7 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We’re just waiting for our passports, so I took advantage of our good internet connection and had an administration day.
Glenys did some more sewing in the morning and spent the afternoon ashore doing the laundry and taking advantage of the showers to dye her hair. It was supposed to be auburn, but has come out a bit more ginger than she would have liked. I must admit it was a shock when I saw her the first time. She’s hoping that the sun will bleach the colour out quickly.
I waited too long to go and pick up the wind generator – the place was all shut up just after four o’clock. I’m a bit frustrated. Being a Monday, we went to the TTSA pot luck barbeque and supped a large number of beers.
8 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys went to a shopping mall to do a last shopping trip assuming that we’ll be leaving on Thursday.
I went to Kiss Energy in the morning and Doug was actually there. He looked very tired and confided to me that he’s having a few cash flow problems and his workers are just sitting about. The guy who was doing my generator hadn’t turned in yet. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I explained that we were hoping to leave on Thursday and Doug said that he’d have it sorted by then.
Back on the boat, I did a few jobs before picking Glenys up with her shopping. Just after lunch we received a phone call saying that our passports had arrived. I jumped into the dinghy and rushed over to get them. We were so happy to see 10 year, multiple entry, B1/B2 visas in our passports. All I had to do now was get the wind generator back.
I waited until half past one and then went back to see Doug. The generator was still in bits and there was no sign of any workers. Doug managed to find the guy, who appeared to be working in an engineering shop next door. No doubt picking up my mildly panicking body language, the guy agreed to change the thermostats and reassemble it for me and told me to come back in fifteen minutes.
Twenty minutes later, I walked out of there clutching my wind generator like a long lost baby. I don’t know whether it will work, but I’ve got it back. Doug wouldn’t accept any money for the work, which was good of him. Perhaps that’s why he has cash flow problems.
We had a quiet night in, planning what we have to do tomorrow before we can leave on Thursday.
9 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I fitted the wind generator back onto the arch, which only took 90 minutes – not too bad. There’s been no wind today, so I have no idea whether it works or not.
I checked the engine and tidied up, then read a book for the rest of the morning. After lunch, we went to customs and immigration and told them that we were going to Tobago. We then went to the supermarket and bought two cases of beer and 8 large bottles of Coca Cola - which only costs £0.75 for a 2 litre bottle.
Our plan is to get fuel first thing in the morning, then sail 20 miles around to La Vache Bay on the north coast. We’ll anchor there for the afternoon and then leave at midnight to head for Tobago. The wind and current will be against us and we’ll be motoring up the coast taking advantage of the lighter winds at night. We should be at the north east tip of Trinidad at dawn and can then sail hard on the wind to Store Bay in Tobago. Well that’s the plan anyway. We’re pretty excited about seeing clear water and reefs again after two weeks of the dirty, brown water of Chaguaramas.
10 November 2011 Chaguaramas to Store Bay, Tobago (Day 1)
Straight after breakfast, we went over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We were on our way before half past eight. Just after Gasparillo Island, Glenys spotted “Blackthorn Lady” heading into Chaguaramas, so we went over and had a chat for ten minutes, while we both drifted in the current. They spent last night in Scotland Bay after arriving back from Tobago. They spent two weeks in Store Bay and saw the rest of the island by car.
We motored out past Monos Island and headed up the north side of Trinidad. The wind was against us, but only about ten knots. However there was a 2 metres swell against us. We went into La Vache Bay which is very isolated, steep sided and with jungle coming down to the water. The skies were overcast and the place looked spectacular but a bit forbidding. There was a swell hooking into the bay and we couldn’t find a calm area to anchor so we decided to go around to Maracas Bay, which is three miles further up the coast.
It was a mission going those three miles, the wind picked up and so did the seas. We were only making 1 knot over the ground at one point – I suspected that our propeller was fouled up.
Maracas Bay is a huge bay with three beaches. Two of them are very popular tourist beaches with fast food stalls, but those beaches are exposed to the full might of the swell coming into the bay and have crashing surf. The third beach is tucked up around the north side of the bay and is much more protected. We anchored off the beach in 8 metres of water, but we were still rocking and rolling in the swell. We decided to stay and leave at ten o’clock at night.
I put my snorkelling gear on and had a look at the propeller, which was completely covered by ¼” of barnacles. It was clean 18 days ago when we arrived in Chaguaramas Bay – it’s an astounding growth rate. I spent 30 minutes scraping the barnacles off, which was a bit of a mission because the boat was pitching up and down so much.
We put the dinghy up on deck and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading. The anchorage was so unsettled that we decided to start our watches at seven o’clock with me going to bed while Glenys sat on anchor watch. We left at quarter past ten, motoring into steep, two metre seas with 15 -20 knots across the deck directly against us. It was a horrible motion with the waves stopping us dead every so often.
11 November 2011 Chaguaramas to Store Bay, Tobago (Day 2)
The steep seas continued all night and slowed us down. As dawn broke, we were still six miles from the tip of Trinidad. The current had picked up, dropping our speed over the ground to 1½ knots, and was pushing us north towards Tobago.
I decided to head more north and try to get through the fast current as soon as possible. The current was so strong that in order to maintain a course over the ground of 030°M, I had to head at 070°M. The wind was still on our nose, so we had to continue to motor sail. We kept to the east of Wasp Shoal and once past that our course was more northly allowing us to switch the engine off for a couple of hours. We caught a nice sized Horse Eye Jack on the way.
We arrived in Store Bay at ten o’clock and anchored among ten other yachts. The place is beautiful with blue waters, coconut palms hanging over white beaches and waves crashing onto coral reefs. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to sit and stare because we had to go into Scarborough to clear in. There are no Maxi taxis here, but there are cars that are communal taxis and it only cost £0.60 each to go six miles into the main town. It was chaos in Scarborough, the taxi driver said that Fridays was always very busy because most people get paid today.
It was very quick to check in. Customs just booked us in, but Immigration wants us to tell them when we go to the north of the island – it will be a pain having to come into Scarborough again. Oh well. We walked around in the beating sun trying to find a nice local restaurant, but ended up in Churches Chicken which is very, very similar to KFC.
Back on the boat, we slept for an hour or so in the afternoon and had fish satay before going to bed early.
12 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It rained heavily last night - the dinghy had two inches of water sloshing about. The sky was very overcast and it rained all day with a couple of heavy squalls thrown in.
Glenys took advantage of the rain water and spent all day in her swimming costume, cleaning the teak toe rail and the top sides. Meanwhile, I mooched about all day, reading, playing the clarinet, doing some admin and feeling a little guilty at the sight of Glenys working away.
It continued to rain as night fell. We had some more of the fish and a quiet night reading.
13 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
We woke up to sunshine and I managed to potter about and do a few little jobs before the clouds started to build up and it started to rain again. Glenys was tired after her hull scrubbing exertions yesterdays and read in the morning.
After lunch, we saw a gap in the clouds and dinghied a mile over to Buccoo Reef to have a look for somewhere to snorkel. The reef is huge but very shallow, so we were looking for somewhere with a drop off. The water was very cloudy and we didn’t find anywhere that looked appealing. A huge bank of black clouds was approaching from the east, so we gave up and scooted back to the boat. Ten minutes later, we have 25 knot winds and torrential rain.
So it was reading, playing the clarinet and lounging about for the rest of the day.