Trinidad And Tobago Travel Stories

To be or not to be the truth, is a person to suffer the pain and arrows of moral conflict, is the resolution of my thoughts for the world, or only for me, is my diary of my trip to be public, or is it a private affair.

I was explaining to the Captain I blog, I told him day one before we agreed, and I explain my whole trip on the blog. I just say what is happening and let if fly, he said last night as I was try to explain with care,

- I blog everything that happens.-

He said,

- That sounds like a threat.-

GEEZ, it is just the reality of life, I have music of crap to play everyday and it is getting monotonous the never-ending comments.

I FEEL it is kinder to get off the boat, I do not enjoy blogging what actually happens, life is not always meant to be observed on a daily basis. People tend to believe everyone lies, leave out the juicy stuff, denies the real world, or myself of saying what I am thinking.

I am already 5 points less stressed and happier by miles, it is nice to be part of the search for a beach with bikinis, life is mean to be a good game, and I do not like to feel like the game is watching us have problems.

I need to respect myself and I want respect person in my life.

I want to respect, honor, and believe the persons in my life do their best and wish to be good persons, helping the world to be a better place.

I do not want to focus on negative feeling, the more negatives in my day, the more days of being negative, the more days I am forced to focus on negative situations, the more likely I am to become a negative person.

Everyday I wake up thinking about all the problems of the boat, I do not wake up excited to go sail on this boat, I do not dream of sailing on this boat, sharing the sunset with the others, spending my time learning navigation and ocean sailing. I already know how to sail, I had a large 24-foot boat I could sleep on in Indiana and was in a Yacht club for 3-4 years.

I was laughing to myself, they could drive you crazy showing you or telling you information about how to sail, making the perfect boat, how to be the perfect sailor, or how to have the perfect boat. It was about perfection, doing something so well, that they would drive me crazy, however this was nice, I always wanted to make my small boat like their boat.

On the other hand, when discussing the idea with Craig about

Stop

Craig has abilities with the computer, with humans that I wish daily to learn about, there is a world of knowledge in that 25-year-old person that clearly evaluates and understands the world. I wish to be like him in many ways.

I said or talked with Craig about the idea or concept that a person can learn a lot from a situation where there are many problems. I was reading a post by a reader and something to this effect I was reading, how it is an opportunity to learn. Craig said that I said something the same, like I somehow was saying, and I do not think I was saying anything close to this, I was being negative.

He equated when I was talking about all the good points of boat, pointing how the aspects or features of the perfect boat for me, that I was learning from the Odessa. Maybe I was turning a negative into a positive, however I have already sat in a dock full of boat for four years on every Saturday and Sunday looking at the other boats and dreaming of the perfect boat. Listening to some very studious persons explain about boat, this is a bigger game, however, the same.

A person does learn from solving problems, however I enjoy learning from perfect, I can solve or fix about any problem. I cannot change or fix people; they have to do that themselves.

Overall, I am getting off the boat so I do not have the temptation to explain daily the problems of the boat, how I must accept that they are problems, how I cannot fix the problems and the only solution it to accept the problem. I wish to be on a boat where I can sit around bragging about the boat and I have no temptation to tell the other sailors about the major problems.

It scared me yesterday watching Jakob do what he wanted to do, not what WE needed to do, uncontrolled, trying to help me and Craig pull the anchor out of the water. This anchor is chain, very heavy and it took three people working very hard on a slippery deck to pull it out of the water. We needed to coordinate our efforts, work together, then take great care, not to let go of the anchor. When we let go of the anchor all person had to agree to let go a the same time, anticipate any problems, be safe away from the large coil of chain on the deck so it did not entangle our feet and pull us into the dropping anchor. All persons need to want to work together, all person have to respect that the other person is doing their best.

One of us could have lost a finger or a foot yesterday, upon asking when this was discovered the Captain said somewhere in Vestigo. I do not know where this is, however I am sure it is not here in the Chaguaramas Harbor.

95 percent of the problems are cosmetic or personal; however, there is 5 percent that are safety issues.

I want to anticipate, plan, learn how to be the best, I wish to learn from the best of the best to have learn good habits. I may one day buy a boat; I know how hard it is to change myself and do not wish to learn bad habits. The ocean is big, bigger than I can engulf in my brain, it will not forgive, and there are people that die on the ocean for simple problems. I could come up with 10 ways we could die on this boat; I could anticipate and explain how lack of anticipation of problems could cause us to die.

