Having been in Trinidad for over five weeks working on boat maintenance we are finally ready to move on. There is a good community feel about Powerboats and this is typified by the Thursday evening pot luck sessions at the Roti Hut. Yachties from all over Chaguramas are invited and at times as many as forty plus would turn up to chat,socialise and barbecue. It was always a good night with the South Africans trying to teach us the finer points of using the barbecue! There are a lot of South Africans in Trinidad having sailed up the South American Coast it is a good place to haul out for the hurricane season before heading up the Islands or across to Panama.
We had said our goodbyes but as I was washing down the decks for the final time a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the chain plate on the stern was lifting....not good! John and I made the decision postpone our splash into the water and get it sorted. It would be silly not to. We employed a boat builder to chip away into the deck which was wet under the grp and we had a much bigger plate made to hold the back stay firmly in place. We managed to get all the work done in just over a week which I doubt we would have managed anywhere else around the Islands. Son, our grp man did a very good job and all we need to do now is repaint that part of the deck again at some point.
We finally splashed into the water but not before a bit of drama. Orion was in the strops on the travel hoist which was making its way down to the pen. Brent who was driving the travel hoist was then obstructed by a SUV that was parked in our way. Asking around no one owned up to claiming the car so he instructed the 'lads' to get the hydraulic boat lift and proceeded to drag the car out the way and deposit it clear of the travel hoist and out of our way. 'Had no right parking there ...this is a working yard' he rationalised and I suspect the car belonged to a fisherman who had left it there for the day while he went fishing. If he ever got the car going when he got back, I suspect he won't do that again!
Once in the water we went over to Scotland Bay, a quiet anchorage which is spoiled by the amount of flotsam,jetsom and general rubbish floating around. It is also close enough to Chaguaramas for the powerboats to come out there with their boom boxes on full blast and generally ruin the peace and tranquility.
We lasted one night before lifting anchor for Chacachacare, an abandoned island. A former leper colony it was finally abandoned in the 1980s and many of the houses look like they have just been left. It is a big Bay, big enough for all the boats that come along on day trips not to worry us too much. At night we had the Bay largely to ourselves.
Our five weeks on the hard gave us lots of time to plan where to next. There is a rally that leaves Trinidad on the 3rd of September for Guyana,Suriname and French Guyana ...John and I are not great lovers of rallies but this one is very small no more than 10 yachts are taking part, it's reasonable and so we figured we would give it a go. So on the 3rd we are out of here and on our way to Guyana and up the Essiquibo River.
We had said our goodbyes but as I was washing down the decks for the final time a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the chain plate on the stern was lifting....not good! John and I made the decision postpone our splash into the water and get it sorted. It would be silly not to. We employed a boat builder to chip away into the deck which was wet under the grp and we had a much bigger plate made to hold the back stay firmly in place. We managed to get all the work done in just over a week which I doubt we would have managed anywhere else around the Islands. Son, our grp man did a very good job and all we need to do now is repaint that part of the deck again at some point.
We finally splashed into the water but not before a bit of drama. Orion was in the strops on the travel hoist which was making its way down to the pen. Brent who was driving the travel hoist was then obstructed by a SUV that was parked in our way. Asking around no one owned up to claiming the car so he instructed the 'lads' to get the hydraulic boat lift and proceeded to drag the car out the way and deposit it clear of the travel hoist and out of our way. 'Had no right parking there ...this is a working yard' he rationalised and I suspect the car belonged to a fisherman who had left it there for the day while he went fishing. If he ever got the car going when he got back, I suspect he won't do that again!
Once in the water we went over to Scotland Bay, a quiet anchorage which is spoiled by the amount of flotsam,jetsom and general rubbish floating around. It is also close enough to Chaguaramas for the powerboats to come out there with their boom boxes on full blast and generally ruin the peace and tranquility.
We lasted one night before lifting anchor for Chacachacare, an abandoned island. A former leper colony it was finally abandoned in the 1980s and many of the houses look like they have just been left. It is a big Bay, big enough for all the boats that come along on day trips not to worry us too much. At night we had the Bay largely to ourselves.
Our five weeks on the hard gave us lots of time to plan where to next. There is a rally that leaves Trinidad on the 3rd of September for Guyana,Suriname and French Guyana ...John and I are not great lovers of rallies but this one is very small no more than 10 yachts are taking part, it's reasonable and so we figured we would give it a go. So on the 3rd we are out of here and on our way to Guyana and up the Essiquibo River.
Have fun on your next leg, hope all goes to plan, keep us posted. Eddie & Yvonne x
ReplyDelete