Back to Trinidad

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

We arrived back on the island October 22, 2008 at 1:40 pm. Jessie James was at the airport waiting our arrival with a vet, a quarantine officer and the proper paperwork to let Sailor back into the country. At the runway they stopped us right as we passed through the planes door. We couldn’t walk through the tunnel to the gate with Sailor until the quarantine officer arrived at the plane. This took about 45 minutes. At immigrations the vet checked out Sailors past and present health records, then filled out a page long report. Customs then took us two hours, poor Sailor sitting in his little carrier. Jessie and the quarantine officer walked us to Jessie’s taxi for the one hour drive from Port Of Spain to Chaguaramas Bay in rush-hour traffic. All the politics reminded us that we were truly back for our second part of our adventure. (Thank you so much Alex & Karie for taking care of Terra for us!)

As we entered the shipyard’s compound we saw rows after rows of boats standing up-right with jack stands holding them firm on the concrete slab. AS our eyes met Mystique, our minds flooded with good and bad thoughts. As inexperienced cruisers we weren’t so sure what to expect as we opened the companion way door. It’s all in the way you prepare the boat for storage! With all the rain here the boat could be full of mildew, it could smell like a sewer and even someone could have broke into her and robbed us. I became very anxious and had a hard time breathing. Carl let out a big shy of relief as he poked his head inside. Mystique was untouched, very little mildew no sewer smell, just a stuffy closed up smell was present. Our hard work paid off, all our cloths, books and electronics are neatly packed away in space bags waiting to be opened and used. Now it’s time again for spring cleaning and all the preparations we need to do to make Mystique seaworthy again. We settled in and spent our first night aboard.
Our friends Offline, Bleu Marie and Teva are here we met up for a reunion the next day (big hugs were in order.) They all arrived a few weeks earlier then us and have done most of their spring cleaning and preparations and now are back in the water.

Our preparations consists of sanding and bottom paint, new wax job top and side. Inspection of the mast and rigging, dinghy repair, inside cleaning and teak polishing forward to aft a little touch-up stain here and there, new Zink, porthole check, then in the water again. Who knows then a new can of worms can open. B O A T = bring out another thousand!
It’s hot and humid on the hard, but cools off at night. The rain has slowed down, maybe every other day or so. We are working our butts off. I guess it’s worth it because our boat will be safe and look like new when we are done. We have electric but not a potty or refrigerator, they both work with the sea water. Not even internet anywhere close by. The only touch we have to the outside is the morning cruisers net. It’s on the VHF radio at 8:00 am cruisers exchange information and weather conditions. All around us are people doing work to their boats and also living aboard. All we have here on this compound is a laundry room, bathroom with a shower. We have to walk really far to get food and ice. I call it roughing it, Carl thinks it‘s fun. Carl has met a few nice local guys and hired one to sand and paint the bottom of the boat.
When the boat is back in the water, Offline and us are going to rent a car to tour the island and provision our boats with food and other necessary items, cant wait.

Here’s a little info about Trinidad and Tobago:

The time zone is (AST) Atlantic Standard time. (No daylight savings time.) the population is about 1.3 million. Primary language is English. Trinidad covers about 1,864 square miles with the rugged Northern mountain range of 3,085 feet. There is a flat central plain where the bulk of the sugar cane is grown, rolling hills to the South where the main industry is oil and natural gas. The Capital city is Port Of Spain. Tobago is the typical tranquil Caribbean island, with white sandy beaches. The reefs are located in the blue turquoise, indigo green colored parts of the sea, creating diving and snorkeling reefs totally increasable. Sponges and magnificent reefscapes not found anywhere else.

Carnival is the most exciting part of the year on both islands just right after Christmas. Today’s celebration is the most widely imitated festival art form in the world. One of the oldest steal bands in the world came from here. Neal & Massy Trinidad all-stars just celebrated its 72nd anniversary in 2007.

Trinidad

TRINIDAD

When we arrived here all we had time to do was prepare the boat for dry storage. It’s hot and damp. Now is the rainy season here on the island so it rains once or more everyday. We are flying home for hurricane season and will return in October for the 2nd half of our trip.

Trinidad is not a pet friendly island. It’s a real good thing that we didn’t bring Terra here. It was almost an act of god to get Sailor out of the country. First we had to have a vet come look at him on the boat. (pets are not aloud off the boat for any reason) He cleared his health records, then we had to pay this Jessie James guy to fill out the proper paperwork to let sailor fly home. Next he arranged for a quarantine officer to meet us at the boat to escort us to the airport. This all added up to about $150.00 US. When we arrived at the airport the airline that we had our tickets with wouldn’t let Sailor aboard. We ended up spending the night in the airport holding Sailor in his carrier. American airlines had a flight out in the morning that would excepted him aboard. What a pain in the you know what.

