Trinidad
IIt is a long way from Rotoiti to Chaguaramas and not helped by airline delays. After grandson tussles at the airport in Tauranga, we flew to Auckland to connect to our international flight, chilled out in Koru and then spent two hours on the tarmac. The push tug had broken down. We missed our next connecting flight, Houston to NYC and didn’t arrive until midnight. But the next day in NYC was magic, family time, a birthday party and pizza. I also managed to squeeze in a Yoto recording session for Goldie - four books – bathing pigeons, taco eating dragons, a Māori legend and Peter Rabbit. Up early Monday to JFK, the clusterfuck that is Terminal 5, and another delay. This time four hours - two on the tarmac while the bags were loaded then another two hours in the terminal while they found another pilot.
Finally, Trinidad. We were nearly home free until Customs wanted us to unpack our five bags and show them any boat parts we had brought from New Zealand, I think my tired tears helped and they gave up. The boatyard had sent driver Errol to pick us up at 1600, and six hours later we emerged from the terminal. What a star, even stopping for KFC on the way to the boatyard - chicken, and gin at midnight.
The first couple of days we stayed in accommodation on site - simple, clean, and cool, it helped us to prepare for the hot and dusty boatyard days ahead. We had left a 25° C degree day in Rotoiti, briefly managed a snowy 0° in Brooklyn, and now we were up at 35°! A temporary aircon unit was a game changer and meant we could sleep on NOETA at night and escape to the salon by day. Back to the ladder on the boat trick, up and down across the yard to the bathrooms, up and down, higher this time as we had to be able to make some repairs on our rudders.
But as far as boatyards go, up there with the best. Clean, tidy, organised, we had a double-sided sheet of contractors available to assist with our myriad jobs, and being the quiet season (before hurricane haul out begins), most of them were available right there and then. And what a lovely bunch of people, hardworking, helpful, and friendly, a smile never far away from breaking across shiny faces.
Our list of jobs was long, and it seemed every time we started one, another would rear up, hot, tiring, and frustrating. But the yard has a great onsite restaurant Patches, with lovely staff, a delicious local IPA (Tommys) and reasonable nightly specials, my favourite was parmesan encrusted fish and chips. It also has a cool leafy spot right on the water’s edge, BBQ and tables for a quiet beer with other sailors and local fishermen Wubba and Ragga. We spent a couple of early evenings shooting the breeze, whilst looking out across at a brightly lit oilrig, in for maintenance, it had the appearance of diamond encrusted temple.
NOETA was born in 2018, she is seven years old and things are wearing. They either need replacing (trampoline, rigging, rudder bearings, thru hole fittings, genset relay), repairing (dinghy cover, windlass chain counter, Rainman leak, icemaker, turbo valves, keel) or servicing. In addition, we also needed to get a WOF for safety and insurance purposes (life raft, boat and rigging surveys). And did I mention it was hot? We had left in November 2024 at the end of the rainy season – tropical wet greenness, but now we were in their dry season, no rain, fires in the hills and daily boatyard watering.
The yard is located on the island’s main western road, a long busy road but with a sealed purpose-built cycle/walkway that allows safe and easy riding to many of the contractors, other boatyards, a couple of restaurants and Customs, Immigration and Port Authority, so easy to get around! And with all the rental cars booked for the Carnival, our bikes were in action. The main supermarkets are much further afield, about a 20 minute drive along the main road and too dangerous to bike; fortunately the yard offers a free provisioning shuttle - Errol can take up to eight passengers, only one per boat allowed and it runs several times a week. Either a Massy/PriceSmart run, or Westbees/Blooms run. Massy, we had encountered in Barbados - a wide selection of goods but more expensive than Westbees. PriceSmart, a much smaller selection, but a bulk buy and much cheaper. Blooms is all about meat and imported delights, and surprisingly on par with Massy prices. But most importantly - they all had Anchor butter and cheese!. Time to get a freezer working. We were allowed one hour per store to shop and luckily, I had experienced company on my supermarket forays - Philippa (Australian Kiwi) and Cynthia (Canada) - they were a godsend, advising me where to buy what and checking my trolley to check me out. It worked well most of the time unless of course the store had run out of stock. Florida (US) completed our A team, and I enjoyed my shopping adventures with the gals, especially sneaking away to a pet shop in between markets.
Aware that all work and no play is dull, we made time to celebrate - firstly our tenth wedding anniversary and then taking part in the Carnival.
The traditional anniversary gift is tin and aluminium, and wouldn’t you know it – the radar reflector shattered onto the top deck, pieces of aluminium flying, bless. Another mobile in the making.
The Carnival is an annual event, and the roots of it in Trinidad are mixed – a celebration of resistance to colonial oppression associated with calypso music, but also set at Shrovetide, when plantation owners organised masquerades (mas) and balls and indulged before the fasting of Lent. It is not a public holiday, but everyone stops work, and traffic can be diabolical between Chaguaramas and Port of Spain (POS).
Saturday Panorama night at Queen’s Park Savannah, a crescent moon hanging over the crowd of thousands on the drag as the bands manoeuvred their musical stands through the crowds, great, huge steel pan orchestras competing for the winning spot. A vivid display of Trinidadian ingenuity that transformed bamboo and oil drums discarded by the US military into musical instruments. The open-air food court was bustling and a perfect spot to try my first doubles – delicious, curried chickpeas on two fried flatbreads, mmm.
Queen’s Park Savannah is impressive, a huge park right in the centre of POS, it boasts the largest roundabout in the world. Originally a 1700 French sugar estate it became a public park, was used for grazing cattle, then horse racing, and is now a place for people to play and celebrate. Driving in past huge mansions, eclectic architectural styles, the magnificent seven were once private homes sited near the wide-open space and cooling breezes.
We felt safe, although the country was still in a state of emergency (a response to gang warfare in December), there was a strong police presence, the crowds were celebrating in an orderly fashion and the toilets were spotless. We waited until the winner Exodus was announced, then spent the next couple of hours battling traffic to get home.
We eschewed going to the official start of Carnival on Monday - J’ouvert (break of day) as it is indeed held at the break of day and a 0300 pickup was not high on our list of things to do. The celebration involves parading through the streets, dousing with oil, mud and coloured powder whist dancing to calypso and soca (soul of calypso) music.
But I did want to see the costumes so jumped on a bus Tuesday morning and headed into POS to wander the streets and admire the colourful parade. It was hot, the music was loud, the mas were colourful, and the vibe was friendly and fun.
Finally, all the jobs that needed doing on the hard were done, time to launch, clear out and head north. As always sad to say goodbye to newly made friends, who knows when or if ever our paths will cross. 16 days of gruelling maintenance at 35 degrees, so good to be on the sea, front hatch open sea breeze flowing through.
Although we had originally planned to sail west to Bonaire, it would mean several days in Venezuelan waters weaving through Venezuelan islands. A fellow sailor advised us that Bonaire via Grenada would be much safer, and we agreed as it also gave us a good sea trial opportunity. Our final night, we anchored up in Scotland Bay and discovered that our windlass brushes needed attention! Quick, slow, quick, slow (no pun intended) not surprising after 1,000+ nights at anchor – a job for Grenada. It was a surprisingly quiet evening, green parrots chirping, a sweet lupin-like scent wafting on the breeze and vibrant native yellow poui trees (Tabebuia serratifolia) dotted in the forested hills above, but unfortunately no monkeys this time. At dawn we set sail for Grenada, a long day north, through the oilfields, dodging oil tankers and rigs, and despite the strong westerly currents flowing between Grenada and Trinidad, we made good time, 10.5 hours all up.
