The joy of owning a boat

We have been back in Trinidad and stayed at the motel for the first two nights then moved onto Kilkea II. We have been working ever since, mind you five hours a day is more than enough with the heat. Our life is living about ten feet above the ground in a dusty boatyard, having to climb up an extension ladder to get onboard. Lot of exercise every time you need to use the toilet or have a shower. At least the facilities are good here at Peake's so no complaints. This is the price you have to pay to have those idyllic days at anchor watching a beautiful sunset. Soon we hope to be able to do just that. 

We have been back here for twelve days and tomorrow (Monday) we will be back in the water.. We will go to Cruise Inn and spend some time putting up sails and making sure all the other systems on Kilkea II are in working order. It will be a busy few days. In Trinidad it is Caravel and most businesses are running at half speed. There are lots of parties every night from steel bands to contests to decide who can make to most elaborate costume. We went, with some other cruisers, to the king and queen competition. The outfits were amazing with some being thirty feet tall and the same wide! Very colourful and all being judged by a group of maybe twenty or so judges. We arrived at the stadium, which is built just for this, at seven and left a midnight and they were still more competitors left but we had had enough fun for a night.

We have had some very good new in the last couple of days with our good friend in Gig Harbour, EG who had a heart attack in December along with a cracked skull, which he suffered at the time, has had bypass surgery and has just arrived back at home. The other good news was from Doug who has received a clean bill of health. I think we are all getting a little bit older??

Well we are excited about getting back in the water and the boat is nice and shiny and looks good. We still have no idea on our future plans but will share them with you as soon as we know ourselves. Sailing to Europe/south pacific, just staying in the Caribbean, selling?

Back on Kilkea II

We arrived in Trinidad on Wednesday late afternoon. Rather than try to go onboard Kilkea we booked into the marina motel which is very basic but after ten hours and a all night flight it was the best idea. We did not even go onboard but did do a walk around and rather that being rather dirty she seemed to be just as we left her eight and a half months ago. Wow that is the longest we have been separated for the last ten years.
After a quick dinner and a good sleep we got a ladder put up to the stern and climbed up. The decks were dirty but the interior was in perfect shape and the air conditioner was still purring away so nice and cool inside. We spent the rest of the day washing the decks and now have a sort of clean boat. We have run into friends already who have their yachts in Trinidad and are getting them ready to go sailing. We will do some waxing and have the bottom painted next week and hope to be in the water by the end of the week. This is the not so fun part of owning a boat but we will have some warm water and white beaches to look forward to in the next few months.