Did Someone Turn The Heat OFF?

Today I am wearing capri pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. I am either sick or I am turning native. I actually feel cold. How weird is that, living this close to the equator.

This is the long weekend of August in Canada, and it is also a celebrated holiday in Trinidad celebrating the emancipation of slavery. (JJ that's HOW many syllables?) Trinidad seems to have a lot of holidays and elections....guess that makes it almost just like home, eh?

The other day Allan yelled to me from the bathroom to "hurry, come quick!". Well I detest bathroom humour with a passion. So I didn't hurry, but I went to him in case he was bleeding or something life threatening. There in the toilet bowl or head, whatever term pleases you, was a fish. It was very much alive, and probably wondering where the hell he was. I wish I had had the restraint to hold off and take a photo of the lil guy for you all to see, but I wanted him out of my toilet bowl. I am not sure if he survived the plumbing to get him out. Maybe he preferred the toilet bowl over the poop and pollution in the harbour. For two weeks now, each time I drop my shorts to go to the bathroom, I have terrors that a shark is going to jump up and bite my bottom. Some days I feel blessed for chronic constipation.

Our neighbours from Florida left the other day to head back to their home state. Before they left, they gave us their clothes washer. It's kind of a neat little thing with the washer on one side and the spinner on the other. It works great, except the spinner. It doesn't work at all, But I can get the job done by hand as long as it isn't too bulky. Now I get so excited just to have laundry hung all over the boat like the other "yachties". We are looking more and more like Jed Clampet's truck all the time. Being the rainy season here, you can bet big bucks that it will rain every day. So unless I get up at 0700 am and have the laundry hung out in the morning sun, there is a good chance it's not going to get dry. I am considering doing the laundry at night and hanging it out. I figure the laundry won't pile up, and I won't lose sleep. Anyone who knows me, knows I can't do 7 am mornings.

Some of you reading this might wonder how I can get so excited to have another person's garbage that only half works. I wonder it myself sometimes. But when you have to hump your laundry any distance, be it blocks or kms, you become grateful for any conveniences. Now I can wash my clothes easily, and we don't have to smell under the arms to see if we can get another day out of a shirt. I know I can change our bed every week now! Or every day if I wanted to! That is totally awesome. These little units new cost $200 US. Maybe I can get one from Santa if I don't complain about anything, not one single thing, from now until Christmas. That's not gonna happen, so I'll be happy with the one that half works.

Tomorrow, I will tell you all about Al's relationship with the air-conditioning unit. :)

I miss you Ryen, I think of you every day, Good night Precious, Be safe. xoxo

Home And Back Again

We have just returned from Nova Scotia. Our stay was short, only a few weeks. Unfortunately, we were unable to see all the folks we wanted to see, but it’s tough to get around when you are on a tight schedule and it includes two provinces.

Having been in Trinidad for a couple of months, I had hoped my first impression would change. It hasn’t. The garbage still decorates the waters along with the rainbows of gasoline dumped. The harbour is just incredibly polluted.

We had one instance of theft aboard our boat. And the thief wasn’t more than two feet away from Al at the time.

Al, having struck up a conversation with a local who had spent some years in the US Navy, didn’t hesitate to invite this chap aboard and when he visited us, he brought with him some local cuisine. At the time, Allan was on his knees doing a repair on the air-conditioning unit, while I was on deck checking for the water to come out the through hole. Our guest, unclipped the money from Al’s money clip while he was leaning to watch Allan doing his repairs. I set up the table and before the eating began, our caller gave the blessing, and we enjoyed small talk over chic peas and rice. The kind man left, leaving promises of future visits and trips to visit with his family. After his leaving, Al was at the nav station and asked what I had done with the money. We both just looked at each other and knew we had been “got”. The culprit had gotten away with approximately $60 US, which wasn’t bad considering all of Al’s ID and credit card was also in the mix. We could have called the police but with cash, it would have been a “he said, she said” situation. A few days later we were to learn that our guest had borrowed money from another cruiser, and of course, never saw the guy again. Oh hell, his name was Marcus. So if you are reading this Marcus, YOU ARE A THIEF !!

I guess he already knows this.

We took the shuttle to one of the better malls in Port of Spain. It was bleak to say the least. There was a major food chain store but little else. I would like to go to the down town shopping area but I really have little motivation. There is nothing we need, and with everything I hear about pick pockets and purse snatchers, and having experienced theft first hand, staying close to the boat is good enough for me.

I will never have enough time with you Ryen, kisses and hugs every night. Nana loves you the most. xoxoxox

Trinidad

Well, we made it! Our goal to reach Trinidad before June 1^st was attained. The last leg of the journey, from Grenada to Chaguaramas, Trinidad was 80 miles, which required another over-night passage. What should have taken us no more than 20 hours turned into 34.5 hours. Between the current and the wind, there were times we were going backwards. This was very disappointing on so many levels.

Being the worrier that I am, during the passage I was continually on the lookout for boat raiders from Venesuela (pirates) who have made newspaper headlines in the past few months. One boat was robbed of everything that could have been removed from their boat. Yikes! Luckily, we didn’t see much more than cargo ships.

