After a 2 1/2 month absence, we've returned to Aurora, here in Chaguaramas, Trinidad.
We are indeed prodigals - we have been spending money like there's no tomorrow. Luckily the stock market has been good to us, so a fair piece is covered with rising fund prices, but we can't easily afford the kind of lifestyle we've been leading "on vacation from our vacation". Of course, we're spending way more on boat projects now that we've returned, but that's the second half of today's entry.
Leaving TrinidadWe left Aurora on the hard at Power Boats in Chaguaramas, Trinidad on Friday, July 14. The yard "mule" (a low special-built vehicle that moves large boats around) had broken down, and the TravelLift can't pack the boats closely together as can the mule, so we left Aurora sitting between 2 rows of boats. Not quite where she was destined to live while we were gone, so they hadn't shrink-wrapped her yet, either. Oh well, time to go.
It was a long, hot ride to the motel near the airport where we were to spend the night. We'd been so busy getting the boat ready we'd not seen anything of Trindidad outside of the boatyards in Chaguaramas. We got a flying tour of the eastern coast between Chaguaramas and the airport. Some slums, what looks to be a bustling capital (Port of Spain), and lots and lots of industrial concerns. Trinidad is by far the most industrial of the Caribbean islands and by the looks of it they make nearly everything here.
The motel was something - looked to have been built maybe 75 years ago, but redone in the 60's or maybe very early 70's. It was like being in a time warp! The bar had old plank tables encased in plastic resin and pictures on the walls were so 70's (can't quite convey the style, but any other old farts out there would know instantly what I mean: line drawings of young men and women at odd angles in circular and diamond-shaped picture frames, flowing hair on the girls, mustaches and long hair on the guys). The place was actually among the top 5 worst dumps I've ever stayed in and that's enough said.
StatesideWe flew to the states and were incredibly busy for a couple of weeks meeting up with friends and family in the bay area and taking care of yearly doctor checkups and dentist visits and the like. Seems like we had lunch and dinner out with folks every day for those 2 weeks, but it was nice catching up with friends and family.
And then, of course, there was the primary reason for the visit, the marriage of Maryann's daughter Julia and her fiance Morgan. They'd actually done most of the prep work, but there was enough left over to keep us, but mostly Maryann, busier still. Not to mention Maryann's lost wallet with cash and credit cards and driver's license and other stuff. It was hard to believe that in the 30 minutes or so between the theft and the report to the credit card companies that the thieves managed to use one of the credit cards 3 times!
Julia and Morgan were married in a redwood forest grove near the coast in California between San Francisco and Monterey. It was a lovely ceremony - not in the least due to the stellar solemnizing by yours truly (my first and probably last ceremony; became a Universal Life Church minister through the internet just to be able to marry them!). But I think it would have been a delightful ceremony regardless; they'd picked a lovely spot, wrote a wonderful ceremony, found a great caterer and 3-piece jazz ensemble, and just generally had a very classy and enjoyable wedding.
After the wedding we took off for a slow tour of California, visiting friends and relatives up and down the state. We'd average no more than 2 or 3 hours of driving a day and visit someone new almost every day. It was a delight visiting with good friends and relatives and we sincerely appreciate everybody's wonderful hospitality.
We visited Watsonville, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, West Covina, Santa Ana, San Diego, and Hemet, then spent a couple of days in Las Vegas taking in some shows, eating well, and gambling a bit (net winners this time - can you believe it?). From Vegas we drove across Death Valley where the temps were nearly 120F; we didn't linger. And from near the lowest point in the continental US (Bad Water, Death Valley) to the highest (Mt Whitney) in just a couple of hours time!
We had intended to do some camping along the way, but all we managed was 3 days backpacking on the east side of the Sierra Nevada just west of Bishop. Our legs had atrophied from living on the boat so long, so the 4 miles in and 2000 ft elevation gain was more than enough for us. Sleeping on a ThermaRest (kind of like a very thin air mattress for those non-backpackers out there) was tough on this old back, so those 3 days were all the camping we managed on this trip.
We left Bishop and drove to Reno where we did some more gambling and lost most of what we'd won in Vegas. Didn't spend much time there, heading into northern California and across Oregon fairly quickly. Then we drove from northern Oregon into central Washington, visited Grand Coulee Dam (highly recommended, excellent visitor center), then on up into Canada and the small community of Rossland which lies about a 3-hour drive north of Spokane. In Rossland we spent several days visiting our friends Dave and Kathy who had visited us on the boat in St Maarten back in April/May.
