Maria handing out treats to the ghosts and goblins on the dock in Trinidad.Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween Trinidad Style
Maria handing out treats to the ghosts and goblins on the dock in Trinidad.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Another HHH Run in Trinidad
The Hash House Harriers are known worldwide as a drinking club with a running problem. Steve likes the running problem part of the club! The runners, also known as hashers, meet every 2 weeks and run on trails throughout the countryside. The route is poorly marked prior to the start by the hares and it is a challenge to even find the start of the trail.
The jungle run on Saturday had about 150 people who took nearly 15 minutes of running to find the actual beginning of the route. Then things got much worse.
There was mud, rocks, trees with thorns that protruded half an inch that would impale many a stray hand, cliffs, bottomless holes in the trail and of course the ever present oppressive heat and humidity of Trinidad.
Wisely, Maria stayed at the start where the beer was.
Steve, unwisely, went running through the jungle with the harriers. Scrape, crawl, slip and slide through the jungle would be more accurate than constant running.
Here are some of Steve’s muddy thoughts about the run:
There was a local hand painted sign posted on one of the trails, “Beware, lots of snakes”. Steve saw the sign behind him after he had already come off this trail!
There was a cliff with a rope to hold on to as we plunged down into the depths of the jungle. The rope was 25 feet long and the cliff was 75 feet long – it was a long tumble and slide down from the short end of that rope.
At the end of the slip/slide down the cliff were huge trees to catch my wild fall. The screams ahead of me didn’t really warn me of the half-inch thorns that stuck out of the trees. At least the blood mixed well with the mud and sweat that soaked my body.
A well-placed log with several thin strips of nailed wood helped us cross a gorge where we could not see the bottom. The log creaked and bent but luckily did not break. The sticker bushes at the far end gave us a good handhold too.
All of this was within the first mile of the run!
After more than an hour, the runners struggled into the finish area looking for sustenance – beer of course! Well, there was also rum if you didn’t like beer. The fish stew didn’t really appeal to us so we didn’t eat any of that.
Afterwards, Steve and Maria talked with a virgin hasher about the run and he said, “Ah helped two of dem across de tree. We scatter in da mud, push through bush. Den we walk through some suspect mud. Da river water looked merky and dark stink. All dem hashers skipped, jumped and danced on da rocks to avoid de water. It looked like stuff flowing from pig pens. At one part, we see pork skin floating on da water.”
We think he was saying that the run was great fun!
Maria says she prefers the air-conditioned gym to a hash run.
ON ON!!!!!
The jungle run on Saturday had about 150 people who took nearly 15 minutes of running to find the actual beginning of the route. Then things got much worse.
There was mud, rocks, trees with thorns that protruded half an inch that would impale many a stray hand, cliffs, bottomless holes in the trail and of course the ever present oppressive heat and humidity of Trinidad.
Wisely, Maria stayed at the start where the beer was.
Steve, unwisely, went running through the jungle with the harriers. Scrape, crawl, slip and slide through the jungle would be more accurate than constant running.
Here are some of Steve’s muddy thoughts about the run:
There was a local hand painted sign posted on one of the trails, “Beware, lots of snakes”. Steve saw the sign behind him after he had already come off this trail!
There was a cliff with a rope to hold on to as we plunged down into the depths of the jungle. The rope was 25 feet long and the cliff was 75 feet long – it was a long tumble and slide down from the short end of that rope.
At the end of the slip/slide down the cliff were huge trees to catch my wild fall. The screams ahead of me didn’t really warn me of the half-inch thorns that stuck out of the trees. At least the blood mixed well with the mud and sweat that soaked my body.
A well-placed log with several thin strips of nailed wood helped us cross a gorge where we could not see the bottom. The log creaked and bent but luckily did not break. The sticker bushes at the far end gave us a good handhold too.
All of this was within the first mile of the run!
After more than an hour, the runners struggled into the finish area looking for sustenance – beer of course! Well, there was also rum if you didn’t like beer. The fish stew didn’t really appeal to us so we didn’t eat any of that.
Afterwards, Steve and Maria talked with a virgin hasher about the run and he said, “Ah helped two of dem across de tree. We scatter in da mud, push through bush. Den we walk through some suspect mud. Da river water looked merky and dark stink. All dem hashers skipped, jumped and danced on da rocks to avoid de water. It looked like stuff flowing from pig pens. At one part, we see pork skin floating on da water.”
We think he was saying that the run was great fun!
Maria says she prefers the air-conditioned gym to a hash run.
ON ON!!!!!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Where is the Mailman?
Or better yet, where is our mail?
Steve needed a software update for his geophysical work. Aspen needed a cable that is not available in Trinidad for her navigation hardware.