The weather wasn’t so kind to us either. Had we made our destination in the twenty hour window, we would have missed the forecasted rain. But we didn’t, and the weather was spot on. About five miles from port, the rain came down, and as we made our approach the fog dropped from the sky like a brick, which made for a tricky entry. Allan and I stayed out and circled Ryen’s Quest a few times until we were sure we had a good visual. Entering the port was like nothing I had ever experienced. It was lit up like a huge fantasy city. It was quite spectacular. Morning light would show us a much different perspective.

In keeping with the immigration laws, at 0030 hours, we made our way to the immigration office before doing anything else. Although the office is supposed to be a 24 hour operation, Allan knocked on the door and was surprised to have the door opened by an immigration official, half dressed and half asleep or half awake. Allan was told to return in the morning. This was fine with us, as we weren’t sure where our permanent berth was anyway. The immigration jetty was home for our first night in Trinidad.

Chaguaramas is a marine mecca. There are about a dozen marinas offering every kind of marine service and repair that you might imagine. There are literally hundreds of sail and power boats being stored, repaired, or merely sitting out the hurricane season, like us. There are fast food joints, expensive dining experiences, hotels to house the folks waiting for repairs to finish, grocery stores, post offices, travel agencies, and water taxi’s (if they answer their vhf call). It all sounds rather grand, but with this, is the fact that it is an industrial port which takes any glamour away from everything else. Bags of garbage are randomly and regularly dumped into the water. Not just a bottle or two, but bags and bags! It’s sinful. Further inside the port you will find a small area which Allan and I lovingly refer to as a “Shanty Town”. This is an area of little shacks built entirely with pieces of plywood nailed onto other pieces of plywood. It is officially called the “Fishing Co-op” but in my mind I confused it with a “Fish Hatchery”. (Two very completely different defined and visual interpretations). These shacks are somehow sitting on a dock of some kind. One or two of them have electricity, but surely not many. Most of them have a small little fishing boat tied to them. I often wonder if the locals resent the visiting tourists flaunting their big yachts and eating in restaurants where a breakfast costs more than a local makes in a day. If they do, they certainly don’t show it. Everyone we have met has been friendly with big “hello’s” and ready to go out of their way to help in any way they can.

Coral Cove Marina, where we are, is probably middle of the road, in terms of facility. They promote themselves as having a pool, which, if judging by it’s size, might better be referred to as a hot tub. And it doesn’t look like it gets much maintenance, if you know what I mean. There is a newer updated marina next to us, called Crews Inn, which is by all accounts bigger, better, and way more expensive. We are able to stay here with water and electricity and cable included, internet available, for about $750 a month. June is paid for, but we may look at other options in July and onward. I do gotta say that I love having the air-conditioning on, and being able to cook my own meals and live like normal people. If not normal, then like I used to live on land. As we get to see more of the city, Port of Spain, I will add to the blog.

For those who have been looking for updates to this blog, I apologize. Cruisers seem to get crazy busy doing a lot of nothing, and they tend to keep doing it. Mack and Al have it down to a science, but I am a very quick learner.

Kisses and hugs before you go to bed Angel....Nana loves you always and forever.

St Georges, Grenada

We had a wonderful sail to Grenada. We ran into a couple of rain squalls, but they were welcomed and it was a nice opportunity to get some of the salt air out of our hair. The lagoon is undergoing a mammoth overhaul. They have new jetty’s for mega yachts and haven’t forgotten about us smaller boats either. The downside for us, is that they only had 220v and some 110v but they didn’t have 60 cycle, or 50 cycle. Whatever cycle we needed, they had yet to install. So we were out of luck. They hope to have all the cycles installed by next summer. Water and electricity is metered here, and someone has to pay for all of this new infrastructure, so docking fees are not cheap. Security is 24 hours a day, and the bathrooms and showers are something out of a magazine. Each “unit” inside the bathroom is private, and has it’s own shower, toilet, and vanity/sink, and it has air conditioning. Everything is spotless, including the grounds. There are boutiques, a superb restaurant, and an artisan shop selling local crafts. These are upper end shops. A ladies’ bathing suit and wrap starts at $495 US.

The day we docked, we ran into a fellow Haligonian and retired naval officer. For those of you who remember “Liana’s Ransom” from Halifax, she is now doing cruises in St George’s and she fits in wonderfully. The owner, Joe and his uncle Steve, had us aboard for a pot-luck, and we hung out with him and his friends during our stay in Grenada. A big shout out to Kate and Pierre, and their little Einstein, Coraline!! We really enjoyed Grenada and would have spent much more time there, but our insurance required us to be below 12 north by June 1^st. I have found the people in the Caribbean to be very friendly and helpful, however, the people I met in Grenada were by far the friendliest and it was almost embarrassing to be on the receiving end of their hospitality. We could all learn a lesson of human kindness from these people.

The only thing missing to make this trip the happiest time of my life is to have my kids with me, especially "Ryen" who I adore. Good night baby girl, I pray your Angels can keep up with you, cuz I sure can't. Kisses sweetie.