Crews Inn Marina, Chaguaramas, Trinidad

We returned to Trinidad on January 5th to finish the restoration of Oriole following the incident with the marauding ferry in April. The guys doing the work have worked really hard for us and we finally launched a week later than scheduled on February 2nd. There was still quite a lot of work to do particularly to the new mast and rigging, but that is also now complete. The confounding issues which have delayed us are not accident related. Carnival in Trinidad, the most important event of the year, and apart from the parades consists of days of incredibly noisy parties, competitions and judging of the bands and costumes. Trinidadians live for parties!  Nothing else happens for a week at least and Port of Spain and the surrounding suburbs degenerate into traffic gridlock, except on the two main days of Carnival when everyone is either on the beach or parading in POS. We spent the days of Carnival "down the islands" staying at the holiday home of our good Trini friends and made a foray into POS on the main parade day to see what Carnival is all about. The exposure of flesh is something to behold. Not only do those with lovely lithe figures display what they have, but even those excessively endowed let it all hang out. The volume of the bands parading make conversation impossible. The costumes are extravagant and the cost of Carnival is prodigious. In the weeks leading up to the event the steel (pan) bands practise every evening in their various pan yards and a visit to them is rewarded with some magnificent and exuberant pan music. How on earth the complicated rhythms are coordinated and reproduced by thirty or more band players defies understanding. There is no written music and it just seems to happen!

They come in all sizes!

Another small distraction was a weekend escape from boat work to visit the Asa Wright Nature Centre which is a world famous birding estate up in the Northern Range of Mountains.  This was our fourth visit to this haven of tranquility with its extraordinary variety of birdlife.  The accommodation is "comfortable" but not luxurious, the guides are excellent and the food with a refreshing local flavour.

The extraordinary Bearded Bellbird makes a noise like a hammer crashing on an anvil -normally extemely difficult to see. (600mm zoom).

The Tufted Coquette (2.75 inches long hummingbird) with its long beak in a flowerhead is hardly still for a second as it flits from flower to flower.

Also confounding progress have been some irritating problems for John. He managed to drill the web between two fingers of his left hand with a 14mm drill which compromised what he could do for a while (off washing up duties). That has now healed, but three weeks ago he tripped on a rope and fell hard flat on his face on the concrete dock. He was lucky not to have more than badly grazed forehead, shin, knee and toe which caught the rope! Those injuries are all but healed but his back is now causing trouble but is a great deal better after the ministrations of an excellent physiotherapist. We have been given the runaround by the watermaker technician who we wanted to service our leaking membrane tubes, but the line went very cold. The answer was new tubes and membranes at not inconsiderable cost from the US which are now installed and tested.

The crane gently lowers the new mast into place.  It took another three weeks to get everything connected and working.

Yesterday we finally left the dock at Crews Inn for a sail in brisk winds in the Gulf of Paria, and were able to give the new rig a good test. We then beat into the bay where our friends have their holiday home and at low water just managed to creep alongside their dock with 12 inches under the keel. We celebrated Oriole's maiden voyage in her resuscitated state with a little bubbly.

Maiden voyage over for the new rig,  (20-25 knots in smooth water), Oriole is alongside the dock "down the islands"

We are now back in the marina waiting for a break in the weather. Although it has been dry and hot and sunny for most of the time it has also been very windy and that is not what we want for our first sail with the new mast, (and for the land locked crew). Unlike weather in the UK which changes from day to day, the winds when they get stuck in can last for a week or more. The forecasts are suggesting that a longish lull with a new weather pattern will start next weekend so we are preparing to tear ourselves away from the fleshpots of Trinidad and get up the islands.

Chris and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the 11 month project of returning Oriole to her former glory.