Workin’ in da Boat Yard Blues

S/V Aspen – September 1, 2009 – Log #15
Position: 10 degrees 41.0’ N 61 degrees 38.0’ W
(Chaguaramas, Trinidad)

It is hot hot hot AND humid in tropical Trinidad - so it must be hurricane season!

Aspen is out of the water and we are working on getting her bottom painted and fixing several other tings while we are in the boat yard.

The boat yard is a hot, dirty, smelly and generally a miserable place to be. We climb nearly two stories up a shaky ladder and enter inside Aspen where the temperature resembles a very very hot sauna. We work as fast as snails, it seems, and only last about 30 minutes before we race back down the ladder and into our air-conditioned room as we try to avoid heat stroke. We repeat this process as often as we can before the early evening darkness engulfs our tropical home. Arrrrrrrrrr…

We are scheduled to get Aspen back into the water on Wednesday so we are really looking forward to that! We just hope Aspen floats with all of the new equipment we purchased while we were back in Colorado. Thanks to all of the nice curb-side check-in people in both Denver and Miami, our 8 overweight bags flew free and actually arrived with us.

Besides keeping FedX and UPS busy when we were back home, we had a great time at the wedding of our son Zach to Heidi. We now have a new daughter-in-law and instant grandson. It is amazing how things change so quickly in life.

We are greatly outnumbered by British and Australian sailors here in Trinidad. Most are heading west, through the Panama Canal and into the South Pacific as soon as hurricane season allows them to leave. They have trouble understanding us (Americans) when we speak. The King’s (Queens?) English must not be the same as what we learned. There is a lot of nodding of heads with nothing being understood by anyone. Talking louder doesn’t seem to help either! Maria seems to be the only one that understands what is being said and helps us all out.

Come Wednesday, with a lot of hard work and luck, we will be back in the marina, floating, and where the WIFI works just a little bit better.

Sail on sail on Aspen…

Steve and Maria