I finally declare the battery project complete. All is done. All is put away. Here are a few pics from along the way :
I’ve also installed the additional mains breaker for the charger. Until now it’s been running in parallel off a 40A breaker. Found a 32A breaker in Trinidad and installed/tested it all today. Another item off the list.
Going to my camera I found some pics taken as we left Chaguaramas. May as well let you see them.
The weather improved significantly yesterday so we were back into project mode. The current focus is finishing off the boxing up of the new house battery bank. Helen cut up the old 8D battery box lids so we can cover the 10 batteries sitting in the welded boxes. I focused on cutting wood and building a box for the final two batteries.
I made the box a bit too small at first and the interior angle brackets prevented the batteries from sliding into the box. Helen had the bright idea of putting the brackets on the outside of the box so I started again, this time ending up with a box with a very snug fit. The it was fiber glassing the bottom of the box to create a waterproof section in case of minor spills and leaving that to set. In the middle of all this we went to lunch with Inga, Hal and Jim where we were able to drop off some parts we’d picked up for Hal.
Today we should be able to finish the job off. I hope to install a separate fuse for the house bank charger and mount the dive tank rack I picked up down in Trinidad.
It’s been raining hard all morning and the result is that the costume parade has been postponed until next Saturday. So today has been a bit slow. It was nice to have the rest as we’ve been reading and relaxing. I ran across a good link to Panorama pics and vid on Bristol Rose’s website.
What a long day it was yesterday. We walked to the national stadium in time for the listed 1pm start of pageant. Due to earlier rain everything was delayed and things didn’t kick off until nearly 3pm. Once it started it was a bit confused as I think things were out of sequence to accommodate bands that hadn’t yet arrived. The first five bands were what’s called ‘Short Knee’ bands. It is very traditional but from our perspective, once you’d seen one you’d seen them all. The costumes were all very similar. They would come on stage and all stomp around accompanied by a chant to the same rhythm as all the others. For a while we wondered if they would all be like this.
Next came a sort of in between act where the band was made up of several groups. Each group had a theme. A story about vampires and slayers was narrated while each group came onto the stage. In the end it was just more stomping around but with more variety and some falling over and dying.
Then it went into the fancy costume parade proper. The bands had gone to a great deal of effort with their costumes. Each band was again made up of different sections. The band would have an overall them with each section would have a sub-theme. The 
sections would have the same costume, sometimes having a single participant with a very elaborate costume. Each section would have a different colour too. At the end they would all come onto the stage together in a riot of colour.
The music they would dance to was the usual thumping carnival music with the usual jumping and cavorting that comes with it.
One of the bands had had a few cruisers help out and join in. Matt and Karen from Where II took part. Matt played the ultimate tourist by bringing his video camera on stage with him.
We left after the last band played but before the results of the competition were announced so we have no idea who won the costume competition. Our favourite was “Journey to the Temple of the Sun” which had an Inca theme.
We will get to see all the costumes again this afternoon coupled with the steel bands for the final street parade.
We went back to the boat for a quick bite to eat and to get ready for the night mas. This time we put on our ‘Digicel’ teeshirts and carried our red light sabers to join Jim and several hundred other revelers behind the Digicel truck. As a result of the Pageant delays the night mas start was delayed from 6:30 to 8:30. We turned up just after 7 to enjoy the build up. Part of our Digicel gear included a flask into which we could have as much rum and coke as we wanted poured in throughout the night.
Once the procession started we made our way very slowly around the lagoon and into the Caranage. We danced along with all the rest and both of us from time to time were ‘ground’ by strangers. I’m not sure of the right term for this but it reminds me very much of what Bonobos get up to and it’s very groinal. We enjoyed ourselves while adrenalin kept the fatigue at bay. Around midnight Helen began to fade so we left Jim to the crowd and made our back to the boat falling asleep instantly.
Despite the long day and lots of rum last night we’re in surprisingly good form this morning and looking forward to the final procession this afternoon when everything comes together. Given the experience so far this will hardly fail to please.
The one downside of all of yesterday was to learn that one of the other cruising boats anchored near us was burgled last night while they were ashore. Just shows that there are thorns in this bed of roses in paradise and we do need to take care.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l9vVbyMKQo[/youtube]
Jeuve began with Jab Jab this morning at 5:30am. That’s not really true. It started about 10pm last night with music throughout the night with the start of the Jab Jab parade at 5:30am this morning. Jab Jab is a reference to the devil. Many are covered from head to toe in molasses or, more usually, used engine oil. Paint, many colours of it, is more usual.
We awoke at 4:45am, grabbed a coffee then headed off to the lagoon to catch the ‘beginning’ of the parade. The parade was the usual trucks with stacks of speakers followed by crowds of followers. It hadn’t started moving along the street when we arrived so we walked towards where the trucks were gathering.
In the dark the atmosphere was a little devilish but overall jovial. It was hard to avoid the paint as some was being thrown around and, more directly, folks in the street carrying cups of paint would smear it on us. It didn’t take long before we began to collect our 
own daubs.
We soon ran into Jim and walked down the road together back again to the start. We saw the tail end of the parade and the street behind in a mess. The parade was a judged competition so we made our way forward to where the judging was to take place as we 
figured that’s where the crowds would be most enthusiastic. I eventually concluded they weren’t really holding back at all and everyone was just enjoying themselves.
We watched all the lorries pass us by again and once the tail end had again passed we headed back to the dinghy.
We motored around to the Caranage to see how the procession was going. It was still in full swing snaking all the way around the bay.
Then it was back to the boat to clean up. We stripped off and jumped into the water to try and get rid of most of the paint. Then it was into the shower for more soaping and scrubbing. We still look a little pink and rosy on the cheeks despite our efforts.
Now we’ll rest up a bit before heading back into town. We want to see the pageant competition in the national stadium which starts at 1pm. We don’t have tickets for this so we hope to pick them up at the door or on the way. More later. For now, here are some pics of Jab Jab.
