April - July 2009

(For photo stories and movies scroll to end)

“Cruising plans ARE written in sand at low tide” ours were wiped out by a tidal wave. At first I was going to say no to Sid as he brought up going on the next Hash since I was worried that he would hurt his shoulder again. But seeing the disappointment in his face I just couldn't say no. The last five weeks have been tough for him as he was not able to do anything on the boat due to his shoulder injury. Being in a marina for him means working on the boat, well not this time. So we rented a car picked up Wally at Crews Inn and drove to Squeeze, headquarters of the Hashers where a bus was waiting for us all. The hash was in Toco a 3 hour drive so they rented a bus for the ones who didn't want to drive that distance like us. Toco lies on the north eastern shore of Trinidad, a very scenic area with rocky shorelines and some sandy beaches surrounded by lush steep hills where turtles return every year to lay their eggs. After all the hashers met and instructions were given we all ran or walked into the jungle and followed the trail. Sid was in the front with the runners.

As always the path through the thick forest was amazing, there is so much to see from the beautiful household plants and exotic flowers we pay loads of money for, here all growing wild. Each Hash I find some new plants I haven't seen yet including some strange bugs, this time I saw a walking stick about 6 inches long scurrying across the path, weird but incredible. The scavenger I am I again found something yummy. Along the trail were some cocoa trees. The yellow/orange pods are delicious so I snatched one. Each hash trail has short cuts for slow hasher like me. My hasher name really should be TP for Toilette Paper as in wiping up the rear as I’m always the last one. Thinking back now all I can say is that the team that came up with this trail did well as the short cuts got us way ahead of all the running hashers, this saved my bacon, as usually even with short cuts we are still behind them. The trail was not as tough as most are and didn't put a strain on my bad ankle. It had some up and down hills but not too tough. The path became narrow and started leading down a valley. The path got narrower; there was only room for one person behind another. On the left was a thick overgrown steep hill and on the right some thick bushes and behind them another lush overgrown steep hill. It was beautiful. We followed the path one by one. What we couldn't see was that the bushes on the right hid a deep gully underneath them until the young lady in front of me told me to watch out. Between the thick branches I saw a deep gaping hole. I stopped and looked at the path that was now only wide enough for one foot at a time for about 10 feet so I proceeded with care. I put my left foot forward first as it was on the safe side of the hill. The part I stepped on caved in, my food snapped and I started sliding down that deep gully. I immediately knew I had broken my ankle and even though I was holding a water bottle in one hand and the cocoa pod in the other I somehow managed to grab onto a root sticking out below the path. Now a sharp pain shot through my ankle and my adrenaline started pumping even more so, when I saw the deep gap my feet were dangling over. I had no idea that so many thoughts can go through ones mind in split seconds, like the ankle was broken, the sun was going down soon, I needed to get out of this predicament before dark, the root was strong enough to hold my weight, there was a gaping hole underneath me, no wall for my good foot to push up on, how the heck am I’m getting back on the boat with a cast, I was fighting not to faint and at the same time telling the girls not to let me fall and somehow managed to get the water bottle and cocoa pod on the trail (the cocoa pod never made it home with me, bummer and I also lost my favorite “Church Mouse” visor). Here comes the part about the team having laid out a good track saving my bacon as the first runner started catching up with us. He first tried to pull me up on my left arm, I told him that I was too heavy for him to pull me up this way he somehow needs to get me under my armpits and pull, more leverage. He tried and started sliding downhill into the gully himself. He caught himself, by then a second guy showed up and somehow they managed to pull me up and somehow I managed not to faint until one of my butt cheeks sat on the treacherous path (there was only room for one) then all went black. I don’t know how long I had blacked out but after coming out of a pleasant dream forgetting all around me I realized I was not waking up in my bed but instead still sitting on one butt cheek on the small path looking down on the deep cap while the guys were still holding on to me. I woke up into a nightmare and the bitter reality set in that I was in trouble. The problem now was to get me off that trail and the funny part was, as the guys lifted me up all my bodily functions left me and out of my behind came loud noises like I had started a Jet assist to help them get me up in the air. Well, a little turbo boost always helps, don’t you think! Later when I told my friends Shawn and Debbie about it they gave me a book called “Guide to Farting” and we’re still trying to figure out what kind of fart it was.

