The little things…

..that can make all the difference, to make up for a good day.   Like the welder from the boatyard giving us fresh spinach from his garden (pictured below), giving us many nights’ meals.
 
The workers took some time out to get some coconuts down for us.  
 
The un-invited, yet not un-welcome bedroom guest..

We discovered this little critter on our ceiling and he seemed to like the camera attention!



This gaping (insulated) hole was intended for a fridge, it currently houses a chilly bin, containers and some produce (nothing lasts much longer than a day or two, if that).

Dave decided I needed another bench, I didn’t think it was high on the priority list but am now incredibly grateful, what a huge difference it makes.  All the wood comes from the one sheet he bought to make the other galley bench and berth.  But wait, there’s more…

You can lift it up not once…

…but twice! Rather ingenious, if I don’t say so myself.  So now it stores more on top, I have a place to dish up meals and hides the shambles!

Had the opportunity to go to a bulk-buying supermarket with some other cruisers, so I could do a practise run on provisioning for a long passage and how to stow it all away..it all fitted nicely, too, whew!

Went on a bit of a hike with some other cruisers in the middle of a thunder storm, was nice to get out.  The mozzies thought so too, they were huge, slow and very hungry.  No amount of repellent was repelling and there was often half a dozen on me!

View from the top looking over Macqeripe Bay. 

Turkey buzzard also enjoying the view.

Walking through the bamboo cathedral.



Huge termite homes (ball shaped object) holding on tight to the bamboo in all directions.

Local golf course club rooms.



Dave ever hopeful of some gold prospects!

Little house in the Macqueripe area.

Got to have a practice run on getting gear stowed away firmly for travel lift to move us, other wise we would have been stuck down the back for three months.

So instead of going to sea, we were plonked a few hours in the chemical processing area amongst a sea of liquid nitrogen containers! No cooking allowed.
   View from our porthole.

The boys discovered an awesome game of "amazing mazes", the second time we were shifted here for a two night sleep-over!

Eli drew these pictures on the backs, sewed around them then put on a puppet show.

Salem and Eli experiment making a lunch-time treat: failed egg-less pancakes turn out to be…cinnamon balls with sugar and lime.

A carrot worth measuring.
The little things that remind me I’m in the Caribbean and make me chuckle…
   
Peanuts.. in a jar… “flavour d’ pot” sounds so much more interesting… and my all-time favourite.. “ Mudda ‘n’ Law” chunky pepper sauce!

Unfortunately the maxi taxi took started driving as I took this photo of the stall that actually says: “Buss up shut Roti” which is a local dish.

Farewell to Eric and Cathy was a little sad, what they did for us was by no means little in making our transition all the more smooth and so much easier, not to mention great company (including crazy stories for the boys!)  We look forward to cruising with them, sometime, somewhere.

But in the mean time we have had the privilege of meeting other people who’s company we have enjoyed and have been  very helpful.

New-found kiwi friend nourishing bubs with the good stuff at local Trini market.

Dave is taking quite a liking to the workers and others in the yard referring to him as Captain!

Yay, finally got to do some work on the boat-removing black antifoul (turns out it’s almost as hard to wash off).  Photo doesn’t quite show how black I was but boys looked quite shocked when they saw me and asked if I’d been in a fire!  Was a bit more responsible for sanding the starboard side, used a full paper suit along with the goggles and respirator (which I had also used first time).  Was nice to have some sore muscles too.

Boys getting some bamboo to make kites.

Dave removing diesel bug-lovely smelly stuff.

Cleaning all parts of the dismantled toilet-thankfully just calcified and comes off with vinegar.. the other composting toilet we are not so lucky, Dave informs me it still has some treasures from the last owner.. which I have been avoiding like the plague! At least it doesn’t smell being over six years old and being an open en-suite to our bedroom!

Our decks get a bit of a spruce-up.

Eli and Salem have sewn up their own canvas hanging storage and drilled them into the wall (much to Dave’s delight!)

This wasp-thing has been busy building it’s nest outside Eli’s porthole.  The boys will often go “watch nature t.v”.  Eli even got to watch new ones come along. 

A poker set was left on board so while I was out one day, I returned home to find the boys playing each other rounds of poker.  Dave taught them the rules, he figures it’s good for them to learn not to get emotionally involved and how to read people’s faces.  While I can agree those are good things to learn, I’m still not sure how I feel about it.. if they turn out to be gambling addicts, Dave will be in the firing line!

Eden showing off the plastic bottle glasses Eli made for him.

Eden lost his first tooth!  He sang about it being a wiggly tooth for over 24 hours, fairly regularly.
I must admit, the tooth fairy is a bit slow in coming to our places of residence.  In the past the older boys have been known to have to wait two or three days, so there should’ve been no surprise that there was some confusion for Eden about the role of the tooth fairy..He asked Eli to make him a sign saying, “ come here tooth fairy” which he was going to hold outside the boat for the workers and other boat owners to read and then give him money (‘cos he thought he was the tooth fairy!)
Once that was all cleared up and the tooth fairy did actually manage to make it on the same night, we then had to quietly remind the older boys how the exchange rate works!

Wrote up list of necessary jobs to get boat water tight and operational with proposed and ever hopeful launch date.  But those “little things” saw us past our due date very quickly, for example:

• pumped diesel tank 1 into tank 2, cleaned tank 1, configured fuel lines to filter, pumped tank 2 back to tank 1, (taking hours), pump stopped.  Gauge read empty, thought we were at the end of the tank, lifted plate to clean, only to find 1/4 of a tank of fuel.  Reconfigured pump, thought pump line was blocked, started pumping but would not draw fuel, mucked around with the filter, fuel lines, and pump making sure nothing was blocked.  Still not pumping.  Bought new pump, still not working.  As it turns out, too much distance between the bottom of the fuel tank and the pump makes the pump ineffective… took 3 days to sort.
• overfilled diesel tank during the process which spilled through to bilges under engine so we now have a very clean bilge under the engine.
• pre-ordered prop-shaft seal 3 weeks ago, was put on back order and arrived at end of proposed launch week, only to find one part in the box is 1 1/4 instead of 1 3/8, will need another part sent from the States.
• installing the electrical relay took alot to get our heads around, dealing with the myriad of different sized wires between the batteries and engine room, taking a day and a half and still not sorted and working out what the previous owner had done.

So we have 3 weeks left on our cruisers’ visa in T&T, lots of jobs still incomplete and decisions to make…until next time.