Trinidad (8th October to 14th November 2002) The sail from Tobago to Trinidad started out very pleasant. We left early in the morning to make sure we could make the 55 miles during daylight even in light winds. But we had a fresh wind from the start, and we were broad reaching at 7 knots. Close to our destination a squall overtook us with driving rain and 45 knot gusts of wind. We had reduced sail just in time. We anchored for the night in Scotland Bay, a very nice quiet bay surrounded by high mountains covered in dense tropical vegetation. Vultures were circling overhead, and you could hear and see parrots flying in pairs. This was going to be our last quiet anchorage for a while. The next morning we motored to the town Chaguaramas in driving rain. The visibility was less than a 100 meters at times, and the radar wasn’t much use either. We progressed slowly and carefully. By the time we arrived in the anchorage there was only some drizzle, and we quickly identified our friends Vojka and Samo on board Panta Rei, whom we last saw in Grenada. The anchorage at Chaguaramas is not very pleasant. The water is dirty, drilling rigs, tugs and barges are anchored close by, and twice daily all boats turn through 180 degrees at the change of tide. On such occasions yachts sometimes collide and all too frequently one of the yachts breaks free of its anchor. If that happens when there is nobody on board, the other yachties have to go and rescue it. Samo was doing just that when we arrived. We chose to stay in one of the marinas instead. This would be more expensive, and also a lot hotter, because there is no breeze in the marinas. But at least we could leave the boat without worrying about it. Yachties come to Chaguaramas to work on their boats. Apart from Puerto Rico, Trinidad is the most industrialised country of the Caribbean Islands. There are several good chandleries, and whatever isn’t available locally can be mail-ordered. Customs clearance for these packages is quick and free of duty. All major services are available including sail makers, riggers, welders, woodworking shops, haul out facilities etc. We too had a list of things to do on board Alegría. Besides work on the boat, we needed to find a doctor for Tania’s knee. In Tobago Tania developed a problem with her left knee. We weren’t sure what triggered it. We e-mailed some of our doctor friends in Holland, and they all agreed that it was probably a torn meniscus. In Trinidad we quickly found a very competent orthopaedic, a Trinidadian who had been trained in Scotland. He arranged for an MRI scan to be made, which showed that the knee was indeed inflamed, but the meniscus appeared intact. After several other tests he could not pinpoint the cause of the inflammation. The only treatment he could offer was an arthroscopy to see what was wrong. After consultation with our doctor friends in Holland we decided against this option. We are now hoping that the problem will resolve in time. Meanwhile Tania has to take it easy with her knee. So, what work did we need to do on our boat? Surely, there can’t be too much work on a new boat? Well, it was a combination of maintenance and some small improvement projects. On the maintenance side, we arranged for our life raft to be serviced, we cleaned the interior upholstery, and I did a 200 hour service on our diesel engine. We also cleaned the deck and the dinghy. On the project side, we made a big effort to make our AirX wind generator quieter. I filled the pole and the stays with polyurethane foam. I put more rubber between the pole and the deck, and between the stays and the deck, and I sanded the blades with fine sandpaper. All this did indeed reduce the noise, but not sufficiently. We still switch it off at night, and this means that we still need to run the engine every day to charge the batteries. We have now placed an order for a Kiss wind generator. This one is much quieter. We will install it in Curaçao, and try to sell the AirX to some other sailor. For unknown reasons they are still quite popular. Also on the subject of charging the batteries, I installed a larger pulley on the engine. Now the alternator rotates faster and therefore generates more power at low engine speed, so that we can charge the batteries quicker when we run the engine at anchor. Another project was to modify the bimini. When the bimini was up, we could not turn the winch handles on the genoa sheet winches. This meant that we had to take the bimini down and sit in the sun when sailing. Unfortunately, we did not notice this at the time of delivery in Sweden. We modified the stainless steel bimini frame. Then I hired a sail maker to modify the canvas. There were several other maintenance jobs and improvement projects. I won’t mention them all. You get the gist of it. In between the work on the boat, and the doctors visits we also took the opportunity to socialise with other cruisers, and to go on a number of trips to see the country. Chaguaramas has a nice social scene, with happy hours, barbeques etc. We made some new friends. Rob and Jacqueline on board Mary-Eliza, Bert and Alda on C’est la Vie, Robert and Jeanette on Nassau, Nick and Huigje on Sterling and John and Tricia on Trompeta. We met Rob and Jacqueline very briefly before in Tenerife (Canary Islands). Whilst the men are tinkering with their boats, the ladies get together to pursue other interests. Tania joined a writers group. A few English and American ladies get together once a week to improve their writing skills. Tania was the only Dutch member. She wrote a story about Divali, an Indian religious festival that we attended. The other ladies were so enthusiastic about her story that they encouraged her to publish it in a monthly newspaper for cruisers. She was thrilled when the publisher of the Boca accepted