21 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
A bit depressed today – I found out that I owe the Inland Revenue £1,320 from the 91/92 tax year. When will it ever end! Glenys did school work while I put the old regulator on the alternator – seems to work fine. I sent a fax to Adverc asking them about the cost of a new PCB for the Adverc controller. Glenys went out to the shops in the afternoon.
22 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work while I went into town. I went and picked up forms for a US Visa and found out that we have to pay $20US each. I then went to the Venezuelan Embassy and found out that we have to pay $30US each! I went to three banks – one for US visa payment, one for Venezuelan visa payment and one to get some US dollars and travellers cheques. I then wandered aimlessly about town. Miserable rainy day, so by the time I got back to Glencora, Glenys was crawling the walls because she had been trapped on the boat all day!
23 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work while I went back into town to get the visas. I first went to the US Embassy and they kept our passports until tomorrow, which was a bit of a blow because I couldn’t then get the Venezuelan visa as I had hoped.
I went to a photocopy shop and photocopied a Jazz Fake Book – all 430 pages. It took me 2½ hours, but only cost £14! I bought some sandals and tapes and went back.
While I was out, the outboard had packed up and Richard of “Kaelia” helped Glenys start it, but it packed up on me as well. I stripped the carburettor but I think that it’s still sick! We went out for steak and kidney pie at the bar which was nice. When we got back to the boat, I managed to have an argument with everyone else – tired, drunk and sick of Trinidad!
24 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We decided to miss out Lesson 159 and went straight onto the final test. We had a little ceremony and presented the boys with certificates and a new book each!
I’m glad we’re down here in Trinidad because there are 2 hurricanes east of Dominica. Humberto is at 15°N 42°W and Iris is at 15°N 54°W. Everyone is hoping that they track NW and miss the islands, but Iris is stationary at the moment and could go anywhere.
Glenys went to pick up the US visas – we actually got 5-year multiple entry this time! I borrowed a ghetto blaster from “Kaelia” and started to record the 13 tapes of “Lord of the Rings”. In the evening, we went to play jazz with Al of “Nightingale” and Rolf . We took Glenys’ keyboard, so we had a cornet, a guitar, a piano and a clarinet. It was great fun and we learned a lot! Al got us to play Bb blues where each person ad libs. He kept telling Glenys and me to play what we feel, which is OK for Al who has been playing his cornet for 50 years! My first introduction to jamming!
25 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
The repacked life raft was delivered to us. Glenys went into town to drop off our passports at the Venezuela Embassy. I finished recording “Lord of the Rings” and then started to enter new tunes into “Band-in-a-Box” ready for our next jazz session. We had a quiet evening on board “Glencora”. Hurricane Iris is still moving west but very slowly. Hurricane Humberto has started to move north and doesn’t concern us any more.
26 August 1995 Chaguaramas to Maracas Bay, Trinidad
I was woken up at three o’clock in the morning by the violent motion of the boat. I staggered upstairs and found that there was a 20 knot wind from the SW causing 4 foot waves to come straight into the anchorage. The motion was extremely disturbed, pitching and rolling. I knew we weren’t in any danger but I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up until five o’clock, doing a few jobs on the deck, re-lashing the life raft and tidying up in case we needed to move.
By seven o’clock the waves were 6 foot and breaking and the anchorage looked terrible with all the yachts pitching and rolling amongst the whitecaps. The wind hadn’t increased above 20 knots but, because of the 100 mile fetch, the waves have built up. We listened to the weather and discovered that Hurricane Iris has been down-graded to a tropical storm and is practically stationary over St Lucia with 40-50 knot winds. The unusual SW winds that we are getting are caused by Iris, 200 miles away.
We decided to get out of the anchorage because the winds aren’t expected to back from SW to SE for the next 24-48 hours. We had trouble motoring out of Chaguaramus because of a strong tide against us, and as I discovered later, we had ¼” of barnacles on the propeller! We had a quick look at Scotland Bay and, as expected, it was packed with yachts that had escaped from Chaguaramus. We carried on round to Maracas Bay on the north coast. We had a brilliant broad reach most of the way there and the anchorage is off a beach and beautifully calm compared to Chaguaramus!
27 August 1995 Maracas Bay, Trinidad
No peace for the wicked, at about nine o’clock last night we started to get 20-30 knot gusts of wind, accompanied by heavy rain. We had about 3 of these squalls during the night and then the wind died about six o’clock. We then started to roll as a swell came from the west. Tropical storm Iris is at 15.2°N 61.8°W and is moving very slowly in a WNW direction The SW winds are expected to stay for another 12-48 hours. There’s also tropical depression 12 at 15.7°N 37.6°W, which is the next one!
We moved over to the west corner of the bay and had a pleasant day pottering about on the boat. We took the boys to the beach and I made a judgement error and approached the beach at a point where there was surf. We surfed in OK, but had a hell of a job getting back out - at one point we nearly flipped the dinghy. We met Tim from “Frehel” - he’s the photographer who produces a lot of the brilliant photos at Antigua Race Week. He’s based in Bequia and knows Gareth and Fi well.
28 August 1995 Maracas Bay to Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Fairly peaceful night. Iris is now at 19.0°N 62.0°W and is back to being a hurricane. It has passed to the east of St Martin and we’ve now got SSE winds so we decided to head back to Chaguaramus. Tropical depression 12 is now at 16.6°N 42.1°W and is predicted to be at 19°N 53°W on 31st.
We motored around to Chaguaramus and filled up with fuel. Chagaramus was flat calm, but we could see the damage done to the dinghy dock by the swell. Apparently, the swell dropped off on Saturday afternoon, but then they had 30-40 knot squalls and there were people dragging and staying up on anchor watches. I think we did the right thing going to Maracas Bay. I’m feeling smug!
29 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys went into town to pick up the Venezuelan visas, travellers cheques and a few bits. I stripped down the aft toilet to de-furr the pipes. I found that the outlet pipe had split so I had to replace it. I then stripped down the pump, foolishly threw away the valves and then discovered that I haven’t got a spares kit! Peake’s don’t have a spares kit, but fortunately I have a spare pump which I installed.
I talked to the outboard engineer about the reduced power on the outboard. He can’t do a rebuild because the agents here don’t hold spares for small outboards. He reckons that the rings and valves are gummed up with lacquer and carbon and he sold me a can of engine conditioner which is sprayed in the carburettor. It appears to be a little bit better.
30 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I went into town to get travellers cheques and pick up a few things. I got back to the boat, tired, hot, dehydrated and still hung over. I’m going to have to stop getting drunk at the bar every night! I hate Chaguaramas – it’s rolly, hot, humid, dirty water, poor holding, crowded and I keep getting a hangover. But it’s convenient for getting things done!
Glenys spent the day cleaning out the engine bilge and going to the launderette. We lead such an exciting life! We’re planning to sail away from here on Sunday to Tobago.
31 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
There’s now another hurricane (Luis) at 14.4°N 39.1°W, expected 16°N 51°W on 3rd September with winds of 95 to 115 knots. The other 3 hurricanes (Huberto, Iris and Karen) have now moved north.
It was Trinidad’s Independence Holiday today, so we had a day off work. I spent the morning printing off more sheet music from “Band-in-a-Box” ready for an afternoon jazz session with Al, Rolf and Glenys. They played a lot of tunes that I didn’t know, so I had a confidence problem and didn’t play as well as I should. Al also pointed out that I curl my thumb and little fingers when I’m playing so I need to work on that – more slow scales! We ate at the Lifeline Bar – beer, chicken pie and chips – boring! Time to get out!
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