MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

July 3, 2001

We are anchored in a catch basin at TTSA, which is a yacht club (loose term), for the sailing association. The water is yucky but after we sussed (like the influence of our British friends?) out the other places, Bob has decided to stay parked here. Now, the rest of the world is docked around the corner at various marinas with many amenities. Here, we did have a noon meal for $15TT, or about $2.83 each. This would be barbecued chicken, fries or rice and a small (really small) salad. Sound incredible? They say it's cheaper to eat out here than at home. Of course, I won't vouch for the taste or quality of food. "Passagio" and other friends of ours are down at the Crew's Inn Marina. Their stay at the dock is about $.50 a foot, per day, which includes water, showers, ice and a beautiful swimming pool. The negative to living on a dock is your neighbors are right on top of you. Plus, you don't get the breeze because you're not facing the wind. They all have or rent air-conditioners. Living in luxury, they are.

Yesterday we waved down a maxi taxi ($2TT each, $.75US) and hopped aboard to go scout out boat part places. We ended up back at Crew's Inn where we had lunch with "Passagio" and then I bummed a bathing suit from Patti (interesting to stuff this body into a size 6, with practically everything covered) and we swam laps together. The pool is spotless clean and the water felt great. We played away the afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. What a treat to swim without salt. Especially here in Trinidad where the ocean water is unappealing. On the way home, "Suzannah" stopped us and invited us for pizza tonight. Tomorrow night there is a July 4th celebration at the yacht club including a barbecue.

Today we maxi taxied into the main city, Port of Spain, to check out a new solenoid for the generator. After getting our important chores done, we walked to the mall; yes I said, "mall" and shopped in the air-conditioning for an hour or so. I bought a new pair of sunglasses, a set of eating utensils, 2 candles and 3 sleeveless tops, which I constantly find in the dirty laundry bag. It is so hot here that a shirt is lucky to survive 2 days and only if you put it on right after a shower and then wear it the next day. Swimming pool and a 3-story mall, all in 2 days time. I'm preparing myself for the culture shock of coming home, I guess.

I just arranged a taxi to pick me up at 5:30am Friday morning. I think it will be as painful for the cab driver as for me.

July 4, 2001

Happy July 4th to all and Happy Anniversary to us on our second completed year aboard Mutual Fun. We celebrated this holiday by spending the 2nd half of the day, after chores, over at the fancy marina with the swimming pool. We swam and enjoyed ourselves and then had a special treat of using their shower. Mine was a 20-minute scalding shower, which I enjoyed immensely. I don't think I've had a real, full shower in almost a year, since I was home last. Then there was a big barbecue with a bunch of people there, many of whom we knew and we met more. A great time but the count down begins. Another full day with Bob and then it's the high skies for me for 2 weeks.

July 22, 2001

Hello from Trinidad!

I tried to get the captain to write a page titled, "What I did on my summer vacation" but he wouldn't do it. The reason I wanted him to write is because everyday I got an email from him telling me all of the things that had gone wrong on the boat that day and what he did to fix them. The main problem was that there are so many jellyfish in the water and some of them were getting into the thru-hulls and clogging up the intakes. At various times, the generator was overheating and had to be shut down, the engine stopped working, as did the refrigeration. Meanwhile, Bob was trying to get a new solenoid for the generator and there was a varnisher onboard working away. And, just to make life a trifle more difficult for Bob, at 3:00am one morning, the wind kicked up to 26k and he was worried about dragging with no engine to move the boat if that happened. And, an even funnier occurrence was he thought the boat was haunted. He warned me that there are huge crackling noises and I laughed at him until I heard them the first night. It sounds like the boat is splitting underneath and will fall apart any moment. The only cause of these noises that I can think of is that the jellyfish are blind at night and in a night's time, hundreds of them are bumping into the hull, bottom, rudder and prop.

