixed. Since you see the woodwork immediately upon coming down the stairs, it's very noticeable so I am very upset about they way they "fixed" it. Larry and I also went over to CM supermarket. There's a store there that does embroidery on hats and shirts at a very reasonable price so we ordered a sample to see how it comes out before ordering a bunch to bring back as gifts. Hats were about $8 for the hat and the embroidery; embroidery only on anything else was $3 per item- for example putting it on a shirt. So it was very cheap and we thought they looked really nice and would make nice gifts to keep on the boat or give away. We ordered a few hats and brought a shirt in also. If these come out good, we'll get some more done. We picked out the font, boat decal and all the colors for everything so it took a while to get everything picked out. March 24 Wednesday The varnish on the forward berth is all finished! We are definitely making good progress. This morning I put all my clothes back in their proper spaces in the cabin. Sure feels good to be able to have them away again instead of just in plastic bags. Larry went to EPA this morning. He wanted to get more blue masking tape but they didn't have any- neither did Vemasca or Xanadu- the 2 marine stores. Think we'll try to borrow some from a cruiser - we will be able to bring plenty back with us when we come back from the US. In the PM, we moved the stuff from the port side of the main salon, as Elias will start varnishing this area tomorrow. We just have the main salon and galley left to varnish so things are starting to look better. The boat looks really nice and is a huge improvement. I still don't have a flight to go back to the US yet. I called AA for several hours this afternoon, they were busy and when I finally did get through, they told me to call back later! Now this seems very easy when you are sitting at home and can just pick up the phone and hit redial or just have someone call you back. Here, we have to constantly go to the phone. Since there is only 1 pay phone that works, you sometime have to wait also. Anyway, I have to call back AA tomorrow. March 25 Thursday In the AM, I put all my pots and pans away in a different place than I originally had them so they all had to be juggled around to see where they would fit best. Andrea from Midnight Stroller will be getting us lots of shrimp tomorrow. She buys it directly from a fisherman where they have a beachfront house. I called AA and finally got a flight at a decent time but it is a day later than Larry. That's no big deal- I'll just stay in Caracas for another night by myself. My flight leaves Caracas at noon and I have just a 2-hour layover in Miami to change planes. That would normally be plenty of time except I have to clear immigration and customs so I hope I can make it. I arrive in NY around 8pm so that's a great time to get a cab as rush hour is over. Anyway, I exchanged money today. Yesterday the rate was 3250 but today was 3200 so I lost almost 50,000 B by waiting a day. However, I didn't want to exchange too much money unless the rate goes down. Anyway, I needed the cash to pick up my plane tickets tomorrow. If we pay by credit card we only get the official exchange rate of 1920 so it doesn't pay to use a credit card. Besides there is a lot of credit card theft so cruisers rarely use them here in VE. I'll go pick up my ticket tomorrow. March 26 Friday I took a taxi at 10am to the AA office. Since I had a lot of cash with me, I didn't want to risk taking the dinghy to the mall and than walking the few blocks with it. Anyway, I picked up the 2 plane tickets. Larry had to pay the entire international and national VE and US departure taxes so this amounted to about $60USD. My ticket was about $385 so we paid a total of $445 for 2 plane tickets, which isn't too bad. Afterwards, I walked to Plaza Mayor. I had lunch, a pedicure, went to the pharmacy, supermarket and camera store. Andrea brought me 16kg of shrimp today! They were so fresh they were jumping around! Anyway, I sold 6 kg to two other cruisers but that still left me with over 20lbs of shrimp for us! That's a lot of shrimp to clean so I started cleaning them this afternoon. I know it will take me lots of hours to do this so I better start while the shrimp are still very fresh. Anyway, I paid about $1.50 lb for all that shrimp. I can't remember when I paid that for shrimp in the US- I don't think I ever paid that little! March 27 Saturday I wanted to start using the shrimp today but I had chicken that needed to be used by today so I had to cook that up. We are having a small going away party for S/V Midnight Stroller tonight. Since we have no room on the boat right now, I reserved the bar-b-queue area. It's just going to be them and us. We're having just appetizers and cake. I am making them a cake to bring on the boat so they can have it while underway. They are trying to sail around the world so we probably won't ever see them again. We certainly will miss them as we have enjoyed their company. By the time I cooked the chicken, made the 2 cakes, and 2 dips, I only had about an hour to start cleaning the shrimp. Anyway, we had the party at 6pm and I think they really enjoyed it and they seemed to like the cake I made. It actually started to get chilly up at the bar-b-queue area, so they invited us back to their boat for a nightcap. We stayed until about 10pm and had a good time with them. We really will miss them a great deal. |