Miss Daisie

Make-up! Will someone please wipe the sand off my nose? She's pointing that camera at me again. The wet sand feels great on my tummy.

It's Sunday morning; time to share a picture of Miss Daisie's cruising life. It was a hot day in the Bahamas when I took this picture. Daisie dug a hole right at the water's edge in the only shady spot she could find. Perfect!

Mss Daisie

Miss Daisie reporting for duty

Update, Montserrat is Still Growing!

The people living and working on the island of Montserrat must be very determined folk. Of the almost 12,000 inhabitants on the island before the first of the devastating volcanic eruptions beginning 1995, less than 5,000 remain today. When a choice is presented, it is a special kind of person who chooses to stay and work to rebuild both home and community alongside an unpredictible volcano.

"By August 1997, the steam had given way to massive eruptions of magma, and Plymouth became buried by pyroclastic flows of red-hot ash, gas and rock, turning it into a modern-day Pompeii." The Independent, 16 July, 2005

The inhabitants live with ash clouds on and off these days, and boats sailing in the area are warned to stay away from restricted areas when the activity warnings are high, if they want to avoid tiny holes in their sails (or maybe worse?).

This month there are reports of renewed volcanic activity in the Soufriere Hills, thought to be the result of the collapse of the old lava dome. There are new pyroclastic flows and rain has caused more mud flows. The sight of the ash clouds rising to 20,000 ft and blowing towards inhabited areas must be startling.

In late May 2009, we sailed from the anchorage at Little Bay at the northwestern tip of the island, around the top and down the eastern side, past the destroyed Bramble Airport and on to Guadeloupe. For a look back, click on the June 2009 archive. On our visit we enjoyed a tour with Wendy and Jim, Merengue, led by Joe Phillip, our very informative tour guide. From the Observatory outlook, Joe showed us his old home in the now restricted area. For the sake of Joe and his fellow countrymen, let's hope the activity calms down soon.

When I was looking at news from Montserrat this morning I found a site by Dickinson College in PA, Geology of Disasters, Spring 2005. This site has some of the best images of Montserrat both before and after 1995. The view from Plymouth "into the mouth of the volcano" is especially chilling. During the course of their research, this group of students from Dickinson were able to get into restricted areas that we could not see in 2009.

For reports from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory click here MVO.

A Trinidad Moment

"Forever Young" was looking forward to getting back in the water after 5 weeks on the hard. On the morning after her scheduled splash, I noticed she was still on her hard stands.  I asked what happened.

A new chainplate was on order from the USA and it had not arrived. A deck mount chainplate is typically used to attach a shroud, forestay or backstay.  Customs regulations in Trinidad state that "Yachts in Transit" can import repair parts duty free. On investigation they found the Customs Office had returned the part because "China Plates" are not repair parts for yachts.

Miss Daisie

Miss Daisie - "where's he gone, when will he be back?"

First time entering another country by boat. Captain went ashore to check in and left Daisie and crew to look after the boat.

A Trinidad Moment

Customer Service is not a right, it’s a privilege.

I went to my favorite Roti Hut for breakfast the other morning. By now I have developed a good relationship with Grace who runs the Roti Hut. Grace was preparing my Sada Roti when a worker from the boat yard barked out his order. Grace slowly looked around to see who was barking, then returned to complete preparing my breakfast. The boatyard worker had quite a long wait for his breakfast.

If you come to Trini thinking you have some right to good customer service, think again. You have to earn good customer service through relationship building.

Miss Daisie

Miss Daisie the Navigator