Chaguaramas, Trinidad

10 40.6N  061 38.2W

We left Bequia and all its charter catamarans (henceforth to be known as chartermarans) on Monday 18^th August and had a pleasant sail to an overnight stop at Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. The following morning we headed out for Grand Mal in Grenada for a further overnight stop. We’d been to both these places before so we were familiar with them as anchorages. On Wednesday 20^th we set off for an overnight 95nm run to Trinidad further south. The weather forecast was for E winds with a NE swell. After a terribly squally start just to the south of Grenada, we were met with SE winds, a beam on sea and a 2kts current from the south east. We both swore at the forecasters who, quite frankly, couldn’t have been more wrong, in fact we wouldn’t have set off if the forecast had been accurate, but it was too late now.

You expect a push to the west in the passage between Grenada and Trinidad, the general idea is to keep up close to an oil rig (humorously called Hibiscus) and then line up for the entrance to Chaguaramas (which is where all the yacht yards are, just to the west of Port of Spain). The westerly push was so great we couldn’t get within 6nm of Hibiscus and with the wind veering even more to the south, we had no choice but to motor sail the last 25 odd miles. Naturally our off watch period provided little sleep due to the beam on swell, the noise of the engine and a little concern for the person left on watch. The mate had a bit of ‘fun’ with a ship called Charles Island who seemed to be charging straight towards us at 21.4kts, but a VHF call to them assured us that they had seen us and  they passed 1nm astern.

Morning came and although we could see Trinidad in the distance, it seemed to take an age to crawl the final few miles into the bay. Motoring through the Boca de Monos we both thought it looked lovely; very green and lush. Turning the corner into Chaguaramas, not quite so… Chaguaramas is industrial with the usual derelict craft left on ageing moorings, but it did have a certain ‘industrial calm’. The anchorage was up to 18m deep - way too deep for us (as we don’t carry enough anchor chain for this) and craft were swinging in all directions. As there was little choice we found a mooring buoy (although I don’t wholly trust Caribbean mooring buoys) and tied up. I called the boat yard who had pre-organised our health clearance for us and we were told to head over to Customs and Immigration. All I can say is that I’m glad I took my favourite pen, reams of paperwork (using carbon copy paper!) were ‘required’, upon completion of which I was told we had crossed into the overtime period for the staff and asked to pay $267TT. I told them we didn’t have any cash yet, so they asked if we had any $US, I said we hadn’t and after some shaking of heads we were checked in at the time where overtime didn’t apply (so their paperwork could stack up) and off we went.

We had five nights before our lift out at Power Boats yard. However, tired out the following morning, we were told to leave the mooring were on as a boat had pre-booked it. The only other available mooring was a wholly unsuitable one but we had no choice. The mate lassoed it, I took to the dinghy and we put a warp with chain around its underside and rolling hitched a line to another part of it, through which we looped another of our lines. We made sure that we could quickly release both from onboard if we had to. We were swinging way to close to a blue boat astern, but there was nowhere else to go, so we put fenders out, folded down our solar panels and hoped for the best. I woke pretty much every hour to go and look around and on the second night when I saw we were stern to stern with the blue boat and only the fact that it wasn’t pulling on its mooring prevented a collision! In the morning, I had had enough. I took to the dinghy and went in search of another mooring somewhere/anywhere… By pure chance, I saw a Canadian flagged boat leave what looked like a suitable mooring and the mate and I wasted no time getting over there. That’s where we are now and we have one more night left before our lift - which, as the mate will confess, cannot come soon enough.

Other excitement in the ‘anchorage’ was a massive electrical storm. I was ashore, the mate was on the boat and not at all happy about being on the water with a metal mast sticking up to the sky. Worried she may have been, but she still remembered to put vital electrical items in the oven and turn off a lot of the electrics (it was the most menacing electrical storm I have ever experienced! The torrential rain was biblical and I was cowering under the jiffy top in my bikini nervously counting the seconds between lightning flashes and deafening thunderclaps. As the storm was directly overhead I heard a terrible wail and realised it was coming from me! My nerves were in tatters by the time the rain had eased enough for Skip to come back in P2, but we survived unscathed – Mate). Other than that, this ‘anchorage’ is the most bouncy, uncomfortable and unpredictable one we have ever encountered (a SE swell has been rolling into the anchorage since Friday and at times of tide against swell it is like a cauldron – Mate); so much so, having no wish to return to this anchorage, that we are wondering if we can just launch Stargazer and sail away once her five week beautification programme is complete... I will say, though, that the yard looks very good, facilities and services look fine and the mate and I have dug deep (with a little help, thanks Sue!) and booked an apartment for the period we are on the hard. The mate cannot get in there soon enough and I’m not far behind her myself.

Needless to say, Stargazer’s jobs list is huge (but she has sailed us pretty much to South America) and the only problem I may have is to get the mate out of an air conditioned apartment to come and help in the baking heat of Trinidad (I may be bribed with rotis and doubles – Mate)... Speaking of jobs, we must go now – we have the genoa to get down, the dinghy to deflate and stow, and a host of other things to get Stargazer ready for the lift.

We’ll report in with yard progress over the coming weeks…