The calm before the storm.
Oriole
Mon 23 Apr 2007 11:14
|
We are sitting quietly in Scotland Bay at the
extreme west end of Trinidad enjoying a couple of quiet days before we get into
the storm of laying-up Oriole on Monday and the end of this seasons
sailing. Scotland Bay is long and thin with mountainous sides covered
with tropical forest and during the week is very quiet. The weekend brings
small motor boats from Trinidad's marinas and boat-parks for over night
camping and picnics which so far has not destroyed the idyll. Howler
monkeys are calling from the forest and parrots display their bright green
plumage while giving their characteristic calls and Chris is sitting in the
cockpit listening to England playing the West Indies in Barbados - no howling
yet. At night fruit bats will invade the boat to feast on whatever fruit
is left uncovered, a problem we encountered on our first visit here until we
grew wise to covering the fruit. The climate and flora and fauna of
Trinidad is more like South America than the other Caribbean Islands and the
eighty miles from Grenada puts on a great deal of heat and humidity, but our
insurers prefer the risks to Grenada, but hurricanes have brushed the north
coast in living memory.
 ORIOLE, launched 1996, sailed 22,500
nautical miles (1267 this season)
We left Grenada at 0300 on Wednesday morning with a
promise of south-easterly winds which was exactly what we did not want.
These materialised and put us hard on the wind. Fortunately the winds over
the previous few days had been light so there was not a big sea running.
At just over half way the wind miraculously and inexplicably went easterly
giving us a fast close reach for the last bit before falling away to nothing and
we crept into the Boca (entrance channel) as the light faded.
 So its goodbye from her and
 him!
Right now we cannot summon the energy for the
laying-up, but come Monday morning things are going to have to change!
If you have been reading any of our blog during
the last six months we really appreciate it, but that is all for now and we
expect to resume in December for Oriole's 12th season.
|