Chaguaramas
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Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 27 Jul 2009 12:49
Chaguaramas
Trinidad and Tobago is now a
favourite destination for cruising sailors. Oddly enough a few years ago, yachts
rarely visited these islands. It was felt that Tobago was too far to the east,
hard to get to and most yachties thought there was nothing in Trinidad for
them.
Attitudes began to change when Don
Stollmeyer, the manager of a yard called Powerboats decided to invest in a used
fifty ton travel lift. The only way to justify it was to expand into hauling
visiting yachts. Within twelve years this has grown into a thriving industry of
yacht services involving well over a hundred businesses and thousands of
people.
It also put Trinidad and Tobago on
the map for cruisers who came to haul out, have work done and stayed to explore
another side of Trinidad; an island whose exotic and flamboyant nature includes
rainforests and swamps with monkeys, macaws and manatees as well as
being the biggest nesting ground for the giant Leatherback Turtle in the
Caribbean. They fell in love with Scotland Bay where you can wake to the sounds
of Howler Monkeys and parrots. They discovered one of the most fun-loving
and hospitable people in the Caribbean. People who invented steel pan and
calypso and whose carnival is considered by many to be the best in the world.
When the fun gets too much, they found, as Trinidadians have long known, that a
week or two in Tobago is the perfect way to relax.
![]() ![]() Chaguaramas Bay we are anchored just where you can see the streak of the path of a
speedboat
![]() Boatyards
Chaguaramas Bay was
a major base for the Americans during the WWII and over thirty thousand used to
live here. There were major shipyards among other facilities. It is now a
National Park, which aims at combining park areas with eco-friendly economic
activities. Yachting has taken a firm hold in this area and tourism is
encouraged.
Chaguaramas Bay is in hilly
countryside and from the anchorage you get a pleasing view of several islands.
The area supports large numbers of pelicans, corbeaus (vultures) and frigate
birds. Laughing gulls are noisy and parrots fly overhead. On the dock,
Kisskadees wake you in the morning with their cheerful cries and sound a lot
better than an alarm clock.
Most yachting facilities can be found
here in Chaguaramas, it is close to Monos Island, Gaspar Grande and Scotland
Bay. It is within walking distance of the TTSA - Trinidad and Tobago Sailing
Association, access to town is easy, not far from the airport and most yachts
use it as a base in Trinidad.
IMS is a haul out
facility with a seventy ton marine hoist and room for one hundred and thirty
boats on the hard.
![]() ![]() ![]() The boat
hoist, the list of services here and one area of stored boats taken at 22:00 showing how well
lit the yard is
Peake Yacht
Services, the one we chose, is both a marina and haul out yard. The
stern to dock has room for about seventeen boats. A small hotel called The
Bight has ten rooms at fifty US Dollars per
night and an indoor/outdoor bar/restaurant, all other services such as laundry,
dinghy dock etc.
Peake has a one hundred and fifty ton
hoist that can handle yachts with as much as a thirty one foot beam and fifteen
feet of keel below the straps. One advantage to us is the size of the hoist
means we don't have to take down the fore or backstay. Room for three hundred
and fifty yachts and catamarans on the hard with shrink wrap facility for the
long term storer, also a secure locked area at extra cost but you cannot live
aboard there OR have work done on the boat.
![]() The amazing racks
of powerboats, we watched a forklift truck very busy at the weekend
unloading and reloading.
Powerboats despite
its name deals with more yachts than powerboats. It is both a haul out facility
and a marina with room for about thirty boats. It has the only general fuel dock
in the area, you can fill cans in opening hours but if you want to fill your
yacht you have to book first or they get stroppy - we have been told -
sometimes. Fifty ton travel lift and can store about two hundred and fifty
yachts. It also has huge racks for powerboats which the locals are passionate
about. The Roti Shack is closed on a Sunday evening but they allow yachties to
use their outside tables to meet up, taking their own drinks and
nibbles.
Sweet Water Marina
deal with mainly sport and fishing boats.
Tardieu Marine is
usually full of commercial fishing boats and their support
services.
![]() ![]() ![]() Coral Cove Marine is
both a marina - about forty boats with some finger berthing and haul out
yard with space for seventy boats. We heard on this mornings "net" a local
information broadcast where yachties can listen and take part on channel 68 that
a boat here had been broken into, indeed the locked compound was reported as
never locked. We have been generally warned here to nail everything down.
Coral Cove has a sixty ton marine hoist and has a fourteen
room hotel with cooking facilities in each room, twin at fifty five
pounds and Queen size deluxe room at sixty pounds per night. Small swimming
pool also. Joe's Italian restaurant and sign, just for you
Joe.
![]() ![]() ![]() At first glance this lady seemed
destined for the "one careful owner" file, but then we saw the for sale sign AND someone
tinkering around on her
Tropical Marine seem
to be a bit of a graveyard and is mentioned to show this fine specimen "for
sale". Can take about twenty boats, not sure how they get into the field
though.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Crews Inn. The
location, parsey entrance, posh facilities, hotel seen through the slips,
the pool
Crews Inn Yachting Marina and
Hotel is the largest dock facility to date. Customs and Immigration is
here and this is your first port of call on entry to Trinidad. They
offer by far the fanciest marina with seventy slips with water, telephone,
optional wi-fi, cable TV and electricity. They regard all slips as hotel rooms
providing laundry, dry cleaning, food service and use of the pool and other
facilities. There shower and Laundromat are the best and the most luxurious with
hot showers included. A daily newspaper is dropped on the boat before breakfast.
We had lunch in their Lighthouse Restaurant and we thought the marina was
particularly rolly. The hotel may be posh but at one hundred and fifty US
Dollars a night, way too expensive. If your yacht is in their slips the price is
reduced to one hundred and thirty seven Dollars PLUS slip fees. At the moment
due to the credit crunch they are offering one night free if you stay three. Two
nights free if you pay for five.
![]() ![]() ![]() The crane and
Shipwright building, Bear in the Lighthouse
Restaurant and the slips
Crews Inn has the largest marine
hoist in the region at two hundred tons and all work is done in a giant
converted bauxite shed with two point seven acres under cover and eighty feet of
vertical clearance, known locally as the Shipwright Building. We can see no sign
of outside yacht storage and wonder if it is actually a crane that does the
lifting.
![]() The list of services
here as taken from Doyle's
ALL IN ALL QUITE A
PLACE
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