Anything has danger, the goal in traveling the planet it to minimize the danger, to plan, to be patient, to take great care. To anticipate the potential for good and the potential for bad. I am living an optimized life, I can plan or choose my battles, I can choose my challenges, and I can choose to enjoy my day. At the end of my life, I wish to tell stories of the great persons in my life I was around, I expect very much from myself and I expect much from others.

- Expectation Management - That is a term Craig told me, I learned from Craig how to be better, I did not watch him have problems and learn. Some person need to learn from hardship and problems, and other try to study the best and learn, hoping to not have to experience a major problem to learn. I expect to learn, I am curious, I think many problems through to the nth degree.

I will respect and show respect to all person around me, if the person or persons in my life I do not respect and honor, I will leave, they can learn the hard lesson on their own, I can learn mine from doing it right the first time, trying my best, being my best. However, better to walk away from a boat than to sit here typing negative comments for the next months about the boat. I believe this is almost guaranteed to happen, I have felt like I have done this for the last week, I expect that I will do this tomorrow, I am leaving the boat. I want to brag about what went very good, planned, executed with clarity, how we conquered the whale, killed the whale, how life is about major accomplishments and not how I survived.

Enough of the negative feelings, bad Karma. HeHeHe

Life is Good.

I am learning many solutions to sailing problems.

The MacGregor 65 has a list, as Craig says; easier to make a list of what is working correctly, than what is not working. Yesterday we discovered that the GPS or on of the GPS - Global Positioning Satellite systems was not working, it is now apart, however I understand it is not that important. I have a handheld GPS and will use that the Captain has one inside the boat, however not outside; I do not understand all the systems yet.

Today we all so learned the Windless is not working. I have never heard the term; however, what is not working is the electric motor that raises the anchor on a very long and heavy chain. We pulled it up this morning twice, it was dangerous, I decided this is not going to work and I believe Bill has decided this is not working.

I mean, I believe it is too dangerous to have three persons pull up a chain, or worst yet we just lowered it by dropping it, the chain ran out and could have removed a finger or two if we had not been careful. I would say on a scale of 1-10, we was only a four on care, nonetheless, I am not moving the boat until the motor is doing the work safely. I have learned too many times about danger to just walk and volunteer to be hurt. The farm in Indiana is full of small traps, you do not volunteer for ridiculous problems, which have solutions, I am told it is only the wiring.

Note, the boat has many beyond counting easily needs.

IF the boat was in good shape, I would learn less.

Jakob on Sunday helped another Captain from the Port of Spain and a different marina to sail his boat in a race or some form of water event. Then Jacob left with some girl and did not report into the the boat. Yesterday he suddenly left and would not report where he was going or why he was going to Craig after two request. Upon returning he says that he has lost his credit card or he believes he may have left his money bag on the boat of the yacht he help sail on Sunday. This is about 1:00 PM at this point of time, he had only returned to the ship around 9:30 in the morning. Subsequently when he left he must have went to the other small harbor area closer to the Port of Spain and had the management or asked the management for the name of the person, phone number, and address. The other marina would not give this information says Jokob, however said they would contact him.

On and on the story goes, however in the end Captain Bill convinced Jakob to stop the credit card. There was a 800 number on the card which did not work, they tried to call the German bank which is 5 hours different in time and all they got was touch tone answering type services and could not connect with a person in the bank. They eventually call his parents and requested they stop the bank card. Jakob says he has travelers checks about enough to buy an airplane ticket from here to Miami, however for sure not enough to fly to Germany.

The Captain presently has Jakob signed on as crew to the Odessa, however presently Craig and I are not signed on or on the crew list. When we leave this port maybe today, however my instincts say tomorrow we will become part of the crew of the Odessa, at this juncture Captain Bill become responsible for the status of how we enter the next country and have permission to be in the country. Every country is different maybe in some ways, however the Captain will have a financial responsibility for us on shore or how we leave the island. If we wish to separate we must or could have to buy a plane ticket to our home countries, we may be able to just buy a plane ticket to another island. If the Captain request we leave, it may be the responsibility of the Captain to purchase a plane ticket to the home country of the crew. Therefore at any given moment if the Captain decides we are no longer part of his crew, he therefore must pay for the person to fly to their home country. This is not clear, there is presently no set rules, all that I am typing is just hearsay in many ways, obviously this is negotiable and could be a very taxing problem in some cases.

