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It ain’t ‘alf ‘ot ‘ere so fog, ice and solitude call…… Yet
another pile of drivel from the sunny Caribbean!! Actually if you had seen
the rain over the last week or so you would all be having a sly chuckle.
But it is hot, regularly 89F but humid too.
So where are we? In Trinidad about one week from carnival and true
to form we’re about to head off and miss it
Trinidad is very mountainous and almost rain foresty and whilst the
levels of violence are reportedly very high, in this area, which is geared
up specifically for yotties, it seems to be rare. Boatyards abound and
virtually any job can be completed here. Not sure about gaffer work but
there are yachts laid up, owners or employees working on them. Some yards
have workshop areas set aside so you can use a vice or power tools,
chandleries are everywhere and with the heat it is a good place to get
work done. Reputedly out of the hurricane belt makes it a strong
attraction too. Wandering around one of the yards we came across a boat
that had sailed from Quayside in late 2001 and was trussed up awaiting the
owner’s return. At least Melika, the boat in question, looked loved as
many seemed to have been abandoned. It’s probably a good place to buy a
boat cheaply although VAT etc would bump the price up. But on with the
tale. We hung around Martinique for a few weeks before heading south to the Grenadines and specifically Bequia.
Port Elizabeth, Bequia What
a great place, very laid back with an Eighties Goa feel about everything.
Rasta veg. markets where good humoured hassle equates to slightly over the
top prices, busy anchorage with a multitude of nationalities, boat taxis,
boat bread man and coolest of all a boat that delivers diesel, fresh water
and collects laundry. I can see that going down very well on the Hamble.
We met up with Nancy from our yard back in England who flew into Barbados
then a small inter island plane down to a tiny airstrip. Before she
arrived we had sailed around to the other side of the island for a change.
Friendship Bay is small, has a hotel and little else but had it not been
rolly we may well have stayed a few days. But a poor nights sleep saw us
up and ready to go. Bee began to bring up the anchor but found it solid.
We backed off, moved the boat around and still couldn’t budge it. Bee
dived in to check the problem and eventually surfaced with a look of
incredulity on her face. Our chain had snarled a wreck….we were in 6
metres of water and neither of us is capable of diving that deep. I
decided to row around the anchorage and ask the few boats around if anyone
had a diver on board. The first boat, a very large, expensive something
from Norway didn’t but the guy reckoned he could scuba dive and sort it.
Having gone down to check he surfaced to calmly tell us we had wrapped
around the engine block but freeing it was not a problem. It wasn’t and
within minutes he’d sorted us out. Lesson 1 DO NOT ANCHOR IN DEPTHS YOU
CANNOT DIVE DOWN TO. So
with Nancy on board we pottered around, a gentle sail down to Tobago Cays,
a stunning area of reefs, coral and turquoise seas.
Tobago Cays anchorage Its
overcrowded now of course with too many boats at anchor but it was a
wonderful place to be. We met up with friends again before going onto
Union Island for a couple of days. Did some walking, following a road in
the heat of the midday sun and sweated buckets as it climbed a 25%
gradient. Bee, in the lead of course, turned at the two dripping, semi
comatose, figures in her wake and announced that the road has ended. And
so it had. Ahead lay a faint path through scrub and onward we plunged. But
thorns and a lack of path defeated us and we returned to the road and a
downhill journey to the boat. The islands are very different and if Bequia
was Goa then Union resembled a cross between Blackpool and the Wild West. A reef upon which an enterprising local had built a bar protected the anchorage… The alcoholic type..
