Haul Out in Trinidad

Thursday, June 30, 2011

We removed the engine from the dinghy and then put the dinghy up on top of the boat. We

hoped to get fuel from Power Boats fuel dock but they said they were expecting a big boat so we had delayed our departure from Crew Inn after checking out. the electric bill for our stay at Crews Inn running the refrig and AC was only $21.00. Amazing! Then Power Boats called us back on VHF saying we could come in 5 minutes. We hustled and got there in 10 minutes and topped off our fuel tanks with 200 liters. That bill was not a bargain.

We moved the boat into the area for the haul out. We were met by the operator who asked Charlie where to put the slings. They were very considerate and attentive. We followed the hoist to the place they were going to set our boat. they put us at the end in the middle of the roadway between two rows of boats. Just as they were getting ready to put the supports up, we had a cloudburst. It rained off and on for several hours, but we were plugged into shore power and hooked up to water.

Several of the service providers came by the boat to inspect and give us estimates of their work. The sails were taken off using the halyard and electric winch sothey could finally be evaluated.

Our bags which we will take home were taken off the same way. They could not install the portable air conditioner until after the rain stopped and the top dried off. The bottom painter came by to inspect the hull and showed us blisters through the barrier coat and that based on the water line, either our boat heels to one side or the stripe was not painted in the correct location on one side.The water line was in the stripe on starboard side but several inches below the stripe on the port side. He will correct this when repainting. We finally stopped working about 5:30 p.m and finished off the Cream of Coconut

by making "Pain killers" for cocktail hour on the boat. We got to our apartment which has a nice kitchenette by 6 p.m. We emptied all the food from the refrigerator and freezer on the boat placing it in the apartment. We will use some of it but will donate most of it before we leave. We showered and went out to the restaurant "Sails" in Power

Boats yard. Charlie had 3 delicious lamb chops. I had chicken, only half of which I could eat. We were early to bed in air conditioned comfort.

Friday, July 1, 2011

I was on the boat early anticipating that some of the workmen might show up at 8 a.m. I hung out wet lines on the boom to dry before storing them. I allowed the cockpit cushions to dry and stored them below. Charlie and I hung the wet staysail on the boom to also dry before we put it back in its bag and stored it below. The air conditioner guys showed up about 9 a.m. and installed it. What a difference that made. We finally got our salon cushions returned and they look so much cleaner. It only cost us the equivalent of $90.00 USD for 8 cushions! the sails lady came by and gave us a very reasonable quote for repairs to the jib, main and stack pack sailbag.

Charlie griped that we hadn't had breakfast. He was looking forward to a big breakfast at the restaurant. Unfortunately when we walked there, they were not open; so we took cereal off the boat and used the milk in the refrigerator, toasted bread, made coffee and tea in our apartment for breakfast. I had saved a yummy cinnamon roll from the day before. We continued to work on the boat the rest of the morning. I had most of the plastic cockpit surround cleaned and removed except for some troublesome zippers I couldn't budge. Charlie was working on the zincs on the hull and propeller. The dinghy man we had been trying to contact came by and fixed the dinghy. We can deflate it tomorrow and fold it up for storage.

After having a lunch of my leftover chicken tenders, we obtained the paperwork from Power Boats office that we needed to check out at Trinidad Immigration and Customs. We walked out to the road and caught the bus to Crews Inn road ($ 3TT each which is $0.50 US). Since we had already organized the necessary papers, it took us less than 30 minutes to clear out! It had begun to rain again. We caught the water taxi back to Power Boats. That cost us 20TT ( not as good a bargain as the bus, but less walking). We continued to work on the boat between the rain showers.

After showers again, we walked up the road to eat dinner. One place we stopped was mostly a bar and no dinner would be available until after 8p.m. We chose Joe's Pizza which also has a more extensive Italian menu. Once we had walked back to Power Boats, I did two loads of washing of towels, sheets and some clothing we had worn the past two days. Unfortutately they did completely get dry and I didn't have any more tokens to use. I will have to get more tomorrow so I can dry the towels and return them to the boat before we leave about 1 p.m.

