PASSING US BY

Well we had a quiet day out at anchor on Sunday except for the usual mid day thunderstorm.











What was not so usual was the stuff that went past us. We are used to the styrofoam slurry at one point in the tide but the dead dog was new. At least I think it was a dog, could have been a monster iguana.



Then we had a pair of these giant Ballyhoo which seem have adopted us a home.





Then a whole pack of tugs started up with huge plums of smoke and took up positions around the oil rig that we saw being worked on a few days ago and stated moving it out through the anchorage to the gulf.






Good sunset though!

Karma Half Boats and a great pot luck.

For the last month or two I have been without a depth sounder due to the through hull transducer failure. The transducer got replaced during the haulout but the job of leading the cable throught the space under the cockpit was waiting to be done. Basically I needed a hunchback legless dwarf. So I put out a call on the morning net for a small person and bravely Devvie fom Artic Tern answered and crawled into the space and did the business. Kudos and much good karma to Devvie.







We met her again at the cruisers pot luck at Peakes which we enjoyed on wednesday night. General Tso's chicken barbecues really well and Judy's brownies disappeared at the speed of light. We also talked a lot with other adventurous cruisers about possible routes if I ever decide to leave my comfort zone.







You know that phrase in Jaws "We are going to need a bigger boat!" well here is one mans solution to the problem. Cut it in half stretcch it and glue ine a new bit.

PORT OF SPAIN

Well I made a big mistake today. I decided to visit Port of Spain in the afternoon and hit a huge traffic jam going in to PoS and rush hour at the bus station going home.

But Judy and I had a good time walking around admiring some of the old buildings and parks in the centre.






The police station which looks like a church had been bombed in some previous coup attempt but looks fine today.

The red house is not looking so good but the scaffolding suggests that restoration might be being considered.

However the church and fountain were both in fine fettle.

As we waited in a somewhat undisciplined bus station queue we heard that there had been a major fire in PoS which might have been the cause of the traffic jams.

Judy arrives and settles in.

Well Judy flew down from Maine to sail on Elephants Child for a while. The flight arrived at a time that allowed us to beat the traffic jams and curfew jams that bedevil the roads around the capital in the late afternoon and evening.

We are having a few quiet days at anchor which is great and Judy has a chance to decompress from her working days in Maine and bcome a laid back cruiser. Mind you I have not got her to take her watch off yet.

Sooooo not running on island time yet.







We toured the anchorage and found a little cove where boats go to die and another cove where the stranges building lined the shore. I can not figue out what the arches are for.

















Between them was the shipyards and oil rigs which get worked on 24/7 or at least it appears that way from the noise.

I am sleeping through it and Judy did get a good nights sleep last night after a good sunset even though I think we had generators and our neighbours main engine running late.





Just heard from Victor and Nilo and family that Frodo their beloved black lab has crossed the rainbow bridge and is chasing birds in the sky waiting for his owners arrival.

We will see if we can get a tour of the island sometime next week and after that a good weather window to sail up to Grenada.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

and into my newly painted and pretty Elephants Child.

I might be paranoid but it really feels like they are out to get me.










This was the boat that broke free a few nights ago and drifted through the anchorage. Somebody towed it out and anchored it but it dragged again. I guess it might be abandoned as it looks like things like winches have been stripped of it. Certainly nobody loves it anymore. However somebody else came out and dropped a second anchor from it so it looks like it is staying put. However it is now one boat over from me.

Then this tow job came by. Now it is often squally and fairly strong currents run through the anchorage. So I feel entitled to worry when a fairly large steel work boat is towed past me by a rubber dinghy with a small outboard. Eeek

Then we had a squall and several boats dragged, I was out there with fenders at the ready eek eeek !

Oh well what was painted once can be repainted if needs be I suppose.

I visited Port of Spain on a shopping trip bus organized by Jesse James of Members Only who does taxis tours and airport transfers.. We first visited this shopping mall. Now I was confused by the name as the mall was clearly short, small and square. I guess there is a Trini explanation somewhere.

The bird life here is prolific with a fairly large colony of frigate birds that sometimes seem to gather together and make a mass raid on the poor pelicans. Also I have a kiscadee that comes and sits on the solar panel array and noisily tells me “Kiss me too, Kiss me too” at least I think that is what it says.

We had a pretty sunset although it signals the time to “start ze generators! “ which run all night and light up the barges, tugboats, workboats, drilling rigs and other contraptions that litter the harbor.

SPLASHED and TIRED

Got dropped back into the water on Friday morning pretty much on schedule. There were a few last minute jobs that could have held us up but it all went to plan in the end.






The paint job is excellent and it is clear that Selwyn and Michael really know how to get a good finish even though they work outside in the dusty conditions of a boatyard. The weather gods smiled on us though with only a couple of afternoon showers and mostly calm conditions in the early morning when he would spray.

This was the job that I thought was going to be a problem. The mechanic with the special tool to change the bearing was very elusive but did turn up and did get the job done.

I was going over to the local roti shop shack inside the boatyard for lunch and while there supporting the disabled and the greens. I am sure I have read somewhere that it is bad to feed iguana on processed foods but these guys certainly scarf down left over roti skin. The one legged grackle is really fearless and if you look away from your plate for a few seconds he is in there for a tit bit or two.

I was looking forward to a really good nights sleep at anchor but I forgot it was Friday night so there were a few party boats on the go and after I finally got to sleep a fellow cruiser came buy and woke me up to warn me that there was a local boat adrift in the anchor field and banging into boats, with Elephants Child in the line of drift. Eeek !

It did drift past only a few metres away and there did seem to be some attention being paid to it so for once I did not put on my good samaritan cloak and speed to the rescue. I was just too knackered.

But the sun is shining this morning and I slept late so with a good breakfast inside me I will set to and clean up the decks which are covered in dust and overspray.

It is a boat, there is always something to do.