Working on Island Time

The Urban Dictionary defines island time as “the time vacuum created by the ocean's presence. Similar to stoner's time, everything moves nice and slow. This carefree aura even has the ability to travel with islanders and can engulf you in their presence.” Perhaps it's being surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and seeing palm trees sway lazily in the breeze or perhaps it's the hot, humid, sultry weather that sucks the energy out of you that accounts for the laid-back attitude and slow way of life here. Things don't happen quickly in Trinidad. We're definitely working on island time here.

People never rush. When they walk, they saunter or amble. There's no swift pace involved … no running. Even the traffic moves slowly … many times at a crawl for no apparent reason … but you rarely see road rage or angry faces on the drivers. So what … traffic is moving slowly … oh, well … we'll get there eventually. The cause of the traffic jam could be a huge pothole in the road or a broken-down bus or just as likely two cars heading in opposite directions stopped on the two lane road for a quick chat. Schedules and appointments are more of a suggestion than they are an actual timetable to which folks adhere.

In a country that has 17 national holidays (that's more than three business weeks of holidays – and that's not counting Carnaval), it's easy to understand the slow pace and delays, but it's especially difficult to deal with if you're relying on people to get projects completed “on time”, because “on time” has little meaning here. Things get done when they get done.

For cruisers, this is a frustrating issue. There seems to be no urgency about anything and, of course, for us everything is urgent. We want to get done and get back in the water. Case in point is David has been waiting for tradesmen to show up for estimates and project work. “I'll be there in an hour or so”, they tell him. The critical words “or so” mean perhaps sometime in the future. It's kind of like “just now” in South Africa. When they haven't shown up after a couple of hours and David calls, they promise “anytime now” which means sometime later in the day. We haven't figured out the American English equivalent for “now” which actually means “NOW!” We're not sure that word exists.

As a result, it's impossible to schedule more than one task a day and sometimes even the one doesn't get accomplished. Work on Nine of Cups is progressing more slowly than we'd hoped. Several projects, like pulling the prop shaft and removing the old sea cock from the engine through-hull, require more specialized tools than we have aboard. (I have trouble imagining a tool that David does not have). Since one task or project relies on another to be finished before starting a new one, we find ourselves getting “behinder and behinder”. The calendar days are quickly being eaten up and May 1st, our anticipated departure day, will be here before we know it.

Perhaps it's time to consider putting Plan B down on paper?

Living on Island Time

Direction Island, Cocos Keeling Islands It's not hard to slip right into island life and live on island time for awhile. In fact, we have! Despite chores to be done and initially feeling stressed about getting things done and moving on quickly, we've taken to island time just fine.

We wake and rise early … with the sun … but the rest of the day seems unhurried. We get things done, it just seems to take longer than usual. A typical day for us at the moment? I'll share, but if you hold a 9-5 job or if you're a high energy sort of person, you might not get it.

Morning chores for me consist of laundry which has soaked overnight in a bucket, dishes from last night's dinner and writing for at least an hour or so. David usually downloads emails from SailMail and picks up the weather while I'm finishing up my chores, then we have a cuppa together in the cockpit. We enjoy the mornings … they're relaxed and quiet. No dinghies zipping around the anchorage; no VHF chatter. We sip a cup or sometimes two and chat and plan our day. This morning ritual can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on our plans for the day or if we're having a good conversation and time gets away from us. Actually, time seems less relevant here.

We've been planning an “excursion” every other day. One day to Home Island to explore; one day for working on the whisker pole; one day for snorkeling on the reef; one day to take down the jib and repair it and replace it with the yankee; one day to take the ferry to West Island; one day for cleaning the boat and getting her in shape for another long passage; one day for walking the Direction Island Heritage Trail. An excursion might last anywhere from a couple of hours to a whole day and we plan chores around this accordingly. On non-excursion days, we still dinghy into Direction Island to walk a bit and take a break from our projects. Sometimes we bring in our breakfast and insulated mugs with tea or coffee and just sit and enjoy the day from another vantage point or chat with fellow cruisers. Sometimes we just walk the beach. There are no rules.

Lunch is something light. If David's working on a project, he'll stop every once in a while for a cuppa and perhaps have a sandwich. We eat when we're hungry rather than a designated time. Sometimes dinner's at 9pm; other times it's at 4pm. We've been known to have just a big batch of popcorn for dinner.

We often take afternoon siestas, especially in the heat of the day when working on deck is just too hot and working below doesn't appeal either. These afternoon reprieves are guiltless and refreshing. Taking a cool dip in the lovely Cocos waters has been a wonderful late afternoon ritual that we look forward to. After we dry off, it's time for sundowners … one of David's homemade brews or a glass of wine. We like to watch the sunsets.

Evenings begin when the sun goes down. In the tropics, that's about 6:30pm. David checks e-mails and weather once again, while I make dinner. We take turns choosing a movie from our huge hard drive collection. Perhaps, we prefer to read some evenings or play a card game or do all of the above. Wind power here has been no issue, so we've been free to use our computers and watch movies and listen to music and run the watermaker to our heart's content.

Soon we'll be back on passage. Three hour watches … 24x7, conserving water and power. About 2,000 nm to Rodrigues Island where we can lapse into island time again for a brief time.