October saw me visiting so many parts of the US that I am not able to even remember. At least two trips were made to Chicago. The last trip in early November was though a speaker’s bureau that booked me a show with Emerson Process in Phoenix, Arizona.
As we owned a yacht and planned to go sailing, work had to be done onboard. We made the decision not to use local labor due to the horror stories I heard from owners who had left their vessels in Trinidad and flew home, expecting that the job orders they had commissioned and paid a deposit on were being done. Several boat owners told me that they had commissioned the work late spring or very early summer, and then followed up with a phone call late summer to see how the work was progressing and to schedule launch dates. “Don’t worry, Mann, we are nearly done with your boat,” was what they were told. So vacations were planned and flights booked, only to discover on arrival that the work had even been started, and that they were going to get to it soon. When they did, several persons showed up, one to do the basic work, one to encourage the one doing the work, and another to chat into his cell phone reporting to someone that they were working. Then they would promise to come back the next day and finish the job, but did not.
After hearing these horror stories, I asked what the solution was. “Send someone in to either do the work, or over see it if you cannot do it yourself,” is what I was advised. I did not want to start a new career of working on boat. I did that for 11 years full time when campaigning. Hence I called me dear friend, Ken Bonerigo and asked him how he would like to explore doing a project in Trinidad. He jumped at the idea of preparing our cat and doing some sailing aboard. A price was agreed and his ticket was booked. In early November I took Ken to the airport for his southern bound flight, and a few days I flew to Arizona for 36 hours.
I landed on my return at 10 pm and had over an hours drive home. Darlene and I had packed all the gear, cloths and various items we would need to move onto our new boat, and at midnight I loaded the car, then got 3 hours sleep before rising to head for the airport and South America.
It was a long day. Darlene and I flew from South Carolina to North Carolina, then to Puerto Rico before boarding a puddle hoper that took us to Dominica, Barbados and finally Trinidad where we were met by a new friend Peter Thomas, a character that books and films are made about.
El Gecco in the yard at Peakes
I had met Peter through a doctor who had given me his e-mail address and told me he was the person who could organize anything in South America. After a few emails were traded, I think Peter could organize anything in the world, including getting us from the airport to the boat. He arrived in his SUV to just about manage getting our seven bags aboard and delivered us to Chagauramas on the north western tip of his adopted home.
Peter and his wife, Sheila.
Excited to see the boat, and connect with Ken who had spent a week aboard getting this ready, we had much to catch up on. I had scheduled the launch of “El Gecco” for the next day. Coming back from an errand, there she sat in the slings waiting to be splashed. Darlene was on deck and all excited. Ken was running around with a paint brush finishing up the anti fouling he could not get to under the supports. 2 hours ahead of schedule, our new yacht was launched and we motored out to the mooring field. I stood behind the wheel of my new stead, proud, exhausted and full of anticipation of things to come.
El Gecco being launched
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