her story, and even paid her for it! Tania also formed a painting group. Maybe the group is still meeting once a week, now that we have left. Unlike most other Caribbean islands, Trinidad has large American style shopping malls and supermarkets. This was an opportunity not to be missed, and we made several trips, coming back to the boat with as many bags as we could carry. However, we did not buy too much in the supermarkets, because we heard the supermarkets in Margarita, Venezuela are also very good, and a lot cheaper. Margarita would be our next stop. Trinidad is a mixed society with people from many different ethnic backgrounds. The two largest groups originate from Africa and India. Divali is an Indian religious festival, celebrating the light. On the evening of the festival we went to an Indian village to see it all. First we went to a Hindu temple, to learn some of the background behind it. In the village all houses were decorated with Christmas lights, and people were burning hundreds of candles (actually oil lamps in clay pots) in their front yard. Ladies in beautiful Indian dresses offered us traditional homemade sweets as we passed by their homes. We had a nice vegetarian meal, served on a kind of banana leaf. With all the work on the boat, you could almost forget that Trinidad has a lot to offer those who love nature. We went to see the Scarlet Ibis, in the Caroni swamp. The Scarlet Ibis is about the size of a heron, but bright red all over. In the evening they all come together to roost in the same tree. From a distance the tree looks like it is blooming with bright red flowers. We also went to the Asa Wright bird sanctuary, where we spent one night away from the boat. We saw many very colourful species of birds in the wild, including some we had not seen in Tobago, and a Tucan! Carnival in Trinidad is amongst the best in the world. Preparations take the whole year, and the costumes are truly amazing. The music is dominated by the steel pan, which originates from Trinidad. Unfortunately for the yachties, the Trinidad carnival is in February. Most yachties come to Trinidad during hurricane season, and leave at the beginning of December. For this reason, a "pre-taste of carnival" was organised especially for the cruising community. The event was a bit tame, but we did get to see some amazing costumes, and got a taste of soca music. In the evening of the 14th of November we left Trinidad for an overnight passage to Los Testigos, Venezuela. We did not like the hot and humid climate in Trinidad, which caused some of our clothes to go mouldy in the cupboards. We did not like the frequent rains and we did not like living in a "parking lot for boats" for several weeks. But we could look back on having completed many successful jobs on the boat, and on a very enjoyable social scene. We made many new friends and had seen some of the natural beauty of Trinidad.
Trinidad (8th October to 14th November 2002) The sail from Tobago to Trinidad started out very pleasant. We left early in the morning to make sure we could make the 55 miles during daylight even in light winds. But we had a fresh wind from the start, and we were broad reaching at 7 knots. Close to our destination a squall overtook us with driving rain and 45 knot gusts of wind. We had reduced sail just in time. We anchored for the night in Scotland Bay, a very nice quiet bay surrounded by high mountains covered in dense tropical vegetation. Vultures were circling overhead, and you could hear and see parrots flying in pairs. This was going to be our last quiet anchorage for a while. The next morning we motored to the town Chaguaramas in driving rain. The visibility was less than a 100 meters at times, and the radar wasn’t much use either. We progressed slowly and carefully. By the time we arrived in the anchorage there was only some drizzle, and we quickly identified our friends Vojka and Samo on board Panta Rei, whom we last saw in Grenada. The anchorage at Chaguaramas is not very pleasant. The water is dirty, drilling rigs, tugs and barges are anchored close by, and twice daily all boats turn through 180 degrees at the change of tide. On such occasions yachts sometimes collide and all too frequently one of the yachts breaks free of its anchor. If that happens when there is nobody on board, the other yachties have to go and rescue it. Samo was doing just that when we arrived. We chose to stay in one of the marinas instead. This would be more expensive, and also a lot hotter, because there is no breeze in the marinas. But at least we could leave the boat without worrying about it. Yachties come to Chaguaramas to work on their boats. Apart from Puerto Rico, Trinidad is the most industrialised country of the Caribbean Islands. There are several good chandleries, and whatever isn’t available locally can be mail-ordered. Customs clearance for these packages is quick and free of duty. All major services are available including sail makers, riggers, welders, woodworking shops, haul out facilities etc. We too had a list of things to do on board Alegría. Besides work on the boat, we needed to find a doctor for Tania’s knee. In Tobago Tania developed a problem with her left knee. We weren’t sure what triggered it. We e-mailed some of our doctor friends in Holland, and they all agreed that it was probably a torn meniscus. In Trinidad we quickly found a very competent orthopaedic, a Trinidadian who had been trained in Scotland. He arranged for an MRI scan to be made, which showed that the knee was indeed inflamed, but the meniscus appeared intact. After several other tests he could not pinpoint the cause of the inflammation. The only treatment he could offer was an arthroscopy to see what was wrong. After consultation with our doctor friends in Holland we decided against this option. We