former coverage.<\/a><\/p>\nBut I have gotten ahead of myself.<\/p>\n
We returned to Trinidad on October 29, having taken a direct flight out of Miami, burdened with one more bag than when we left, having purchased a new portable drill, a new 12-volt battery charger, a bunch of zincs for the stabilizer hydraulic oil cooler, a thick book entitled \u201cWordpress for Dummies\u201d (have you noticed our blog\u2019s new look?), and lots of little things for the boat.\u00a0 Yachties returning to their boat must go through customs and immigration twice:\u00a0 once in the airport and once at the offices in Chaguarmas.\u00a0 At the airport immigration we show the papers that were provided by the marina on our earlier departure from Trinidad; which papers document that we are returning to our vessel (and hence have no return ticket back out of Trinidad).\u00a0 At the customs stands there are multiple booths such as are found in other countries:\u00a0 some for locals and some for visitors; some labeled \u201cnothing to declare\u201d and some \u201csomething to declare\u201d.\u00a0 We knew from prior experience that as returning yachties we were to ignore all of those lines, and instead enter the office to the right of the \u201cregular\u201d customs stands.\u00a0 As has always been the case, there is no sign indicating such; one just has to learn it the hard way.\u00a0 Although Trinidad is a major destination for yachties wishing to leave their boat in a location sufficiently far south to be below the hurricane zone, we must constitute just a small fraction of the visitors arriving in Trinidad by air, since the official in the office always has trouble knowing how to complete the paperwork, as is made evident by his frequent peeks at the carbon copies of former entries.\u00a0\u00a0 Our delay was especially long this time, since the official could not find the appropriate book for making the entry and consequently had to step out of the office for several extended intervals.\u00a0 When at last we had the appropriate copy of his entry, we could depart the airport and meet our driver from Jesse James\u2019 \u201cMembers Only\u201d taxi service.\u00a0 When we reached Chaguaramas we then had to stop at port customs and show our airport customs paperwork and the items we were importing.\u00a0 There was no charge for such an importation, since we were bringing in the goods as a \u201cVessel In Transit\u201d.\u00a0 Then, a quick visit to the Immigration office, where it was confirmed that our passports had been stamped at the airport, and we were free to return to our boat, which had earlier in the day been removed from Peake\u2019s secure yard to the working yard.<\/p>\n
When we entered our boat our first activity was to look at the check sheet we had left on a counter.\u00a0\u00a0 The person who was to enter the boat at least every one or two weeks was to have made entries with dates and items checked.\u00a0 We were gone from September 11 until October 29, but there were only three entries, with a gap of 38 days between the last two entries! \u00a0In fact, the last entry was the day after we called to notify him that we were returning on the 29th. \u00a0We will not use that individual again. \u00a0Yachties might be interested to know that he is Anthony (Tony) Joseph, and his business is called \u201cDe Price is Right\u201d. \u00a0 He was not even apologetic about his failure to perform. \u00a0Very disappointing especially since he had been recommended to us. \u00a0The main reason we had him watching the boat was to insure that our watermaker did a fresh water flush every week. \u00a0It occasionally has to be reset. \u00a0If it failed to flush for a number of weeks, we would be faced with possibly replacing its expensive membrane.<\/p>\n
There were a number of maintenance items to be completed before we could splash:\u00a0 we had the boat compounded and then waxed, we had the bottom washed and sanded and then painted with SeaHawk 77, and we had the rudder, prop and skeg cleaned down to bare metal.\u00a0 The skeg was then prepped with a special primer, followed by an epoxy primer, and then painted with the bottom paint.\u00a0\u00a0 On the rudder and prop Barb and I applied PropSpeed.\u00a0\u00a0 Also, before we left Trinidad to return to the States, we had the anchors hot galvanized and we reversed the anchor chain.<\/p>\n
So our time on the hard was busy, but we also found time to get about a bit.\u00a0\u00a0 Barb went on several shopping expeditions, including a trip to the downtown market where she took some pictures.\u00a0\u00a0 We especially enjoyed being reunited with cruising friends Ann and Steve (Receta<\/em>), Devi and Hunter (Arctic Tern<\/em>) and Janie and Paul (Shian<\/em>). \u00a0 Once again we enjoyed eating rotis and bus-up-shuts at Grace’s at Power Boats and bake-n-shark at the Wheelhouse Pub. \u00a0We went to several movies, including an evening out at the new Imax theatre to see the latest James Bond movie \u201cSkyfall\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Regular screens are going to seem rather hum-drum after watching an Imax showing.<\/p>\n\n\t\t