We came to Trinidad in order to get our visas for India.  Done the research, including making a couple of calls to the Consul to check, downloaded the forms, got the yellow fever vaccinations, located the High Commission, got in to the High Commission and greeted by charming gentleman after very short wait. We were taken through to an elegant room and sat round a table with him.   Quite happy to process Mikes application even though we were still waiting for the official certificate and all was well until we pointed out that there was a very small stamp already on the last remaining clear page of Carols passport.  Complete and utter showstopper.

On to the British High commission.  They don’t do passports on Wednesdays.  Back on Thursday.  Wait.  Wait a bit more.  Stand up meeting with the consular staff on the other side of a glass partition.  All rather less charming than the Indian approach.  The girl was delightful though and tried everything we could think of between us but in the end, following a phone call to London nothing was going to work other than a completely new Passport which would have to go via Washington and London and take at least six weeks and I couldn’t travel anywhere until I got a new one because my old one would be needed to process the application.  Crikey.  More thinking and going through options until, over a rather nice Hagen Daas ice cream in an air conditioned café it became completely clear that the only option was for Carol to go home and get a fast track passport in UK. 

Back to UK for a week, appointment booked at the Liverpool Passport office, five minute chat there, four hours in John Lewis and then back to collect the new one.

Tedious, expensive, tedious and expensive but we now have what we need to get the visas next time we are in Trinidad.  All down to taking our eye of the ball for a split second in St Maarten when the offending stamp was plonked a completely blank page rather than in one of the numerous perfectly good sized gaps in the rest of the passport.

Always a silver lining though and we learnt a lot about Trinidad, were able to visit the boatyard and meet the staff where Tashi Delek will be hauled out for the summer and organise some of this years’ work such as new rigging so not entirely a waste of time.

We were very, very glad to get back sailing again though and celebrated Carol’s birthday by leaving the marina and heading for an anchorage just at the point where we would spring off Trinidad and head back to Grenada.