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Larry's LogSunday Diane made a nice breakfast and while Diane then cleaned the shrimp she had bought, I worked on the PC. We then went over to see Stephanie who brought us to see the seamstress that we wanted to make the shirts for us. The seamstress looked at me and said, "Extra large or double X?" I said usually just XL and she took a shirt down that she had just made and measured it against me. Yep, XL would do. She then talked to Diane and took her measurements and discussed fit for about 15 minutes. I guess women's clothes are tougher. Anyway, we then went back to the marina where Mima was and sat around a bit under a nice gazebo there while it rained. Diane took the dinghy back (we had launched the dinghy that morning since it was much easier to go by water between marinas) and I stayed to watch Tom play chess with another cruiser. After Tom played (and lost) I played a game with Wally. I won the first game and he won the second after I made a dumb mistake. Oh well, we would play again. I saw Eric from Driftwood, Pete from Pearl and talked a while and then walked back to our marina and relaxed a bit. I had made a list of all the work I wanted to do while we were in Trinidad that morning. The marine industry in Trinidad is relatively new but supposedly you can get good work done at very reasonable prices, although you need to be very specific on what you want. We would see how much we'd actually get done. Monday was pretty busy with doing boat related things. We went to 2 boatyards to get prices about hauling the boat in early September so we could paint the bottom when we got back from our visit home. We also got prices on some other work. Running around in the hot sun is very tiring so we went back to the boat and relaxed for a bit. After a nice shrimp dinner we just watched TV and updated the logs. In the middle of a program, the TV just stopped. At first I thought it was the set itself, but it turned out to be a problem with the outlet. Another project to do. The next day we walked around the marina to get some ideas about how we wanted the boat awning to be done. We also went over to some of the large chandleries in the area, (we had launched the dinghy to get there easier) just to get an idea about what they had and the prices. I also decided to take down the wind generator to bring it into the maker who is right here in Chaguaramas. He is going to replace some thermal resistors to let the unit stay operational in slightly higher winds and delay the freewheeling effect. It was quite a job to get the unit down since the telescoping pole refused to telescope. I had to take the entire 9 foot, 20 pound, pole down, with a 25 pound weight at the top (the wind generator). First I loosened the braces and then asked Diane to help hold the pole while I tried to reach the blades to remove them. No good, it was too high, so I had to take the pole out. But before I could do that, I had to remove the power feed wire from below the deck. That required removing the propane locker, a large job in itself since I had to disconnect the propane lines and the solenoid. Oh well, that's why people spend months in Trinidad. After removing the propane locker, taking out the wind generator wires, replacing the propane locker, sealing the locker so if there was a propane leak we wouldn't blow up the boat, and taking down the pole, I finally removed the wind generator blades and the generator itself from the pole. I could now bring it over for the modifications - tomorrow! We had scheduled to go on a turtle watch that evening to see the giant Leatherback Turtles come up on the beach and lay their eggs. The season was coming to a close and we really didn't want to miss seeing it. At 5pm, we were picked up and along with about 12 other cruisers, including Nancy from Footloose (who had told us about it) and Mona and Bob, from Mutual Fun. The organizer was Jesse James, a man who runs a lot of tours for cruisers here and is a kind of fixture. He's a really nice guy and a well organized businessman. The trip to Matura Beach was almost 2 and one-half hours. The tour is at night is because the turtles only come up to lay their eggs at night. We might also get to see some hatchlings since the first batch of turtles had laid their eggs about 2 months ago and the eggs typically take 65 days to hatch. We were all looking forward to it and hoped that it wasn't too late in the season to see these tremendous animals. The season only lasts until late August but Jesse had done a tour 2 days prior and saw 11 turtles, so we were hopeful. When we got to the beach, we picked up our guide; individuals are prohibited by law from just exploring the beach during the turtle season. The beach is patrolled and guarded to prevent poaching of the eggs or the turtles themselves. We all understood that this was necessary and when we got to the beach, we put on our bug spray, got out the cameras and off we went. The guide, Frances, explained that the turtles usually come up on the beach at around 9 to 11pm so we might have to wait a bit. He also cautioned not to shine the flashlights into the water, as this would scare the turtles off. As we walked down the beach, with our flashlights pointed down we could hear the surf just a few feet away. The beach is on the east coast of the island and exposed to the full force of the Atlantic. We also wanted to see any turtles or hatchlings and it was pretty dark since there was no moon out yet. After about 45 minutes, we came across some hatchlings. Frances found them earlier I think so we would be able to see them as we walked to his zone. The beach is divided into zones with each guide having a zone to patrol and watch. The baby turtles, Leatherbacks, were only about 3 inches long and it was hard to believe that 25 years later they would grow into 800 pound, 6 foot long turtles. It was fun to see the babies, but we all wanted to find some "mamas." Nancy really wanted to see one as she had done this last year, but later in the season, and hadn't seen any mature turtles. We finally arrived at our zone and just waited. Each guide had a radio, and they would call the other guides if they found a turtle so everyone could see at least one. We had seen a lot of evidence of previous turtles; the tracks were unmistakable and the huge holes they dug for their eggs seemed pretty obvious, although we were told that the camouflage they did fooled most predators. We hadn't seen anything of a turtle that night though and so we just waited. |