Just to start off Karen is still alive and well, that may satisfy my skeptic friend in KW. Although she won't run get me a beer at the corner store because it's raining cats and dogs right now.
We were put back in the water 2 weeks ago with a new rudder and bottom job and everything is working good. I know the rudder will hold up because I built the damn thing this time and had no Puerto Rican build it.
I have a rant to put in the blog this time. This will more than likely be my last time to come to Trinidad because the locals here are so trashy. We have a great anchorage in Scotland Bay, but the locals just trash the place. They show up on the weekends and party quite hardy, but when they leave all the beer bottles and cups and garbage sacks are just left on the beach. this has to be because there is no education in this country. When you take a bus into town on the side of the road is all the garbage that they have in there cars and when you cross a bridge the sacks of garbage are piled up on the banks of the rivers. This is just disgraceful for a people to treat there country like a garbage dump. This morning having coffee on the back deck there was a boat anchored behind us and this young man pored his drink in a cup and just pitched the can in the water, when he finished the drink guess what; he through the cup in after it. No Pride In The Country.
OK enough of that. Karen & I are still having a good time, but it's getting time to leave. Before we do we still have a few places to go and now that I have an Internet connection that works the post will be more often. For now the rain has stopped, Karen picked me up 2 beers and that will get me back to the boat so until next time, See y'all down the road
Mike & Karen.

As y'all know we are in the shipyard having another new rudder built. Well we get the new welded frame back today and start to fiberglass it tomorrow. Should have it back in the boat by Friday and back in the water Saturday.

Last month when we were in the US we rented a car to get around in. Well on the 6th. we were going to my brothers house and slowing down with the turn signal on doing about 30 MPH when this 4 wheel drive heavy duty ford truck without slowing down from 55 he plowed into the back of this plastic box and totaled it out. Here are a couple of photos of the results of a ford 3500 truck looks like. Well no one was hurt and the truck driver received the ticket and I was found not at fault.

OK enough about the past. When we get back in the water we are going to the Island of Chacachacare, until 35 years ago the island was a leper colony. In 1975 the people there thought the colony was haunted and they just walked away with out taking anything with them. all the X-Ray equipment and the files and everything else. It should be quite interesting, when we get there I will take plenty of photos so y'all can get an ideal whats it's like.

This was just a short post just to take care of my critics for not posting every day or every 4 to 6 hours.

See Y'all down the Road

Mike & Karen

OK folks I guess I owe y'all an apology for the length of time between postings but in my defence the Internet is real spotty down here in Trinidad.
We left Grenada on the 22 nd. of Aug. and had to motor all the way across the 75 miles because of no wind. We caught a 45 # Mahi Mahi are if you like a dolphin. Boy fresh fish is sure good eating it 2 or 3 hrs. after you catch it.
The top photos is the anchorage that we are in, it's called Scotland Bay and it's a great place. On the weekend comes the local Trinis show up in there boat and party pretty hardy. A good time is had by all.

To the left of these next 2 is a resort in one of the bays here in Trinidad. The next is slave quarters. Back in the 1800's they brought in Indian slaves ( Dot not Feather) by the 1900s it kind of back fired on the locals, the Indian slave children have pretty much taken over the government.
But I guess everything that goes around, it comes back and bites you in the ass.

This is a plantation next to the quarters, it's been vacant for plenty of years.

Well here is the bad news, when we left St. Lucia on our way to Bequia we had a great sail. We had 18 Kts of wind on a broad reach, I had all 150% jib out Main sail unreefed and doing over 8 1/2 Kts. Boy was I having a good time, until the boat wanted to head up and I took it off auto and grabbed the wheel and turned to . It was then that I felt something wrong. The steering was hard to turn. Well we made Bequai and got settled in, the next day I went under the boat to see if I had picked up something on the rudder. Low and Behold that new rudder I had to have built in Pourto Rico had a nice bend in the rudder post as it come out of the bottom of the boat. Knowing I was going to have to haul out again I wanted to wait until I got here. So Tuesday we pulled the boat out. If you look close you can see the bend, yesterday we peeled the skin off and now I know why. The SOB that built it did not build it the way I told him to and while I was in Brazil he completed the rudder and installed it. Now I get to spend another 4 or 5 thousand, if I could get my hands on the GD !#%&)#! I think they would throw me in jail. I hope we can get back in the water next week because it's hot on dry land.

I will try to keep you informed on what's going on and try to post more often so I don't get anymore hate e-mail from my friend in K.W.

See y'all down the road.

Mike and Karen