Back on my feet again

OK, OK, no more excuses not to catch up on the Blogg anymore as my cast is finally off and I’m good enough again to do computer duties. It was a little tough to sit in front of the computer with the cast on, after every 30 or so minutes of being on my feet or having the foot down I had to elevate it which by then showed blue sausages instead of toes. By the way I was lucky not to get a hasher nickname but some do call me Indiana Jane, yeah I wished I would have found a treasure instead of a cast!

So let me catch up:

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, 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 leg, 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 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 and 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 me 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!

While I was at Shawn and Debbie’s, Paradise got another face lift, this time we exchanged the rub rail. Get this Fortress who did our teak floor last year wanted US$ 1640 to do the job, as I told Nevi that he was way overpriced,and that this is almost the price he charged for the teak floor, he lowered the price to 1240 (the 400 bucks was a frivolous charge only applied if the yard sends us to him and since we went to him directly shows how greedy this business is, obviously we were over charged last year as well. Then one cruiser suggested to hire Busy Bee, he came by to assess the work, called us the next day for 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 fix the hole and install a valve to refill the AC with Freon. The AC dealer close by said they could do it at a cost of 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 but 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.

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 to. 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. Imagine 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 him 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 during the summit as another stray cat although very friendly named Tom, Russel, Noodles, Mooch, Tiger or whatever it is and believe me he will come to you if you mention just any of those few names, he truly is a mooch though. He’s new name now is ‘Ohmygoshmyballsaregone”.

He was insured with a pretty good slice on his back and Major Cyndi who is an animal lover called for Dr. Wade to stitch him up, that got me introduced to her as she needed a litter box for the cat which I gave her, and later through here we met Dr. Wade. I brought up the fact that the cat was not fixed and so Dr. Wade fixed him after stitching him up in Cyndi’s hotel room. So our stray cat was number 2 and more to come as there are a few more stray cats that are ganging up on Noodlestomrussellmooch so we will trap them as well to get fixed. Sid set the trap a couple of nights without any success but one morning oh glory the trap had snapped shut. Sid was so excited but as he approached the cage he could not see a trapped cat. Upon closer inspection he found a monster toad inside the trap. Don’t think Dr. Wade will make a house call to fix him LOL. But watch out strays we’re going to getcha. In the mean time the little black cat lost his jewels as well and a few days later we caught a small female. We drove her to Dr. Wade’s clinic and I watched the whole procedure when he fixed her. We have one more to go!

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 he 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.

Weather has been wonderful in Trinidad at times a bit too hot, but at least no rain to interfere with Sid’s varnish. Since the accident we kept the rental car, it’s a heck of a lot easier to get around and of course we don’t miss our matinee afternoons at the movies. (A great excuse to get out of the heat into the freezing theater).

Twice a week I have to go to therapy and I’ve been pushing it to get better so after just two weeks I ditched one crutch and three days later the other as well. Just in case I have a cane that I carry around. When I ditched the crutches Sid even let me drive by myself. What a great feeling I feel like a whole person again and after therapy I hit three stores, yes I can go shopping again, Sid hide the wallet LOL.

Sid is still finding more things to fix or change and we have one more major project to do, sewing projects. You should see my sewing room, it really has the best view!!!

Then of course when ever we have a chance we get together with Shawn and Debbie for a lime.

We’re also planning to drive some around the island to catch up on things we missed last years like the Eastern shore of Trinidad, Pitch Lake, Caroni Swamp, Angostura Rum Distillery and of course we like to go turtle watching once more, that is truly an incredible experience.

Hopefully this time we also will see the hatchlings race to the water.

Hurricane season started June 1^st and sure enough that day the first tropical wave welcomed in the 2009 hurricane season. With another one having past already and new ones headed for us. We hope the weather will be on our side when we head up to the Grenadines in about one month or as soon as my foot is fully recovered. From there we’ll head back to Venezuela to catch up with all our friends and for a final good-by or what we say “see ya later” then finally west wards towards the canal. So once we’re underway again I will update the Blogg on a daily basis again or with every move to a new location.