At 0630 on Saturday morning we headed to the local market in Port of Spain, supposedly the biggest in the Caribbean. An amazing array of stalls with fish, meat, fruit, veg and clothing, never mind the all important breakfast ‘doubles’ stall!

                                                                                                                                                                    Doubles!

Crabs for sale – despite the sign!

At 0900 on Monday morning we along with 8 other cruisers ( 4 Americans, 2 Aussie,2 Brits ) piled into Jessie James ‘maxi taxi’ for his ‘Taste of Trini’ tour. We were armed with our plates, cutlery and plenty of napkins!

First stop was a road side stall for saltfish and smoked herring on coconut ‘bread’ followed by a pavement stall named ‘ George’s Doubles’ where we had ‘doubles’ which is a curried chickpea ‘ sandwich’ – the doubles are two pieces of dough – you can get triples which is a double sandwich if you follow my logic. Just around the corner is ‘ George’s ex Doubles’ – a stall run by his ex wife but she had already sold out!

The day continued in a similar fashion and we headed for the east coast and stopped at roadside vendors or small cafes and Jessie purchased various local specialities and dealt them onto our plates.

Watermelon straight from the field                                                                         Brazil Nut

Hot sauces!

Unfortunately the day turned grey with rain which deterred us from our planned lunch time swim and the trip carried on until 2000hrs, the last two foods being a birthday cake Jessie produced for one of the party and superb home-made ice cream from another street vendor. We had sampled a total of 55 Trinidadian foods, many of which have an Indian origin.

A selection

Cowl Heel Soup with dumplings, green fig and sweet potato

BBQ Pigtails

Dasheen and stewed chicken

Bigham Choka- aubergine

Cheese Pie with Chandon Beni

Shark and Bake

Soursop

Pineapple Chow- fresh pineapple marinated with lime juice, pepper, garlic, chilli

Plantain and Cassava

Green Fig Salad

Coconut Turnover and sweet breads

Trinidad has a population of about 1.2 million of which 40% are Indian, 37% African and 23% mixed so naturally there is an eastern bias to the cuisine. We think that the ‘white’ Trinis’ speak with a Welsh accent and we have been told that at one time many of the teachers were Welsh and hence the accent was passed on!

Unfortunately the island has a major crime problem in certain areas and already there have been 140 murders this year, mostly gang related. Needless to say we avoid these areas!

The temperature ( over 100 degrees F ) on several days and the regular 100% humidity means that we have to lay-up “Moonbeam” with extra care and all the jobs seem to take longer in the heat. We are also carrying out the usual routine maintenance and improvements that yachts demand!

Dave inspecting our sails with the local sailmaker after 14,000 miles sailing            A bit hot for cleaning the hull!

Our neighbours at the pontoon hosed an iguana of the deck

We also have parrots flying regularly over the boat dropping lots of seeds on the deck and canvas work so we will be glad when we have got the boat covered.

The CrewsInn Marina continues to be sociable with a changing population and there was a Manager’s Cocktail Party on Wednesday night ( free food and rum punch ! ) and a cruisers BBQ and Pot Luck on Thursday evening.

On Saturday we had the excuse to interrupt our labour as Don Kelsall, The RCC Honorary Local Rep invited us for the afternoon to join his family at their lovely “weekend home” on a small neighbouring island!

                                                                                                                                    Note the skipper’s new low profile haircut!

On Monday morning we get “hauled” to Powerboats yard.