We left Granada at 2:00 pm Thursday, July 9th. The auto helm worked for the first 4 hours of trip and then stopped after nightfall. The auto helms alarm was constantly ringing and winds were gusting to W18. We raised and set sails for a beam reach and turned the engine off. Our boat speed maintained 6 knots until 1:00 am. Around that time, the wind started gusting to 25 knots, causing a strong weather helm and the wheel became difficult to control. On my watch 2:00 am to 4:00 am, I found it quite an ordeal to keep the boat on course…and auto helm still was not working. There was an AIS signal on the GPS Chart Plotter and lights on starboard indicated a cargo ship on near same track line as Navigator and going the same speed. To make matters worse, I saw bright lights ahead which we later identified as Hibiscus, a natural gas oil rig.
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| One of numerous oil rigs in Trinidad's waters |
We were sailing TOO FAST! Yep I said sailing/no engine on, TOO FAST! At this speed, we would arrive in Trinidad too early for customs check-in and more importantly we needed to head starboard to avoid Hibiscus and somehow avoid the cargo ship sailing too slow beside us. Cliff’s solution was to reef the main and the jib. And, surprise surprise, no more weather helm…cargo ship passed us so that we could head starboard and avoid Hibiscus.
We arrived in Chaguaramas at 8:00 am as planned and checked
in at the Customs Office at Crews Inn Marina. There, we met another sailboat
crew who told us that they had been following us from Grenada all night. A bit
later after clearing customs, we were checking into Crews Inn Marina, when a
crew member from another boat heard Navigator’s name and said that they too had
followed us from Grenada. (Hmmm! Thank goodness, we didn’t do anything stupid.)
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| Lighthouse Restaurant, Crews Inn Marina |
Thanks to the slow service from Immigration, it took us much
longer to check in on Friday morning and instead of getting some rest from our
sleepless night, we decided to stay up (kind of like beating the jet lag) and
ate both lunch and dinner out. Cliff
surprised me by ordering a chilled bottle of Mumms Brut, (my favorite champagne) at dinner to
celebrate our successful arrival.
Cliff was also able to rent “a wreck” during our stay so that we could
explore Trinidad. During our first week, we enjoyed dinner at Sails, across the harbor
and brunch at the Light House in Crews inn.
The next week, we settled down and started cooking aboard!
So let me tell you about Trinidad!
The land of beautiful cloud formations, high-rises,
numerous shopping centers, KFC’s everywhere, grocery markets that are almost like
home, truly inexpensive fuel, truly expensive liquor, gigantic offshore oil
rigs, lush foliage, rain forests, warm friendly people, massive political
corruption, a murder rate that rivals Baltimore (but one that only involves
Trinidadians), terrible roads with huge potholes or well-maintained 6 lane
highways. And the worst drivers in the
Universe!!!!
Okay, how about a large city with Caribbean flair!
Okay, how about a large city with Caribbean flair!
One of our first excursions was to Port of Spain less than 7
miles away for the marina.
Unfortunately, this distance is on the two lane pot holed road that is
always crowded due to cars constantly swerving into the oncoming lane to avoid
potholes, the stopping of cars to let passengers on and off without attempting
to pull to the side of the road and the cars entering from the side lanes
without stopping for oncoming vehicles.
Combined with the fact that the Trinidad map bought especially for my
car GPS was not exactly accurate (would direct you to make a left when you
should make a right), getting to our destination was an act of courage,
defiance (playing chicken), patience, diligence and skill (Trinidad follows the
English rule of driving on the right) exhibited by Cliff the driver.
On arrival, we found portions of Port of Spain to be
charming.
We walked by the magnificent 7, enormous Victorian homes that
are undergoing renovation, the zoo, which had
a delightful array of birds that can be found in Trinidad as well as lions,
tigers and giraffes.
We walked by the magnificent 7, enormous Victorian homes that
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| One of the Magnificent 7 |
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| Flamingos at the Zoo |
Alas for Cliff, Trinidad only has one Rum distillery, but it
was an interesting one. Angostura
distilleries is the home of Angostura bitters, which interestingly began as a Venezuelan
Doctor’s formula for upset stomachs. The
Doctor eventually immigrated with his company to Trinidad and founded this
distillery. The formula for the bitters
is a well-kept secret and the herbs and ingredients are imported to England by
special license which avoids the customs authority. The tour lasted 3 hours. Included a beautiful
butterfly display, various historical information and artifacts in its museum and
of course, rum tasting!
In the next couple of weeks, Cliff and I got into organized
mode and prepared Navigator for its first visitor on this trip. Cliff’s friend and I hope now mine as well,
Rick Gatsby flew in from Florida to spend ten days with us and help us discover
the sights of Trinidad.
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| Cliff and Rick at Maracas Bay |
Rick is an old friend of Cliff’s from his college days and
with his spirited personality was definitely an enhancement to this
adventure. He also hosted us for a week
last November at his home in Florida.
So Cliff and I worked diligently at cleaning and organizing the boat and stocking up on additional food and delectables for this visit.
So Cliff and I worked diligently at cleaning and organizing the boat and stocking up on additional food and delectables for this visit.
We organized special trips to what we thought to be places of interest. One of them being a weekend sailing trip to Chacachacare Island an old leper colony until the 40’s and only 7 miles away from Venezuela. The main attraction is a trail to the light house on the top of the mountain.
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| Chacachacare Light House (Photo by Rick Glasby)t |
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| View from the Lighthouse (Photo by Rick Glasby) |
Our next fascinating adventure was the International Pan Concert in Port of Spain that surprised us with the number of middle aged or older adults attending, the fact that the competition included a Japanese, Parisian, and American bands as well was surprising and very entertaining. Some of the Trinidad bands (the originators of steel bands) included incredible dancers with colorful costumes, men dancing on 15 foot high stilts and of course spectacular rhythm and sound.