THE COLDSWEAT FART: Usually occurs when the situation truly does no warrant one. These farts can be very uncomfortable, and often result in humiliation. They occur at the absolute worst of times. For example, on hard wooden church pews, job interviews, meetings, jungle walks and the likes (did it say jungle walks?!). As the name suggests, the farter will suffer from severer cold sweats in their attempts to postpone the inevitable.

Could be a yes, but I think the cold sweat I had was definitely from my broken ankle.

THE OOOPS FART:

As the name suggests, these occur sort of by accident. Some circumstances that create the perfect moment of these to surface are: bending down for the newspaper, picking up someone's wallet, sneezing, coughing, changing a flat tire, during jungle walks (there is the jungle walk again, hmmm). Sometimes, the Ooooops Fart can also produce unwelcome merchandise.

OK I don’t think it’s this one I only brought a broken ankle home!

THE EXPLOSIVE FART:

Farters usually have no idea that they are about to produce this until it just happens and they can sometimes be very traumatized by the mishap. Mismanagement and poor judgment of the expulsion velocity is often the cause. A despicable fart and needs no further explanation.

This could be the one as I’m pretty sure that I traumatized those poor guys.

With that comes to my mind that hashers sometimes get nicknames. My gosh I could just imagine what mine could be “Turbo TP”, “Turbo Queen”, “Jet Assist”, “Ooopsi Tush”, “Jet Bumsy”, I don’t even want to know! Anyway, the thought was there to help them getting me up, I did my best. First the two guys were my crutches as I had one arm around each neck and I hopped one agonizing hop after another away from the gully, loosing my grip on them, stopping and starting over again. It was impossible to hop down that uneven trail. So they grabbed each one leg and I hugged them around their necks and they cradled me sideways down the trail but every third step I lost grip as we all were sweaty. So they would put me down and start over. It was not easy for them to keep balance either. Now the path had a trail of giant ants, every time we stopped they would climb up our legs, attack and bite the shit out of us. I tell you the ants were about 1 centimeter in size, big enough to dip in chocolate and eat. We soon left them to their jungle, the guys were happy, so was I. It was tough to get me down there but eventually we came to the river bed where they sat me down and I dipped my broken foot into the cold water. This is where Sid caught up with us, not a happy sight for him either poor guy. From there it was a tall steep riverbed wall to climb to the road. By now more strong hashers arrived and two of them carried me up the steep river bed wall to the dirt road where we all waited for the car ride back to the beach. The car ride down was bumpier then heck and I was driven straight to the local clinic. After the Cuban doctor agreed that it was broken the nurse then immobilized my foot, gave me some pain killers and back we went to the Hashers. While I waited in the bus for the Hashers to finish the traditional ceremony the urge to disappear behind a bush came on, natures call. What is a girl to do with a broken foot and no way to walk behind a bush and do her business? One of the hasher girls came to my aid and found me a small rusty bucket she placed in front of me on the bus floor. Great I thought. Now the driver closed the bus door and turned the lights off and left me to my business. Have you ever tried to pee in a tiny rusty bucket on the bus floor in the dark with a broken ankle laughing your ass off, me neither but I managed somehow. It was too funny. Since the bus ride back was 3 hours and the bus had a couple bar hops planned a young couple offered to drive us back to get our rental car and hospital. Some other cars left with us and so we were in a caravan along the very narrow Toco road. Not far down the road the caravan slowed down and we were crawling at snail’s pace. Finding out that a giant crane, four huge trucks and a few police cars were in front of us, the crane then pulled down an electrical wire and all of them stood dumbstruck starring at the wire, not knowing what to do. So my ordeal wasn't over yet. A while later the traffic started moving again, but do you think the police would let the 10 cars in front of us and at least 30 behind us pass them, oh NO, they don’t do that here we were told. So 20 minutes later the crane was stuck in a curve and they needed all the cars and four trucks to back up. Our driver’s wife Sonja took the opportunity to talk to the cop letting him know about our situation and eventually as the traffic was cleared they let us zip by. Over 6 hours after I had my accident we finally arrived at the hospital which now was almost midnight. Imagine now just 50 yards in front of the emergency room we got into another traffic jam but with a four wheel drive the sidewalk was not problem. Finally an X-ray later, a temporary cast and the orders to see an Orthopedic on Monday we headed back to the boatyard with a short stop at the 24 hr pharmacy for some meds. Now that’s another story. The girl Sid handed the doctors Rx to through the take out window, starred at it for quite a while then didn’t move to get the stuff instead she said she couldn’t tell us the price and we couldn’t pay with credit card because the register was broken. “That’s fine”, Sid said, she still didn’t move, so he said we need the mediation and pay cash. So she finally lifted her little butt and moved away from the window. Quite a bit later she came back telling us it was 51 TT, Sid gave her a 100. “Oh do you have exact change?” After going through both of our wallets he came up with the exact change. So Sid asked her now if they had crutches for sale as I didn’t have any. They did have one pair left, but she could not give us the price, remember the register was down and how would they get them out that little window. We finally drove back to the boat and of course the problem now was I could not climb up the ladder to get onto the boat. Crews Inn was full with a wedding party and all the yards were closed so nobody there to rent rooms so I spent the night in the back seat of our rental car. It was not as bad as it sounds. It was actually very comfortable as I could put my leg up on the backrest after Sid removed the head rest. I slept well and when I woke up and saw the anchor above the car and Sid stood there with a hot cup of coffee for me, I could only say ”Honey, I feel homeless” and we both laughed.