Then we were back on the road again, driving north and east through British Columbia and into Alberta and the Canadian Rockies. We had an absolutely stunning few days in Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper. If you haven't driven the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper, you should make an effort to someday. The glaciers are still very much in evidence, though they're shrinking quickly.
We dashed across central British Columbia through Whistler and on down to catch the Vancouver Island ferry just north of the city of Vancouver. On Vancouver Island we stayed in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, where we played tourist, taking in the famous Butchart Gardens and even the very touristy butterfly display nearby. We particularly enjoyed driving along the coast and up to Sidney, B.C. where there's a very nice marina. When we were shopping for boats we'd considered a couple in Sidney; now we'd like to someday cruise up there. If going north from the Panama Canal to the Pacific Northwest weren't such a nasty bash into the wind we might do it sooner rather later. As it is I suspect that trip will have to wait a bit.
From Sidney we caught the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and spent a day exploring the island. Back in the early 1830's the U.S. and the British contested ownership of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. We learned all about the famous Pig War where the only casualty was a pig and which finally ended with the U.S. taking possession of the San Juan Islands. A fascinating bit of history where both sides were quite civilized and the “war” quite non-violent.
The San Juans really gave us an urge to spend time cruising there, but as I said, the trip up there is a pain so it probably won't happen soon. Of course the weather cooperated and we were pretty much rain-free our entire time in B.C. and Washington state. That's not always the case in mid-September (nor most any other time of year); I suspect our desire to cruise the area would have been less if we'd had the northwest grey skies and rain that's all too common.
We worked our way to Seattle via Anacortes on Fidalgo Island, Whidbey Island, and the ferry to Mukilteo. In Seattle we did some shopping, played tourist a bit, and ate at our favorite Seattle seafood eatery, Elliott's Oyster House. We'd had one of those special meals a couple of years ago while boat shopping in Seattle where everything had been just about perfect, so now it's a must-visit on any visit to Seattle. It wasn't quite the experience we'd had previously, but still a very nice meal.
After Seattle we visited another of Maryann's brothers near Eugene Oregon (of 5 brothers we managed to stay with 4 during our stateside visit, 3 in California and 1 in Oregon - thanks all for your hospitality!), then headed back into California just north of Eureka. We worked our way down the coast through Fort Bragg, Mendocino (a nice stay and meal in the historic Mendocino Hotel), and then back to Danville in the bay area and the end of this 7500 mile road trip. After the rental car, the motels, and the meals out we were substantially poorer. Good thing the car had unlimited free mileage.
We were pretty much ready to stop touring and return to the boat by this time. We spent another few days with last-minute errands and whatnot and flew out of San Francisco on September 25th to Fort Lauderdale.
We spent a couple of days picking up boat parts and books and charts in the Fort Lauderdale area. Sure is nice being in an area that so caters to the boating industry that just about anything you need is readily available. We spent an evening with my old junior high friend Gary and his partner Len in Palm Beach Gardens, and even had time to play tourist in Palm Beach, visiting the Flagler mansion Mr Flagler was a partner of John D. Rockefeller and pretty much was responsible for developing Florida in the early 20th century. As befits an oil and railroad baron he had several palatial homes built including the one in Palm Beach. Fascinating to see how the truly mega-rich lived around the turn of the century.
Back in TrinidadOn Saturday, September 29th we flew from Miami to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The Miami airport was a zoo with at least 4 long checkin counters and no identification above any of them. Combine that with nothing but self checkin kiosks and mass confusion reigned. We found the correct checkin area, got our boarding passes, and luggage tags. Then we had to lug all 4 pieces of checked luggage over to the Transportation Safety Administration folks for screening. Due to the confusion 2 bags went one way and the other 2 went another. I had a bad feeling, but there wasn't anything to be done.
When we arrived in Trinidad we were through immigration in no time. Then we waited for our luggage. And waited. And waited. First one piece, then two, and finally a third. But no fourth. We waited some more. We waited until everybody else had claimed their luggage and was in line for customs clearance. Finally we had the local baggage folks fill out a lost luggage form (excuse me, that's delayed baggage in airline speak).
After some confusion about how to declare the spare boat parts we were carrying, we finally cleared customs, found our taxi driver waiting patiently for us, and zoomed back to the Power Boats facility in Chaguaramas. We moved into the small efficiency apartment we'd reserved, cranked up the air conditioning, and visited the boat.
