Oh my goodness what a week - we decided
to leave Grenada on Friday to arrive in Trinidad on Saturday but two very good
friends on the boats Spirit and Jabiru arrived in Grenada from Trinidad on
Thursday and a large group were meeting in town at a jazz concert Friday
night. Knowing it may be the last time we see Bobby, Peter and Gayle we
decided to stay another night in Grenada and party - so glad we did !!
Our anchor chain was heavily encrusted with barnacles and seaweed having been down for almost 3 months - it was now over 3 inches in diameter and definitely did not resemble a chain but more a piece of sunken pipe from the 1800's. I began to clean the chain with a wire brush and thin chisel going in and out and around each link - our chain lives in a locker at the front of the boat which is accessed via a louvre door in the forward cabin – ie. if seaweed and barnacles are still attached to the chain when it is taken on board it stinks !!! I managed to clean less than 10 metres each session which was over 2 hrs - a horrible job!!
Our anchor chain was heavily encrusted with barnacles and seaweed having been down for almost 3 months - it was now over 3 inches in diameter and definitely did not resemble a chain but more a piece of sunken pipe from the 1800's. I began to clean the chain with a wire brush and thin chisel going in and out and around each link - our chain lives in a locker at the front of the boat which is accessed via a louvre door in the forward cabin – ie. if seaweed and barnacles are still attached to the chain when it is taken on board it stinks !!! I managed to clean less than 10 metres each session which was over 2 hrs - a horrible job!!
I was apprehensive about taking White
Rose through the dog leg channel to exit the reefs that made our anchorage so
calm and safe - the boat Troubadour had
gone up on the reef two days earlier.
Somehow they missed a buoy and ended up severely damaging their
rudder. The first few hours were
horrible - we managed the great speed of 2.7 knots in lumpy seas - the seas
were only 3ft but side on so the boat had a figure 8 motion - not good !!!
After that we had great sailing - 5 - 6 knots and had to slow down to arrive in
Chaguaramas Bay at dawn - similar to the first few hours, the last few hours
was against current and the wind died so slow motoring into port. Chaguaramas
is an industrial port and very dirty - floating debris everywhere - as Bobby
says Trinidad is lovely if you just keep looking up !! We attended
Customs and Immigration at 7am then found a mooring ball and went to sleep - a
friendly neighbour knocked on the side of the boat waking me up - he was
warning us that whilst their boat was on the same mooring ball the bright
yellow catamaran next door had scrapped down the side of their boat - without
wind, the current moves boats in different directions instead of all together -
the mooring balls in the bay are very close together and we saw several boats
fending each other off. Just as the cruiser was leaving sure enough the
cat came very close - I started the motor, Don let the mooring line go and we
moved away just as the cat crossed our stern. Our second mooring ball had
a lot of space around it until a boat took the ball behind us and sure enough
there came a time we had to fend them off - they were good enough to let their
ball go and find another. I wonder how many boats hit each other at night
!!!
Our general plan was to check out the 3 prospective boat yards where White Rose 1 would be hauled, have her bottom pressure washed, scraped and blisters drilled out ready for new bottom paint when we return. We hoped to have her hauled on Monday in preparation for leaving Tuesday......Monday was a public holiday which threw our plans into disarray ..... Tuesday morning we were up bright and early - we were waiting at the office of Peakes Boatyard before they opened and were fortunate enough to get a haul-out time of 9am - back to the boat to lift the dinghy and prepare to enter their dock. Whilst White Rose was being hauled Don sat in the office and tried to book my flight to Sweden - all his credit cards were being refused (we had moved from Grenada to Trinidad and had not informed the bank so they put a stop on all transactions) even paypal had been cancelled - with only a few hours to go I had given up on leaving with him - I would follow in a week or so. Don performed some type of miracle and got the airfare booked, the office printed out our e tickets whilst we completed the many documents required by customs to leave the boat in the country while owners are absent - Dave was ready and waiting to help us and he took us by his fast dinghy to immigration and then customs to have the documents copied and stamped then back to find our boat in the yard. Finding White Rose took some doing - we eventually found her tucked into the side of a building in between two much larger boats - with only 1.5hrs to go before the taxi to the airport we had a lot of cleaning and packing do to - the yard had forgotten to leave a ladder to access the boat - that took over 20 mins to find and erect. The fridge contents got thrown into a bag and the fridge had the quickest wipe out known - the heads and sinks were fresh water flushed (thank goodness it had been raining so the puddles on the ground were not so noticeable) and my bag thrown together. Don prepared the deck and dinghy and we locked the boat up with 20mins to go. We rushed down to the office, handed in our key and borrowed a shower key - the showers do not have any curtains therefore when it is on, it wets all your clothes and in my case my backpack also. Not having a towel I dried myself on my sweat drenched t-shirt and put on travel clothes - we got in the taxi looking like two drowned rats deserting a sinking ship. The sun was bright and the temperature cruel - very hot and humid - Don and I were getting sunburnt and sweat dripped constantly. When inside the boat I had to continually mop the drips from the floor as it became slippery - yuk !!!
