Cups Gets Her Groove Back...And Her Name

For several months now, Nine of Cups has been nameless. David removed the carved mahogany nameboards from her bow before we left for the USA. When the paint job began, her name was removed from the stern and she was a boat without a name. When we gave anyone directions to our boat, we said she was located north of the office, on the left, between whatever boats were our neighbors at the time. Poor girl!

Once the varnishing was done, David attached the bow nameboards once again. All varnished and newly gilded and shiny. They looked brilliant and Cups looked indeed happier.

Cups hadn't had a new name decal since we christened her back in 2000. It was definitely overdue. We contracted with a local sign maker to make a new vinyl decal for her stern with her name and hailing port. We thought we might want to put her seahorse logo on it, too, but it ended up being too busy. Instead, we went with a formal font in the same dark navy blue as the sheer stripe accented in gold. We watched as the sign maker unrolled the decal and applied it to her stern, providing input like anxious parents as to location … a little up, no a little down, maybe to the right or more left. He was a patient guy.

Standing on a wobbly scaffold, he applied the navy letters first. When everything was just right and we gave him the thumbs up, he overlaid them with the gold accents. The finished result was stunning, befitting our beautiful girl. Nine of Cups has her name back. Now if we can just get the rest of our chores done, we'll get OUR groove back, too, and be back on the water.

A Failure to Communicate

Every once in awhile, we have one of those days. I had a hot, unproductive, frustrating one earlier in the week. With so many holidays lately, we've had a hard time setting up our local communications, i.e. getting our little unlocked Australian phone to work in Trinidad. When we were here in December, we bought a SIM card, but only used it for data/internet/Skype in the iPad for a couple of days and then we were gone. We didn't need a phone then. Now we do. We pretty much get a new SIM and/or dongle in every country (Remember our trials in Luderitz, Namibia?) for internet and phone use. We've got several jobs to be done on Nine of Cups here and getting in touch with tradesmen and suppliers is nearly impossible without a phone. Internet here at Power Boats, though not great, is free, so voice and text is all we need. We put December's SIM card into our phone and nada. We waited out the 4-day Easter holiday and I was determined that we'd get the phone sorted before the Shouter Baptist holiday. Everyone was slow to get back to work after the long weekend. David was waiting for a mechanic to show up (yet another story), so I walked over to Crew's Inn … about a mile or so away … to the BMobile shop to get a new SIM.

Western Main Road, on which Power Boat is situated, is two lanes … hot, dry and dusty … with little shade and a well-worn path along the side for pedestrians. Power Boats is situated on one side of Chaguaramas Bay and Crew's Inn, another marina where several shops are located, is situated on the other side. A good pitcher could throw a ball from one marina to the other. The mile-long hike requires walking to the end of bay on one side and coming around in a big U-turn to the other side. Unfortunately, there is no view of the water … only parched, dry grass and passing traffic. I plodded along past the street side of a couple more marinas … Coral Cove and Tropical … and finally entered the long entrance drive towards Crew's Inn, past Customs and Immigration and up the hill to the little shops at the Shipwright Building.

Actually, I had four goals on my mission list. The phone was #1 and I headed there first. Karla was helping several visiting crew at the time and I (impatiently) waited my turn. After some juggling of the SIM card between phones, she told me our SIM card had no credit, but was still active. Our little red antiquated Australian phone was the problem. We could either use the SIM card in the iPad again, or buy a new phone. Ugh! I decided to buy a phone. “May I have your passport, please?” Hmmm …. I brought my credit card and cash, but no passport. With much reassurance, cajoling and bullshitting, I managed to convince Karla that I'd e-mail my passport info to her ASAP, but I needed to buy the phone on this trip. “Please don't send me all the way back to the boat!” I pleaded. I convinced her and ended up with a Huawei Y3 smartphone for TT$200 (about US$33). Now, I needed to buy some voice/text credit. Karla apologized … she had no BMobile “top up” vouchers available in her BMobile shop. I needed to go elsewhere, maybe Massy's Supermarket, to buy some credit. I left with a new, but still unusable, phone.

The second goal on my list was to stop at the boat graphics shop and see about getting Nine of Cups' name back on the transom. Since we have had the topsides painted, we are a “no-name” boat. The shop door was locked and they were closed up tight with 9am showing as their reopening time. The next day was a holiday. Maybe we'd see them later in the week. Scratch #2 on the list.

Goal 3 was to stop in at Members Only, say hi to Jesse and Sharon Rose and try to arrange a couple of tours for Lin's visit. Members Only is the cruisers go-to resource for trips, tours, taxis and just about anything else. They were supposed to be in the office till Noon, but they'd already left and weren't returning. No one else could help. I hadn't topped up the phone yet, and didn't even know my new number, so I couldn't leave my contact info. I'd send an email. Scratch #3 on the list.

Over to Massy's Express market to buy a top up voucher as well as the ingredients for dinner. With the fridge out, we've been buying our victuals daily and Massy's has the best selection without heading into town on the bus. BLTs … one of David's favorites … was on the menu and I rounded up the turkey bacon, tomatoes and lettuce and a few other odds and ends. “Where's the bread?” I asked. “The truck hasn't come yet after the holidays. No bread. Maybe later.” I bought what I had along with a few incidentals and the top-up voucher, stuffed everything into my backpack and trudged back to the boat.

