Carnival came to an end and on Friday March 7, 2014 Island Girl went on the hard for bottom paint and other repairs that can only be done while the boat is out of the water and then we will return to sailing in the Caribbean. But what a visit it was, especially since we never planned to go to Trinidad or Tobago. We did a lot of work on the boat and Trinidad, especially Chaguaramas is the best place to do it. Every type of repair shop is available and you have choices in shops and this means completion with good and fast service at reasonable prices. Our dodger, bimini and awning needed a lot of small to medium repairs and all were done in days, based on the agreements. The re-design and installation of our battery bank and connections were all done within 3 days. The welding work that needed to be done was all within one day. The only thing that took some time was the repair of our main sail, but that was the result of some miscommunication. The haul-out did disclose some bad news and more repairs are needed. Although the Suriname River kept the bottom of Island Girl very clean the mud in the river did a number on the waterline and the paint was scraped off and at the same time since Island Girl is deeper in the water than before our trip we have small blisters under the blue stripe on the water line that need to be repaired. This is our first experience to live on the boat while she is on the hard. Power Boats Maintenance Yard is very busy with a lot of hull sanding around us that causes quite some dust. At the same time during the day it is very hot, but at night the temperature goes down so we are still sleeping very well.

We stayed in Coral Cove Marina for a month and this marina is great with reasonable prices and free electricity. So we used our A/C the entire month that was nice for us, but especially for Island Girl. After 3 ½ months on a tropical river in Suriname and Guyana the inside of the boat was very humid and our closets and clothes were smelly and in many places there was some light mold. But the doors can now be closed and our printer paper and books are crispy again. With our bikes we could visit all the places we needed to go to for repair and parts. The marina is very comfortable and we have nice neighbors some of them we met in Guyana and Suriname. With the “Maxi Bus” it is very easy to go to Port of Spain or to the shopping areas. The best place to go is about half way between Chaguaramas and downtown Port of Spain. Here you find a very modern mall with on one side a very good grocery store and on the other side a drug store/pharmacy like CVS or Walgreens in the US. The Maxi Bus is the same system as in the other Caribbean islands, a small bus operated by private owners assigned to a specific route they are constantly driving and so the waiting time is no longer than a few minutes during the day. Most of the Maxi Buses in Trinidad are of a better quality than on the other islands and most of them even have A/C. In Chaguaramas is a Maxi Taxi service and tour operator called “Members Only “and is owned by a very nice and smart couple Jesse James and his wife Sharon Rose. They organize shopping, sight-seeing, cultural trips, 24 hour airport shuttle and during Carnival time transportation to all the events that guarantees a ride back to the marina even late at night. He gives daily information on the Cruisers Net on events and any other important news. He is really the representative of the cruisers in Chaguaramas. After I was attacked by a large pack of dogs he met with the governmental agency and a plan is put in place to catch and remove these dogs.

Dorothy and I used “Members Only” services for all Carnival events except one. On Saturday we went by ourselves to the Children’s Band Parade. This was a wonderful event to see children as young as 5 years dressed in beautiful costumes dancing in the streets. Many are part of a school group, but most participants are neighborhood organizations and so parents are everywhere to support and assist with this event. Finding a “Maxi Bus” to downtown Port of Spain was easy, but we could not find a bus back to the marina due to the fact that the traffic came to a complete standstill and there was no longer a normal bus service. So we took what was available just to get out of town, but had to walk along the coastal road back to the marina. It was a nice walk and it took us about 1 ½ hour. One of the big events we attended was the Calypso Monarch Final on Sunday Night. To make sure that we came in time the “Members Only” bus picked us up at 4:30 PM while the show started at 7:00 PM. We had agreed that the bus would pick us up at 12.00 midnight and that was for us a big disappointment, as we missed the end of the show consisting of a performance of the “Mighty Sparrow” a 78 year old calypsonian we both love and we have many of his records. On one of our first dates in 1979 I took Dorothy to a concert of him in Suriname and we both remember every detail of his performance during this show. Calypso music is one of the most important parts of the culture in Trinidad and Mighty Sparrow is one of the most important calypsonians. He was very sick last year in New York and was in a coma for some time and many people thought he passed away. However, he overcame his illness and a few weeks ago he returned to Trinidad and the Prime Minister announced on the day she left for an official visit to China that the government will take care of all his medical expenses and will honor him with the highest award given to people here in Trinidad and Tobago. Since his return the people of Trinidad and Tobago started a very successful fund raiser to assist him financially. Soca music is taking over but Pan and Calypso are still alive and we hope this will be the case for a long time.

