Good Old Boat Article

Check out my article in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Good Old Boat. A couple of years ago when Chris and I painted our hullsides, we got lots of good tips from other cruisers, and discovered a couple of our own, so I laid out the details in this two-part article. I didn't think it would be published until spring 2014, so I was surprised when our friend Barb posted about it on Facebook. Woo hoo!

St. Georges, Grenada

Well, we're now in Grenada. Trini is great in many ways, but you really don't want to jump in the water at Chaguaramas. We did an overnight passage from Trinidad to Grenada, anchored in Prickly Bay, checked in with Customs and Immigration, then jumped in the water. Beautiful. This picture was taken looking across the lagoon at St. Georges, an easy bus ride from the anchorage, where we picked up a new SIM card for our phone and a roti for lunch. Then went back to the boat and jumped in the water again.

Too Soon for Christmas!

I used to think that having stores haul out their Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving was anticipating. Well, the stores in Trinidad have had all their Christmas displays up for a couple of weeks now, since early October. Christmas music fills not only the malls, but also the maxi taxis. For me, drawing out the season so long spreads the anticipation of the holiday too thin. By the time December rolls around, you’re tired of it all.

Bad Roads Everywhere

We needed to have one of our anchors re-galvanized, which required a trip down to the southern end of Trinidad. This is the end of the island with the oil refineries, which doesn’t make for very good sightseeing. But what really caught our attention were the signs for steel plates on the road to cover the bad pot holes and torn-up concrete at the side of the road. The weird thing was, this occurred right at the entrance to the Trinidad Concrete facility! All we could think of was that they were harvesting their product from the closest source: the road out front. By the way, the roads elsewhere were fine.

Lovely view of an oil refinery

Warning, Will Robinson!

It would have been more assuring if the sheets didn't actually shift as you drove over them

Couldn't they use some of their product to fix the road?

When Your Melon is Bitter, Make Stir-fry!

Whole bitter melons, just over a foot long

One of the great vegetables we get in Trinidad is bitter melon, which is not only one of the coolest looking vegetables I’ve ever seen, but also tastes good. Not raw, however. I found a recipe for stir-fry that’s really good, and we had it last night. Yummy!

Slice open and scrape out the seeds and spongy stuff

Slice

Stir-fry with onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, vinegar, a few drops of sesame oil, and of course, a pinch of sugar (they are bitter, after all)