Trinidad 10:43.0N 61:40.3W
Lotus
Fri 1 Jan 2010 16:31
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Happy New Year!
Caroline and Duncan have now jumped ship and our on
their way back to cold, but snowy England. Luckily Duncan has his thermals
to put on in Heathrow as he has been with us and the sun for over 6 weeks now
and so is bound to feel a nip in the air when he returns.
We're now in sunny Trinidad, about 80 miles off the
coast of Grenada. We've become complacent about our weather checking, with
all the sunny days and consistent winds we haven't done much and consequently
got a pasting about 2/3rds the way across to Trinidad at 3am when
a Tropical storm hit. We got very wet but survived, although I did end up
with a rope burn across my fingers as I jumped up from my slumber and tried to
get the sails down - I'm not at my best when I've just woken up!
We spent new years eve in St James, the nightlife
capital of Trinidad (apparently), we spent much of the evening in dodgy bars
feeling very conspicuous as we tried to pick out the gangsters, of which there
are apparently quite a few. Our taxi driver, was insistent that he would
come and pick us up at the end of the night, as he didn't want to leave us
stranded and easy pickings for the local hoods. We got back to the boat at
about 11.20pm and contemplated trying to stay awake to see in the new year, but
after the tiring efforts of the sail down here, we succumbed to sleep, only to
wake up shortly after midnight for a new years kiss then quickly fell asleep
again.
We're looking forward to seeing some of Trinidad's
varied wildlife, one guide book we've got states ' if a bird hasn't got more
colours than a paintbox, then you stop looking at them'. There are also
monkeys, vultures and Frigate birds that soar around the hilltops and in
Tobago there are Manta Rays. We'd quite like to go over to Tobago next so
that we can do a few dives in the hope of seeing these spectacular creatures of
the deep which can measure up to 20 feet across and weigh up to 3500
pounds. We'll be sure to get a weather report before we venture over
there!
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