My vacation in Toledo was filled with doctor appointments, catching up with friends and family and a night out with our old softball team. My mom really went all out, fixing me my favorite meals and desserts. I attended a picnic with my old real estate firm and got to see most of my former colleagues. It was a good time but everyday away from the boat left me a little bluer. I missed the water and Bob and wanted to get back. My return flight was delayed an hour and that made for a 6 hour layover in Miami and a 16 hour day. I was pooped. The prearranged taxi driver wasn't in the best of moods when I first arrived, either, with the delay but as the 45 minute trip back to the boat wore on, he loosened up. I lost all of my ability to understand the Trinidadian accent and couldn't understand most of what he was talking about but kept nodding my head and cracking a few jokes and all was OK. Also, his wife's name is Mona and that is probably the only reason he even stayed there and waited for me. I got back to the marina about 11:00pm, Bob brought me to the boat in the dinghy and when I stepped foot below, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The varnisher had been working everyday and you know what a mess all of that sanding makes and Bob had done a nice job of wiping and sweeping so I would feel at home. I unpacked all of the goodies and gave him his presents, took a much-needed shower and sacked out in my comfy bunk. The next day I walked around like a zombie, being so tired but last night I slept well, bumping jellyfish and all. Today we tried to wire the new cable for Sailmail with no success. We'll have to hire a radio guy. The engine is not working and the solenoid is ordered but not in. I had great thoughts of sailing to Tobago soon after my arrival but it's not to be. I don't care. I'm here with Bob and it's hot and it's Trinidad and it's darn good to be back home.

July 24, 2001

If this situation weren't happening to me, it would be truly funny. It WAS funny when Bob emailed me all about the problems but it seems a little less funny now that I am living it. The boat is in complete disarray. Since I've been home, we have had the varnisher, a radioman and an engine man traipsing in and out. There is dust and grease everywhere. The cushions and table have been torn apart on and off for the last 4 days. The jellyfish make it impossible to keep the systems running and therefor there are tools everywhere and a long wiry thing that Bob uses to push the jellyfish back out the thru-hulls. The varnisher and the radio man were here at the same time which worked out OK up to the point where the radio man was leaving and stuck his hand in the freshly varnished rail that I asked the varnisher to do over cause it had 3 fingerprints in it. It really wasn't that bad but then I stuck my whole hand in it. Meanwhile, it started raining and I had to put the cover over the butterfly hatch that he was varnishing and that blocked out all of his light so there are now drip marks. Well, the radio man fixed the cable to the Sailmail but for some reason Trinidad is known for lousy propagation (radio interference) so I still don't know if the darn thing works. So far, I haven't been able to send or receive anything. Today was a full day. I applied a second coat to some of the teak above deck but realized everything should really be sanded all of the way down; again. Well, what's wrong with a little yellow in the wood, anyhow? Bob waited for the engine mechanic for 4 hours while I got a buzz cut from Anya, last seen in St. Maartin. She went short this time! Then I came back and did a little more teak. I finally got a call on the radio to pick up Bob and Desi, the mechanic and brought them back. He did a bang-up job and the engine is purring as I write. We're not going anywhere, mind you, just using it to charge. And why, you ask? Well, that would be because the solenoid for the generator is still not here yet. The good news is, once we get that part, we're out of here. I figured out the whole Trinidad scam. See, the water is so dirty and jellyfish infested that all systems shut down and then they have the fix-it men just standing by, waiting for our call. After we had our much-needed evening showers, Bob was feeling all squeaky clean when I heard the refrigerator shut down. A quick trip up top showed no water pouring out so the fridge goes off, the jellyfish wire-thing comes out and Bob is on his belly shoving it back through the hole. I knew this wasn't going to be the best day ever when I was up top staining the big box on the bow that houses our propane bottles. I finished 3 sides and was just getting comfortable to start the front when I sat down on the hose and salt water went spraying all over my newly stained wood. It was actually pretty funny, as most of these hardships are but it won't be that funny tomorrow when I have to sand off that last coat. Well, to sum up the last 4 days since I've been back, "Welcome Home!"

