Oct 8th, Friday

Well with the exception of internet service, which I am having quite a problem getting...everything else here is Great! I slept like the dead on Wednesday night and we woke before dawn on Thursday. By first light we were on the boat, buckets and brushes in hand taking the top layer of dirt off. It was a two hour job, but when we finished, she looked much better. After cleaning up we went to the office to arrange our work. The season is just beginning here and we are about 1 week ahead of the crowds. So it is imperative that we get all our work scheduled right away...or wait on contractors that may not be available later. We ran into the guy who is installing our Radar, and he told us how he delayed and delayed, until all of a sudden he was under the gun and ended up doing the full install on Monday...when he realized we were coming in on Tuesday! He still has to do the screen install, but figured that since he was so late, he'd wait till we were there to do it together and approve the location. Welcome to the Trini way of doing business.

We stopped in to the office to work out various things. Our crate pickup and clearance thru customs, thru a local broker. A mechanic to change the oil in our sail drives, replace the exhausts and help with the filter changes. The plumber to repair the leak in our hot water tank. After all this arranged, then back to the boat to wait for the AC installer and do some more cleaning. We put the bimini and shades on to help with the heat. Yesterday, we were fortunate to have cloud cover, but no rain. The thermometer read 93 degrees at 10am...I couldn't look at it any later in the day.

The mechanic stopped by to view the engines, the plumber stopped by to tell us 9am Friday he'd be on the job and Rico, the yard manager came by to collect our life raft for repacking. It has not been touched (thank God) since 2004, so it is overdue for repacking. However, after watching Rico and his assistant pulling the canister down I am convinced that those directions need to be a little clearer for me to be able to deploy it!

An early dinner, than another early night for me.

Today - Friday, I made arrangements to go grocery shopping with the group that goes on Fridays, while Jim stayed behind to work with the contractors. Dave the plumber showed up right on time, and promised a five minute job to stop the leak. He was on and off the boat twice before I left at 9:20, and when I came home Jim advised me the 5 minute job...didn't work out so well. They cannot stop the leak, and it looks like a new hot water heater will soon be on order.

The temperature in the boat this morning, was 65 degrees...which is an amazing blessing because this afternoon temperature in the shade..98.6. Yes - just temp! sunnier today and thankfully a bit breezy, but to be honest...we work for a bit - then sit in the AC - that is the only way to handle this heat.

Grocery shopping was fun and I had a chance to meet several other cruisers who were happy to show me the ropes. There is a cruisers net every morning at 8am. Everyone tunes their vhf radio to a specific channel and have a moderated chat session (with agenda) for 20-30 minutes. I met several folks whose boat names were familiar, and in the general way of cruisers, they were helpful to the newbie who did not have her magic marker (to write the boat name on my grocery bags) Who knew? So heres the procedure...one van takes you to the grocery store loaded to the gills with people - every seat (all 14!) full. TWO vans pick you up! And depending on what marina or yard you are at maybe you come back with your groceries...maybe not. If not, the driver just takes them to the boat, and unloads them. Then you get them when the van you are on drops you off. Cost for this service...30TT...or about $5! AND the grocery store gives you a discount for shopping with Jesse James...the Taxi / Tour company owner. Still I was a little shocked about the prices...until I talked to the ladies on the ride home...I had the conversion wrong...oh, well...that's better...or we would be living on PB & J for a very long time!

Also on the net this morning, the local chandlery reminded us about their big sale...going on today only. They customarily give a 10% discount for cash purchases but today they offered 15-80 depending. Well, who could resist, since we have a lot to purchase. We spent about 1 hour there discussing the merits of various resin's and epoxies (thanks Dean for the early lesion...it helped!), fishing rods and reels, anchor, chain and we received a quote for the Dingy and Engine we want to purchase. After a quick trip to the cash station, we ended up with our brand new Delta 44 lb anchor (which Jim carried back over his shoulder), the tools to fix the fiberglass damage on the sugar scoops, new rod & reel and rod holder and a head full of numbers for the other items we need to purchase. Remember, we're on foot here, fortunately the chandlery is only ½ mile away.

So that's it for today, now we're off to go sit closer to the wifi hotspot to see if we can access the net. If you are reading this you'll know it worked!