Fw: working and waiting
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Mon 23 Jun 2008 21:16
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----- Original Message -----
From: philandnon
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 5:36 PM
Subject: working and waiting Yvonne flew back to Spain for a month to see Rob
and Berny, take part in the Spanish fiestas, then into the UK to see her Dad and
Susie and Billy. She has been gone 3 weeks now, meanwhile life aboard Chaser
carries on. Being in a marina for a while makes the routine maintainance that
much easier, plus we have air conditioning when doing all the inside jobs.
I'm normally an early riser, normally about
0600hrs, the days starts of course with a cuppa or two, then check the internet
for mail and make any European phone calls, UK is 5.5 hrs ahead and Spain
6.5hrs, so its already gone midday when I get up! Life in marinas or popular
cruiser hangout type anchorages will have a VHF radio 'net' and here
in Puerto De La Cruz (PLC) is no exception. That lasts for about 15
minutes Monday to Saturday starting at 0745hrs on channel 72 here. It
asks if anyone has any security health problems to report, then asks if anyone
wants any help locating parts or spares, a weather report is given for the
offshore and local sea conditions, then whats called treasures of the bilge,
thats any items one wants to sell trade or give away, at the end any businesses
or social events that are available. It's all run generally speaking by cruisers
and its all voluntary, though many seem to have given up the cruising and live
here all year round on their boats.
My day during these past weeks after the net is to
carry our some of the jobs outlined on my previously prepared list. This time
its been a full service on our main engine, our generator, and our plumbing
system. There have been a few electric rewires inside and some modifications of
various bits and pieces. Outside, its been necessary to clean and scrub
everything to get the dirt and salt off after our 3500 mile trip this year,
Yvonne helped with much of that before she left, but now its been my turn to do
the stainless steel, ie. getting the rust off, that shouldn't really be there
because its stainless. The hull and deck needs polishing and when Yvonne
returns, she'll bring more parts that need to be fitted to our sails etc
etc. Much of the maintainance has been down now, though there is still a lot to
do. The next major task will be varnishing the interior. The salt air takes its
toll even inside after 4 years so its time for a revamp. Its dusty and a lot of
work but will do most of that when Yvonne returns.
Saying all that when she does return it'll be good
to get away from here for a while, its getting a little claustrophobic, so a
week or two away in some blue water would be good, before returning for a while
to continue working. Its a hard life!
Its summer here, which means that its the rainy
season. Not that it rains too much along the coast of Venezuela, but if I have
an outside job planned or need to go shopping it has kinda rained on me each
time. Fortunately if an inside job is not on the cards I can turn to the
internet for entertainment, which is why I'm writing this now. So, I've included
some of my favourite photos on this blog, places we've been during the year.
I've also uploaded a couple of video clips, and I'm sure there will be more to
come, not that I'm a fan of clips, I prefer a still shot or a full movie.
I have made a couple of short movies but at the moment its not possible for me
to upload that kinda size. But if you want to see these 3 clips I put on today,
go to Google home page, on the top is the word 'more' click on this and
choose 'video' from the menu. Then under search put in, chaser2 and you'll see a
few images to click on, click on this link http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=chaser2&hl=en&sitesearch=# The
one in Trinidad was last year when we were caught in a marina berth by a wind
reversal causing the area to be very 'dodgy'. Does one throw off the lines and
go out to anchor or stay put. We decided to stay put with the engine going ahead
helping us stay off the dock and we put out extra lines, not that that helps if
another boat breaks free, which happened but we managed to secure it. The two
lobster clips were taken by Tony, movie photography doesn't seem to be one of
his strong points but take a look, the first is with Chris holding the biggie,
and the second clip shows Yvonne mercilessly toppin a lobster. It looks cruel,
but they have to be dead to eat them, the 'How to Murder Your Lobster' book says
to either drop them alive into a pot of boiling water or alternatively break off
one of their very sharp spiky antennas, shove it up their arse, wiggle and pull
it out, it should do the trick, call us old softies but we prefered the
fishermans method of twisting its head off. Totally painless of course! so the
books tell us.
The daylight is coming to an end shortly, so I'll
get round to cooking myself dinner. Its not quite the same alone of course and
it'll be nice when Yvonne is back and we can have a meal and share a bottle of
wine in the cockpit. I tend to eat down below in the saloon, the first time
since Yvonne went back last time. I believe only once has the weather been too
bad that Yvonne has eaten down below. Normally we're in the cockpit with Al
Fresco!
During the next few days I'll take a few photos of
the surrounding area, downtown PLC and the shopping malls on the waterfront. The
malls are most convenient though the shops apart from the supermarket are
more convenient. Its about 10 to 15 minute dinghy ride, maybe 4
miles away but its great, no traffic, just blast down the waterways and tie the
dinghy up at the mall. Downtown PLC involves a taxi ride, we could go by
dinghy and pull it up the beach in town, but the dinghy probably would be there
when we got back, plus the ride is in the open sea can be a bit wet. A cabs only
3 or 4 US$ so not too bad.Here in the marina there are some good taxi drivers
too that make their living by attending to us Cruisers, they're reliable, honest
and know where to go to get things boaty.
A nice picture of Yvonnes brother Jon and his wife
Kate, one of the last times we were together, they are currently 5 days out
from Antigua heading for the Azores in there 34ft sailboat Aries. The weather
has been good so far and looks good for the next 7 days, fair winds to them, the
crossing should take them maybe 3 or 4 weeks, they have on board their 15 year
daughter Sophie too.
Well all for now, Tony aboard Waylander should be
back tomorrow or Wednesday I think, there's a couple of shops I want to checkout
with him.
collage1.jpg picasabackground.jpg IMGP3275.jpg IMGP4617.jpg IMGP4377.jpg P4250153.jpg IMGP0588.jpg These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
