We just completed three weeks of maintenance on the hard, and Tuesday morning Tiger Lilly was launched - we are waterborne again :-) (Although this blog's title is SPLASH, "dip" would have been more descriptive, but less dramatic...) All in all it was a good haul-out, and the price was right. Last November at the Seven Seas Cruising Association Gam in Melbourne, Florida we won a FREE haul-out at Peake's! The only catch was we had to use it in 2012, and we had to sail 2000 miles south to take advantage of our good fortune. Well, Trinidad was right on our way to South America so it worked out just fine. The folks here at Peake's really know how to run a boatyard - it is the cleanest, most professional, and friendliest boatyard in Trinidad. Their 150 ton Travel Lift is the largest in Chaguaramas, so we did not have to remove any rigging to be hauled - a real plus. We are enjoying the convenience of being stern-to at Peake's dock, here on the busy Chaguaramas waterfront. Their haul-outs include 5 days at their dock after the on-land work is complete; a great opportunity to wash down the boat after the dusty yard, and give the crew a bit of needed rest and relaxation. So, if you get down here and need a bottom job, check out Peake's.

We will spend the next week or so here in Trinidad, then we head north to the pretty island of Tobago, just an overnight passage from Trinidad. After cruising the northeast coast of Tobago we will return to Trinidad for Christmas and the SSCA New Years Day Gam, provisioning, and then we are off for South America in early January. Not many cruisers sail south down the northeast coast of South America since this requires sailing against the Trade Winds and against (or inside) the Guiana Current. But we think it is worth it to explore the region's tropical rivers, and we know that Tiger Lilly will take good care of us. Our first stop after leaving Trinidad is the Rio Orinoco Delta in eastern Venezuela - the eighth largest river in the world. This delta is quite remote, populated only by the Waro Amerindians, and covered with thousands of square miles of tropical rain forest and jungle - a rather unusual place to navigate an ocean-going sailboat. As we work our way southeast we plan to explore the tropical rivers and villages of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Our first stop in Brazil will be at the mighty Amazon River, the largest river in the world, and a bit of a challenge from a navigation and security standpoint. We will just have to wait until we get there to see what state the river is in (it changes a lot with the seasons), and where it is safe to sail. Schedule-wise we have an open time table as the east coast of South America does not have a hurricane season; but of course the winds and currents vary with the seasons - wet and dry. Lilly sez: Read that mosquito season followed by snake season, what's not to like about that?

We have posted a few pictures of our haul-out on our PHOTO GALLERY (upper right corner of this blog), and you can navigate thusly to see them: PHOTO GALLERY / PORTS OF CALL / CARIBBEAN / TRINIDAD / PEAKE'S HAUL-OUT - see you there!