08/07/2009, Trinidad
Yep this is the first time Wandering Dolphin has been tied to a Marina dock in 18 months. One and a half years anchored out in some of the most beautiful spots in the Caribbean. We still fondly remember our last stay in a Marina in February of 2008 at Rum Cay in the Bahamas with our friends on Sailing Vessel Salt and Light. That time we decided to pay the piper for a marina stay because the anchorage at Rum was rolled so bad it was like being offshore. This time we came in to tie up at the CruizInn Marina in Trinidad so that Amy and Ellie can catch their morning flight on Sunday without having a wet dingy ride for a half hour first.
A lot of people are surprised that we can go so long without stopping at a marina, but consider this as well, we have only actually tied to a dock two other times in that whole 18 months. Once was for fuel in St Thomas (our first fill up in 13 months at that time) and the other here in Trinidad at the customs dock when we arrived.
When we first started cruising we thought we would be staying at a marina a couple of times a month at least but now we just look at them as a colossal waste of money. The air doesn't blow through the boat like when you are anchored out and to us a shower from a hot black shower bag in the cockpit is at least as good as a shower in a stall where 14 other people have showered that morning. That being said it will be fun for the kids to swim in a pool again and it is nice to be able to connect to the internet whenever we want to.
I will try my best to get Ellie to blog before they leave. We have really enjoyed having them and hope they come back to see us in another spot somewhere along the way.
God Bless,
Captain Tofer
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08/05/2009, Scottland Bay
Happy Birthday to me! Ellie & I are having quit the adventure on wandering dolphin. Today I got a real shower at the marina opposed to showering in the rain on the deck. What a treat! Rebecca took me out for lunch too...I think she just wanted off the boat and used my B'day as a good reason.
All is well here. It is a true joy to spend time with our family again.
Miss you at home; see you soon.
Amy
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07/30/2009, Scotland Bay, Trinidad
We had a successful, if somewhat bumpy sail over from Grenada to Trinidad. We left St Georges inner harbor around 2:00pm and anchored again outside where the water was clear but the current was fierce. The bottom of Wandering Dolphin was covered in long red and green hair. She must have looked like a clown to the fish she sailed over. Jimmy and I fired up our little homemade $70.00 hookah (for breathing air underwater not smoking pot) and cleaned the bottom and the prop. With the current rushing by it was a real workout but we finished in record time. While we scraped the bottom Becky made us all a great dinner of Chicken Alfredo. After rinsing off in fresh water we stuffed ourselves and weighed anchor at 6:00pm setting a double reefed main and full jib for a night passage to Trinidad.
The wind was blowing around 18 knots from the east and we were sailing almost due south magnetic so we had a nice beam reach. The boat kicked up her keel and was cruising along at 7 to 8 knots. The ocean opens up after Grenada to a wide open path with big Atlantic Rollers swelling by having had nothing to block their path since Africa. This makes for an uncomfortable ride as the size and direction of those swells coming across from just aft of the beam give the boat an uncomfortable bump with every passing. Rebecca especially hates this point of sail, but, I am proud to say, she didn't get sick on this passage. Her calculations were exact and we arrived offshore of Trinidad at daybreak. There are a couple of passages through the outer islands into Chaguaramas harbor the shortest is also the narrowest and I had previously entered here on my delivery with Morton on Saga Tiba so we did it again on Wandering Dolphin. It is quite a ride as the big waves from the ocean squeeze themselves through that small opening they grow and grow and grow and toss a small boat about. We surfed the waves and our speed on the ride down the waves would be 9 knots while the next moment we would slow down to 1.5 knots. We made it into the anchorage before 11:00am and got ourselves all tied up to the customs dock.
The customs and immigration officials were VERY thorough and after over two hours we were free to visit Trinidad. When we arrived back at the boat we found that Wandering Dolphin had been rubbing herself up and down against a piling, the fender having slipped with the high speed passage of some boat, and right where she was rubbing was a BOLT which had rubbed off a 1 foot area of paint and undercoating... once again I was happy that we have a metal boat, a fiberglass one would have had a hole in that spot.
With a sick feeling in my gut because of my wounded vessel we made our way back around the corner to a Bay. Scotland Bay looks like a picture from the South Pacific. It has rain forest covered steep hills rising from the deep green water. The hills rise in levels from the bottom and if you look closely you can see a multitude of birds. Riding the thermals highest up are the hawks and buzzards and flitting between the trees are a bird watchers cornucopia of little colorful birds. There are even parrots, this is the home to the Blue and Yellow Macaws and the Scarlet Macaw! No one in the family was happy to find out that both Boa Constrictors and Anacondas make their homes here though.
We have stayed here for a couple of days now and EmilyAnne has gone wakeboarding and we went for a little excursion into the rain forest as a family. Our boat clothing is not cut out for jungle travels, crocs are great on a boat but not so great climbing over fallen logs and scrambling down muddy leaf covered slopes. While we wore bug spray we had no long pants to keep off all of the creatures that crawl under the canopy. Let me suffice it to say that our expedition was a lot more like a swat fest than a happy hike. My children can climb on the boom of our boat, up the arch, swing from the halyards but give them a fallen branch with webs and crawly things on it and they break down into a weeping mass of humanity, Mom included.
Yesterday we woke up to a strange and eerie sound. Some thought it was wild pigs in the trees, others thought it was a fight between bears, I thought it was the waves from the other side swelling into a cave and pushing all of the air out a blow hole. Rebecca said it was Howler Monkeys... she was right! There was a troop of red howler monkeys swinging from the trees. The kids have been telling us that we were going to see BEAVER MONKEYS down here! Apparently they misheard our friend Beth Leonard from sailing vessel "Hawk" as she told them tales of one of her and Evans Starzinger's trips around the world. Our kids swear she told them about monkeys that eat trees like beavers... the pictures posted are our kids' interpretation of a Beaver Monkey. (We thought you'd get a kick out of that Beth.)
Last night Kaleb came running down to get me, "Dad! Dad! Emily just showed me, and this bay if FULL of fox crescents! Come see!" He pulled me out of my bed and I made my way up to the deck where EmilyAnne was pulling up buckets of water from over the side and pouring them back in with a shower of phosphorescence. The bright green fireworks in the water were the brightest we have ever seen. When a fish would swim by they would leave a green trail.
Jimmy went into the head in the middle of the night and was a little concerned as the whole head was full of little green floating lights. It seems the screen had fallen off and the fireflies had come in. Benny calls them firefries.
Well only a couple more days until Amy and Ellie get here. We are looking forward to seeing them and sharing this beautiful place with them on board Wandering Dolphin.
God Bless,
Captain Tofer and the Crew
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