I mentioned Wally earlier he is one of the US Military guys who are here to survey the ocean floor for new charts. Nice guy, he came with us to the Hash and we promised the guys that the following day we would take them to Maracas Bay for some Bake and Shark. They didn’t think it was right for them to go, but I insisted that Sid take them, there was no reason for them not to go, so I spent the day in Wally’s room watching TV and getting used to my predicament while the guys had fun. Shawn and Debby (remember them they own Catbird the sister ship of Paradise) when they found out, invited us to stay at their place for the time being, so after Sid came back with the guys we drove back to the boat waiting for their phone call. While I sat in the car Sid went up the ladder, yep it was upstairs and not down below and cooked dinner we then enjoyed in the car. Shawn and Debby called a little after 9Pm that they were home now and so we drove to my recuperation home. Ahhh life is still good!

Monday I called the doctor’s office for an appointment but doc was not in until Friday, no way, couldn’t wait that long, so Debbie hooked me up with her doctor and on Tuesday we sat in his office worried about if surgery was needed. He told us right out that I probably needed surgery with pins and plates but that he will take an X-ray first. When the X-ray came a huge relieve the bone went back to the original position and I didn’t need surgery. The foot although was still too swollen for a better cast so I was stuck with the temp one for a week taking drugs for the swelling and pain and just laying on my lazy back doing nothing.

I was very lucky that I didn’t need any surgery as when it happened the bone stuck out quite a bit, but then when they removed the splint at the hospital the hump was gone. Sid thinks between me moving or trying to move the foot and the bobbing around in the car and the pressure from the splint must have helped to get it back in place. Whatever it was I’m very lucky and grateful. After all I have my other foot that gives me problems due to an injury 23 years ago. We definitely were broken down in Trinidad for at least 12 weeks.

