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Larry's LogThe next day was a busy one. I was picked up to watch the repack of the liferaft and I was impressed with the careful manner that it was done. The technician also replaced the missing knife. The final shape was slightly different but it still fit in the space I originally kept it. After I was dropped off and put the raft back in the locker, I went back to Peake's to get the primer and they had indeed gotten the primers in the quart size as promised. I thanked the sales clerk and bought the materials and brought them back to the boat. I then did several other errands and picked up the modified bimini and side curtain from Alpha Canvas. They did this at no charge since we had so much other work done but it was still a very nice gesture. After that, I went to visit Tom and see how his cabin remodeling was going. Steph had gone home for 2 weeks and Tom was working to make the third cabin into a navigation station and enhanced storage. It was coming along very well but I found him on a friend's boat, Survival that had just come in that day. Dave and Judy had known Tom and Steph for over 10 years. They had just come down from the Tobago Cays with their 19 year-old niece, Megan. Megan was a very nice girl and helped a lot since Judy is in a wheelchair although she does plenty aboard the boat. Tom was just relaxing aboard and Dave and Judy invited me aboard and we talked and rank for a while. They had met Diane just a bit before when they came into the Customs dock as Diane saw them and helped with the lines as they came in. I finally left to go back after a couple of hours. But back at the boat, I found that the air conditioner had stopped working and Diane called Shane to see what was wrong. He came over pretty quickly and found that the unit's filter was just frosted and slightly dirty. After thawing and cleaning the filter, it started working well again. We then went to the swordfish dinner again at Tropical Marine with Ralph and Barbara from Black Cat. Saturday was the beginning of some of the delays that kept us in Trinidad. After we had gotten back to the boat the night before, I noticed that there was a crack in one of my back teeth. I called the dentist in the morning and got an emergency appointment. It happened that Tom had an appointment that day also so he and I went to the mall where the office was together. Megan came along also just to see the mall. After my examination, during which the tooth was drilled and fixed, Tom went in for his work, root canal. Afterward, we all went to lunch and then back to Chaguaramas. The dentist said that the tooth should have the crown replaced, but to just keep an eye on it for now. This delayed us since I was planning to do some preparations that day for leaving on Monday but couldn't. Later, we went to dinner at Joe's and met several other cruisers there. Tom had brought Clem (their dog) along and Dave and Judy had also brought Spike (their Shih Tzu dog) so they had to eat at an outside table. Diane and the others wanted to sit in the air conditioning so we ate there while the others ate outside - oh well. Sunday, Diane and I worked on the last slipcover for the settee cushions and I finally got the pattern matching just about perfect. After we finished, Rex happened by and visited for a bit. I then went to pick up Tom for dinner - Diane had invited him over (he was wifeless for a while and was "obviously" not eating well). Monday I went shopping for more supplies since I wasn't sure what I would be able to get in Venezuela and Diane and I then started making covers for the Sport-a-Seat chairs we used in the cockpit. These chairs are ratcheting lounge chairs covered with Sunbrella already, but we wanted to put terry cloth covers on them. We normally just laid old towels on them in use to protect the fabric from the sun and stains, but the towels would eventually fall off or get blown off. Since we were such experts on slipcovers now we figured this would be easy. Actually, since there was no pattern to match, making it was pretty easy. We almost finished the first one in 2 hours - not to bad since I first had to straighten out the cut made by the fabric store and then measure for the width of the cover. We had just finished the initial seams for the corners when Jim and Jacqui stopped by with some food they were giving us. They were leaving the boat to go home and then were going to rent a small canal boat in France for several months. That sounded great, and they were planning to be back in Trinidad in November and stay for 5 or 6 months. We visited for a while and then they went to Customs and Immigration since they were leaving tomorrow. Nice people - I hope we see them again. After they left, we took the engine off the dinghy, raised the dinghy on deck and cleaned it. The rubrail on the starboard side and front was off almost completely and needed to be fixed and the lift strap I had re-attached also came off. This started happening last year when we were here and stored the dinghy in its bag on deck, the heat and humidity really hurt it although the seams themselves were OK.. I had fixed the worst parts then but now the remainder needed to be fixed. So after the dinghy fabric was cleaned, I worked on the lifting strap and the rubrail. For the strap, I first pulled off the old 5200 still on the back, roughened both surfaces with some sandpape, cleaned them with acetone and then reapplied fresh 5200, covering the seams with tape to make sure the fabric didn't pull away before the stuff cured. I did much the same with the rubrail except some of the old cement was impossible to remove from the tube so after cleaning it and some sanding, I just applied the 5200 and hoped for the best. The section of rubrail I did before was still OK so I figured this part should be also. After fixing most of the rubrail, I taped it and then we went to the monthly Manager's Cocktail Party at CrewsInn. Tuesday I continued with the remaining parts of the rubrail, we went to get haircuts. At the mall we saw some other cruisers we knew and just walked around a bit. Diane did some food shopping and I went back to Chaguaramas and went shopping for more items I wanted. I bought stuff in spurts because I wanted to check prices in the different stores and because I was still using supplies. I wanted to be fully stocked before we left, except for things that were ridiculously expensive in Trinidad and we could get when we got home. Of course, as I walked back to the boat it started to rain. When I did get back, Ralph came by for a visit and I gave him back the cable I borrowed to see if my laptop could control the SSB. It could and had made sending email easier. I would have to try to get one. Right after Ralph left, Nick called and invited us for a drink at the CrewsInn Restaurant. His wife, Marylou, and a friend had come in to take the boat north back to Connecticut and he wanted to introduce us. We went up around 6pm and had a very nice time. Great White Wonder (soon to be named Mad Anna) was getting ready although not as fast as Nick had hoped. The next day I did the net in the morning as usual and before she left on the PriceSmart shopping trip, Diane and I cut the material for the second cockpit chair cover. While she was gone, I finished up the remaining sections of dinghy rubrail. When she got back, I helped put the food away but Diane had definite ideas about where everything should go so I went to get Ralph to help me go up the mast. I wanted to check the rigging before leaving for Venezuela. Ralph came over and I got into the bosun's chair and safety harness and they started to crank me up. Ralph said the winch handle I was using was hindering them so he went to get a handle he had and it really did help. It was lightweight (floated) and allowed both hands to be used on the handle, and so you could generate more power. Diane said we would have to get one when we went home. Using the better handle, they winched me up and I checked everything, the rigging looked OK and I retaped the spreader ends. The masthead sheaves were a bit worn but they were 17 years old, and seemed to be working OK. There was a minor chafe problem with a "tufnol" separator between a sheave and the side of the box but it had been that way for a while so I didn't think it was a major problem. I asked Diane to turn on the lights on the mast as I came down and they were all working. I came down and just relaxed. My legs hurt from holding the mast and rigging to steady myself while I was up. Since it was still early, I tuned the rig and was satisfied that it was straight and that the rigging was good. Diane and I also finished the second cover for the other cockpit seat. At the end of a busy day, Paul and Lynn gave us a lift in their dinghy to Joe's for dinner. The next day, Thursday, was a landmark. I finally finished setting up the windvane. I had bought the double blocks I needed and already had the low-stretch 5/16" line and only had the cleat for the control lines to mount. I had gotten a piece of teak to mount it on and carefully judged where it should be placed to allow for enough motion of the "floating" blocks that allowed the windvane motion to be transferred to the steering wheel. I had to mount the teak to the stern rails using U bolts and then screw the double jam cleat on the teak block. The windvane was ready to be used, after just sitting on the transom for almost 2 years. I knew it would need some "tweaking" but at least I could try it out. |