are now hoping that the problem will resolve in time. Meanwhile Tania has to take it easy with her knee. So, what work did we need to do on our boat? Surely, there can’t be too much work on a new boat? Well, it was a combination of maintenance and some small improvement projects. On the maintenance side, we arranged for our life raft to be serviced, we cleaned the interior upholstery, and I did a 200 hour service on our diesel engine. We also cleaned the deck and the dinghy. On the project side, we made a big effort to make our AirX wind generator quieter. I filled the pole and the stays with polyurethane foam. I put more rubber between the pole and the deck, and between the stays and the deck, and I sanded the blades with fine sandpaper. All this did indeed reduce the noise, but not sufficiently. We still switch it off at night, and this means that we still need to run the engine every day to charge the batteries. We have now placed an order for a Kiss wind generator. This one is much quieter. We will install it in Curaçao, and try to sell the AirX to some other sailor. For unknown reasons they are still quite popular. Also on the subject of charging the batteries, I installed a larger pulley on the engine. Now the alternator rotates faster and therefore generates more power at low engine speed, so that we can charge the batteries quicker when we run the engine at anchor. Another project was to modify the bimini. When the bimini was up, we could not turn the winch handles on the genoa sheet winches. This meant that we had to take the bimini down and sit in the sun when sailing. Unfortunately, we did not notice this at the time of delivery in Sweden. We modified the stainless steel bimini frame. Then I hired a sail maker to modify the canvas. There were several other maintenance jobs and improvement projects. I won’t mention them all. You get the gist of it. In between the work on the boat, and the doctors visits we also took the opportunity to socialise with other cruisers, and to go on a number of trips to see the country. Chaguaramas has a nice social scene, with happy hours, barbeques etc. We made some new friends. Rob and Jacqueline on board Mary-Eliza, Bert and Alda on C’est la Vie, Robert and Jeanette on Nassau, Nick and Huigje on Sterling and John and Tricia on Trompeta. We met Rob and Jacqueline very briefly before in Tenerife (Canary Islands). Whilst the men are tinkering with their boats, the ladies get together to pursue other interests. Tania joined a writers group. A few English and American ladies get together once a week to improve their writing skills. Tania was the only Dutch member. She wrote a story about Divali, an Indian religious festival that we attended. The other ladies were so enthusiastic about her story that they encouraged her to publish it in a monthly newspaper for cruisers. She was thrilled when the publisher of the Boca accepted her story, and even paid her for it! Tania also formed a painting group. Maybe the group is still meeting once a week, now that we have left. Unlike most other Caribbean islands, Trinidad has large American style shopping malls and supermarkets. This was an opportunity not to be missed, and we made several trips, coming back to the boat with as many bags as we could carry. However, we did not buy too much in the supermarkets, because we heard the supermarkets in Margarita, Venezuela are also very good, and a lot cheaper. Margarita would be our next stop. Trinidad is a mixed society with people from many different ethnic backgrounds. The two largest groups originate from Africa and India. Divali is an Indian religious festival, celebrating the light. On the evening of the festival we went to an Indian village to see it all. First we went to a Hindu temple, to learn some of the background behind it. In the village all houses were decorated with Christmas lights, and people were burning hundreds of candles (actually oil lamps in clay pots) in their front yard. Ladies in beautiful Indian dresses offered us traditional homemade sweets as we passed by their homes. We had a nice vegetarian meal, served on a kind of banana leaf. With all the work on the boat, you could almost forget that Trinidad has a lot to offer those who love nature. We went to see the Scarlet Ibis, in the Caroni swamp. The Scarlet Ibis is about the size of a heron, but bright red all over. In the evening they all come together to roost in the same tree. From a distance the tree looks like it is blooming with bright red flowers. We also went to the Asa Wright bird sanctuary, where we spent one night away from the boat. We saw many very colourful species of birds in the wild, including some we had not seen in Tobago, and a Tucan! Carnival in Trinidad is amongst the best in the world. Preparations take the whole year, and the costumes are truly amazing. The music is dominated by the steel pan, which originates from Trinidad. Unfortunately for the yachties, the Trinidad carnival is in February. Most yachties come to Trinidad during hurricane season, and leave at the beginning of December. For this reason, a "pre-taste of carnival" was organised especially for the cruising community. The event was a bit tame, but we did get to see some amazing costumes, and got a taste of soca music. In the evening of the 14th of November we left Trinidad for an overnight passage to Los T e s t i g o s , Venezuela. We did not like the hot and humid climate in Trinidad, which caused some of our clothes to go mouldy in the cupboards. We did not like the frequent rains and we did not like living in a "parking lot for boats" for several weeks. But we could look back on having completed many successful jobs on the boat, and on a very enjoyable social scene. We made many new friends and had seen some of the natural beauty of Trinidad.