MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

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FIRST MATE'S LOG - May 2001

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August 3, 2001

Life goes on here in Trinidad. Richard, the varnisher came back this morning for the last of his work, the aft head door and he redid the rail that I laid my whole palm into the last time. We are just waiting for the solenoid to come in and it should be here Tuesday (ha ha.)

Everyday we wake up to sunshine and everyday, about 11:00am (right now), the dark clouds roll over and the rain begins. Sometimes thunder showers and sometimes light rain. Sometimes it lasts the rest of the day and occasionally just a couple of hours. It always stops by sunset and it has never rained during the night, giving us the ability to keep the hatches and windows open. It puts a damper on my going to the swimming pool but it also cools everything off for a few hours. I guess that's why they call it the rainy season. It also puts a damper on my doing any teak work. Too bad.

Last night was cocktail hour aboard Mutual Fun with "Windshepherd" and "Vitrain." We heard from "Free Spirit" in the morning. They were headed for Tobago from Grenada, after about 5 weeks on the hard (on land) when their new roller furler disintegrated. Luckily, they weren't very far out of Grenada when it happened so they turned back and made it in before dark. We were supposed to be meeting them in Tobago in a week or so and hopefully we still can. Anna Marie ("Vitrain") saw her doctor yesterday where she found out she has to have surgery right away. She'll be going in soon and will have a 4- week recovery. Being a Trinidadian, she has all of her family here and will be in good hands. We'll see if we can get over to the hospital to see her before we depart.

There are scheduled events almost every day. For instance, Wednesday night is movie night and tonight is Caribbean night, complete with an inexpensive dinner and steel band. Friday morning is a free taxi ride to the grocery and Saturday (6:30am, I haven't been yet) is a free ride to the market for fruits vegies, fish and meat. There is something like 2,000 stalls there and it sounds pretty neat. Next Tuesday evening, we are joining 8 other couples for a trip to watch the leather back turtles lay their eggs. It's a 3-hour ride and we won't get back home till after midnight. These turtles are as large as 6 feet with heads over a foot across. Should be interesting.

August 6, 2001

The boat is slowing falling apart in these barnacle-infested waters. We brought the anchor chain up, 3 feet at a time and cleaned the barnacles off yesterday. Our hands are all cut up and raw. Meanwhile, Bob had to bring it up by hand because the windlass switch went out. Today he took it all apart, went to the marine store (while I went swimming in the pool, oh spoiled lady), bought a new switch and he is all smiles as he just rewired it and it works! He also took the dinghy motor in today and left it at the security gate to be picked up by a service center. It was still sitting there at 1:00pm when we got back. More rowing for us! Usually someone sees us, feels sorry for us and tows us in. Meanwhile it's still hot, hotter and hottest. I'm thinking of making a career out of swimming laps. The water feels like silk and I feel like a spider doing my slow crawl. I would love to tell you that we have finally left but not quite yet.

August 8, 2001

The turtle watch was a huge success! We were picked up from our anchorage at 5:00pm, along with some other of our friends. We made a beer stop and snack stop along the way and drove through the city, then the suburbs, then the rain forest and arrived at the beach about 8:00pm. Along the way we picked up a native guy whom I though was a friend of the taxi driver's that he was giving a lift to, but in fact he was our tour guide. The beach was dark and had the sweetest smell and sound I've heard in weeks. The air was warm but not hot and the surf was lethal, according to the locals. We picked our way down the beach, about 14 of us, flashlights turned down to the ground but we were not allowed to shine it out on the water. If a turtle was coming in to lay her eggs and she saw the light, she would go back out to sea. We found some empty eggs and at one point we found 4 babies. These are leatherback turtles, not just ordinary turtles. The babies were adorable with these leathery shells and the cutest little flippers. They are completely harmless to people; they have no teeth and are gentle creatures. We picked them up and played with them and when you put them down, they were drawn to the light of the flashlights. They were searching for water so we took them down to the surf and put them in. One kept getting washed back up but he finally made it.

There were 4 spotters; guides spaced out every 1400-ft, watching for the incoming turtles. Our guide was Francis. He was extremely knowledgeable and forthcoming with his information. The female turtles are fertile after age 25 and begin laying eggs from that time on, every other year and always come to the place where they were born. These turtles are found in Florida and Venezuela and all the way to the Azores. But, they always come home to lay their eggs. Home, is known to them by the smell and feel and texture of the sand. The females lay approximately 120 eggs at a time and it takes about 2 hours, start to finish. Francis spotted the first turtle at about 10:00pm. The moon was just rising and we saw a big, dark hump in the surf. Just as we thought she was making her trek up the shore, she did an about-face and headed right back out. We were told that there might have been a steep rise there and she wasn't comfortable with the site; she would be back.