Union Island anchorage Finally
as time was getting on we set off for Tobago to allow Nancy to unwind from
the rigours of gaffer sailing before flying back to England. Unfortunately
the wind direction made Tobago an uncomfortable beat so we headed for
Trinidad instead. Nancy, well used to our very slow beating is convinced
that gaffers will never catch on as a rig but was happy enough to go to
Trini and was heard to mutter, “If this is a test drive I’ m not
buying”! We duly arrived some 20 hours later heading into Chagauramas as
the tide was ebbing. I realised it was ebbing cos we were swept toward a
collection of anchored tugs and lighters. We edged past them and found
ourselves in deep water and at that precise moment the engine cut out. No
we didn’t have sails ready to hoist so simply dropped the
anchor……….in 32 metres …..Lesson 2, ignore Lesson 1 Ashore,
browsing a local notice board we cave across a request for crew for a
traditional boat to the Panama and so we found Lilly Bolero again. On the
hard doing some much needed anti fouling and with a host of stories to
swap. The yard that they had contracted to lift them out had done so but a
cable on the travel hoist had snapped, as Lilly B was some 4 foot above
the water resulting in two holes punched though the hull. All repaired now
of course and the yard bill footed by the yard so a happy ending. But for
one reason or another one of the families had decided to take some time
away from the boat and this was the reason for the “Crew Needed”
notices. Bee has renewed her love affair with the boat and whilst Lilly is
one hell of a boat I feel a 50 foot schooner is too much for a couple to
handle. But………. A
day or so later and we got the engine sorted out, having changed filters
and bled the engine before discovering a wire had come loose on the
solenoid etc etc. All technical boring stuff but we were pleased to have
sorted it and moved to a shallower part of the bay. Nancy
flew out very early Monday morning and we used the alarm call to head into
town to see about US visas. With the welcome help of a local we managed to
gain access into the waiting area. The security was unreal. Guards who
indicated what you should do but would not speak to you and a waiting area
that resembled a scene from “Year of Living Dangerously” as people
fled Pol Pots regime. But as we were, so obviously, yotties (scruffy and
white may have given us away) and not looking for anything more than a
tourist visa we were in and out fairly quickly. The visas we collected a
couple of days later so we now have 10 year, multiple entry visas in our
passports. Back
on the boat, concerned about our proximity to the main ship channel and
other yots we decided to move. There followed a period of several hours
were we anchored and re-anchored as we dragged and held but always ended
up too close to another boat. Eventually we went back to near the
“engine failure” spot and dropped the hook again. This time we were
in the channel and we would need to move. Bee began to lift the anchor
only to find it jamming at 50 metres. As we were in 30 metres of water we
had obviously caught on a rock or something… We tried everything but
were unable to get it up. The harbour master came by and warned us we
would have to move, as a large ship was due in the following day. So Bee
rowed to see Mike on Lilly B to get some help and between the 3 of us we
managed, several hours later, to raise our anchor. We had fouled a very
LARGE Fisherman type anchor, probably in the 200lb range, and it came up
happily attached to our CQR. Luckily we had spent a £pound or so on some
ice and chilled 2 bottles of Cava and never was a drink so welcome.
Methinks there may be something in this fridge business after all……..
Sat
below, a rowboat comes by and voices can be heard discussing some aspect
of Hannah. I pop up and a voice says “We were just admiring your dinghy,
by the way isn’t this Martin and Roma’s boat?”
“Come aboard” I say to the couple. He does the introductions
and I find myself talking Annie Hill and am so surprised I blurt out
“you’re the bugger responsible for getting us into this……..” How
many times must she have been told that over the last 14 years? By way of
explanation AH wrote a book called “Voyaging on a small income” which
we found inspirational and used it as the foundation for what we have
done. And here she was sat on Hannah chatting to us about this and that.
Actually we have talked to her again and both she and Trevor have
convinced us that whilst going to Maine is ok we should really consider
sailing onto Nova Scotia………… We’re going to see them tomorrow,
coincidentally they sail the same type of boat that the previous owners of
Hannah have recently built. So. The
plan now is to leave here in the next day or so, certainly before the
Carnival gets under way and head direct for Cuba some 1200 miles away.
Leaving Cuba in early April we will call into Florida to pick up charts
and then hopefully hitch a lift on the Gulf Stream, if the weather systems
are fine, up the east coast.
Tobago Cays resident And finally as a demo of what the local populace must contend with we give you a shot of an anonymous crew member dressed for dinner.. ….
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Should
anybody fancy a holiday out here we have met a number of couples
chartering their boats. Ray and Jo are one such and the boat is not a run
of the mill white plastic affair. You can reach them on:
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