I was hot and sweaty when I slowly climbed the ladder. I descended into the cool of the boat and chugged a bottle of water. Having struck out on 2.5 of 4 goals for the trip, I quickly got the new phone out to add the credit I'd just bought. How? It wasn't intuitive. I got out the manual … it was in Spanish. My Spanish is pretty rusty. I left it for David to figure out and headed down to the Dockside Market for a loaf of bread. They were out. I climbed the ladder once again. David was grousing over the phone. We finally figured how to enter the credit, but kept getting an error message before it would accept the voucher. As promised, I emailed my passport info to Karla and asked if she could help with the problem.

In an hour or so, Karla responded to my e-mail. She would only be there till 3pm and then closed the next day for the holiday. I needed to return with the phone so she could help. Really? David's mechanic had shown up, but another fiberglass guy had not. He was coming “anytime now”. It was already after 2pm. I packed up and begrudgingly headed back to the BMobile shop, cursing and sweating all the way. Karla had no English instruction manuals and didn't think she could get one. (She suggested I should download what I needed from the internet … it was “greener”.) She fixed the problem with the phone, loaded the credit and gave me a mini-tutorial on using the phone which I immediately spaced out. We were good to go. I poked my head into Massy's again just to see if some bread might have arrived. Nope.

I stopped at a tiny off-the-road shop on the way back. The clerk was asleep … literally … with her head down on the counter. The shop shelves were nearly empty, but on the rack at the back of the store, I spied one loaf of plain old sliced white bread. I woke her up to pay for it.

The new phone works. David was able to make a call. It's nothing like the iPhone Lin gave to us, so we're learning to drive all over again. I'll try to download the Op Manual the next time we have a clear internet signal. I'm happy to say, we are no long incommunicado AND we have yet another phone to add to our burgeoning collection.

As as side note …

Before we left the States, we gave everyone our Trini cell phone number just in case of emergencies. In actuality, it appears we were giving them our Namibia phone number which was taped to the back of our old phone. Sorry folks! See what happens with a few months off the boat! Or was that an early April Fool's Day joke? Yeah...that's what it was.

For last year's April Fool's day joke, check this out.

Livin' the high life in Trinidad

Living 15' off the ground, up a wobbly ladder and out of the water is always a trying experience at best. This is certainly not the first time I've mentioned (complained about??) it. It's part of the cruising experience if you're out for more than a year or two. It's a necessary part of annual maintenance for us and this time we have some additional repairs/maintenance to tackle ... a new shaft seal, cutlass bearing and replacement of the engine through-hull. David will outline the repair/maintenance issues in an upcoming Blue Views. Me? I'm just here to whinge.

Probably the absolute worst thing for me when living on the hard is the pee bucket. We can't use the head at all, of course. During the day, it's a pain because every time you have to go it's a trip down the ladder, a walk to the toilet block and then back again. This takes careful planning and there's many a time that we cut conversation short with friends because nature is calling … and calling loudly. During the middle of the night, however, we resort to the bucket … easier for guys than girls, for sure and certainly much better than walking around the boatyard in the middle of the night. The first trip down the ladder in the morning includes the bucket which needs to be emptied and washed. You've been spared the pee bucket pics.

Then, of course, there's the gray water … water used for washing, dishes, etc. We've been trying to minimize cooking on the boat to minimize dishwashing and clean-up. Salads or one-pot recipes are the meals of choice whenever possible and though it's not very green, we've resorted to using paper plates. David inserted a hose in the galley sink thru-hull to catch the gray water. It many times has bits of food in it no matter how careful I am. Bits of food attracts bugs and Lord knows, we don't want critters aboard. We empty the gray water bucket frequently … away from the boat.

Speaking of bugs, there are many here, but so far (knock on wood), we've seen none aboard. We've been particularly careful at the internet building where we've seen lots of teeny, tiny sugar ants. They have a tendency to crawl on and into your laptop or your backpack or whatever you have with you and then you're stuck with them. They're hard to get rid of once they've taken up residence.

Being this high, we can feel the boat wobble a bit when the wind kicks up. Mostly the wind brings more dust and dirt. After the initial cockpit cleaning (which required a bulldozer), I find it necessary to wipe down the cockpit almost daily. In addition to the dirt, we seem to attract charcoal cinders from the local fires and bird droppings. It doesn't rain often, but when it does … mud pies on deck!

The boat is all closed up at the moment because of the A/C. There is a constant white noise that drowns out usual boatyard noises as well as morning birdsong. It's cool inside, but stuffy. Boat smells of diesel and a little mildew meld with errant bilge odors and cooking smells. You get used to it after a few minutes inside, but it's an affront to your nostrils when you first head down below. Wish I could post a “smell” link for you.

Usually when we plan to be on the hard for more than a week, we rent an apartment or at least a room. In Uruguay, we rented a casita for US$100/month which included bicycles in the deal. In Ecuador, it was a “suite” in an unfinished house close to the marina. There were feral ducks in the empty swimming pool and roosters in my kitchen … a tale unto itself for another time... but it worked out fine for us. This time, however, the cost of living off the boat is exorbitant and though we'll be here for over a month, there are no other reasonable options beyond living on the hard.

We're not alone. Misery loves company and we've got lots of company. The boatyard was full when we left. Now, since it's prime cruising season (before hurricane season starts) and since there have been increased costs in Trinidad, 12.5% VAT on all services plus more stringent import rules for parts and supplies, many boats have left. There are still lots of cruisers roaming around though, most working on their boats by day and, if they're not too tired, socializing a bit in the evening. One day blends into another. Weekends are nothing special. The goal is to complete our tasks and splash as soon as possible.

When we've had enough of boat work in the evenings, we head down to the wharf and look at the boats moored in the harbor, reminding us of why we're working so hard and what we're working towards. This, too, shall pass