After 2 ½ weeks of living with Shawn and Debbie and Sid driving every evening to see me, the boat was finally ready to splash. (Sid was so cute whenever he had to bring me some new cloths he made sure that all matched including underwear, I almost felt like a fashion model.) Easter week was approaching and with that Shawn and Debbie were getting ready to leave for the Grenadines, the trip we had planned to join them on, so it was time to move out of their home. Paradise was still in the yard and they were backed up with splashing boats and Paradise was delayed by two days. Wally and Brian came to the rescue again and insisted that we stay in one of their rooms at Crews Inn Hotel. It’s really a blessing to have met all these wonderful people. When Paradise finally pulled into the slip I could hardly wait to get home, especially to see my kitty Tika. You have no idea how wonderful it felt to be home, I think Sid got tired of me saying it over and over in the coming weeks and still now. The Crews Inn management was awesome in accommodating us at the floating dock for 60 footers charging us only for 40 feet. I would have never been able to get on or off the boat on the fixed docks. First thing I did after crawling into the cockpit was set up my sewing machine to make a cover for the cast out of an old T-shirt to protect the boat and wood from getting banged up. The second day I finished the bean bags I started for Debbie before the accident, third day slip covers for the cockpit then I said enough, I’m ready to sew more when the cast comes off. It was easy getting on and off the boat, it was a bit trickier to go down below but using my left knee I managed pretty well. Inside the boat another story, I did need the help of one crutch to get around. It’s not the ideal place for a broken foot, but it sure felt great to be home. The good thing about the cast was it was waterproof and therefore I was relaxing in the pool twice a day, really the only place to relax that foot, the cast also never itched.

My noodeling buddies still noodled daily in the pool and at the potluck showered me with presents and a fun poem Christine on Quadril came up with (http://boatbummswaterareobics.blogspot.com/ at very end of story so scroll down).

Unfortunately everybody was getting ready to leave their boats on the hard and to go home for the summer. Within just a couple of weeks all the people we knew had left.

We still joined the Hashers every second Saturday and I realized how much nicer it is to just sit there, enjoying the scenery while everybody handed me beers and made sure I was comfy, instead of running through the jungle like an idiot getting sweaty, wet, muddy and stinky LOL.

Every two weeks Sid had to drive me to the doctor where x-rays were taken and after 5 ½ weeks it was a bit disappointing to find out that he wanted the cast on for 2 extra weeks.

May 19^th, after 8 ½ weeks the cast finally came off, what a birthday present! Sid had threatened to rent a weed whacker for the long hair on my leg. I was sure to find a skinny hairy albino monkey leg when the cast came off, instead, I started to worry that I would be send to Chacachacare the once used island for the leper colony as that’s just what my leg looked like. With a good soak in ice water the leper skin came off, thank goodness. In the evening we invited a few friends over for a “cast-off” lime, they all thought that we were casting off, guess we fooled them. It showed again how small Trinidad is, we invited three different parties and guess what, they all knew each other!

Back to the yard work, Paradise got another face lift, this time we exchanged the rub rail. Imagine Fortress who did our teak floor last year wanted US$ 1640 to do the job. 1640 to replace two 30 foot long teak strips while we paid 2500 US for the teak floor. After I voiced my opinion, Fortress generously lowered the price by 400 dollars, a yard charge they should have not charged in the first place since we went straight to them and not via the yard office. Shows you how careful you have to be not to be ripped off, obviously we were over charged last year as well. Fred on Liberty suggested hiring Busy Bee, he came by to assess the work, called us the next day with a price of 1300 bucks, we declined. Three days later Busy Bee called us up asking for money. For what? He had bought the wood and we hadn’t even hired him! He was very upset when we told him that we were not going to pay him. Two hours later a carpenter from Fortress called telling us that we needed to pay Busy Bee or he will never get a contract at Power Boats again we explained that we did not hire him. We finally talked to Randolph on Same Crew (used to work for Fortress and left with half the Crew and started his own business, therefore the name Same Crew) he replaced the rail for 500 and got it done within the promised time and did a really nice job. Sid also had him make some steps/seats for the bow, looks great. Further lessons learned, you really have to be on your toes to hire people here. To which come to my mind Sid cleaned our AC and by accident punctured a tube. All that needed to be done was fixing the hole and install a valve to refill the AC with Freon. Knot-a kold refer and AC dealer said they could fix it for US$ 250. The AC new was $79.99, Sid brought that to his attention but no he stuck to his price. I then went online and started to call AC repair places, one called me back within 20 minutes, two hours later he was here and fixed the AC in the back of his truck for TT 250 which is roughly 40 bucks. His fix still leaked a bit and he came back the very next day and fixed it at no cost. Amazing, shows you again what a rip most off the Chaguaramas dealers are. Oh, I also called around for a new window unit AC, the smallest one I could find was 25,000 Btu, every store was out of window units.

