Changes in Trinidad

We are writing this from CrewsInn Marina, where we have moved to facilitate our autopilot installation. To catch up, we talked in the last blog about going on the shopping trip on the Saturday. On Sunday Denny stopped over for a visit and although we had intended to go into the marina to meet with fellow Canadians Leona and Bill (Voyageur C - Halifax), it started raining so we just lazed around. Monday was errand and small jobs day. I took the Sea Anchor out and hung it up.

The sea anchor is a 19 ft parachute attached to a bunch of nylon strapping. This in turn is attached to a huge swivel clamp that, when we want to use the anchor, we attach to 320 ft of line. A sea anchor is used when you're at sea (of course) and you run into the kind of storm in which the use of any sail, other than a storm sail for stability, is not feasable due to strong winds. The main thing you want to do is remain on top of the water. Of course during these types of storms the waves are usually overpowering so the last thing you want to do is to get caught in the trough of the waves. The problem is, even when running the motor, the conditions are sometimes bad enough that you can't keep the boat into the waves and wind - enter the sea anchor. You attach the 320 ft rope to the sea anchor, which is in a bag, make sure the bag is open and throw the whole thing overboard. Oh yeah, make sure you attach the other end of the 320 ft rope to the bow of the boat!!! The water pulls the chute out of the bag and it opens out off the bow and starts to drag. Since it is attached at the front, the rear of the boat then swings out behind and the boat is headed into the waves and wind. Due to the size of the chute and the distance from the boat, there should not be much backward movement at that point. According to the old tars I have talked to, you then go downstairs, batten the hatches and wait for the storm to pass. I forgot to mention that there is a line coming out of the bottom of the bag to which you attach any kind of float i.e. small fender, old vinegar bottle etc. After the storm you spot your float, reel it in, which brings in the bag and the chute and Bob's your uncle.

So, back to Trinidad. The sea anchor had not been out of the bag since we got it so looked kind of moldy and gross so we left it hung up to let the elements clean it. It is still there!! Monday we also cleared out the rear hatch where the autopilot will be installed and ran all the cables through the boat to connect everything.

Tuesday we waited for the marina to call and about 11:30 took the boat into it's new temporary home. The slip has a short walkway down the starboard side to which we attached the docking lines. We also attached two lines off the front to two cleats on the dock in front BUT at the rear we had to connect our stern lines to pelican poles. Pelican poles are poles standing about 10 ft out of the water and situated off the docks about 30 ft. They define the lanes for each boat while in the dock and are used to attach the stern lines to in order to keep the boat from swinging back and forth at the rear. By the way, you can also back into these slips and in that case insert stern for bow, bow for stern, front for back and back for front in all of the above. We back up our boat as little as possible because with the 3/4 keel and prop position, it's a b..ch.

CrewsInn Marina is quite nice. We are in the 'high-rent district' - the power boats on either side are probably in the million dollar range. The marina has a swimming pool, laundry, showers, electricity and security plus there is no outdoor bar so it is quiet. The water is just as "bilgy" but we don't get as much big garbage floating around and the boat waves are a lot less. Of course just after we came in it started to rain and there was a big lightning strike and we lost our shore power so were still on boat power for the day. They finally fixed it about 7 PM and we settled in.

Wednesday we went on a full day tour. In the morning we went to the Asa Wright Nature Centre. Very interesting tour with a very knowledgeable and personable guide, Isaak. He could imitate an amazing variety of bird calls and was very quick at spotting and pointing out a huge variety of flying things. There was a chart showing average varieties of birds over a certain size of land - 1000 sq miles I think. Anyway, Trinidad had 234 per and the next closest (the countries included South America, the Caribbean and Central America) had 93. Very impressive displays.

Some of the birds, animals and flowers at the centre.

