July to November 2006
The approach to Trinidad was dominated by a series of squalls. We were already edgy from the overnighter and all of the lightening over the Venezuelan coastline.
At times we could see Equinox and Chez Freddy in front of us just disappear into a wall of rain the squall would sweep the water with. We were already nervous about coming up to the legendary Bocas which are a series of channels between Trinidad and Venezuela. The currents here are extremely strong funneling all the water from the Orinoco watershed at the north into the Caribbean. It is not unusual to have standing waves at the channel mouths. The Bocas were named by Columbus on his third trip who thought they resembled a dragon's mouth. We came in under cloudy but clearing conditions up the Mono boca between Trinidad and Monos Island passing the beautiful Scotland Bay where a lot of boats come just to get away from Chaguramas or to stage for a jump north. The landscape was very lush, steep and rocky and if you anchor there the air is filled by the Howler monkey screams. At the end of the Boca we turned to port and entered Chaguramas anchorage. Chaguramas is a large industrial port with the eastern corner dominated by a growing yacht industry. The port is home to a large dry dock type facility which services oil rigs, ferries, freighters and a large fishing fleet comprised of Asian vessels. Anchoring here is a drag (no pun intended) with a scoured bottom full of junk with a few wrecks. Chaguaramas has a long and colourful history see-sawing for years between Spanish and British interests and becoming an American naval base for years until liberated by a groundswell of nationalistic fervor in the fifties. The yacht area has twenty or so mooring balls for rent but the anchorage does roll and surrounded by hills it can get very hot with little breeze getting through the hills. The anchorage ends with a small local fishing village tucked at the eastern end. This makes for a very busy place with a lot of wake which can send all the boats tied to the slips into some serious rolling. All speed restrictions are ignored. All the sailing directions tell you that you must tie up a customs and immigration dock before checking in. The dock holds about two forty foot boats. When we came in, it was in a wave of twelve boats all tired wet and frustrated. Check-in takes about an hour so you can imagine the line up. Doing this again I would just anchor out. In all of our travels in the last year only in Luperon in the DR did any official come on board and that was for Agricultural and a bit of palm greasing for the Commandant. Almost everywhere it just is a job creating money grabs with usually a lackadaisical air. There are five large yards hosting an array of marine services. Crews Inn and marina is the most expensive with an upper crust air, followed by Coral Cove which also has a marina.
To the east is a smaller marina at Tropical Marine complex to the west of Coral Cove is Power Boats, then Peakes both very large haul out yards. Further to the west is the IMS complex which is industrial but has room for yachts and sports the advantage of having a concrete base. There are chandleries and services for all your needs. Virtually all of these facilities are under ten years of age and have exploded in growth since hurricane Ivan three years ago. The huge cost of insurance payouts from Ivan forced the insurance companies to move the restricted area for hurricane season from 12.40 degrees to 10.50 degrees creating a growth industry for Trinidad. This has brought about a boomtown atmosphere with all the characteristics of any sudden growth from lack of skilled tradesman and demands of payment at US rates for anything from slips to service. The prevailing local wisdom is that if you are a yachtie you are a walking talking distributing money machine. At some point though, through costs, over crowding, a hurricane or security issues this golden goose will be cooked. I don’t think the Trini’s get it and it has all the trappings of a boomtown bust.
Trinidad customs and immigration are renowned for their attitudes, but we had no problems at either and I must add the Trinidad customs staff was very professional and courteous. Check-in fees were minimal and we were given a ninety day visa on the spot. After checking in we moved further east and around to the anchorage at TTSA which had a nice breeze with a bit of chop. As usual we had a lot of leaks in the forward cabin so laundry and drying things out were our first priority. This would also be out first project to get this aggravating problem fixed.
After two days we moved back around to Chaguaramas and checked in to Coral Cove Marina which was to be our home for the next four months. We occupied slip #1 at the wall which was fine unless there was a lot of wake that set off Seacycle rolling with the waves off the wall turning her into a pendulum.
Coral Cove holds about 35 boats, has a shopping compound with a convenience store, pizzeria, electronics, marine, hardware and cell phone stores. They also have hotel rooms and a good size haul out yard. It is bordered by a road which in turn is bordered by the jungle which every evening is home to thousands of parrots. There is twenty four hour security but that still doesn’t prevent minor thefts including some dinghies. The marina has a gazebo and small pool so after working there was a lot of r& r and every Sunday evening a communal bbq.