Let’s use the computer, go online and arrange to have these things sent to Trinidad! No problem mon. Steve has his software sent from Houston and the hardware cable is sent from Connecticut. Then we receive the bad news…
The items have been shipped via USPS, 5-day delivery. What?!??? But they were supposed to be sent FedX! Emails sent to the companies verified that they shipped them the cheapest way to Trinidad. Calmly, Steve explains that there are no post offices in Trinidad. Well, at least none that really function.
Hmmmm, both companies say, but the USPS says there are post offices in Trinidad. Steve replies, yes there are post offices but they do not actually work. The USPS says they send packages all over the world but cannot actually track the packages once they leave US soil. Oh boy.
10 days later we are still wondering were our packages might be! We will keep you updated on our USPS mail saga!
Sail on sail on Aspen…
Steve and Maria
Steve needed a software update for his geophysical work. Aspen needed a cable that is not available in Trinidad for her navigation hardware.
Let’s use the computer, go online and arrange to have these things sent to Trinidad! No problem mon. Steve has his software sent from Houston and the hardware cable is sent from Connecticut. Then we receive the bad news…
The items have been shipped via USPS, 5-day delivery. What?!??? But they were supposed to be sent FedX! Emails sent to the companies verified that they shipped them the cheapest way to Trinidad. Calmly, Steve explains that there are no post offices in Trinidad. Well, at least none that really function.
Hmmmm, both companies say, but the USPS says there are post offices in Trinidad. Steve replies, yes there are post offices but they do not actually work. The USPS says they send packages all over the world but cannot actually track the packages once they leave US soil. Oh boy.
10 days later we are still wondering were our packages might be! We will keep you updated on our USPS mail saga!
Sail on sail on Aspen…
Steve and Maria
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season
S/V Aspen Log #17
Position: 10 degrees 41.0N 61 degrees 38.0W
(Chaguaramas, Trinidad)
We are safely sitting below the normal hurricane area in the Caribbean. Most insurance companies require sailboats to be out of the hurricane area between June and November. So we sit way down here in Trinidad, watching the tropics on the satellites. So this year guess what? There is hardly a ripple on the ocean out there! We love climate change!
We still have our daily tropical deluges here on the boat. By noon you had better be where you want to be for the next couple of hours or be prepared to swim back to the boat! No one even notices when we get 7 or 8 inches of rain in a day here. The locals still go about their work as usual. No problem mon…
As long as the power stays on we are nice and comfortable on Aspen. But the power does go off, quite often. Then it is time to start the generator so Steve can continue to work and, most importantly for Maria, she can have her AC and TV! We both need the AC because without it we would surely die!
When Steve gives the weather forecast in the mornings the maximum temperature rarely varies. It will be 96 degrees with 90% humidity every day. Sweltering is a good word for this! This isn’t our typical dry heat of Colorado weather that’s for certain.
This past week the government decided that since the island revenues were down due to the global recession (natural gas exports are down) they needed 2 new holidays, both of them last week; one on Monday and the other on Thursday. So that pretty much shut the island down for 9 days. Then if you add the day before and the day after, it was a 11-day holiday week! You gotta love this attitude!?!
The sailors are starting to return to Trinidad after spending the summer back home. We are seeing more and more new faces every day and the boat yards are hoping additional boat work comes along with the new people.
We have to warn everyone about something. Steve is getting another haircut. He promises not to post any pictures this time.
Sail on sail on Aspen…
Steve and Maria
Position: 10 degrees 41.0N 61 degrees 38.0W
(Chaguaramas, Trinidad)
We are safely sitting below the normal hurricane area in the Caribbean. Most insurance companies require sailboats to be out of the hurricane area between June and November. So we sit way down here in Trinidad, watching the tropics on the satellites. So this year guess what? There is hardly a ripple on the ocean out there! We love climate change!
We still have our daily tropical deluges here on the boat. By noon you had better be where you want to be for the next couple of hours or be prepared to swim back to the boat! No one even notices when we get 7 or 8 inches of rain in a day here. The locals still go about their work as usual. No problem mon…
As long as the power stays on we are nice and comfortable on Aspen. But the power does go off, quite often. Then it is time to start the generator so Steve can continue to work and, most importantly for Maria, she can have her AC and TV! We both need the AC because without it we would surely die!
When Steve gives the weather forecast in the mornings the maximum temperature rarely varies. It will be 96 degrees with 90% humidity every day. Sweltering is a good word for this! This isn’t our typical dry heat of Colorado weather that’s for certain.
This past week the government decided that since the island revenues were down due to the global recession (natural gas exports are down) they needed 2 new holidays, both of them last week; one on Monday and the other on Thursday. So that pretty much shut the island down for 9 days. Then if you add the day before and the day after, it was a 11-day holiday week! You gotta love this attitude!?!
The sailors are starting to return to Trinidad after spending the summer back home. We are seeing more and more new faces every day and the boat yards are hoping additional boat work comes along with the new people.
We have to warn everyone about something. Steve is getting another haircut. He promises not to post any pictures this time.
Sail on sail on Aspen…
Steve and Maria
Monday, September 14, 2009
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