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Larry's LogLater that day I saw Nick, the new owner of Great White Wonder, going to a local chandlery that specialized in electrical components. He had ordered a satellite phone 12 days ago and had expected it to be delivered in 4 days. It still wasn't in and he went to the manager and asked why. I was there as a pretty lame excuse was provided and Nick was really annoyed. He finally canceled the order since he was leaving the next day. He stopped by the next morning to say goodbye. He was going straight to St. Thomas with his wife and a friend as crew. I hope he had a good trip. After leaving Nick, I went over to a chandlery across the bay and stopped to see Tom for a little while and then went back to work on the hasps again. Next morning Megan, Dave and Judy's niece on Survival, did the net. I was leaving (supposed to have left already) and so she was going to do Wednesday s now. I would do tomorrow's and it would be my last time as net control. After the net, Diane went to the dentist again and I worked on the new hasps for the cockpit lockers, I filled in the old holes with epoxy before drilling the new ones. It would take a day to dry so after digging out the epoxy and supplies, doing the work and then putting everything back, it was time to meet Diane at Joe's Pizza for lunch. I especially liked their cheese steak sandwich. After lunch, Diane went to visit with Dawn and Steph while I went bacvk to the boat and put a gasket on the anchor well locker lid. I wanted to try to keep as much water out of it as possible so I figured it was worth a try. The alternative was to stuff a round gasket into the cracks once it was closed. I also had bought a "pool noodle" (closed cell foam) to cut up and use as a gasket for around the anchor where it went through the lid. I would see how well all this worked. Once that was done, I biked back to Tropical Marine and played chess with Dave. (I had borrowed a bike from Tom and Steph since they only seem to use one at a time and had two.) We played 4 games and I won all of them - he was an OK player but made some big mistakes. I guess I make smaller mistakes. Thursday I got up early to listen to the weather on the Ham nets. We now planned to leave Friday or Saturday since the dentist hadn't been able to find anything wrong. He suggested taking a course of antibiotics as a prophylactic in case there was an infection there he couldn't see. But he also said that he didn't want to do anything if he could see anything to fix and suggested that we could leave but to keep an eye on it. A dentist friend of ours, Jim on Lady M III, who had just come in with his wife Pat a few days before, said that this was entirely possible and that it might be nothing, just a temporary slight sensitivity of the tooth. We had received excellent dental care here but wanted to hear a second opinion. So we decided to leave as soon as everything was ready. Anyway, I did the net for July 4, wishing everyone a Happy Fourth of July, and also announced the weather I had heard. I wasn't sure who would do the net after we left but I think Mike on Just Dessert would probably pick it up and do Tuesday and Thursday. After the net I went back to work on the hasps and installed all of them but the last one broke as I was finishing it. What a PITA. Now I had to go and exchange it. At least I was still here to do that. One of the drawbacks of this transient lifestyle is that once you buy anything or get any work done, once you leave the place, if something goes wrong - you're stuck. Typically we don't go backward. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous vendors/contractors realize this only too well. But I had bought these from Budget Marine and was still here to return that one. It would have to wait though as we were going to see the new "Star Wars" movie that day. It had opened in Trinidad just the day before and a group of us went into Port of Spain to see it. I'm a Star Wars fan and enjoyed the movie but didn't like the way it ended. I guess we'll just have to wait for the next one. After the movie we went to TGI Fridays for a late lunch - always nice. Diane had to leave right after we finished though because she was doing a little speech on American history at the CrewsInn 4th of July celebration that evening. Most of us left, except Survival and Mima, to catch a Maxi back to Chaguaramas. They had rented a car to pick up some Formica for the inside of Survival and so took the car to the movies. It was also much easier for Judy's wheelchair that way. They offered to take me with them later (so I could get dessert) but I thought that, to keep the peace, I should go with Diane. We got back in plenty of time and Diane rehearsed her speech. We went to the party and Diane did just fine and then introduced Joyce, from Mood Indigo, to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Joyce was a professional singer and did a wonderful job and the rest of the party was really great. CrewsInn had hired a Pan band for the occasion and did some fireworks afterward. The band even played "God Bless America" at the end. Really nice job. Friday we decided to leave the next day so we could finish up everything and maybe rest before the long overnight passage to Los Testigos. So I busied myself with preparations. I emptied the last jerry jug of diesel into the tank so now there was no fuel left in any but the tank was over ¾ full. More than enough to get to Puerto La Cruz where we planned to fill up again on cheap Venezuelan fuel (reputedly 25 cents per gallon). I also emptied the other jugs into the waste oil container in the marina to get rid of all the sediment at the bottom. Unfortunately, some of the fireworks from the night before had landed on deck but fortunately didn't cause any damage. After cleaning off the deck, I went to Budget Marine to exchange the broken hasp and finished installing them, except for the one on the propane locker. I should have done that one also but didn't since I originally thought I would install the bottom part with long machine screws and that would require removing the propane locker - something I didn't have time for. I actually just used long self-tapping screws and so could have finished all of them. I'd do the last one at the marina in Puerto La Cruz. Diane busied herself filling water bottles, our 2 6-gallon water jugs and generally cleaning up. She also tried to stow everything below so it wouldn't fly around underway. Suzi and David, from Ariyl, stopped by to say they had more problems with the boat. We were supposed to travel together to Venezuela but now they had to get the engine raw water pump fixed since it was leaking badly. They had just gotten their autopilot fixed and the refrigeration was acting up but it was the water pump that prevented them from leaving. We were really disappointed since we had looked forward to their company in a nice quiet anchorage. They were very upset also but realistically, the pump had to be fixed before they left on a long trip. The really annoying thing was that the pump had been fixed just a month prior. At least the contractor was going to make good on the labor, if not the parts. We said we hoped to see them in Margarita soon. We then went to Immigration and Customs and checked out of Trinidad - we now had 24 hours to depart the country. We had been invited to go to the swordfish dinner at Tropical but declined so we could just rest that evening. Assuming we did leave tomorrow, we wanted to get as much rest as possible since I doubted that either of us would sleep on the overnight passage to Los Testigos. Saturday was a very busy one. We listened to the weather again and it sounded good so we decided that we would definitely leave late in the afternoon. The overnight sail would take about 12-13 hours depending on the wind and current. So we made some more preparations and then went to Tropical Marine for their Bake and Shark and to say goodbye to Tom and Steph. The meal was pretty good and we told our friends that we would see them soon in PLC. They were planning to leave after Tom finished the cabin remodeling and made some new covers for their settee cushions. Hopefully we should see them before we went home at the end of July but if not, certainly when we got in mid-August. We said our goodbyes and walked back to the boat to finish our work. The young guy who said he would come back to clean the prop and shaft never showed up. I debated whether to get in the water and do it. Just about that time, Rex came by in his boat from fishing to say goodbye. Diane asked if he thought the water was OK to go in to clean the prop and he thought it would be OK, if a little green and murky, so after he left, I put the dinghy in the water and went in. The prop and shaft were pretty bad and it took me about an hour to clean them. It really needed it as there were barnacles covering all three blades and on the shaft they were somewhat blocking the cutlass bearing. The engine intake looked like a little garden. So I was glad I did it. Afterward, we hoisted the dinghy and tied it down and got everything else ready. A dockhand helped get the air conditioner off the boat. We then took showers and when we got back, Steph was there. We said goodbye again and she helped with the lines. Dawn, from Just Dessert and Lynn from Kiana also came by in the dinghy to say goodbye and then helped push the bow of the boat around once we were out of the slip. We finally left at 5:30. Thanks again guys, see you again soon. |