October 5th, 2002
Trinidad. The Other Hotel California.

You know how it goes, "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."

Everyone said not to come to Trinidad unless you need to get boat work done. There's nothing redeeming about it, and you'll just get sucked in. But nonetheless, we here from Cary's visit, and it's on our way to Venezuela, and after that whole dragging thing, we'd been toying with the idea of a bigger anchor, and, and, and… so- of course we came to Trinidad. And besides, isn't there always some sort of boat work to be done? So here we found ourselves, in a marina, with some vague ideas of work we could do. You see, the other thing we had heard is that we should do the work in Trinidad because it's so cheap "you can't afford not to do it." If it sounds like some kind of set up, it sure felt like it too?

Our list started small. We were smug when we said we didn't have anything we HAD to do, but rather there were a few things we COULD do. Service the engine, have a new sail cover made, look for an anchor, perhaps look at satellite phones, I wanted to re-do the counter in our galley. But we tried to temper it and not go crazy. After all, we were trying to look at it as a bit of a vacation from cruising. So we agreed we would work in the day, and call it quits by about 4:00- heading for the pool to cool down. Well, we ended up getting stuck in Chaguaramas as if we had oil stuck to our prop.

Here's how we spent our month: polishing stainless, getting a new windlass, a new anchor, waxing the boat, putting in a new kitchen counter, fixing the radar that never before worked, painting the outside "rub" rail, working on the engine and repairing the diesel leak, getting a new mainsail cover and side panels made, sanding down the table, varnishing the stairs, and way too much else to remember.

(more entries)