Trinidad

Trinidad

We arrived back in Trinidad to find White Rose 1 had been moved to a different spot in the yard but she was in good condition which is always a relief.  Don was due to leave to work in Brunei so we worked long and hard to get the “out of water” jobs completed.  Don managed to replace cutlass bearing in the propeller shaft, repack the bearing inside the boat, service the bow thruster and replace the propellers, replace anodes, sand the hull etc.  By the time Don left there was still a bit of work to be done which I took my time completing as I was dreading getting the boat back in the water on my own.  I was lucky to meet other cruisers working on their boats in the same yard, we shared some meals and a few laughs and the interesting time of getting White Rose back in the water without her Captain.

Let me see if I can describe being on the hard.  White Rose is in the far northern corner of the yard - exactly 400 steps from the bathrooms and I had many opportunities to count them.  We were fortunate that we were squeezed in between a fishing boat and a large racing boat both of which shaded us for part of the day.  Inside the boat was similar to an oven, simply not tenable during the day, underneath in the shade was ok but dirty, damp and boring once the bottom was finished - no chairs, fans or fridges there.  While on the hard the fridge cannot work and power is reliant upon the solar panels which basically meant one fan for some of the night.  You cannot run taps as they would run directly down the side of the boat - right where you needed to paint that day so no running water.  Work is going on all around so very dirty, dusty and noisy.  I lived on 2 min noodles and canned veges - I was too busy early on to spend the 1/2 day to go shopping and without a fridge there just didn't seem any point.  Oh and I can guarantee the one tool or brush I need is still on the boat so a long climb up a very steep hot slippery ladder to get on board.  

If I mistakenly left thongs in the sun I could not wear them as they were too hot.  The deck was too hot to walk on and the ladder too hot to grab - when sanding and painting the bottom we used a bright blue paint - I looked like cookie monster for a week.  The bugs were the worst - the boat was always filled with mosquitos who attacked as soon as I removed the sheet - I had at least 6 bites from the bed to the bathroom first thing in the morning, they whined around my ears all night and generally drove me mad.  If I covered myself in deet soap they continued to look for a spot I missed - usually eye lids, nose and ears.  I had several land on the tip of my nose and set about their blood sucking habits.  Dengue fever was about so I would spray the cabin but that seemed to attract the bugs more than repel them.  You can probably imagine how anxious I was to get back in the water.

 
Gert's boat (next to White Rose) was broken into whilst he was asleep - they took his money (which was well hidden), his laptop and connection cords.  The yard checked the security camera and they saw people walking around but could not charge anyone as they did not see anyone climb the ladder.  Then his boat was broken into a second time this time through a hatch.  They are suspicious of a local man who had befriended Gert.  The whole situation was suspicious as Peake’s boatyard originally claimed they had pictures of the thief going on Gert's boat and would give him a photo to see if he recognised the person, then the story changed to vague people around Gert's boat.  It took the boat yard almost a week to check the video footage - if it had taken them hours instead of days there may have been a chance of retrieving the new laptop and cash - began to sound like an inside job!

White Rose finally hit the water again.  All was straightforward until I had to “park” her in a narrow slip which required hooking onto a stern ball on the way in.  My two helpers and I looked like the 3 stooges trying to grab the elusive ball and ended up giving up, I simply pleaded with the boat owner next door and side tied to his boat while we sent the dinghy out with a line to secure the errant ball.  White Rose stayed in that slip for several weeks – it was uncomfortable as the swell would come in, hit the sea wall and send White Rose bucking & rebounding – add to that the thick layer of oil on the surface which stained our newly polished hull and the little problem of the dock, it was not a floating dock and White Rose is high therefore I could not get on nor off the boat without lowering the dinghy into the water, standing in the dinghy and walking it around the side of the boat to the dock then climbing up the dock. During low tide I simply could not get on nor off the boat as the climb up the dock was too high. I should also mention that during the time we were away the glue holding our dinghy together deteriorated to the extent that

she now leaked copious amounts as soon as she got near to it. I was ok with that as the pontoons always remained inflated therefore she would not sink – just lower herself into the water until there was 5” or so floating in the bottom of the dinghy – I always had the cleanest feet in the harbor. Eventually the pontoons began to leak – not just a small slow leak but a “must pump up every 4 hours leak”.  Hopefully Santa would bring me a new dink for Xmas.  Eventually the 3 stooges motored White Rose around the corner to the next bay and anchored. 

 

Don returned to the boat in January, just in time to experience the frenzied build up to Carnival.  Two weeks of little work, parties day and night, traffic jams and accidents and general mayhem.  We went to see the Kings & Queens final – the contestants had been weeded out for several nights and this was a collection of the most extravagant costumes imaginable.  It appears a metal cage is built – a person stands in the cage (which is on wheels) around which the costume is built. This  enables the person to walk/push/wheel their costume onto the stage – some costumes were so large they had arms with extra wheels to support.  Each entrant danced, twirled and bowed throughout a long song showing off their costume to the fullest – points were given on colour, originality and movement.  Many contestants had to be helped off the stage as they were totally exhausted by the time their 10 minutes on stage was finished.

 

We both went on one of the local tours – claimed to be the “best”.  It is called a “Taste of Trini” and the local entrepreneur gathers up cruisers and drives them around the island for the day stopping here there and everywhere sampling local foods.  We made it our goal to taste more than documented in previous tours and we made it – 100 different foods were sampled throughout the day and most of us found it difficult to walk back to our boats – we were totally stuffed and uncomfortable but we did it !!!!  Some foods were very good (even though they looked quite disgusting) and some were totally disgusting – cow heel soup actually tasted ok until you sampled one of the gelatinous lumps from the hoof.  Pig’s tails fried with spicy tomato sauce and sour cream was good if you could forget what you were eating.  Lentil dishes, fruits, pastries and nuts were wonderful.  We even tried strange drinks and enjoyed them all – no ill effects the next day which was a bonus.