Of the 3 full days we spent in Union Island, nearly 1 � were devoted to preparing for our 120-mile passage to Trinidad, the largest passage we would have made after arriving in Tortola. What made our preparations more intense and time consuming was that soon after arriving to Union Island we learned that pirates had attacked a 30-foot sailing vessel 25 nautical miles north of Trinidad, off the Hibiscus Oil Rig, and on the rhumb line (the path) from Trinidad to Grenada. This was a new thing for us to prepare for. Pirate attacks have happened in Venezuela's ports, more recently in Isla Margarita where a sailor was shot. However, no attacks had been recorded near Trinidad, its coastal waters or underway. Fortunately for the sailing vessel, and probably for the rest of us, the attackers gave up after the sailor fired at them with his flare gun. The attackers were in a Venezuelan-style Pirogue with fast engines and fired several shots which fortunately did not hit the sailing vessel. The rough seas were in the sailing vessel's favor. The news about this has been word-of-mouth as the papers did not report this attack. Trinidad's north coast industry is all geared to catering to cruisers and news like this would, and have already, deterred some from coming.

Even though prior to hearing about the pirate attacks we had decided to bypass Grenada and sail straight to Trinidad, our route would also take us near where the attack occurred. So we spent a lot of time deciding on a route that ultimately took us 15 miles east of the Hibiscus oil rig - the attack occurred west of it. The estimated 24-hour passage was for sure to be sleepless as Kim and Maria figured they both had to be ready at night for any such occurrence. We carefully rehearsed the steps we were to follow - sail in the dark as we approached the area and rely on our radar to see other ships, have all flares and the flare gun ready, issue a "Pan Pan" radio signal upon being approached and a "Mayday" signal upon being attacked, have all passports, important documents and money ready in our throw bag that we would carry if we needed to jump ship, etc. As you can imagine, just taking the steps and rehearsing them for a potential attack gave us a lot of worry and anxiety.