Trinidad
07 August 2014 | Coral Cove Marina, Chaguaramus
Ange
Sunday we moved around the point inside the reef to get away from one bar in particular that started playing music at 10am & didn’t stop until 5am the next day – music is so loud – don’t know how they can stand it! We spent the day cleaning PANNIKIN & doing odd jobs. At 4pm however a bar started the loudest music we have ever heard so we moved back to Store Bay for the night; it was a lot quieter here.
Monday we headed across to the capital, Scarborough, to check out with Immigration & Customs. Again you just stand on the edge of the road with your finger out & a local will pick you up (we since have found out that they must have a permit to do this). Only 6TT ($1) per person for a good 20 minute ride into Scarborough – so cheap! It didn’t take long for us to complete the formalities so we had a wander around. Not much here for a capital city! Lots of people & vehicles, but seemed to be no infrastructure or commercial buildings/shops to support them. JOY called out to us as they went by in a taxi – they are still at Plymouth. Hopefully we will catch up with them in the ABCs. Sunday afternoon was quiet – we got PANNIKIN ready for our sail to Trinidad on Tuesday & we signed, scanned & emailed our tax returns back to our accountant in OZ – can’t get away from the tax man – even over here!
Tuesday we were up at 1.45am for our trip to Chaguaramus, Trinidad. This pretty much the boat repair capital of the Caribbean with major haul out yards, moorings & marinas. It also has a number of commercial shipping operations. As the wind was slight, only around 10 – 12 knots we had a great reach using the spinnaker. It has been a LONG time since we’ve been able to use it. Everything went unreal until 9.30am when the wind completely dropped & we had to motor the rest of the way arriving at 12.30pm. Chaguaramus is huge – the first thing we saw is a container ship up high in a dry dock – BIG! The place is very busy & there are lots & lots of boat yards & also plenty of locals whizzing about in their smaller boats. We found our way to the Customs dock & with the help of a nice local fisherman we managed to tie up safely. We checked in with Immigration & Customs without any hassle & then called Coral Cove marina to advise of our arrival. We were delayed in entering the marina for about 20 minutes as a tug was trying to pull a sunken boat through the water to the travel lift to be hauled out. There were divers, drivers & lots of on lookers yelling out their advice. It was very entertaining! We finally made our way into out berth in the marina – a very tight fit & Steve did a really good job of getting us in. The Caribbean way of berthing in a marina is not our favourite... they have two large poles at either side of the front of the berth which you have to manoeuvre through before heading back to the dock – when the approach is tight you can get into lots of trouble! We had plenty of help from other cruisers though which was lovely – we recognised Mark & Willie on LIAHONA from Hog Island, Grenada & also Kevin & Susie from TEMPTRESS OF DOWN we met back in Rabat, Morocco. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ourselves & PANNIKIN organised for our stay in the marina. Steve also had a swim in the marina pool – very hot here & plenty of rain.
Wednesday we got our bikes out & had a ride around the boat yards. We have organised our anti fouling paint & also a quote for replacing our canvas bimini & dodger. We are disappointed in the lack of chandleries here – only a Budget Marine & 2 other smaller stores – we thought there would be a much larger selection so will not be able to get the jobs done we were hoping to.
This morning Ange did noodling in the marina pool – only a very small pool, but it was fun. Steve is waiting on the canvas bloke to come & give us a quote on bimini, dodger & saloon cushion covers – apparently he may not come at all! All the tradesmen are very busy & it takes some work to get them to come to your boat... we may be wasting our time?? Hopefully we will get to some shops later on today for some groceries & bits and pieces.