Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Chaguaramas, Trinidad -- Tue., 5/9/06

Yesterday I tried to reawaken Skymate to new life, but I wasn't very successful.  I think it has overheated and died on day #2.
 
This morning we went to TTSA (Yachtclub), to pick up a couple of bicycles which Karl & Libu - old circumnavigator-friends I met in Kourou in 1989 - had left for us.  Jörn (old friend of the Stahlratte & enthusiastic SEEEDS Dancehall-Reggae Fan) offered us the use of his bicycle-seat for small children, so that Aurora Ulani can go with us.  She is turning into quite an energetic little girl and her boat vocabulary is really amazing. 
 
When at her friend Zoya's home she remarked;  "The house is not floating on the water, is it?!   And there aren't any waves here!"  She knows what a travellift is for and she is very comfortable in the dinghy now, no matter how rough the ride is. 
 
Later I did some work in the engine room and Peter (Jörn's Partner at First Mate Ltd.  --  we went together to the beach at Macqueripe Bay after Jörn's great Thai-Food-Party last weekend) welded the adjustor-arm for the alternator for me.
 
Yesterday we could observe a big forest fire here, which looked like an erupting volcano at night.  Unfortunately it smothered our boat in soot and ashes. 
 
Some of our long-distance and long-time yachtie friends here are a bit worried that we overdo it on the work and might actually get stuck here like so many other yachties have done.  What they don't realize is that the visa-situation doesn't allow us to get stuck anywhere for long and that the San Blas Islands, Panama and the South Pacific are beckoning.  Never mind 1421...  <grin>
 

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