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| Lock up your batteries around Trinidad! |
It is Sunday, our eleventh day in the boatyard in
Trinidad. A few nights ago, Dawn and I
realized that our total nights spent sleeping in this yard is approaching 150
since 2005. Considering how much we do
and pay to be in here, it must be one of our special places. Not really, but it grows on you, and still
seems in the long run better than ten days and nights each season on the couch
at home.
Cat Tales is in great shape, and we are actually running out
of chores. The only thing that seems to
be a little amiss, is that we have again discovered that the sail track end
cap, the one at the top of the mast, is missing. This means two things: our sail is too long, and we keep knocking it
off when we raise all of the mainsail; and we have to be extra careful this
season to not get the top sail car stuck at the bare end of the sail
track. I guess it also means more wear
on the halyard, as it will be drug over a rather sharp edge of the sail track.
We are doing chores now that normally are done at
anchor. Certainly, by the time we are
launched on Monday afternoon, we will have nothing to do but clean out bins and
shelves.
Thursday night, we joined
Blugh, a yardworker, and his wife Elka for a drive into the hills where
they live for a bar roti and beers. It
was good fun, even though we don't have much in common but the boatyard. Blugh moonlights as a taxi-driver, and has
been picking us up and dropping us off at the airport the last 5 years. I think he makes good money at that. We had gone to a local mall that afternoon
and bought his 5-year old son a book for Christmas, and gave it to them after
the roti. I just spoke to Blugh about
his son a few minutes ago. He said Kyle
was awake when he left, and asked if he could open the present in its Christmas
wrapping. Blugh, like many men the world
over, told him to ask his mother rather than discuss it further.
Yesterday, we joined a small group for a tour of a rural
steel pan manufacturer and the Angostura Bitters and Rum factory. These musical instruments, made out of steel
drums, didn't really interest us, but we did learn a lot in spite of it. The bitters and rum distillery was great,
however. Indeed, the tour was way too
quick for my tastes, with a lot of historical and technical plaques and
displays that we did not have time to digest; and the rum tasting itself could
have been a lot longer. Still, it was a
jolly ride back to the boatyard.
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| Tony,
the steel pan maker showing us the underside of a drum. Jesse James,
our tour guide is in the blue shirt. Jesse organizes tours for the
boaters and has been famous for his service. And yes, that's his real
name! |
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| Rum dee dum dum...almost enough! |
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| Merry Christmas with a tree made of miniature bitters bottles. |
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| A beautiful rum bottle chandelier at the Angostura Rum and Bitter factory! This is a great decorating tip for our Grand Lake friend Leo who is building this season! |
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| Never enough time at the end of the tour for enough sampling! |
