Trinidad.
Oriole
Sun 19 Dec 2004 11:24
for the 80 miles to Chagaramus, the main yachting centre in Trinidad. 12
knots of wind on the beam with very little sea and a clear starry night gave
us the sort of sail normally only available in dreams. Customs and
immigration was the most efficient we have experienced since leaving home,
or maybe we are just getting used to numerous copies of forms and sheets of
carbon paper. The main purpose of the visit is to get some jobs done on
Oriole for which we needed some help not readily available in Grenada. The
help materialised on time and we have made excellent progress and the parts
that we had sent from Europe had arrived and were waiting for us. This sort
of efficiency is also the stuff of dreams and we hope to be finished early
next week so we can relax over Christmas and enjoy Trinidad. So far we have
not left Chagaramus.
The backdrop to the myriad boatyards and service sheds is tropical rain
forest and each morning the air is filled with the raucus calls of parakeets
going to their feeding grounds. The birdlife if Trinidad is very colourful
as is the other sort too. The marina has a lovely swimming pool into which
we fall exhausted each evening after a hard days work. It sounds as though
Christmas will be very social and we have met up with several old friends
and are rapidly acqiring more. We are off to a choral concert this evening
so even a little culture is available. We are longing to get our ears tuned
into a panband or two for which Trinidad is famous (panband = steel band).
If we had been taking photos this week it would have been views of the bilge
only so we hope to resume illustrations next week. Hope you all have a very
Happy Christmas.