Trinidad

We left Grenada on August 20 th for an overnight run to Trinidad, leaving around 5pm to time our arrival for daylight and customs & immigration being open. We had a good sail for the first 7-8 hours with just 2 squalls passing over us, then the wind died and we motored the rest of the night. We arrived a little before 8 am so we slowed to time our arrival at 8:05 for check in and were first on the dock.

Well we were told what to expect by friends when arriving in Trinidad so it wasn’t all a bug surprise to round the channel and find a very industrious port with lots of large commercial vessels in the harbor. The check in went pretty quickly as we knew where to go from friends on Cape and Serenade and it was pretty smooth. We then wandered over to the YSATT office to check out the mooring ball opportunity and were stunned to hear one was vacated and we could have it. Unfortunately not all is as it seems as when we pulled off the customs dock and into the mooring field there were none available. As it first come gets it we were piped at the post and someone was on it. No worries we thought so we went to anchor, it’s pretty full in the anchorage so we anchored in 50 feet and were on the outer edge.

A large survey vessel at the docks

We had heard so much about and even met Jessie James that our first order was to call in his office and say hello. Jessie’s wife Sharon-Rose was in and we chatted for a while about the SSCA gam we all met at last year and what our plans are the our stay in Trinidad. We wanted to do some tours and put our names down for them immediately. We also wanted to provision Moosetracks and again put our names down for a shopping tour. The first order of the day was to replace our Noodling class and Dominoes games so we caught our first radio net and arrange our week around our favorite activities.

So we began settling in to the cruisers life in Trinidad. Most folks haul out here for storage or boat work and there are around 1,000 boats on land in yards. Most people are away and some are working on their boats. We heard on the local net of the events and soon got into the swing of things with folks based here still. We attended noodling at Coral Cove and met some old friends and new ones, then at our first pot luck at Coral Cove and met some more of the hard working residents. A British couple who were hauled out for a short time were in the middle of the their bottom painting and we chatted for some time with them about their travels. It was amazing when Liz asked where there accents were from that Bones said ‘Clevedon’ where Devin lived as a boy. It turns out he was at school with Devin’s brother and had a known our family growing up! We had not even realized until then we had so many friends in common, what a wonderful coincidence.

Bones and Devin

Coral Cove potluck

Our first Sunday came around pretty quickly and we were off to Crews Inn to play dominoes. It was a great group and lots of fun with all of us having played before it was pretty quick too. Devin was not surprised however when the score were tallied and Liz had won the winners pennant for the lowest score to fly on our spreaders for the week!

Winner!

Well early one morning while Liz was off with the girls to the Mall, Cape came over and told me there was a vacant mooring ball. So Brin jumped aboard to help Devin with the lines and Bethany dinghies to the mooring to hold it until we got to it. Everything worked out wonderfully and we at last had our mooring ball. With a lot of boat dragging around us we felt better being on the ball as we were out of the firing line and this one was tested the day before in a big gust and had held the 40+ footer on it well enough. So we feel more comfortable off the boat doing our land excursions now.

Our first trip was a island walk to the nearby national park at Macqueripe which was a short up hill hike into the rain forest and then a descent into bamboo forest. It was a very nice hike and as we exited the bamboo forest we saw heard a few howler monkeys and managed to get a picture of one the the less shy ones, albeit still somewhat hidden in the trees. The hike ended with a dip in the sea at Macqueripe bay and a most welcome cool off it was too.

On the hike

Big Bamboo

Spot the Monkey

Bones and Anna

Anna and Liz

We had our first Island tour along with Bones and Anna from Emily Morgan on the “Taste of Trini” with Jessie James. It was a really food packed day and covers a lot of the Island as well so we get two birds with one stone. The breakfasts in Trinidad are fabulous and we tried lots of the different types of them from doubles to sweet and savory pies. Our next stop included some of the famous building in Port of Spain and a stop to see the city from the surrounding hills. As the day progressed we had more snacks and then lunch with again some fabulous local dishes of curries and local vegetables. We continued the tour with a bit of scrumping in a cocoa plantation to find pods on the trees and were successful, thankfully Jessie told us afterwards his uncle looks after the fields so it was OK really. The day finishes with dinner in Port of Spain where we all felt really full after 86 tastes of Trinidad's finest food and drinks. Hard to call out a favorite but Doubles, Bust-Up (Roti like), Dasheen and Mauby drink were all on our must repeat list.

Breakfast

With good friends

Historic house

Historic house under restoration

Presidents house under renovation

Port of Spain

Doubles are Delicious

Our favorite - Saheena

A typical fruit vendor

Brazil nuts in their pod - quite awesome

Our group

Photo stop - WOW

A fish vendor

Rasta selling nuts

Fruit

Water melon vendor

Water melon customers - delicious

An adopted monkey

Hanging Birds nets in trees

Scrumping for Cocoa pods 

We have done a lot of shopping here, our first trip was shopping to the Price mart store, a members only bulk by type store. We had a full cart of groceries and some wonderful items at the best prices we have seem in the Caribbean so far. We also did a run into Port of Spain to see the fresh fruit and vegetable market and the Chinese stores for local items. We found some really great bargains in the stores for dried goods and stocked up on lots of dried beans, dry mushrooms and cans, then fresh produce as well. Again Devin had to carry a pretty large load back on the bus.

Market vendor

Heavy bags

Woodford square 

So the next trip was to the Massey supermarket which is in the Mall area. We of course had to wander around the mall looking for a few things as we have not been in a large Mall for a while. Devin found McD’ and BK and managed to start the morning with a large milk shake and was in paradise after a few sips. Liz on the other hand shopped seriously for a replacement to her sun dress, trying on many and eventually settling on one which looks really fabulous on her and since has had lots of great comments. We then finished off by filling another trolley with produce from the super market at pretty good prices. So with a pretty heavy load to carry Devin insisted on a milk shake for the road!

Our next walk was an improvised one with Bones and Anna into the national park again to the conservatory. Well after 1.5 hours walking up hill we still had no sign of the place so we turned around and descended the same way. It was very interesting to see all the butterflies along the track and some of the remaining bunkers used to store munitions in the world war II. We were all pretty shattered by the end and stopped for a bite to eat in TTSA and a for a few cold ones at the bar.

Yes it rains here

A munitions bunker

On September 21st we joined Bones and Anna on Emily Morgan to crew for them in the Bart’s Bash race. It’s a charity sailing event in honor of a British Olympic sailor won sadly dies in San Francisco bay training for the Americas Cup. The event is a world wide race with thousands of boats and hundreds of clubs across 68 countries participating. We had good winds for the whole race and that made it a wonderful sailing event and great racing for everyone. There were a lot of locals participating and lots of them were young kids having a wonderful time. It was great to see so many folks enjoying and wonderful event on the water. Oh we didn’t do so well but let’s just say we were far from last and looked fabulous with the mizzen spinnaker up!

Cruisers imitating racers

Concentration for the start

Flying the mizzen spinnaker

A happy team

Entertainment afterwards at TTSA

Including a Steel Band

We attended a few more pot lucks and Jam sessions at Coral Cove and Power Boats as well as Dominoes at Crews Inn and got to meet many more of the boats coming and going.

Crews Inn  dominoes on Sundays

 We also attended a YSATT seminar with the Trinidad minister for Trade and Industry, they presented plans for yachting in Trinidad & Tabago and listened to cruisers input as well.

Jessie presents to the minister & cruisers

It’s nice to have met so many folks we have bumped into before and hopefully we will see in the coming year.

We hope all our friends and family have had a wonderful summer too.