Oriole's Web Diary - Stumpy meets the Gestapo in Trinidad.

Stumpy meets the Gestapo in Trinidad.

Oriole

Mon 21 Apr 2014 20:29

Crews Inn Marina, Chaguaramas, Trinidad Easter Monday 21st April 2014 10:40.74N 61:37.91W.

After a fairly relaxing weekend in the smart new marina in the St George's Lagoon we were ready for sea again. Our buddy boat Shian had been on the dock behind us and we left together for Prickly Bay on the south coast of Grenada in preparation for an early start on Tuesday morning for Trinidad. Dan, who had been press ganged into coming as our additional crew, was delivered on board just in time for sundowners. It was still pitch dark at 0430 when we got underway. This was something of a surprise as we should have had a full moon, but had forgotten that there was a complete eclipse in progress. As the Earth's shaddow receded we were lit on our way into the normally rather choppy sea off the south coast of Grenada.

Shian was accompanying us and all was going well until, just before 0730, John discovered an unusually large amount of water in the bilge. We slowed down to assess where this was coming from, fearing that there might have been undiscovered damage which was responsible. We eventually tracked it down to fairly copious leaks coming through the deck where the aft rails had been partly wrenched from their mountings. We should have anticipated this, but it was too late now so we would have to grin and bear it and pump it out as it accumulated. However 0730 is Ocean Cruising Club long range radio net time. Oriole could no longer act as net controller and the mantle had fallen on Shian. Her skipper and crew were both concentrating on the net and had not seen that we had slowed right down. We only narrowly avoided another collision!

We arrived off the Boca, the dramatic entrance to the Gulf of Paria, at 1800 but by the time we were negotiating the anchorage into Crews Inn it was pitch dark again. There are no navigation marks, lots of unlit dangers, both lit and unlit pirogues (fast local boats) roaring around, and for someone without local knowledge it would be so difficult as to be dangerous. We had left many times in the dark, but with confounding shore lights and the bright deck lights of anchored ships and ships on the docks it is a very stressful entry even to someone who knows it well. Our communications with Crews Inn were also causing difficulty and the information and advice coming back was distinctly unsatisfactory. We were refused the accommodation we needed although it had been negotiated days before and if our plight had not been overheard by our friends on Quadrille, who were already there, we would have had real problems with berthing. We eventually were OK but Shian ended up in what was deemed an incorrect berth which caused an outbreak of Gestapo like behaviour on the part of the hotel/marina receptionist who marched down to the dock as if as if she was running a prisoner of war camp. Some pretty choice words were thrown back at her and later at her "manager" by five very stressed and exhausted yachties. "Can do" was not a concept in their psyche and calm did not descend until the day staff appeared when all was sweetness and light. Our crew Dan, who had never been to Trinidad before, was absolutely appauled by their behaviour and so were we. After referring this to a higher level we do not think it will happen again!

Since our arrival we have been doing the normal laying up procedures as well as getting Oriole ready for repairs. Dan could not get back to Carriacou until Saturday and set to with a will to help us. The repair negotiations seem favourable and we look forward to making progress when we haul out of the water tomorrow. In order to get things moving we have extended our stay in Trinidad by a week.

Stumpy alias Oriole stripped and ready for hauling out.

On Thursday evening twenty five Ocean Cruising Club members sat down for dinner at the excellent Lure Restaurant for another celebration of the Club's 60th Anniversary.

Christine from Quadrille recited another of her poems in celebration of the survival of Stumpy and her crew.