While my foot was prisoner to the cast Sid had lots of varnishing to do to the new rub rail plus the rest of the boat. He applied a total of 14 coats and due to the long drying time took him 4 weeks. Glad to finish it and thanks to the floating dock it was much easier on his back. You should see the incredible job he did Paradise sparkles again. The only thing left to varnish now is the cockpit. Of course he found all kinds of other odds and ends to work on in between varnish coats. The most annoying job was scrubbing the water line at least once a week. This is by far the filthiest marina/harbor we’ve ever been in. There is not one day without a huge oil or diesel spill, which conveniently gets caught in our slip which then with the help of wakes from the many fishing boats, sticks like glue to the side of the hull leaving a 10 inch black water line around the boat, yuck and very frustrating. The fishermen are complaining about cruisers making a mess in the water while all the stuff floating in it including the daily diesel spill are from them. You should see what Sid pulls out of the water on a daily basis. The score after a very high tide was pulling out 2 jerry jugs, 2 wooden boat hatches, one oil drum, plastic bags, trash which all came from a boat the fishermen had let sunk. The big reward for him was he pulled out a sail bag with a perfect spinnaker in it. We could not find the owner.

Not just the dirty water around here but a stray cat came aboard during several nights and marked our boat as his territory. It took us a little over 4 weeks to get the stench completely off and still now and then a whiff gets up our nose. As for that male cat we captured him and had him neutered right in front of us! There is a wonderful veterinarian here Dr. Wade he does house or boat calls and he came to our aid and fixed the cat right here and we were allowed to watch.

We met Dr. Wade through Cindy during the summit of the Americas. Crews Inn was filled up with US militairy and I met Cindy at the pool. She is an animal lover and fell in love with our friendly hotel/marina cat Tom/Russell/Noodles/Mooch/Tiger or whatever any body calls him. The second day she was here Mooch showed up with and injury a huge slice on his back Cindy called the vet immediately who showed up at 10 PM at night. I had mentioned to Cindy that Tom/Russell/Noodles/Tiger/Mooch wasn’t fixed either so Dr. Wade performed this surgery as well. Mooches name was temporarily changed to ‘Ohmygoshmyballsaregone”. When she left we were in charge of Mooch and had to remind Dr. Wade to take the stitches out and so we met him.

Cyndi and I hit it off so I invited her for cocktails on Paradise; she smiled at me and asked if she could bring her boss. “But of course” so on Sunday night, the last day of the summit she brought her boss over, that’s when we found out she was a Major and introduced us to her boss Lieutenant General Norman Seip a 3 star General in charge of the Caribbean and here at the summit under direct orders from the President of the United States to take charge in case of an emergency. Wow what an honor to have the two on board, especially with his busy schedule to find time for us. They had one hour to relax. After the hour was over Norm asked Cindy to inform the next appointment, an important dinner they had to attend that they were delayed by 30 minutes, he wanted to relax some more. We had a wonderful time and before he left he handed each one of us his personal military coin and thanked us for the wonderful time. He said this was the highlight of his Trinidad time as he was cooped up in the command room for 58 hours straight for the whole summit. It truly was an honor for us to have them both in and on Paradise.

One month later on my birthday Cyndi called to let us know that the General was coming back to Trinidad for a short visit and he would like to invite his new friends to join him for dinner, so the following Monday we had Norm, Cindy, Dr. Wade and Jesse on board for another cocktail and then the General treated us to a very delicious meal at the Lighthouse Restaurant of the hotel. We finished the night off with some aged rum in and on Paradise again. It was really a very nice evening. Norm is a rum connoisseur like us and brought us aged Brugal Rum from the Dominican Republic. He is going to retire in October and Cindy is going to Congress. She’s got an incredible carrier in front of her, go girl.