Thank goodness the taxi was air-conditioned - I was so glad to just sit - that was until we saw the traffic jam - it took us 1.5hrs to go a few miles and the airport was 30 miles away. We made it in time, totally exhausted and hungry we fell into plane seats and just wanted to go to sleep although knowing dinner was going to be served kept us awake. The plane flew via St Lucia where they had a freight problem so we sat for 1.5hrs on the tarmac and eventually got going again and fed - airplane food never tasted so good.
Our general plan was to check out the 3 prospective boat yards where White Rose 1 would be hauled, have her bottom pressure washed, scraped and blisters drilled out ready for new bottom paint when we return. We hoped to have her hauled on Monday in preparation for leaving Tuesday......Monday was a public holiday which threw our plans into disarray ..... Tuesday morning we were up bright and early - we were waiting at the office of Peakes Boatyard before they opened and were fortunate enough to get a haul-out time of 9am - back to the boat to lift the dinghy and prepare to enter their dock. Whilst White Rose was being hauled Don sat in the office and tried to book my flight to Sweden - all his credit cards were being refused (we had moved from Grenada to Trinidad and had not informed the bank so they put a stop on all transactions) even paypal had been cancelled - with only a few hours to go I had given up on leaving with him - I would follow in a week or so. Don performed some type of miracle and got the airfare booked, the office printed out our e tickets whilst we completed the many documents required by customs to leave the boat in the country while owners are absent - Dave was ready and waiting to help us and he took us by his fast dinghy to immigration and then customs to have the documents copied and stamped then back to find our boat in the yard. Finding White Rose took some doing - we eventually found her tucked into the side of a building in between two much larger boats - with only 1.5hrs to go before the taxi to the airport we had a lot of cleaning and packing do to - the yard had forgotten to leave a ladder to access the boat - that took over 20 mins to find and erect. The fridge contents got thrown into a bag and the fridge had the quickest wipe out known - the heads and sinks were fresh water flushed (thank goodness it had been raining so the puddles on the ground were not so noticeable) and my bag thrown together. Don prepared the deck and dinghy and we locked the boat up with 20mins to go. We rushed down to the office, handed in our key and borrowed a shower key - the showers do not have any curtains therefore when it is on, it wets all your clothes and in my case my backpack also. Not having a towel I dried myself on my sweat drenched t-shirt and put on travel clothes - we got in the taxi looking like two drowned rats deserting a sinking ship. The sun was bright and the temperature cruel - very hot and humid - Don and I were getting sunburnt and sweat dripped constantly. When inside the boat I had to continually mop the drips from the floor as it became slippery - yuk !!!
Thank goodness the taxi was air-conditioned - I was so glad to just sit - that was until we saw the traffic jam - it took us 1.5hrs to go a few miles and the airport was 30 miles away. We made it in time, totally exhausted and hungry we fell into plane seats and just wanted to go to sleep although knowing dinner was going to be served kept us awake. The plane flew via St Lucia where they had a freight problem so we sat for 1.5hrs on the tarmac and eventually got going again and fed - airplane food never tasted so good.
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