Trinidad no longer!
Oriole
Sun 16 Jan 2005 21:35
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It is now the build-up to Carnival in Trinidad with
the Mas(querade) Camps busy making and showing off their costumes and a
myriad steel bands (pan bands) practising for the great occasion in their
pan yards.
Carnival Queen
??
Port of Spain reverberates to the sound of the
drums for the weeks before Carnival and those living near a pan yard just have
to put up with it. They can go on till 0200 at least often playing the same tune
over and over again!
 Having completed all the outstanding jobs on Oriole
by Tuesday evening we bade farewell to Chagaramus and our wonderful hosts,
cleared with Customs and Immigration, loaded on the duty free stores and
headed for Scotland Bay which opens onto the Boca de Monos,
the eastern gateway to the Gulf of Paria. Scotland Bay although very
close to the busy port of Chagaramus is totally undeveloped and surrounded by
hills covered with tropical rain forest. There are masses of birds by day and
howler monkeys by night and bats flitting through the boat. We are now wise to
this and keep the bananas covered. It was a magical evening. At 0430 we
were underway and motored out of the Boca where we picked up a good beam wind
and had a mostly close reach for the 80 miles to Prickly Bay, Grenada, arriving
just before dark. The weather now seems to have settled down and we hope the dry
season has started. We had our first dives of the trip this morning and
found that the reefs do not seem to have suffered any hurricane damage, unlike
the roofs. We plan to move on north tomorrow and position ouselves
conveniently for Andrew's fortnight's holiday at the beginning of February. The
skipper and mate are expecting a good tip.
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