July 2, 2011

We ate a quick breakfast of sweet rolls and coffee/tea at the apartment. The day began sunny so we continued to take off the canvas after drying the dew off it. We also hoisted the dinghy to the ground and deflated and rolled it up putting it into our old dinghy bag. Then we hoisted it back up to the boat placing it before the mast.

We did get a breakfast at the Sails restaurant this morning. I guess they serve breakfast only on the weekends. During breakfast I was able to dry the clothing that did not dry the night before. After folding it, I replaced it on to the boat. I was able to clean out the refrigerator disposing of the many water bottles. I was also able to scrub down the top of the boat. Having the boat in the yard tracks a lot of sand and mud up onto the deck. We left it clean. We were both back at the apartment for showers by 11:30. We ate the leftover pasta from the night before. Our taxi came about 12:45. we loaded our two bags and many smaller bags onto the van. We also gave him the food left over from the refrigerator and freezer to donate to the needy.

It took about an hour to arrive at the Holiday Inn Express out by the airport in Port

of Spain. Port of Spain is the capital and is very big. There are lots of highrise buildings downtown. The government center is turquoise and gold. It is always amazing to see the restaurants and businesses one sees in the States here in the Caribbean: Cinnabon, KFC, Pizza Hut, Home Store, etc. We saw some apartments near the hotel which our driver said were low income housing. they really looked nice.

We checked into the hotel. Charlie downloaded and printed our boarding passes for tomorrow. The hotel provided a shuttle over to the mall and to the golf course restaurant for dinner. We took the shuttle about 6 to the mall to eat at Joe's Irish Pub.

Charlie had Bangers and Mash and I had Shepherd's Pie. Since it was Friday night, the mall was busy. It looked as busy as ours would look at Christmas! The driver said it was "pay day" so everyone was out shopping. Sunday was also a holiday. We returned to the hotel via shuttle in the rain and went to bed fairly early as we had to get up at 4 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the airport at 4:45.

July 3, 2011

We awoke at 4 a.m. and caught the shuttle to the airport at 4:40. We checked our big bags and carried 5 smaller bags: 2 computers, breathing machine, and two small duffle bags + my purse. The security area did not take long to pass through. The plane did not board at 6:10 a.m. There was some problem with the airplane so we did not board it until 7:40 or so. Many others missed their connections in Miami. Luckily we had a very long layover. We didn't arrive in Miami until after 11:30. Then we walked about 3 miles (it seemed) to the US Customs area where they had about 20 stations to choose from to pass through. The lines weren't very long. We had some more walking to get to the baggage area. We retrieved the bags and got into a huge line like a big traffic jam to get through 1 of only 4 US Customs stations after the baggage claim. The whole process took about 2 hours, a record for Customs during our trip.

We were able to have a leisurely lunch before getting in line to go through the security again. Here the "gestapo" wouldn't let us get into line until we had everything down to 2 bags including my purse. So I had to put both my computer and purse into the small duffle. Charlie's breathing machine got a free ride but I had to take one of Charlie's bags as mine to allow us to get into the line. Of course I had to take both my purse and the computer out of the duffle and put them onto the conveyor belt for scanning. Charlie had his computer, watertight camera bag, small duffle and breathing machine. Due to the plane being American Express, we still had to check our small duffles at the plane. The plane was on time.

We arrived back in Charleston at 8:15 p.m. Friends from church, the Brauchs picked us up and took us home. We got the garage door open but the door from the garage to the house was locked. Luckily the girl who lived across the street who had been watering the plants was home and had the key so we did get into the house. Charlie decided he was hungry so we tried to start the cars. Two would not start: the Ford Explorer and his Porsche 911. We were lucky that the Porsche 968 did start so we could go out for some late dinner. We stopped by the grocery for breakfast staples before returning home and to bed. It felt good to be back home and to sleep in our own bed.

Since we have many obligations here in the States between now and December, we will not return to the boat until early January. This ends this chapter of our cruising, but check for new posts in January 2011. We appreciate those of you who have followed our adventures on our blog.