Tuesday November 11

Happy Birthday Me

It’s getting old, this working on the bottom and the post in mostly about other things. This morning I noticed new scaffolding next to Changes. This was for Uncle Sam to start cleaning up the boat. After cereal for breakfast, Sam showed up and started to clean the deck and get all the rust spots off it. I had to close up Changes for Sam was using a hose to rinse off the deck. I spent the morning exploring the area then went for my birthday lunch at Zanzabar. I ordered a small mouth hamburger. When it arrived it was way bigger than I anticipated. I ate half of the burger and most of the french fries and the rest I took home. Around 2pm, Sam was done and would be back Wednesday to finish the top sides. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and cleaning up Changes down below. After the big lunch I just had snacks for supper.

Wednesday November 12

I got up as usual at 6:30AM but this day I had a lot of energy. I had my morning coffee then got to work. I gathered up the supplies to fill some places on the bottom. Using Watertight two part filler I mixed up two batches and filled in along the top of the keel and the bottom of the keel where we hit some rocks and dented the lead. I had just finished when Uncle Sam showed up. I cleaned up the he went to work cleaning the top sides. In a couple hours he was done. By now the Watertight was hard so I sanded off the rough spots then coated all the bad places on the bottom with Interprotect 2000E. Uncle Sam was going to pick me up after work and go to the Wheel House Restaurant for a beer after work. Just after 6 he came and with two others, Kennedy and Steve we drove to the restaurant. Sam and Steve are Trinidadian and Kennedy and I are from the USA. After the first round we got to telling stories. Sam it turns out has been crew on boats in Antigua race week and other races in the Caribbean and also was on the committee boat at Antigua. Kennedy just six months ago finished a 5 1/2 year circumnavigation in his boat SV Far Star. It turned out the restaurant was having sword fish for special this night so eventually we all ordered. The food was delicious with the swordfish the star of the meal. We all had a great time. They dropped me off then I talked to Lorraine on FaceTime audio. After it was time to turn in.

Thursday November 13

I got up, made coffee, then listened to the cruisers net on Chanel 68 at 8 AM. After, I gathered up the dirty clothes and towels and went to the laundry. I was lucky as no one was using the washers. The machines are triple loaders and cost $2.50 to wash or dry a load here in the Marina. This is about the same as in Painesville and a bargain as in the Bahamas it can cost $50 to do the laundry. I washed, dried, and folded my clothes and was back on Changes by 10AM. Just after I got back on board It started to rain. It rained until mid afternoon. The rain kept the temperature under 80 degrees all day. This is unusual and cool for Trinidad and a nice break from the usual 90F+ on a normal day. I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing and reading. For supper I had a rice mix, burger and corn. I washed it down with a glass of red wine.

Phil