We are home now and all is well. I will up-date the blog when we return to Trinidad.

SPICE ISLAND

Grenada

Grenada is a lush green island known as Spice Island, because they produce more spices per sq-foot then any other island. The island lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and south of St. Vincent. Here the currency is still in EC (Eastern Caribbean) the population is about 100,000 most of African descent, language is English but still has strong French influence . They all live up to GMT (Grenadian Mode Time) no schedules no worries.

We anchored in Prickly Bay, just outside of Prickly Bay Marina. Most everyone here travels by bus or taxi. You can stand anywhere on the street and wave a bus will stop to pick you up. Each bus has a conductor boy that opens the door for each stop, he will tell you where to get off if you ask he also collects he money for the driver.

Our 1st day we spent in St George with (Bleu Marie) Jean Pierre and Michele. They are French Canadians. We met up with a guide that helped us find everything that we wanted and also took us to visit the fish and spice markets, St George Fort and the Roman Catholic Church. When we arrived at the church the children were practicing for there graduation ceremony. The Nuns were strict each one carried a strap. Needless to say the kids did what they were told. They are all dressed in uniforms and are neat and clean. We also stopped at the Methodist Church that had been hit by Ivan, the hurricane that hit Grenada in 2004. It still sits with the roof off and in ruins due to lack of funds. Most Grenadian are Catholic.

(Allergic To Cities) Rick and Suzie took us for a sail on their boat to Le Phare Bleu Marina. There they had a 100 year old lighthouse ship. Completely restored, she was beautiful.
Next we took a Henry’s Safari Tour with (Bleu Marie) Jean Pierre and Michele and a couple from (Contessa) Jeff and Carol Lee. We had a great time. We saw the Concord waterfalls, Gouyave Spice Plantation that showed us how chocolate is grown and made into Chocó, the River Antoine Rum Factory that is a 200 year old distillery. Then to Grand Etang rainforest, home of the Mona monkey. I didn’t see one monkey! I was so sad. Last stop Creator lake then back to Prickly Bay.

The next night was the fishermen’s birthday so they put on a fish fry in the town of Gouyave. We took Cuties Taxi and Tours busses along with Bleu Marie, Off-line and Nebula. The fish fry reminded me of a swap meet back home. Little booths lined the streets, but instead of selling goods, the locals prepared fish along with other Grenadian dishes beer and soda for sale. It was fun people were dancing and having a good old time.

Our stay is now completed. We will be Sailing to Trinidad on Sunday June 29th this will be the end of our trip this season. We will put our boat up for hurricane season in Trinidad, come back in November and continue our journey to the Sea of Cortez next season.

The Grenadines

The Grenadines

1. 
   Mayreau Island: We anchored in Salt Whistle Bay along with (8) other cruisers that we know. The beach reminds me of a half-moon shape. Only one resort is on the Island it has tables made out of stone and a bar/ restaurant for our use. Here is where I want to list the boats names that were here, so we don’t forget anyone. When you’re a cruiser you meet a lot of boaters, but to all be anchored in one bay at the same time is fabulous. Everyone choose this bay because it is well protected from the weather. There is a large wave heading in our direction, so we all had that word protected in our minds.
   1. Off line
   2. Nebula
   3. Allergic to Cities
   4. Magic
   5. Bleu Marie
   6. Daniel’s Story
   7. Blue Water Cat (Carl’s Nurse)
   8. Soldier
   9. Last but not least. (Mystique.)

The 1st night all of us got into the water, to cool off. Jake (Off Line) pulled up his dinghy set anchor right next to us. He then began handing out rum drinks. We all went back to our boats and brought back rum and mixers to share. This event turned out to be known as the floating dinghy bar night. We all were pruned from the water and drunk from the rum. It was a Jake attack!!! His label will stick with him until the end of this season, I’m sure.

Tobago Cays: We all set sail to the Tobago Cays together. The little Island that we anchored in is deserted but well known for the snorkeling and turtle watching. Hawk Bill turtles swim with you if you don’t frighten them. I got to swim with two at the same time. They were about ½ the size of me. This was one of my greatest high-lights of the whole trip.

In this part of the Grenadines there are deadly reefs that surround the Islands. If your not careful you can hit one that would surely sink your boat. The reefs were wonderful to snorkel in, and we did a lot of that.

Carl & Jake arranged a trip to a little island that you had to dinghy through the reefs to get to. The reefs are also deadly to dinghies. Rum Island where some of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. When we got there Jake and Carl thought it would be nice to eat fresh coconut. So they headed to the nearest coconut tree. Jake claimed up on Carl’s shoulders with a bamboo stick in one hand, determined to knock-off a coconut. Needless to say they were unsuccessful, but they really put on a show trying. Them two always are on the same team when we play any game. They always win somehow. This time they were a crack-up.