A lot of the cruisers were what I call class of 06 down like us for the first time and taking short trips home. Boat projects were everyone’s priority. After a year out you finally start to find out what your boat can do and can’t, does need and doesn’t need. If we could get back half of the money we spent on all the useless items we were told we had to have to either live comfortably or prepare for the perfect storm we would have saved a bundle. This is the place to start sorting it all out. We decided to spend July on small stuff since we were going home in August for a while and then get into the big stuff upon our return. We started with getting use to the prices and organizing sail repairs, rigging adjustments and some interior woodwork. The exchange rate is 6 Trinidad dollars for one US. We had also lucked out the last year with our dollar up at least 15 cents to the ninety cent range, helping our spiraling out of sight budget. Cruising guides tell you to budget one and a half times your anticipated budget the first year. Well I think you should double it. So many things you buy and put on board are not needed. Any port that has ship chandleries has you worshiping at the marine store alters. Want over rides reason regarding need and that old saying cruising costs whatever you have suddenly becomes crystal clear. Hopefully experience and a thinning wallet will cure this.
Trinidad is not a tourist destination. If you are a traveler there is lots to see, but this is not a touristy Caribbean isle. For us in July the big thing was trying to see the big Leatherback Turtles come ashore and lay their eggs. Trinidad’s north eastern beaches are world renown for this. Turtles born here leave as hatchlings and with that mysterious homing instinct return as 1500 to 2000 pound mammoths. They return to the same beach of their birth after a trip of thousands of miles riding the Gulf Stream and other currents feeding on jellyfish. We watched hundreds of small hatchlings bust out of the sand and make their way to the sea. The survival rate is small and the beaches were covered with broken shells and large vultures and other birds. On the second try we were rewarded with a medium size female around midnight.
Total time from crawling up the beach till her return to the water was around 3 ½ to 4 hours. She dug a hole with her flippers, laid her eggs, covered the site, camouflaged it and returned to the sea. Very cool watching a ritual unchanged for a million years. All the pictures we took were in infra red so sorry you really have to look. The turtles are in a type of bliss like state but the guides won’t allow any flash cameras in case it spooks them. By the time you travel back to your boat (three hour drive) it is early morning.
The rest of July was spent on small boat projects with lots of time getting acquainted with the area and locals. To get to the city of Port-O-Spain you stand on the side of the road and wait for a jitney (mini van). All the vans sit up to 15 but they will cram more in. The total cost three trini dollars. There is also a great service for cruisers run by Jesse James and his crew called Members Only. It costs a little more but is only for cruisers and they don’t pick up other passengers. There are two malls at this end of the island both modern and air conditioned. While shopping is not the smorgasbord you get a home there is ample choice. Port-O-Spain is the largest city and is vibrant to say the least. There is a main downtown core which in places still sports some of the old Caribbean architecture with the large wide upper porches and woodwork. Music is constant and blaring with much sidewalk vending activity. From the downtown you walk north to the city’s open Savannah area with its older colonial buildings and spacious greenery. When shopping many things are available but many things are not. There are not a lot of electronic choices on the island. Computer items are also very hard to come by even though there are stores like Laptop City, the choices are limited. You also pay a hefty premium. On Seacycle we carried over 700 cd’s many of them originals. Because of the number of boarding and robberies in the islands we were worried about losing them so everything was finally put on the computer which meant buying an external hard drive which turned out to be the last one on the island. Everything was then transferred to an I pod and the cds were shipped home. We figured we paid an extra 150 US for the Ipod over the cost at home. Loss of the cds would have been around 8000 dollars so it was a no brainer. Back in 2000 we were boarded and robbed in Grenada and at the time we lost 50 cds and 400 cash. I figured somewhere in the Caribbean some natives are still trying to decipher the mumblings of Tom Waits and Dylan.
Finally in early August we flew home to visit family and friends. I stayed for twelve days and Deb a month.
We tried to see everyone but we had left Seacycle in the water and I was anxious to get back and start on the big jobs. My apologies to everyone we missed we just ran out of time. One interesting side note when landing in Miami to catch our connection to Toronto we were held up coming in on the runway when President Bush arrived basically shutting down the airport for half an hour. This led to a wild run through the bewildering Miami airport including a necessary immigration check in to catch our connection at the other end of the airport. When flying back I thought would be better prepared but unfortunately I flew out the day after the English terror plots. I even chucked the last of my insulin knowing there was more on Seacycle just so I wouldn’t have to go through any arguments about liquids. Well the best laid plans. The originating flight came in to Toronto one hour late. By the time we got to Miami and landed I had twenty minutes to get from terminal E to terminal A. Thankfully in Toronto you do your US immigration and customs, plus I had no luggage just my knapsack. As I started through the airport I recognized some fellow travelers from Toronto a Trinidad family headed in the same direction. The women were wearing burkas and carrying luggage. They too were racing from Terminal A to E and in my best Sir Galahad mode told them not to fear for I would race ahead and hold the plane for them. Well in one of those old age bench mark scenes I did my best Ben Johnson and sprinted off. Three coronaries later I arrived at the gate #25 last and furthest in Terminal A, puffing and sweating, as I was telling the gate attendant an entire family was behind me hurrying along I realized they were already getting in line behind me. Some illusions die hard.
