Back in the water at last, Trididad.
Karinya
Tim And Vicki Schofield, Captain Cal 7 and Jess 4
Sun 6 Mar 2011 14:54
Where does the time go? We were on the hard
for 7 days, and we endured it! We did rent an aircon system to assist with
the heat and to keep the children more happy while they were inside in the
day. It made a huge difference. So we got the bottom nicely painted,
scraped down the props, filled in some fiberglass chips and
polished.
We also replaced the boot stripe. In my
haste and with little experience on boat upkeep, I thought a light sand with 80
grit paper would do. The stripe had many chips in so needed
repainting. Then I slapped on some paint because it was so hot.
Infact, the paint was drying faster than I could put it on, and so looked
dreadful afterwards, with loads of brush strokes and dribbles. SO, I
decided to get a quote to have someone sand it all and spray paint
it....£500! No I shall do it myself, I say. After much advice on
painting and sanding, I was armed with 220 and 300 grit (much finer). So I
used our old orbital sander and I sanded the stripes down to the feel of the
hull. It was a long job, but was almost perfectly smooth to paint.
Was just about to paint when someone said to me 'I have watched you working
so hard, have you ever considered using vinyl?' this is like a long
sticker. It was only £140 so I though it was SO worthwhile. Only I
wish he had said that 2 days previously!!!!! Now we have a navy stripe and
looking perfect. The paint we had was not quite navy and didnt have much
left and couldn't find any navy paint - double bonus for me.
The launch back into the water was good without
hiccup and now we are in the marina but feeling cooler and happier on the
water.
The main carnival is Monday and Tuesday and we are
spending the day there on Tuesday so will write another blog afterwards.
We have though been to a day of the Kiddie Carnival. This was a parade
with all the nurseries and junior schools dressing up with some amazing
costumes, I have no idea how these kids carry the costumes, some looked
incredibly heavy. The main feature of the carnival is music of
course. Imagine 12 huge speakers together in a block, playing music at
full blast, then about 200 yds up the street, another 12 huge speakers playing
different music, this continues for about 2 miles - result - very
loud!!!!! We have since bought earplugs for the children. Then a
lorry loaded with speakers and DJ drives through the whole parade playing even
louder music!!!! Dad, you would hate it, but sorry, no way of asking them
to turn them down!!!! Apparently the adult days are so much louder.
There are all night parties in the street not far from here. Starting at
12 midnight and finishing at 12 midday, we wont be going to those though.
It is all very colorful and great fun. As this is the second biggest
carnival in the world, the whole of Trinidad closes down for those 2 days with
some places not opening for 2 weeks afterwards as they need a
rest!!
Callum has his birthday on the 3rd, and he had a
great day. We had been searching for an optimist (small dingy) for him for
weeks and finally we struck gold. A good condition boat with racing sails,
that he can sail until he is 15 (lets hope). He absolutely loves it, but
is a little nervous at the moment. he has been out in it a few times
around the anchorage with us following in our dingy. It needed some
touching up, so Tim and I have painted and sanded, touched it up with gel coat
and cleaned it. We actually gave it to him a few days before as we
couldn't hide it, but he wasn't able to sail it till his birthday, it worked
well. He did have a few other things to open and lots of messages and
Skype calls, thank you all for those. As luck would have it, some other
cruisers pulled into here the day before his birthday so were able to spend
the day with us. They have a 9 year old (Karl) and a 12 year old (Hugo)
from Sweden. They came to the cinema with us to see Yogi Bear and then it
was pizza afterwards. He had a lovely day.
We are spending some time with our Swedish friends
and the kids enjoy each others company. Going to see the Kings and Queens
parade today, which is meant to be spectacular.
We are all well, and now planning our onward trip
probably on Saturday or Sunday to Bonaire.
Enjoy the photos and will write again after the
main festival.
Callum's new optimist
The day of his birthday - the day to
sail.
All smiles
Very little wind, but on his own
Off he goes
8 years old - can you believe it?
Birthday night out with his Swedish
friends