Clifton: Is a small Island with fruit & Veggie stands and small stores. Not really much to see. The main attraction that Carl & Jake found was, Happy Island built on the edge of the reef. Not many people have created their own island as did the builder Janti. He took old conch shells that cluttered the island mixed them with cement and created his own island. You can tie your own dinghy right outside of the bar/restaurant. By the way that’s all that is on this man made island. Quite the place a must see.

Hillsborough: A small island we only stopped for lunch and to check out of the Grenadines at custom’s.

Carriacou: A small island with a working boatyard and a few stores and not much more. The main attraction was the floating bar. It was a small boat with no motor parts. The only thing aboard was the bar and a few seats. If they ran out of something they would call a boat boy to bring it to the boat from shore.

This is where we all kind of went our own way. Off line & Nebula stayed there for a week. That would be way to long for us. Others had their own ideas of where they were going. Mystique headed for Grenada. A 80 mile passage. A storm was on its way and we wanted to head out before we got stranded here. It turned out to be a very nice sail but we did have to motor because the wind was only blowing between 4 to 6 knots at times. Next stop Grenada.

Chatham

Union Island

The Grenadine Islands are just a small hop away from each other. We went to Chatham Bay 1st because of bad weather. This bay is well protected. It’s really nice now that we caught up with our other boater friends that were all going south. We were behind them because of going back to the states for 10 days. Four other boats pulled into the bay that we knew. All with the same idea of a protected bay. Magic, Blue Water Cat, Daniels Story and Solder. The 1st night we all played cards on the beach with two local guys that lived in a tent on the beach. One had a wife that weaved baskets and sold them to cruisers. The guys fished and sold fresh fish. Not much more than a picnic table on this side of the island. Private and nice snorkeling.

The next morning we all got together to hike up to the main road and into the town of Austin. Carl stayed on the boat because he had the flu or something that made him really sick. It was along walk and on the way it started to rain. We all still keep on going. It felt good to be wet. The rain cooled off the day. Austin is a small town. The little stores were cheap, no trusts here.
Rose one of the other cruisers was a teacher. She stopped off at the local school. She met the music teacher that told her to bring all of us to the music room to hear the students practice the steel drum. We all came. It was out away from the rest of the building in the back of the school. The room looked like a large chicken coup. The steel drums were made out of large steel drum cans with the tops dent in and rounded. The students played for us. It was so much fun that it was one of the greatest high lights of this whole trip. The kids were so nice and unspoiled. We found a guy that drive us all back to the main road that lead us back down the hill to the bay. It was a small pickup with benches for seats in the bed of the truck. It also had a tarp to cover us from the sun. It was a windy ride, but us girls kept our eyes closed, we all agreed it was much better then walking back.

Dona from Blue Water Cat is a nurse, she took a good look at Carl for me. She said that he was okay and not dehydrated. That’s what worried me the most, I guess he just needs rest. Next stop Salt Whistle.

Canouan

CANOUAN

Canouan is a small island in the heart of the Grenadines. The island is browner then the other islands we have been to. They are suffering from drought. Wile we were here it rained just a little at night, the locals are hoping for a lot more. As we walked through the small town we encountered chickens and goats walking down the streets. One bank one police station and a few small stores is all it has to offer.

There is a new development on the northern part of the island that is gated with guards at the entry. Locales and visitors need to ask permission to enter. It is said that Trump is running a casino and is offering luxury apartments, a resort and private air strip here. We were tempted but stayed away.

We met up with Off Line the boater friends that we really like here. Jake is painting a picture of the “ugliest island.” He is an artist and I saw the painting before it was finished, it was really quite good. Carol and I did some snorkeling and swimming. Then off we both went to Union Island.

Bequia

Bequia is a favorite of sailors and boaters, isolated en

ough to remain unspoiled, yet lively enough to be entertaining. Bequia is the 1st Island in the chain called the Grenadines. Old traditions remain, boats are still being built on the beach under the shade of the palm trees. We anchored in Admiralty Bay a well-protected Bay in Port Elizabeth. Small hotels, bars, restaurants and shops spread along the shore. The gingerbread restaurant & bar offers free internet service out in the courtyard overlooking the Bay. We sat under the trees with a cool breeze blowing, watching the locals and drinking coffee. We went to the fruit & vegetables stand to buy some fresh local produce. High pressured salesmen they are. They want you to buy some of everything, at a high price at that. We found a few things and were on our way. Next stop, Canouan in the chain of the Grenadines still in the windward Islands.