Back Home in Canada

After a busy day running through airports with luggage, we managed to arrive in Fredericton, NB on schedule. Big hugs from my mom who picked us up!

We'll head back to Trinidad in November to get Cat Tales ready for the winter sailing season.

Until then, you can read about Aspen (Steve and Maria) who will be spending the hurricane season at Cruize Inn in Chaguaramas Their Blog address: http://steveandmariasailingaspen.blogspot.com/
Easier still, you can click on the link to their blog on the left sidebar, along with other sailing blogs of our sailing friends.

Boatyard Blues again...

Well here we are, sitting in the boatyard at Peake's in the hot sun! We bought an air conditioner back in Canada where Laurie made all the necessary fittings for plywood to replace one of our windows. Once we were hauled out on Tuesday, it took only an hour to have the thing installed and running. The last time we were here, we rented an air conditioner for 75 US dollars a month! Some of our work is inside, but most is outside so the heat of the day certainly takes its toll. The other day the temperature was 34 degrees with a humidex of 43! It's great to come in at noon for lunch to cool off and then to sleep at the end of the day in the cool dry air with no mosquitoes. Being on land makes the mosquito problem much more problematic.

I have wiped down all walls and cubby holes with a vinegar solution, while Laurie worked on getting the engines settled for life on the hard. He then dealt with the watermaker and tarped the boat while I sanded the bottom paint. Today, we'll apply a coat of bottom paint, do the last load of laundry (in a real washing machine, and not a bucket) and get the rest of the packing done. We have do-lists everywhere!

Blue (one of the boat handlers here in the yard) has agreed to pick us up in the morning to take us to the airport at 6:00 am for our 9:30 flight. It's a direct flight into Toronto with Caribbean air for only 500 US for the both of us one way. How great is that?? Blue will charge us 200 TT to get to the airport, which is around 32 US dollars.

Speaking of Trinidad and Tobago dollars, yesterday, I went into the Chandlery to buy 5 (cheap) face masks and a roll of tape for painting and it came to $87.00 TT. When you do the math, it's less than $20.00, so you always have to be doing the calculation in order not to be so completely shocked at the price of things.

Laurie is off for a walk to customs this morning to get the paperwork to leave the boat here while we're gone. He walked there yesterday (30 minutes one way in the heat) only to find out that he had to come back on Friday - 24 hours before we leave. Of course they neglected to tell us that when we checked in here only 4 days ago! Trinidad has very sticky rules and regulations about customs and immigration, and if they don't like the colour of your shirt, you might have to go back to where you came from! So, we choose our clothes carefully and smile a lot! :)

Footnote: 12:00 noon--I had trouble getting this out today, and so much has happened since I wrote the first bit. Laurie arrived back at the boat at around 9:00 with sweat dripping off his nose, only to inform me that Immigration didn't like the colour of his shirt! He was told to come back later with me in tow. The paperwork is now finally done, but we have missed most of the morning for working on the boat and have had a brief shower which affects both the painting of the bottom of the boat as well as my laundry as it hangs out there on wires of the cockpit. Time for lunch and a beer! :)

See you all soon!

Dawn

Trinidad

We had a 17 hour crossing with smooth sailing. Within the first few minutes we caught a ciro mackeral. Ya hoo! Laurie was just in the middle of cleaning it when zing zing...our line went off again and we were reeling in a big baracuda!

We buddy boated with Aspen last night (Steve and Maria), keeping in contact with them every 2 hours. Steve loves his technology and has a radar with AIS. This allows hsee , identify a ship off in the distance by name, length, heading and potential collision course. I called him often asking about this ship or that. How reassuring it was to find out that the ship that I was sure was heading right for us was moored and a small boat was set up to protect it overnight! I think we need one of these gizmos...

It's over the top down here with the heat. We will be out in the bay with no wind and lots of no see ums tonight. Tomorrow once we're hauled out of the water, Laurie will hook up the air conditioner we brought from home, so we'll be more comfortable then.

I'll be writing more tomorrow!