July 26, 2001

Rain, rain go away. Come again some other day. On second thought, thank you rain, for saving me from doing more teak work. I think I'll go cuddle up to stuffed kitty and take a long nap.

July 29, 2001

Last night was the first bit of local color we've had here. Our evening started at 8:00pm, very late for us but I was armed with an afternoon nap. We took a tour bus, along with Anna Marie and her visiting sister, Carol and Leo on "Vitrain." As I have mentioned, Anna Marie is Trinidadian and both she and Carol pointed out different points of interest along the way. We had 2 other couples from the marina down the street in our taxi and at our table at the Normandie, a pretty fancy restaurant where we were entertained by a steel band. The band was very talented but they were much tamer than the steel band I so loved in Antigua. Their last 2 numbers were more upbeat and the band was drenched in sweat and we were rockin' and rollin'. Well, that wasn't really the local flavor I referred to. That was when we got back. Right across from our anchorage was a huge party with music playing so loud that you could feel the vibrations in the air from the bass. The girls weren't ready to call it an evening so the boys took one dinghy and left the other for us. Also with us was Maureen, a long-time friend of Anna Marie's. We walked along the street (well, I danced) and the people- watching was great. We met some other people that Maureen knew and parked ourselves there while we tried to figure out what to do. The tickets were $80TT ($12.80US) to get in and the girls weren't ready to fork it over. We had just spent money for the Normandie and cab ride so we just stood outside and danced and people watched. We heard there were 1,000 people inside and there were about the same number outside. As the night wore on, the tickets became more expensive as people got more desperate to get in. The three things I found most interesting were 1) the locals were all dressed up in shiny and slinky numbers, 2) the party was just getting started as we got there, about 12 midnight and carried on til 5:00am and 3) I was the only white person that I saw there. And, I really got the looks. Of course I fancied I was getting looked at because I'm so pretty (it's easy to trick the ego when at middle age) but in fact, they must have thought it an interesting sight to see a white girl dancing in the streets with 3 dark skinned girls. Since we didn't want to pay to get in, we retired at about 1:00am, dinghied back to the boats and I tuned out the incredibly loud music by closing my hatch and turning on the fan, read for an hour and was asleep by 2:00am. Today is Sunday. Anna Marie's sister's two-week vacation aboard "Vitrain" has ended and she goes back to work on Monday. It is one of those pressingly hot days and we might meander over to Crew's Inn and sneak in the pool (again.) "Windshepherd" has done an overnighter and they are 5 miles out of Trinidad and will be here in a couple of hours. As soon as they get anchored we will go over and pet their kitty, Slater. And see them, of course.

July 30, 2001

I spent all of yesterday sneezing and dripping from a nasty headcold until I took a Drixoryl. I took another last night and didn't sleep too well but awoke this morning drip-free. I'm still a bit washed out from the medication but we went into the main town, Port of Spain today with Anna Marie and Ginny (Windshepherd.) We just wandered around and then had lunch at a food court in a mall. I had 3 pieces of chicken, fried rice and salad for $13TT, about $2.10. It was pretty good, too.
Since I'm losing my tan, I decided upon our return to lie in the sun up on deck. That lasted about 15 minutes. I was immediately soaked in sweat. I just read the thermostat and it's 102.4 in the shade. Since the water isn't fit for swimming, I came right back down below where I'm sitting with the fan blowing on me. Meanwhile, Captain Bob has made the drastic decision to cut his hair all off, after 1 � years of growing it. He's ashore right now with Anya, who cut my hair last week. He said he's going real short so we'll see. I'll have before and after shots to post.

We have worked our way trough many different ways to communicate by email, aboard and now have installed a new cable for our Sailmail. Please feel free to write but please remember, no pictures, jokes, chain letters or attachments. This is for text only. The address again is kus94859@sailmail.com.

- MORE TO FOLLOW -