Fifteen minutes later, Francis got our attention with a spotlight and we all came down and saw a huge momma turtle in the middle of her egg-laying. What an incredible sight we had the honor to witness! To start at the beginning, an average female is about 5 feet long and 4 feet across. Their shells feel and look like leather and their flippers are huge and a bit softer than hard leather. Their heads are as big as a foot across, their eyes secrete a slimy salty brine that they call crying, but is actually a secretion of excess salt from their diet of jellyfish and Portuguese man-of-war. If they have a majority of male eggs, they choose a spot closer to the water and if mostly a female litter, they crawl further onto the beach. When they finally drag their bodies, which weigh about 8 times that of a normal man, to the spot of their choosing, they flap their "arms and legs" around and make the spot flat. Then, they use their back flippers, which are about 2 ½ feet long, and start pulling the sand out. This takes about an hour. They know the hole is deep enough when they can't feel the bottom with their flipper anymore. At this point, the turtle goes into a trance and begins evacuating her eggs. First comes a slimy liquid, then the eggs start dropping, about 4 or 5 at a time. The eggs are about double the size of a chicken egg and feel like a ping pong ball. At the time when the female enters into a trance-like state, we can take pictures and pet her. Also, Francis lifts away her tail and back flippers so we can photograph and watch the eggs drop. When she is done laying all of her eggs, she is exhausted but now has to fill the hole and bury the eggs. This process takes about 20 minutes and then she flaps both sets of flippers, turns in circles for another ½ hour or so, lifts her huge tired bulk and trudges back out to sea. She has been tagged by the guides, measured and documented.

There is a beach in Tobago where these leatherbacks lay eggs as well, and the information is documented and emailed back to Trinidad. As all of this is taking place, just 50 feet down the beach are 2 more turtles in one or another phase of egg-laying. All of this effort by these massive reptiles looks exhausting but will be repeated every 9-10 days for the next 6 weeks. When, once again these turtles will swim, at quite a fast clip, all of the way to Florida or French Guyana or they may be found a number of other places, but they will be back in another 2 years to repeat the whole process. Out of 120 eggs laid, around 75 will hatch, dig themselves out of a 3 foot hole and emerge as baby leatherbacks. The vulture prints in the sand give testimony to why many of the babies don't make it to the water and once in the sea, waiting fish will eat most. Three or four of the 120 eggs will survive to enhance the leatherback turtle population. There are approximately 50,000 of these amazing animals in the world. I have never been treated to such a beautiful show of nature by such patient and gentle creatures. We arrived back home about 1:30am (a quick flat tire repair) but I didn't fall asleep until 3:00am. I'll never forget the sight of and the willingness of these turtles to allow us to be a small part of their future.

August 13, 2001

Mutual Fun is slowly being nursed back to health. The main engine is working great. The dinghy outboard is repaired and running as well as can be expected, for an Evinrude. The refrigeration is back on track; cooling as well as it can in 100+ degree heat. The new interior varnishing is all dusted off ad looking good. Two local men scraped the barnacles off the bottom this morning and the solenoid is still not here and at this point, I don't even care anymore. Bob took off early to buy us a new starter battery for the engine. Well, it's been over 2 years since we've replaced this one. We're in fairly good shape and with a couple loads of laundry and provisioning to do, we're out of here. Our friends on "Free Spirit" are in Tobago awaiting our arrival. If the solenoid comes before Wednesday, fine, and if not, we'll pick it up on the flip-flop. I am very excited to be in the final few days of bidding adios to Trinidad.

