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Clifton Harbour, Union Island.
12:35.66N 61:24.66W
It is now a month since we left home and our
feet have hardly touched the ground. Oriole has had a major makeover, as
at the grand old age of fifteen, although we work hard keeping her up to date,
various systems were creaking slightly and were needing attention. The
most notable being a new set of sails and a new stackpack mainsail cover
resplendant with our name printed on it. The sails were expertly made by
Peter Sanders in Lymington cheaper and much better than we could get sails
closer to "home", and the stackpack made in Trinidad allows us just to
drop the main which miraculously falls into its gutter and needs no wrestling
and folding and time consuming putting on and off the conventional sail
cover. Why have a sail cover? you might ask - it is to protect the
sail from the damaging effects of UV. The engine no longer overheats at
full power thanks to John's overhaul of the cooling system and a new upgraded
alternator is pouring amps into our battery bank. Our previous alternators
were needing serious attention every six months from chronic over use.
This abbreviated list just covers the major items and we will not bore you with
the rest. Meanwhile we have been enjoying the generous hospitality of the
Kelshall and Pantin clan, now including new arrival Alix (6 weeks old), who
conspire to liberate us from the rigours of the boatyard. Don very
generously lends us his little old yellow car alias the Yellow Peril and all the
yard staff know we are back when it appears. It is wonderful to have four
wheels (which usually go round!). "Hi Skip, are you sellin?" is the
constant refrain from the locals - referring to the car - and on one day we had
four offers by ten o'clock!
Relaxing after lunch with Don and
Cathryn at their weekend retreat with RCC friends Mike and
Hilde.
Sadly, as we have said before, there is an ever
present crime risk in Trinidad and one needs to take sensible precautions.
We had probably been getting a bit careless and we were mugged while walking in
a quiet residential area of Port of Spain. This was a really stupid
attack, as the guy got nothing of any value (Chris's rather flashy pseudo
gold arthritis bracelet and a gold neck chain. We also had on us
watches, sun glasses, mobile phones, money and credit cards of much greater
value. John was smacked around the face a bit, but no harm was done to
anything but our jitters. We were threatened with a gun which we never
saw, so probably did not exist, but we did not aim to find out and kept
walking! The whole thing was recorded on CCTV at a nearby house but the
images were not good enough for any facial recognition. The police
attended rapidly but with little chance of success. On passage from
Trinidad there has been a very small incidence of piracy from Venezuela which is
of course a very close neighbour and we have tried to do this passage in close
company with another boat or two. Considering the hundreds of boats that
transit this area during the
year the risks are extremely low, but do
exist. However the Trinidad Coast Guard have become very much more active
of late.
The conditions from Trinidad to Grenada with light
headwinds successfully tested our engine cooling system and the pirates were
having a day off. The sail up to Carriacou yesterday gave our lovely new
sails a good airing and we are so far delighted with their performance.
Oriole at anchor in the crystal clear
water of Clifton Harbour
Sunday morning finds us in Clifton Harbour, Union Island where it is
very quiet and we can see across the protective reef to the Tobago Cays and
thence to Africa! We are unlikely to be lonely in Bequia for Christmas and
have been conversing this morning on the radio with friends on boats heading
that way. We wish everyone who takes the trouble to read about our gentle
meanderings a very happy Christmas.
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