We set out a couple of days later to the ASA Wright Nature
Center situated on 1200 feet high on a mountain near the town of Arema. We planned to stay two days and were glad
that we did after seeing how high, curvy and narrow the mountain road was. It took that long to gather our courage to
drive back down. We found this center (formerly a coffee,
cocoa & citrus plantation) to be amazing.
The elegant plantation home with its large veranda overlooking the
center’s 200 acres was charming. There were a large number of feeders hanging
from the railings that attracted over a hundred different species of humming
birds in every color of the rainbow. You
could sit there for hours just luxuriating in the mountain breeze while
observing the humming bird antics.
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| Green Humming Bird ( Photo by Rick Glasby) |
The overnight accommodations were equally as pleasant and
airy with comfortable chairs on a screened in porch overlooking acres of trees,
birds and interesting forest animals.
Obviously, this is a bird lover’s paradise and Cliff, Rick and I
represented what could be called a kindergarten knowledge of birds. So we would not have been surprised to be
snubbed by the experience birdwatchers in attendance. However, we were delighted to meet an elderly
English couple who were not only informative, experienced bird watchers but
also very interesting and sociable.
The facility served breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet style
in its large dining room. We were seated
at a large round table overlooking the gardens and pathways and joined by the
English couple, a Trinidadian contractor and a Nature Center guide who married
a Trinidadian and now made Trinidad his home.
The conversation flowed and Cliff, Rick and I were fascinated with their
input about the island. Later at
dinner, we were surprised to meet up with two women and a child who were part
of the Japanese band who played at the pan concert, and the others who joined
us at lunch. Topics of conversation
ranged from American politics to bird watching to the Trinidadian Muslin’s view
on nudity. Consensus: better to murder
than be nude!!
Next stop was the Coroni Swamp where we boarded open aired
wooden boats that seated about 20 people and motored slowing through the swamp
where the guide stopped to point out a snake hanging from an overhead tree (I
refused to look, kept my eyes firmly shut) and other interesting facets of
swamp life.
We finally came to a large opening where several other boats
were waiting and were delighted to see the beautiful scarlet ibis flocks flying
overhead.
It was quite a site to see the
amazing bright red birds.
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| Scarlett Ibis |
After several smaller excursions to the nearby park with its
zip line and bamboo cathedral path and boardwalk in Chaguaramas, Rick’s visit
was over and Cliff and I were back to our routine.
Daily, we listened to the Cruiser’s net which advised of
various activities going on in all the marina’s in Chaguaramus. There was always time given for new arrivals
to announce themselves and one day, I was shocked to hear a man named Bruce on
the boat Wild Matilda announce his arrival to Coral Cove Marina. Seems Bruce Amlicke was a long ago SOS (my sailing club) member
who has been single handing his boat in the Caribbean for many years. So, of course, we reconnected and since he
had been in Trinidad several times, he proved to be a great source of
information concerning the area. We
usually met each week for dinner at a Jam Session where a few really talented
boaters entertained us with their music,
While on the subject of small worlds, the slip behind us at
Crews Inn had two men from South Africa aboard their relatively new boat. One day, the older man started talking to
Cliff and me and when he found out that we were from Maryland, he started
reminiscing about the time he spent at Maryland Yacht Club and talked of his
friend, J. Treuth, who actually sailed to Bermuda with him. Stunned, I told him that he was recently
deceased and that his wife Carol Ann was a classmate of mine from high
school. We were both equally amazed at
the coincidence.
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| Cliff and Jesse James by Touring Van |
Taste of Trini List
After tasting a bit of everything on the list, I suggested
that ice cream would be a great ending to our tour. Jesse being the perfect guide that he was,
decided to end the tour at a homemade ice cream stop near the Chaguaramus
boardwalk. Alas, they were closed and
Jesse apologized to me profusely, coining my name to be Ms. Navigator. So after
a long, and fun day, he dropped us off at Crews Inn Marina along with some of
our fellow tourist.
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| Peakes Marina |
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| Navigator spic and span ready to go back in the water |
Finally back in the water and back at our slip in Crews Inn,
a couple knocked on the hull and introduced themselves as Lee and Sharon on
Allegro. They then invited us to the
weekly barbecue at Crews Inn which for some reason we were unaware. So, the following week we did participate and
were delighted to meet four more couples, some who had been cruising for years.
The following Tuesday, Lee and Sharon suggested that we go off to movies at Movie Towne to see the Bridge of Spies and have dinner after at Rizzoni’s (a great Italian restaurant in the center). This seemed an ordinary thing to do except that Cliff had not been to a movie theater in 20 years and the updated comforts of the theater were a complete surprise to him.
The following Tuesday, Lee and Sharon suggested that we go off to movies at Movie Towne to see the Bridge of Spies and have dinner after at Rizzoni’s (a great Italian restaurant in the center). This seemed an ordinary thing to do except that Cliff had not been to a movie theater in 20 years and the updated comforts of the theater were a complete surprise to him.
With just a couple of days left in Trinidad, we decided to
venture to another Trinidad city called San Fernando . On the way, we stopped
at Pitch Lake, the only pitch lake in the world that you can walk on, the Gulf
Shopping Mall and later, stay at the Royal Palm Inn Motel for the night.
This area of Trinidad has a very high Indian
(Hindu) population and appeared to be a thriving community. On the way back to the boat, we stopped to
see the Temple by the Sea which had a charming view of the sea and brought a
nice end to our stay in Trinidad.
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| Wayne, our guide, lifts pitch from the lake with a stick |
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| Fissures in Pitch Lake |
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| Temple by the Sea |
Next….heading Home!!!
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