Lyn's Log, 20th October 2006
Trinidad, Part 2

Chaguramas, Trinidad.
N10º41', W61º38'
10,719 miles.

We spent two months in Peake's boatyard at Chaguramas, Trinidad after returning from England on 16th August. By this time we were finding our way around the northwest end of the country and had made a few friends. We relaunched Sentinel on Friday 13th October and fortunately all went well. Sentinel was looking good in her bright new paint from top to toe, and her new dodgers. We had eventually got some rough patches welded on our deck and we had to douse the burning paint on the inside with spray from a hose. The fumes nearly choked us to death. Andrew had made some major repairs to the hatches so that they were at least usable. Having found the hidden screws around the aft hatch, we were able to remove the woodwork without damage and therefore replace it after the paintwork had been done. Varnished up it looks better than before.

One day we had a very cheap visit to the main town, Port of Spain. Andrew got his glasses fixed for free, and whilst looking for the store to buy some polystyrene sheeting to replace some pieces in the aft cabin roof, we spotted a piece just big enough lying in a disused car park. Another day in Port of Spain we found an enormous fabric store. Fabric is cheap in Trinidad and this store had everything. We bought some red 'Sunbrella' canvas, some cotton sheeting 90 inches wide, enough to make two sheets and pillowcases for around £6, and some cotton dress material. It seems impossible to buy ready made sheets singly but in sets of one fitted, one flat, and pillowcases, for around £20.

On the morning of 29th September, we had been waiting for the minivan to take us to the supermarket when the ground shook a bit and then again quite violently. Andrew pulled me away from under the tree while all the yachts ashore rattled noisily. It was the first earthquake I had experienced, but Andrew's second. It was 6.0 on the Richter scale and we were very close to its center. A fault line runs across the country at the foot of the northern mountain range and the country has experienced earthquakes before. There was some structural damage with a couple of houses collapsed in Port of Spain killing one person, but the airport and many offices were evacuated. Supermarkets closed where goods had fallen from the shelves, so our trip to the supermarket was postponed a few hours and then there was another earthquake just as we returned.

After working so long and hard on the boat, trying to avoid the worst heat of the day, and making sure the paint had enough time to dry before the next torrential downpour (this is the rainy season), we started to look outwards and see how we could explore a little of the country. Our friends Tony and Sandra invited us over to their house for the night a few times so that Sandra could demonstrate local cuisine and I could make music with Tony. Tony had given up playing his double bass and was concentrating on his keyboard. With this he could play and record together all the parts of the backing and then play and print out the music for the singer, or in my case, the clarinet. It took a while to perfect the system but we got it together in the end and we had had a lot of fun. Playing late into the evening each visit, I expect their neighbours were glad when we left. Sandra demonstrated roti, potato cakes, saltfish, rum-rich cake, and other delicacies which we much enjoyed. When we returned the favour one evening, we had a trip down memory lane with suet pudding with golden syrup and custard. One day, Sandra drove us over to a lovely little bay on the north coast, which we could not have seen on our own, for a swim - a real treat. When Tony drove us back to the yacht, he would please Andrew by taking us to a big DIY store, Trinidad's equivalent to B & Q. It was really nice to meet them again - we had met previously nine years ago in the Azores, and hope we shall meet again in the future.

We did a couple of tours with Jesse James, with whom we had seen the turtles earlier in the year. One was a hike through the rain forest to a couple of waterfalls with pools. I enjoyed it so much I wrote an article for the local yachtie paper "The Boca" which they have promised to print in their December or January edition. I wont get to see it but I hope to make a pound or two.

The other trip was to the Asa Wright nature reserve, an excellent place for seeing a variety of birds, followed by a visit into the Caroni Swamp (right) on a flat bottomed boat to see the flocks of scarlet ibis return in the early evening. At Asa Wright we saw a bell bird making a sound like a cracked bell, and lots of humming birds flying within a few feet of us. In the swamp we passed under a couple of snakes sleeping in branches of trees. We came to the edge of a lake where we could see a bushy tree across the water with several white egrets and about three ibis in it. During the half hour we sat there, hundreds of egrets landed there and disappeared inside as if it were a sponge.

Flocks of ibis also arrived but they stayed perched on the outer branches until there were too many to count. They were like bright crimson flowers on the green tree. They are amazing birds to see, so red with specks of black in the wing tips, and their long curved beaks. The young are born black and they turn red with their diet of shellfish.