Frequently being asked what we do with our days, I thought I'd let you into one of more interesting days here in Paradise ...
It was a dullish morning in the harbour at Charlotte Amalie. The wind is from the southeast, and according to the weather forecast, is going to go round to the south and southwest. This is not a good start to the day as the harbour faces south!
Meantime, on the good ship "Freya of Clyde" Alan and Anne have had their "power breakfast" deciding on how to make best use of the day. The first thing that needs attention is the laundry. It's beginning to build up. The bed is stripped and all the other smelly things gathered together and put in a couple of huge laundry bags for taking to the launderette. Other items discussed were; purchasing of groceries and returning the drowned camera.
We pack all the smelly laundry bags into "Fred" (the dinghy), Anne and Alan climb in and away we go to the shore. Halfway there, Anne says, "Where's the camera?" "You have it", says Alan. Uh uh. Back to the boat. Climb up, unlock and pick up camera that is sitting in a prime obvious place on the table. Anne climbed back into the dinghy and we're off again. We walked for about fifteen minutes, towards the laundry. Walking towards us is 2 very huge gentlemen in blue uniform with badges and interesting gadgets protruding round their waists. "Where you goin?" Well, obviously, two white folks carrying large laundry bags is very suspicious. "To the laundry" was our unanimous reply. They ignored us after that - obviously smelly laundry isn't good for the olfactory glands first thing in the morning.
After dropping off the smellies, we have a 15 minute walk to K-Mart buying groceries and buying Anne products that are supposed to keep her skin supple!! Another 15 minutes and we're in the local supermarket. Alan's found a new beer that he likes, so we buy lots. All this is put in our trolley that looks like a baby buggy, without the baby. In fact, lots of people think there's a baby in it, and look at us very strangely when we cover it up. Alan has been looking for an arm from a dolly to stick to the side of it. He thinks people will stop the traffic to let him cross the road if they think there's a baby inside.
Okay, so where's the camera? We need to return it. Search, search, search. Where is it? All the groceries are systematically dumped out on the pavement while we search for the camera. There it is, doing an impression of a grocery bag. Repack all the groceries.
Onwards and upwards. We wander into the camera shop. Now this shop is in the middle of the cruiseshop dock, where all the "snowflakes" and other double coloured people come (double coloured is where you're red and burned on one side and white on the other!) We've been using this shop for several years now and we're on first named terms with some of the staff, and those we don't know the names of, we're getting there.
Anyway, we speak to the guy on the camera counter. We don't know his name yet, but he's a very, very nice man and he listened carefully to our very sad story, he looked at the camera with it's drowned sandy insides and ... he agreed to change the camera for me ... WOW!!! I just wanted to jump up on the counter and give him a cuddle. We settled for a handshake - I just can't jump that high any more. I came out that shop grinning stupidly.
Back to the boat for a very late lunch. It's been raining. The dinghy dock is clanking and banging. It takes a good 20 minutes to empty the dinghy of water. We get back to the boat which is beginning to feel like the "Big Dipper" in a funfair. Doing anything in these conditions is not easy, and we consider moving "Freya", but we can't yet because we have to go back for the laundry. We return to the laundry and 3.00 pm and yes, it's finished.
Back to the "Big Dipper" (Freya). We haul ourselves on board and very, very quickly get underway. We're getting "outa here". We charged out of the harbour in good style, spray flying over the boat. Did anyone remember to close the forehatch? No. Alan goes down inside the boat and all I hear is a wail - "everything is soaked". All the stuff on the bed, in the bed and anywhere near the bed is soaking wet. The floor is swimming. The carpet is floating. Well, I guess it's back to the laundry again today folks ...
Yes, it's such a relaxing life in Paradise ...
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Before my new underwater camera drowned, I managed to take some photographs of life on a coral reef!
We're in the US Virgins, and still loving it. We had dinner with "Shian" at an Eco Lodge last week. Great fun, if a little strange eating with hundreds of other people (and their kids) in a canteen environment.
We also met up with Sue and Randy from "Nancy Dawson" in Charlotte Amalie - we hadn't seen them for 4 years - Vero Beach in Florida in fact - and it was great to see them again.
The weather has been very odd recently, with light winds and so we've had very little sailing.
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We finally managed to leave Antigua and arrived in Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas a few days ago. It was a pretty uneventful sail, with no wind but big sloppy seas. However, we just engined the whole way. We're sitting in a lovely big bay just round the corner from Charlotte Amalie, right beside the airport. At least it's quiet here. We're beside Beez Neez and have had really good fun entertaining ourselves for the past two nights.