August 17, 2001

Ahoy from Tobago! This seemed a humungous move after 6 weeks of being so stationary. Our part never did come in. We left anyhow. First, battening the boat and breaking down the dinghy. Then, the yucky, smelly job of cleaning the barnacles off the anchor chain (again) as we hauled it up. Bob had to do all of the work since I had to be at the helm. Once up, we were pretty excited. Until we smelled a burning odor. Bob checked the engine, the gauges, the batteries and everything else he could think of while I motored us around in circles in the outer harbour. We were unable to detect a cause and the gauges looked fine so we chalked it up to engine inactivity and continued around to the fuel dock. We called ahead and conformed we would be coming in and all lines and fenders would be placed on the starboard side. Three fenders and three lines later, we see another boat at the dock tied up starboard side and called back. They said, "oops" and so I retied everything on the port side. This doesn't sound like much work but after all of those weeks of idleness, it was. OK, we get our fuel and away we go. Destination: a small harbour about 10 miles away to await (and nap) a 6:00pm departure. We left the fuel dock at 1:00pm and at 3:30pm, Bob woke me from a snooze and suggested we skip the nap and continue to Tobago. I said, "OK" and fell back to sleep. I awoke about 6:15pm and felt great. There is a very strong current against us and the winds, of course, were against us but we picked a weather window offering light winds and calm seas. There was nothing we could do about the current but we did have mostly light winds. The seas were a long, comfortable swell. The current set us back about 2 knots and we probably averaged 3.8 knots or so the whole trip. After taking turns on watch, I had a great sleep from 11:00pm-3: 00am and was ready to roll. Bob went down at 4:00am, after assuring himself we were on the right course after a waypoint change. I dug out my portable cd player and by 5:00am, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, I was dancing to the jives, harnessed in and loving the feel of the open water and fresh breeze, once again and finally! The moon didn't make it's grand appearance until about 3:15am and when it did, it was just a slice of brightness on the bottom of the moon but it was so pretty. It lit up the top ¾ of the moon and did a fair job of lighting up the whole sky, considering its size. About the time I exhausted myself dancing and singing in the cockpit, a huge school of baby dolphins came over to see what all of the fuss was about. They only stayed with me about 15 minutes because I couldn't shout to them in fear of waking Bob. I only quietly told them how pretty they were and to stay and play with me. We arrived in Man of War bay about 9:00am but it took us a good while to anchor because we couldn't find a shallow spot. We finally anchored in about 42 feet of water, directly behind "Free Spirit." They came barreling over for coffee, cookies hugs, kisses and gossip. We then had a nap and were awakened by Geoff and Sue telling us a tropical cyclone was near and would be bringing winds up to 40 knots. They began helping Bob putting out our second anchor while I stood confused and disoriented on deck, asking what in the world was going on. Lots of activity in the anchorage as people got their boats ready for the big winds. We had lots of rain and about 6:00pm we went over to "Free Spirit" for cocktails, along with 2 other boats. Sue finally shooed everyone out about 8pm and fed us a wonderful meal of chicken, garlic potatoes, honeyed carrots, and cabbage and for dessert, mango custard. It was absolutely delicious. By 10:00pm we were falling asleep and they looked tired, too, having prepared that beautiful meal for us and all of their other activities. When we got home, I turned the fridge on for a quick cool-down but no-go-Joe. Nothing, nada, zilch. Bob had to tear apart a bunk and the couch to get to things but was unable to find the problem. He then dinghied over to "Free Spirit" to see if they had room in their freezer, which they did. I packed up all of our new provisioning and Bob took it all over there. Right now, he's waiting for me to finish writing so he can get at the electric panel. The moral of this long story: the good news is we're out of Trinidad, we had a great motor over to beautiful Tobago (where everyone says you can't get to from Trinidad because of the current), we met up with our wonderful friends and had our first swim overboard in over 6 weeks and the bad news is the fridge doesn't work. I'll let you know if Bob can fix it or we have to sail back to Trinidad. Oh please don't let that happen.

August 24, 2001

So much and so little have been going on. Bob got the fridge working; it was an electrical problem. He got out his trusty ohmmeter and zapped it back to health. All systems working fine; knock on teak. We're enjoying our stay in Tobago with "Free Spirit" and Tim on "Merlin" who we met way back in St. John's, around Christmas time. He and Bob had a pie-eating contest. We've been doing lots of swimming and snorkeling, in between downpours. Well, they say it's the rainy season here. Today we were summoned by the son of our neighboring boat; they had caught too many fish and would we like a couple. Yes, of course we would. We dinghied over and introduced ourselves and left with a jack and a rainbow runner. We had a feast tonight with "Free Spirit." Tim has a nasty earache and couldn't come. Bob grilled the rainbow with a butter-garlic marinade and I pan-fried the jack in a marinade made of soy sauce and honey, adding a glaze of tropical fruit chutney at the end. Sue made scalloped potatoes and I also made cooked carrots with a honey glaze. It was Geoff and Sue's 5th anniversary today and we had nice cheers to them. Topping the dinner off with oreo cookies and homemade pictionary, they left us all pooped out. Tomorrow we're all getting up early to catch a bus which takes us into the main city, Scarborough. It's about 1-½ hours by bus and supposed to be quite scenic. Geoff has to pick up a part and we're going along for the fun.

August 26, 2001

"Free Spirit" took off this morning for another anchorage, here in Tobago. Bob hauled 45 more gallons of water, to prepare us for departing in the next day or so. It's so pretty here; we're really not in any hurry to leave. Bob and I were playing in the water on the beach; he was floating on a noodle, you know, one of those long foam things that float, and I was swimming around bothering him. He said, "what if you if were stuck in the middle of the ocean with only a noodle?" Pause. "And what if it were edible?" Now there's something to ponder. About 7 local kids, grade 1-3 were hanging around me and so I gave them the noodle to play with. The biggest boy was bopping the littler ones on the body with the noodle and they were all laughing. I asked the biggest if he was the biggest of all of them. He said yes so I grabbed the noodle and gave him a few bops. I played with them in the water for awhile. Only two were too small to know how to swim. Then they begged me to take them all for a dinghy ride, so I did. They kept yelling, "steam it!" which I took to mean go faster. They were cute.
Cooking a big pot of spaghetti and Tim from "Merlin" is coming over. Can't let these single handers off too easy so he's bringing dessert. Bob asked for pumpkin pie. Now, that would be a kicker!

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