Just a short note to let you know that we left Toronto last night on time at 10:30 in the middle of a huge rain storm. We arrived in Trinidad this morning at 5:10, and made it through customs without a hitch, which is a miracle in itself! Blugh, a worker and friend from the boatyard here at Peake's picked us up and drove us to the boat. We had never driven that route in rush hour traffic before and we were blown away by the slowness and aggression of the drivers. We made it here in 2 hours, which should have been a half hour, to find the boat in great shape, although filthy dirty and the tarps in tatters! We have been totally tired out today, since we only cat napped over night, but a couple cups of dark and dirty coffee early this morning set us to work and we're just about ready to call it quits for the day. We managed to get ourselves to the customs office here in the bay, which is expected of us, over and above the customs at the airport. Laurie scrubbed the scuss off the boat while I unloaded all the bags of the hundreds of tid bits purchased and collected over the past 6 months at home. Laurie is filling all 6 batteries with distilled water and he's about to fill the water tanks with water from the hose. We also picked up a handful of groceries and have beer on to chill for this evening...so all is looking great here at this end at this point in the day!
We met up with Sue and Mark from the boat Strider, who we thought would have headed to Grenada by now. We'll have dinner with them tomorrow night and discuss next week's exit from Trinidad heading for Grenada. While writing this entry, I was called outside to meet up with an old friend Mike Campbell who has sailed these waters for the past 30 odd years with his dogs and cat. We have been friends with Mike since we arrived in the Caribbean in 2004. Feels like old home week here!
We'll sleep well tonight and will keep you up to date as we live the life here in the boatyard and beyond!
Thanks again Lorna and Brian and Valerie for entertaining us for the past 4 days in London Ontario before we set off for the winter. Love to you all,
Dawn (and Laurie)