The paint job looked good, though it was a little strange to see Aurora in black bottom paint. The painter couldn't get the brand of paint we wanted in white. But other than that, they did a very nice job. They'd removed some areas of corrosion on the lead keel (still not sure how that happened - inadequate zincs maybe?) and filled and faired them. They'd also ground down a couple of stanchion bases on deck that were no longer needed after we'd had the arch installed. The keel was smooth and fair and you can literally not see where the raised stanchion bases were on deck.
We spent the next several days getting the boat ready to be splashed. Working in the heat and humidity was not fun, especially after we'd spent so much time in the very pleasant Pacific northwest and northern California. 2 or 3 changes of tshirts in a day was the norm.
The humidity is really an issue here. We had rented a dehumidifier and left it running below decks while we were gone. It did such a splendid job that a lot of our woodwork cracked and joints opened up due to the dry air! Cabinets and doorways that had stuck before now opened easily, but ones that were OK before now stuck. After a week or so without the dehumidifier things are slowly returning to normal and the worst of the cracks are closing up again. Not quite sure what we'd do differently as without a dehumidifier we'd probably been swimming in mold and mildew. Friends rented portable air conditioners, so maybe the cooler dry air would have treated our woodwork more gently?
We also seem to have picked up an unwelcome guest from our time on the hard. The other night we had a cockroach run out of the microwave! We'd sealed all the openings and put rings of grease around the chocks used to keep the boat upright on the hard, but when they moved the boat after we'd gone they managed to dislodge one of our hull sealers and they also managed to wipe the grease rings from the chocks. Not going to be fun trying to eradicate them!
What did we have to do to get the boat ready? We replaced the zincs on the hull, cleaned the prop, waxed the prop shaft and prop, reinstalled the bimini and dodger, replaced the raw water pump impeller on the main engine, greased all of the seacocks (the valves that allow sea water in or waste water out - and I managed to close one on Maryann's index finger, ouch!), reconnected and tightened connections on all 5 batteries, charged the batteries, and test ran the main engine to make sure it would start when they put us in the water. Of course all of this required running up and down the ladder (the boat deck is about 15 feet in the air when the boat's stored on the hard) about 10 times for each task. Last Thursday we disconnected our forestay and baby stay (needed so the TravelLift can get close enough to pick up the boat) and were ready to go.
Getting her back in the water went very smoothly. Then we took about 2 hours to get the forestay and baby stay (and their associated sail furling gear) hooked back up - what a pain! In the process my glasses slid down my sweat-lubed nose right into the drink alongside the boat. With the diesel fuel scum on the water (Chaguaramas isn't the cleanest bay in the world), I wasn't about to go diving and we couldn't see well enough to the bottom to pick them up with our boat hook. We got one of the TravelLift guys to retrieve them.
We motored the short distance to the marina where we'd been able to find a slip and that's where we are now. We've been running around, buying stuff, talking to folks, scheduling work, and just generally being back at work on the boat. We're trying to get our refrigeration and freezer system replaced, solar panels, a wind generator, sails inspected and re-stitched as necessary, a new dodger and a new bimini (amazing what the sun does to thread and canvas, even Sunbrella brand canvas, in just 4 or 5 seasons), battens to replace the 2 we lost last season, have our rigging inspected, improve the dinghy hoisting mechanism, install LED lights at the mast head and in the cabin (energy saving), overhaul the main bilge pump, repair a water pump, fix the forward head, fix a bad leak in one of our hatches, tighten engine belts, fix the generator automatic voltage control motor, buy some zincs, stop (or slow) the leak where the rudder stock enters the boat, replace the salt sensor on the watermaker (again), repair the outboard swivel clamp that I broke because I hadn't kept the clamp threads lubed, get our scuba tanks refilled, fix the swim ladder (painter probably just reversed it), replace the lifeline where I scraped the vinyl covering when moving the boat at a dock in the Bahamas, and more. And that's just my list.
We're definitely here until they finish the dodger and bimini, which should happen the 3rd or 4th week this month. We'll probably have to return in late November to get our refrigeration upgrade as those folks seem particularly busy. We're hoping to do some local exploring and touristing (don't you love those made-up words?) amongst the chores, but so far we've been busy working every day. Oh, the good news is the airline did find my missing bag; it had gone to Boston on flight 1047, instead of Trinidad on flight 1647. I thought that was the reason for bar codes on the luggage tags, so humans didn't have to read anything?
And that's it for now. As usual, any email or comments are especially welcome as it feels as if we've again fallen off that communication cliff since we've been back in Trinidad.
