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Larry's LogWe got to the other boatyard, Powerboats, and pulled into the "pit" and friends Dawn and Mike from Just Dessert were there to catch our lines and the dockhands were also there. They tied us up temporarily until the lift could pick us up. We also had to remove the forestay from the bow to make room for the cross bar of the Travelift, so that took about 30 minutes to get the pin out of the shackle. After securing the forestay, the dockhands took over and the Travelift was brought into place. The driver of the Travelift was very reassuring ("I've only done about 9000 boats in the last ten years.") and he was also one of the directors of the yard and a very nice guy. He handled the machine very expertly and Destiny was placed very gently in her temporary spot in the yard. It was temporary since Ray (the Travelift operator) said that a better spot, away from the main work area, was going to open up on Friday and he would prefer to put the boat there. I didn't like the idea of having the boat moved while I wasn't there, but I was pretty sure that it would be OK in this case. Mike would be checking on the boat and so would Tom. When the boat was settled, the yard guy pressure washed the bottom and it actually looked pretty good considering that Chaguaramas is know for very bad fouling. Only the prop and shaft were in really bad shape. I was concerned that we might have had a bad time getting to Powerboats from our marina because of the growth on the prop, and I was able to go only very slowly since the vibration was considerable when I increased the RPM on our way there. But we made it OK at 1000 RPM. Once on the hard, we had lunch. I ate with Eric from Driftwood, who had gotten back from his daughter's wedding in St. Thomas and was on the hard at a yard next to ours. He had come over to say hi and get the TV cable that he had lent to us. Diane had a roti with Dawn at a local place about 100 yards away. After lunch, we had to get the boat ready to be left for a month. I hooked up the shore power and water hose and went to work. I flushed out the engine with fresh water to prevent any salt deposits from building up and also flushed out the toilet for the same reason. It would also prevent the toilet from smelling as the microscopic animals in the salt water died. We cleaned out the refrigerator, made sure we packed everything we needed, found the luggage locks and keys (I hadn't used any keys except to the engine in over 9 months), and generally prepared the boat. Originally, I was going to leave the refrigerator on so we could keep the little remaining perishable food, but there wasn't much and so I asked Diane to give away the remaining items so we could turn off the unit. It would be safer that way since if the shore power went out, or the yard forgot to re-plug the power cord when they moved the boat, the batteries would be dead in short order since our refrigeration is 12V DC based and would stay on regardless of the charger. The only things left on were the bilge pump (probably not needed since the boat was out of the water) and a small AC fan that would only stay on if there were shore power. I installed the solar vents and Diane placed dehumidifier crystals in small containers around the boat. I hoped that this would be enough to keep mold and mildew at bay in the humid environment. We seemed ready. Mike and Dawn came over at around 6 to have a drink and so we could go over what they would need to know. It wasn't much and hopefully nothing would be needed, but they knew how to get in touch if something came up. We then walked over to a restaurant in another marina to meet Tom and Steph for dinner. It was very nice seeing them again, possibly for the last time, since they were planning to leave early next week for Venezuela. We also saw Tony and Benta from Side by Side as they came into dinner. They had just arrived in Trinidad that day and they told us about another boat, Charisma, that had experienced a galley fire just as they were leaving Grenada and had burned to the waterline. Fortunately, nobody was hurt seriously but evidently the Grenada Coast Guard was not much help - it had been other cruisers that went to the couple's rescue and towed the boat to St. George's Harbour. We enjoyed the evening very much and hugged Tom and Steph as we were leaving. We both hoped we would catch up with them again. Mike, Dawn, Diane and I walked back to our marina and we talked about visits home and what they were like. Diane and I were both a little apprehensive. We would have to wait and see. We slept well that night, as there humidity was down a bit. Tropical Storm Erin was moving northwest (north of the Leeward Islands) and was drawing much of the clouds away from the southern Caribbean. It hadn't really rained in Trinidad for 2 days, a very unusual event during early September. It was good for us though as we could get everything done, although the lack of clouds made it very hot. The nights though were pleasant as the heat of the day dissipated, and we were comfortable. The next morning, September 6, the day we were to leave, was also bright, sunny, and hot. We made last minute preparations like opening all the lockers, lifting the cushions and stuffing a plastic bag into the end of the boom to keep birds from nesting in there. Stephanie had come by earlier walking Clem, their Beagle, and dropped off a letter for us to mail and picked up the remaining refrigerated food. We gave her another hug and off she and Clem went. Paul came by at around 8:45 and we left. We got to the airport at about 9:45 and thanked Paul for the lift. We also asked him to return a tool we had borrowed from John on Sojourn. Diane had forgotten to return before we left our marina. John had returned the night before and we spoke to him on the radio that morning to say Paul would be returning it. The flight left on time and we made our connection in Miami for New York's JFK. The changes from Port-of-Spain to Miami were evident even from within the airport. New York would be even more different. |