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Happy New Year from both of us on "Freya" to everbody out there. We're in English Harbour, Antigua enjoying the calm after the craziness of Trinidad. It's gorgeous here - it's ten years since we've been here - and we had forgotten what a pretty island this is. We're now here for just over a week - we got here just in time to spend Christmas with "Shian". We'll be here for a couple of weeks before moving on to St Maartin.
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Still here on the hard waiting on the weather turning nice (again)!! We came back on board after a walk round the boatyard and found this wee green soul on the deck - he was really quite tame and only disappeared when I brought the camera out to photograph him!! (A bit like Alan does!)
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Jack and Agnes arrived in Trinidad on a cruise ship again. It was great to see them and we had a lovely day. We did the "Trini" thing and went to the beach and had bake and shark (or is shark and bake?) for lunch - anyway, it was very good. Then we explored Port of Spain in a taxi, before we dropped them back off near the cruise ship dock. CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) is being held at the end of November and lots of entertainment is being organised for HRH. We saw some of it as we wandered around the Hyatt Hotel area.
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I've finally managed to upload Jochan's videos onto YouTube - so have a look and enjoy them!! Thanks to "Bluesong".
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I've been trying to upload these videos all day to YouTube. I've still got another one to add, but it just won't "go", and of course it's a really good one. Never mind, these are good. Have a look ... Thanks to "El Lobo" for these ones.
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Dom from "Sparrow" performing her fire spinning is a popular feature at Sails Restaurant from time to time. You've got to be fit and supple to do this.
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I've been sitting all day trying to sort out my photos of Venezuela. I took somewhere in the region of 350 photographs, and I've got it down to about 114. Unfortunately, I can't put them all on the gallery in this blog, it would take forever.
If any of you cruisers out there want some information on how to get to Canaima and the Angel Falls from Trinidad, please let me know. Twelve cruisers (six boats in all) based in Chaguaramas for the hurricane season had the time of our lives last week.
It turned out to be an eight day/seven night trip. We discovered we could take a ferry from Pier 1 in Chaguaramas to Guiria in of the Gulf of Piria. The ferry only runs on a Wednesday. The biggest problem was how to get from Guiria to Ciudad Bolivar, but that was all sorted out for us by Branko and his lovely girlfriend Betty. They took care of all the accommodation, the bus between Guiria and Ciudad Bolivar, the plane journey from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, and then the indiginous canoe to Angel Falls and return. They made sure our whole stay was a really memorable one. Thanks guys - it's really appreciated. We had a wonderful time.
The photograph is of the Hacha Falls in Canaima - we walked behind this waterfall and got extremely wet!!
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Well, Steve, Lynn and Katie (ex Melika now Stellawa [spelling?]) are still in the yard. A couple of weeks ago Steve fell of the scaffolding which holds the boat up. He broke two ribs. Lynn is now in charge of repairing the hull. You've heard of the lady in red, well Lynn's the lady in blue. Note the stylish blue ensemble, with gorgeous matching hat, Armani style glass ware and the latest in Prada breathing aparatus and a new designer label - Jotun for handbags!! Very fetching and extremely classy for the up and coming yachting ladies.
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Well, we're probably going to Angel Falls in Venezuela for 7 days on 7th October. Who wants to come with us?
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I've finally managed to sort the photographs out from last weekend. It's amazing what you can do with Photoshop!! Go the Gallery to see some of the others or click on "Trinidad 2009" on the right hand side of this page.
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Independence Day in Trini was celebrated in true Trini style, with pan and fireworks. Here's some snippets to keep you interested, but just enough
to make things annoying!
The Starlift Panyard dancers:
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and of course; pan ... ;
.. and
don't forget the Tassa Drums ; ;
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We're still up on stilts in the boatyard. Alan as usual is getting himself into all sorts of weird shapes and predicaments. Here he is, trying to stop a few leaks in the bow. He wasn't too happy that I snapped him while he was up there - he thought the camera flash was an electrical wire going "bang"! We've been packing and unpacking the foc'sle to let us into the anchor locker every day now for a week. We have to repack it at night so we can get to bed. The rest of the boat is a complete shambles - oh well, off to the pub again ... can't cook in this shambles - it's a great way to get out of cooking!!
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