We kept Dr. Wade on retainer as we now were serious in trapping all the stray cats that invaded the marina at night. We did not want another one trying to declare our boat as his territory it was bad enough walking around the hotel area smelling the stench of these wild cats. With the borrowed trap we actually trapped 5 cats total, 4 males and one female and Dr. Wade each time drove after work to Crews Inn and fixed the cats at no charge while we watched. So watch out boys, I know now how it’s done! The female we had to drive to his office as this procedure was a bit more evasive and he let me watch as well, very interesting I have to add. We also insisted to pay at least for the materials he used. It was really funny the second time Sid set the trap he found the trap shut the following morning and was really excited but when he approached the trap he saw no cat inside. Upon closer inspection he found a trapped monster toad don’t think Dr. Wade will make a house call to fix him LOL.

Weather had been wonderful in Trinidad at times a bit too hot, but at least no rain especially during the time Sid was busy varnishing. Due to my broken ankle we kept the rental car, it was a heck of a lot easier to get around and we used the great excuse on Tuesday afternoons for the matinee at Movie Towne to get out of the heat into the freezing theater.

Twice a week I went to therapy and after one week I ditched one crutch and Sid let me drive to therapy by myself, yeah I had my freedom back. The first time of course I hit every store that was along side the road on my way home, Sid hide your wallet. One week later I graduated to a cane that I hardly ever used. I pushed it hard and after 10 therapy sessions I was good to go.

In the mean time I started all the sewing projects I still had and Sid found more things to fix or change on the boat but was starting to run out of projects.

Every other Saturday we joined the Hashers which by now became our extended Trinidad family. It was always nice to join them having loads of fun and best yet getting to see more beautiful places of Trinidad we would have not seen otherwise. We truly will miss them once we leave.

Since we hadn’t seen the Trinidad East Coast Shawn and Debbie organized a trip to Mayaro Beach the eastern shore of Trinidad. Early in the morning we drove to their home loaded all our stuff including a full cooler with beer, bloody marys and wine and began the journey. First stop was at a street stand for “doubles” (common street food in Trinidad and Tobago, a sandwich made with two flat fried bread, called “bara” (double) filled with curried chick peas, commonly called channa. Topped with a variety of spicy chutney, mango, cucumber or tamarind and extra pepper sauce, very spicy pepper sauce.) Very tasty and oh so filling not to mention the gas competition later on. Second stop was just before Manzanilla beach for fresh Oysters. Well, don’t know how fresh they were as we all were sick later on that day and all for the next day.

Then we drove along the beautiful Manzanilla Beach which for miles and miles is covered with nothing but palm trees, indeed a beautiful sight and when you walk along the beach you find also turtle tracks as this is also a beach the leatherbacks lay their eggs yearly.

We drove all the way to the end of the road on the south coast of Trinidad before returning and checking into the Queens Beach Resort. We were told that they were having a party with a live band that night but that our room would not be affected by it. Yeah right, at 5 sharp as we were laying on the bed watching some TV this “BOOM BOOM” started and the whole bed including us started jumping. Anyway, before all that noise we had some nibble foods in our room and after that we all walked along the beach and enjoyed the most beautiful scenery. Palm trees lining the beach and heavy surf branding the shore feeling our ears with the most calming wave sounds. After that we freshened up before dinner that’s when the BOOM BOOM started. Dinner was served 2 hours later and we had to scream at each other to be heard. Earlier that day I met a guy that introduced himself as a catholic priest and not even two minutes later invited me to his place to see his books, I don’t think so. While eating dinner he invited himself to sit with us and help us. It was impossible to get away from him so Shawn and Debbie retired and left us alone with this guy. A few minutes later we managed to escape from him as well. All we came up with was that he was a horny old catholic priest, if he indeed was that. It was too funny. Of course the music kept going and we had to put toilette paper into our ears. Sleeping was tough and at 3 am when I finally fell into a deep sleep the alarm clock a previous guest must have set came on, arghhhhh. At 3.18 the music finally stopped we both sat straight up in bed and sighed, but then it was so quite we could not fall asleep anymore. After that I had to run to the bathroom every 20 minutes. The next morning we found out that Debbie was violently ill all night long. So we walked some more along the beach while she recuperated in the room and around lunch time we broke it off and drove home. Even after all the mishaps we had a wonderful time. The East Coast of Trinidad is really a must to see.