Everything was fine back at Seacycle and I started by ripping of the front toe rails and getting into it. Over the next ten weeks we stripped woodwork, varnished, changed seven ports, painted the cabin sole, lifted the furler and dozens of smaller jobs including more bookshelves and caned doors. Seacycle has been described as a floating library.
Work could be difficult at times especially varnishing. You have to start by 6:00am because by 10:30am it is getting too hot and by twelve it habitually pours buckets till late afternoon, bandanas, umbrellas and mold dominate the landscape.
First thing in the morning you are woken by Parrots and at dusk thousand would come to the edges of the dense forest which stopped at the front of the marina. Remember you are only ten degrees north of the equator here.
When we first arrived five dinghies and motors were stolen in the first week. This continued on through to September when the American colony here finally lost it and called the US Embassy in. I counted at least ten dinghy thefts, three pedestrians mugged walking between yards and two armed robberies on the jitneys all involving yachties. You have to put this into perspective though, by the time we flew home in August the country had already registered 260 murders. All this in a population of only one and a half million people. Kidnappings are daily. Despite the party line there are racial tensions here mostly between the Afro population and the East Indians who were bought over as indentured workers after the end of slavery and now dominate commerce on the island but not the government. Well as usual the Yanks figured they would fix this. Most of the yachtie’s attention was focused on the fishing village where some of the stolen motors had turned up. I thought the Americans were getting ready to call in the fifth fleet. Finally everything culminated in a big meeting attended by US, British, Canadian and German Embassy’s. Just like a town meeting with every body demanding action. Lots of vigilante talks with hypocrisy everywhere. Americans quickly forget their prisons are over flowing with the one of the highest murder rates in the world. At an earlier get together one American wanted to know if someone boarded his boat and he knifed him would he go to jail. Another one complained “They took my guns”, hilarious but scary. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor I managed to keep my big mouth shut.
We broke the work up with a three day trip on the high speed ferry to Tobago. One of the highlights of the trip was a bomb scare after the ferry was loaded, but two hours of bomb squad sweeps had us aboard again. We landed at Scarborough in Tobago and were driven to a hotel at Speyside on the south east shore. This is a clean, lush tropical island.
We managed to see half the island in three days. We will go back with Seacycle next time. All the anchorages are rolly so it will have to be a summer visit when the trades are softer with less swell. Back in Trinidad we also attended the Indian festival of lights Diwali in a small East Indian town past Port of Spain.
Another highlight for us was our first earthquake. We were varnishing one morning and I was looking in the water at a school of fish when the water started shimmering accompanied by a deep rumble. I turned and asked Deb why she started the engine. She was saying she hadn’t when I noticed the pilings and docks were quivering. After a few seconds of this a deep wave of rattling started as all the boats on the hard started rattling. It stopped as quickly as it started maybe 10 to 12 seconds in all. A few hours later a lesser aftershock went through. The quake was measured at 6.2 on the Richter scale. It was very exciting and dramatic and I kept thinking no soundtrack and is that all there is. For the next two hours I kept a close watch on the water levels in case a wave started. Turned out we weren’t far from the epicenter which radiated out.
One interesting side trip in the boat from here is up the Orinoco River basin in Venezuela. There are few roads and most trade is done by river transport. The locals are Indians and the wildlife is supposed to be stunning. There was a small flotilla heading out after the East Indian celebration of Diwali and we tried to get the boat ready but couldn’t make the date, hopefully next year. We decided to leave around November 1st since our visa ran out on November 12th and we couldn’t be bothered with the hassle. Some yachties (mostly Americans) were being forced to go through interviews to justify their stay. We felt the Trini’s were just trying to move long term visitors out. Our buddy boat Ticketoo had just returned a couple of weeks earlier from visiting home in the states and was still waiting for boat parts so we decided to leave with some new friends on Nereia. We finally got what looked like a good window and on November 4th we left the dock at 3:00pm ran west through Chaguaramas, out the Bocas and headed out for Grenada. About five miles off we got hit with the first of three squalls. The rain was so hard we turned and ran with it till it passed. The rest of the passage went smoothly though the wind was too far forward to sail alone so we had a nice motor sail with a reefed main and pulled into Prickly Bay at 8:00am on a Sunday morning. We spent a week there getting use to living on the hook again, swimming to clean the boats bottom and feeling safer and better for being on the move again. We were due in Tyrell Bay in Carriacou for November 15th to be hauled and get our insurance survey done (every five years for boats 15 years old) which was unfortunate since we wanted to spend time in Grenada. One thing on our agenda was to poke in and out of all the small bays on the southern coast so we would be familiar if we had to run and hide from tropical depressions or hurricanes. This would have to wait for another time so we got ready to sail north.
To be continued……..
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