Some Captains under certain conditions will request a deposit of money, I suppose they could request the passport to hold until they release the person from crew.

There are both paid and free crews, there are many levels of being a crew, we presently are not paid, however only responsible for food cost, and sharing cost that all are in need of, however none of these cost have been laid out or explained in detail. More or less, I know I am sharing cost, however much it is, it will almost always be less or has to be less than paying for a room.

Craig, me and Captain Bill has presently put in 50 U.S.A. Dollars for food cost, Jakob is to put in 30 U.S.A. Dollars towards the cost because he has already helped to pay for prior food cost on the boat. Craig is collecting the U.S. Dollars and then went to the bank to convert the money to Trinidad and Tobago money called TT, he has the money I believe however said yesterday that Jakob had not given him the 30 U.S. Dollars, they are going to the store today Tuesday to purchase food in Port of Spain. Craig is now in the position of having to say to Jakob give me 30 Dollars. There is no transparency and clarity as to his financial position or his ability to share in the expense. Captain Bill is obvious in his financial capacities. I know that both myself and Craig have the ability to buy a plane ticket anywhere in the world. Jakob does appear to have parent that could pay for him, however the time it would take to receive money, where to receive money, how to retrieve the next or new credit card, to replace the lost one is nebulous. It has create a commitment for all of us to be committed to dealing with Jakob problem, this is not a problem, however there is a honest need for all person to be open and clear in what they have or do not have in the manner of managing their lives. Jakob is 18 years old and this is an excuse for many problems by the Captain.

Craig is calling or saying that getting a crew job is like a one night stand, you meet someone, they jump on the same boat with you, you have no idea who they are.

I am wondering and learning, Bill the Captain of the boat said yesterday that many boats in Salt water run with their motors on 30 percent of the time. I am in the rear of the boat next to the motor, this would mean my life is miserable; the diesel motor would be running all the time and heating up my area to unbearable levels. I do not like to learn everything by trial and error; therefore, I am asking many questions, as is Craig.

A boat on land needs workers to repair the boat.

A boat in the water will sail well if prepared and ready to sail.

Trial and error is difficult, I do not know what needs done, most every project started is missing a few pieces. We pull the boat up to the loading area, took out two long electrical extension cords especially made for boats. One of the plug ends is missing on one of the cords, which was not a problem, because the cords were not long enough to reach the only available electricity. Not too important to me however Captain Bill keeps saying something about freezing the ice in the fridge to be prepared. Therefore, I work to achieve this goal; everything works against many goals, hard to imagine the mess. It will take a good two weeks to clean up this boat as ever possible corner is a mess and Jakob continues to make messes and not clean, and Captain Bill starts jobs, drops the part where he started, does not gauge his time, then does not complete what he starts. He is an amiable and well-intentioned person, works on the boat all the time, therefore easy to forgive for lack of organization. We are trying daily to keep him on priority projects, discover what is priority, then making a list of priority issues.

We have posted four lists on the door to the toilet, one Todo list needed done to enter the water, a list of items to buy, and a list of items to sell. Bill preoccupies himself with working or thinking about items to sell. Yesterday we, Craig and I put up the Todo - AT SEA list, we left most any non-necessary items all any list because it just confuses persons. This is like running a business, everything can turn into a chat session and nothing gets done, when the group starts pointing towards a project, the project better be productive and finished

I have mused on sailing for years, trying to explore my feeling and thoughts to whether I would like to sail on the ocean. There is a danger to being on the ocean, the farther a person would sail from the shore maybe the bigger the dangers. There are sailing routes, or popular paths, staying on these paths, guaranteeing the radio is working and anticipation of problems will keep us safe. Whether the Captain anticipates the problem and has solutions in store, a redundancy of options is not as important as doing the work. It is possible to learn what needs done, therefore it is possible than to muster this crew to help or perform the duties. It is not necessary the Captain makes the decisions, however more of a respect and caring for the Captain. I do understand better the concept of Mutiny� hehehe.

I am hoping I am in a sailboat and not a power boat, I do not want to sail the ocean with the motor running. If this is a need, then my ideas of someday buying a sailboat is out the window, I am not going to buy gas to travel the earth by sailboat. Like everything else I have every known about sailboats, every person has a different opinion, there seems to be little agreement.