The big conclusion of Carnival is the “Parade of the Bands” on Tuesday. The bus from “Members Only” picked us up at 5:45 in the morning, we returned to the marina at 5:30 in the afternoon and the parade was still going on. Thousands and thousands of people participated in this parade and many spent US$ 500.00 to US$ 1,000.00 on their costumes besides the cost of the Kings’ and Queens’ competition. It is impossible to describe the experience watching this parade. Every band is accompanied by a sound truck which is actually an 18 wheeler fully loaded with loudspeakers. The music was so loud that the fence I was standing against to take pictures was vibrating. The sound trucks are followed by a beverage truck a flatbed trailer with portable toilets and a van or mini bus for those masqueraders who are too exhausted to complete the parade route. The bands are of different sizes and most of the time the small and medium size bands are the traditional bands and represent a social organization with often middle age and older people. The oldest participant is 94 years old! The largest band is called “Yuma” which stands for “Young Upwardly Mobile Adults” and is a more commercial organization that delivers a wide variety of very sexy costumes and entry for people to join the parade. Many of the other organizations that have the same business model split their bands in groups with security guards in- between the groups. Since Yuma parades in one big group they have “extraction guards” in the group to remove people who are not part of this band. Most of the participants in these large bands are women and their costumes are very sexy and they are making exciting dance moves on the very loud Soca Music. A lot of local people and foreign cruisers found their dance moves vulgar. Probably Dorothy and I have a more open mind and we enjoyed the show very much.

In-between the pre-Carnival events we rented a car to make some trips around the island. To call the clunker that we rented a “car” was a little too fancy term but the engine and the A/C were working, we drove around for 3 days and we had a great time. The first day we visited the Chaguaramas National Park that is adjacent to the boat yards and marinas. The interesting parts of the park include the golf course built by the Americans in Second World War to entertain the 20,000 soldiers stationed here, the Macqueripe Mail Road, and the Macqueripe Bay with a zip line over the bay and the 600 ft. Edith Falls that you need to visit during the rainy season. The park has many trails including the trail to the ballistic missiles tracking station used by the Americans in the 1950’s. The longest hike is from Macqueripe Bay to Scotland Bay. Scotland Bay is on the extreme west side of the island and is used by cruisers as a starting point of a sail from Trinidad. One of the nice trails goes through a bamboo forest and with the ongoing breeze you have constant music of the bamboo hitting each other. With the bamboo growing on both sides of the trail it looks like you are walking in a Bamboo Cathedral.

The next day we continued our trip along the very rugged north coast of Trinidad. The road is mostly in good condition but in many places very narrow with very steep hairpin turns with very steep cliffs. The views are breathtaking and we visited all the bays that you can visit by car. La Vache Bay has a few small beaches and steep wooded hills with a view over Les Boqets and Saut d’Eau Islands. The most impressive bay is Maracas Bay. This bay is over a mile wide and has three white sand beaches and a nice flowing river that allows families to swim with their small children in fresh water. This beach even has life guards that we have not seen on public beaches in the Caribbean. One is cautioned when swimming in the bays on the north side of Trinidad since a heavy north/east swell punches the coast and creates dangerous rip currents. From here on to the east the coast becomes more rugged and driving on the road is very challenging. We drove all the way to Blachiseuse Bay that again has a river meandering over the beach and you can swim both in salt or fresh water. This is the end of the road and we drove over the mountains and rain forest over the Eastern Main road to a city called Arima. This city is close to the international airport Piarco where I landed for the first time in July 15, 1968 on my way to Suriname.

On Sunday we drove using the Eastern Main road to the east coast of Trinidad. Contradictory to the Northern coastline this area is relatively flat with a large swamp called the Narvira Swamp. The road along the coast is one of the most beautiful coastal roads we have seen. It goes through an area with palm trees from the beach on both sides of the road. Time constraints did not allow us to drive all the way to the south side of the island, but we crossed the island from Mayaro to San Fernando the second largest city in Trinidad. We visited the famous Pitch Lake located 10 miles south of San Fernando. The million-year old pit covers 89 acres and approximately 300 tons of high quality asphalt is “harvested” on a daily basis. The pit is volcanic and the underground pressure compensates and it looks like nothing is removed. Nearly the entire west coast line along the Gulf of Paria is industrialized with mostly oil related industry including large refineries. Not pretty but very impressive.

Renting a clunker in Trinidad is very cheap. Actually if you need to fill your diesel tank it costs you nothing or you even save money. The reason being that fuel is very heavily subsidized by the government. The local people pay TT$ 1.50 for a liter diesel (US$ 0.90 per gallon), while foreigners pay TT$5.70 per liter (US$ 5.13 per gal). To be able to find a gas station that sells you diesel at the local price you have to go a little away from the marina area. The rent for a clunker is US$ 20.00 per day so you need only 4.1 gallon of diesel to have a ‘free’ car. So the last day we had a nice drive over the mountains north of Port of Spain, did our grocery shopping and transported 25 gallons of diesel to the boat, had a ‘free’ car and saved US$ 60.00.

During our stay in Trinidad we replaced all the lights on board with LED lights to save energy. The last bulb that needed replacing was the anchor light on top of the mast. You can use a bosun’s chair or if you are on the hard in “Power Boats Yard” you can use the free of charge man lift. The lift could just not reach the top of the mast so Jesse our “electric guru” performed a circus act to get the job done (See our Pictures). This was the last part of the work so on Thursday we went back in the water and returned to Coral Cove Marina to wash Island Girl and get rid of all the dust that settled itself on the deck and any other places it could get into.

Now we are waiting for good weather so we can continue our trip north and hope to visit Antigua that we skipped last year on our trip south and will report on that trip in our next blog.