Crested Orinpendola

Land Lizard

Agouti

Angel Trumpets

After doing the tour, eating at the centre and walking around a bit, we left and went to the Caroni Swamp where Trinidad's national bird, the Scarlet Ibis, are found in great numbers and where the main nesting area for them is. We went out in a flat bottomed boat through various parts of the swamp, seeing on the way boa constrictors curled around branches in the trees, many egrets (snowy and common), little blue herons, cormorants, and Great Black Hawks. We finally got into an area where we could see the Scarlet Ibis returning to the nesting areas. They are incredibly red, with the wing spread of a Canada goose but a much more slender body. They get their red colour from eating the tree climbing crab which has carotene in its undershell. If they can't get that diet, they lose their colour.

Scarlet Ibis

By the way, something to ponder - how many of you know our national bird, our national flower and our national animal. We went on this tour with Leona and Bill and since everyone in the islands seems to know the answers to these questions, I asked Leona, Bill, Cheryl and myself those questions. Guess what - the beaver was the only one we knew. BAD Canadians, BAD,BAD Canadians!! Does anyone out there know the answer - without checking the internet!!!


So, today has been marshall our forces and attack our projects. We hope to get the autopilot done here, re-cover all our salon cushions as well as the 2 from our cabin, get our spinnaker pole working properly, re-finish the companionway hatch cover, doors and entryway and clean the sea anchor.

And so to work!!

To Market, To Market ..........

This morning we were up at the crack of dawn, 0530, to join a group going to the big Saturday market. Basically a farmer's market. Lots of fresh produce. Not a whole lot of variety, but lots of different vendors to buy from. Some of the produce available was local, but some was imported from the states and Chile. There were tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, breadfruit, hot peppers of various colours, yams, bananas, dasheen, papaya, spices, okra, long beans and regular green beans, and a few things that we had no idea what they were. These were for sale inside at tables as well as outside from the backs of pick-up trucks. We bought a few staple veggies and then just wandered around. In one part of the market we didn't go into they were selling clothing. In another part was the meat and fish for sale. We did walk through there. It reminded me a little of the 'meat street' in Athens only not as busy or clean. The meat vendors did not have many customers, however, the fish sellers were doing a brisk business. We still haven't got up the courage to buy any fresh fish mainly because I'm not confident in how to cook it so it will taste good. We saw small shark, about two feet long, one that was completely flat, another piece that was only part of a bigger fish, and many shrimp. On the way back to the bay we stopped at the HiLo Supermarket to pick up such essentials as bread, milk, eggs and meat.

Shark

Shrimp

One Monstrous Piece of Fish

Jaws!!!!!

One thing about having a white deck is as most things white it shows the dirt more than the teak deck did. Yesterday Griff took advantage of a thunderstorm to swab the decks. This was after we watched the storm roll in over the "mountains". Lots of thunder, which is usual, but this time we also saw lots of lightening. We were also able to collect more water, 12 litres. We had been told that after a big rain we could expect lots of garbage in the bay, supposedly run-off from the land. Sure enough today I looked west from the boat and could see this line of brown across the bay. It arrived at our boat shortly after and it definitely was garbage complete with a blue garbage barrel. We hadn't seen it that bad before. Griff cringed and then ran and moved the dinghy so that the garbage didn't get caught between the boat and the dinghy.


Later in the day we stopped in to talk to Bill and Leona, on Voyageur C, a 35 ft Island Packet from Halifax. Actually they were from Edmonton but have lived in Halifax for many years and sailed the east coast a fair amount. We made arrangements for me to meet with Leona to go to town on Monday to look at fabric for re-covering our interior cushions. They also want us to go over to the marina to play Mexican Train dominoes. We may go and watch!! On Monday Griff will stay with the boat and tidy up while he waits for the hatch cover man to call.

Never an idle moment!!

The past couple of days Griff has been a Good Samaritan and helped a number of boats pick up their mooring balls. Today he helped Denny. Unfortunately it did not work out well. Denny mans his boat by himself so he was on deck picking up the line and no one was at the helm. The current caught his boat and it drifted towards a catamaran that was mooring ball. Griff managed to get the dinghy between the two boats, but the bow of Jubilant bumped one of the cat's stanchions and knocked it loose. Denny decided to fore go the mooring balls and went back to Scotland Bay until Monday when he will return to check out of Trinidad and settle with the cat's owner for repairs.

After the Storm