Every Monday night TTSA hosts a potluck and every other Monday it includes some great entertainment. Toni on Tarmara plays the keyboard, Alex plays his guitar, a young girl tells funny poems another plays the key board and so Toni and I even got into this playing my harmonica and singing with Toni. It’s always been a lot of fun everybody always has a great time, indeed always a wonderful potluck. Some of us went to Karaoke night at the Lures. Any Karaoke we ever attended it’s mostly one horrible singer after the other, some better most worst, but I tell you this one was just amazing. It seems that all Trinis know how to sing, they all sounded so professional, it was a true show. Former Miss Trinidad now a professional opera singer sang the last song and blew everybody away.

In the mean time after 6 weeks I’m done with therapy, finished all kinds of sewing projects while Sid ran out of things to do as well.

All we have to do now is clean up, get the boat ready, provision, return our rental car and wait for a good weather window and we’re out of here. To which comes to my mind “Driving in Trinidad”!

Of course it is scary at first to drive on the wrong side of the street but you get used to it fairly fast except for whenever you need to use the blinker the windshield wipers come on and vise versa. Sitting in the passenger seat is nerve racking as you’re not used to see the curbs this close to your side and most of all the breaks don’t work on this side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our driving but it seems like we’re the only ones driving the way we do. Everybody here jumps out into the opposite lane as soon as they see a little pump in the road, scaring the living you know what out of us, sometimes they come so close we’re surprised we still have a side mirror. You have to know too that all the lanes are very, very narrow, only a few inches are spared between the middle and curb. Then when they stop in front of a store they just stop in the street lane, don’t even bother moving a bit to the side or onto the curb, you have to drive around them in the oncoming lane, while the oncoming traffic uses it at the same time, again surprisingly we still have a side mirror. Hugging the bumpers is a must and best time to pass a car is right in front of a blind curve.

After one shopping trip I helped Diane get her groceries up into her boat in the yard, got back into the car and wondered why the car door on the right was open then I realized I sat in the passenger seat. I think we’ve both been doing this several times, but there is nothing more embarrassing as when you come out of a convenient store a car is waiting for your spot, you get into the car, close the door and try to insert the key realizing you’re again in the passenger seat, the embarrassing thing now is to get out of the car and walk around the car to the drivers seat while just having entertained the waiting car. It gets even better, it was a heavy down poor and I decided to go shopping. I sat in the car, inserted the key but the wheel was locked, I wiggled the wheel and wiggled it but nothing happened. I tried to find a button to undo the lock but nothing. After about 5 frustrating minutes I walked back to the boat, still raining, and told Sid about my problem. He now comes out into the rain and walks with me to the rental car. He said he thought that something weird was going on with the ignition too, so I walk to the car and Sid kept walking. My mouth dropped at first then I started to laugh out loud as I realized that I had sat in the wrong car. Imagine it was the exact same car in the parking spot we always park unlocked and the license plate was 4547 while ours was 4546, too funny.

Anyway our car problem is soon over and dinghy life will take over again. There is a tropical wave underway and should pass in a couple of days, following behind is some very mild weather a perfect time to finally leave Trinidad.

We had a wonderful time in Trinidad and made so many wonderful friends. Saying goodbye is always hard so we stopped saying goodbye, now we just say “See you later”. I think the hardest see you later is Mooch the cat, he truly adopted us. He is such an incredible cat and trained us well and stole our heart. There was no time Sid or I could walk by the hotel without him seeing us and walking right beside us.

He sat by the pool almost daily and watched me swim, then he would walk with me to the showers, wait in front of the door until I came out and walked with me back to the dock. He knew that he was not allowed to come down to the dock but the day before we left he sat outside our boat waiting for us to come out and greeted us with a lot of meows. He started sleeping under our car and would great us with his tail straight up in the air and meowed up a storm. Of course we always had a little treat for him with us. I wished we could take him with us but it’s just not possible. The good thing is the marina crew love him as well and feed him, so we know he’ll be OK.

It’s time now to say "see you later" as we are going to sneak out of the marina and head for Grenada.