The day after we arrived back from Tobago, Catherine Tardieu picked us up for some more island touring. She took us down to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Independence Square and also the Rosary Catholic Church on Henry Street all in Port of Spain. For the looks of things I don’t think it would have been safe if John & I came there by ourselves. Some of the areas we traveled through didn’t look all that safe. We were glad we were with someone who knew where to go. We then went up to Mount St. Benedict Church and Monastery in Tunapuna, which sits on 240 hectares ( 600 acres) at the top of a hill overlooking south and central Trinidad and offers spectacular views. The Monastery is home to 20 aging monks. When we reached the top of the mountain we met her mother, Maggie, who had prepared us a Trinidadian picnic lunch. She made Pe-lau, (pronounced either pi low, pe low), a spicy Caribbean meat and rice dish and contained rice, pigeon peas, beef and chicken. She also made three drinks; Fruit Punch (the best I have tasted); Ginger Beer (not alcoholic), grated fresh ginger, sugar, a small amount of baker’s yeast, and (optionally) lemon juice and is bottled in a 2 liter bottle. It is sealed at room temperature for a day or two before refrigerating; its other distinctive properties include its traditional cloudy appearance, its predominantly citrus sour taste base and its spicy ginger bite which we didn’t care for; Mauby, which is widely consumed in the Caribbean and made with sugar and the bark from a tree of the Buckthorn family. This drink has an acquired taste and a word of warning to first-time Mauby drinkers, “it can cause a laxative initial reaction”. I guess it was a good thing I didn’t drink much because I really didn’t like it. So much for new Trinidadian drinks for I think I will stick to things I know in the future.
The next couple weeks were spent on boat projects with John finishing putting up the new Kiss Wind Generator, whereas he had to get help from another boater to help put the unit in place. Now he is tackling the job of replacing the chain plate’s one on either side at a time. As of this article he has two replaced and working on two more with four after that to go.
After a couple of weeks we received a phone call from the Knaggs our newly found friends from Trinidad that they were going to pick us up on Friday the 11th of September and take us to see their home in Blanchisseuse, (pronounced Blon-she-suhze). It is derived from the French word for launderer – taken from the village women who washed their clothes in the nearby Marianne River. Blanchisseuse is on the north coast of Trinidad and we were once again traveling on the hilly, winding road along the coast towards Maracas Bay. From Maracas Bay the road narrows and the beautiful craggy coastline is dotted with weekend homes and can seem romantic or harsh, depending on your mood. The North Coast Road climbs over the mountains of the Northern Range, through a forest of tall trees, ferns and bamboo while hugging the Caribbean coastline. We finally arrived at another of their beautiful homes, a 4 bedroom with a pool, high on a hill overlooking the ocean. They had a plaque on the gate that read “La Bella Vita”, meaning “The Good Life”. After having a tour and a few drinks we continued on the North Coast Road until we came to their fishing village and went down to the quay to watch the fishermen unload their catches of the day. Each fishing boat is relieved of its motor and this was carried up on the shoulder of one of the natives. We saw him carrying up the steep incline a 40hp engine and then a 48hp engine with little or no effort and this was in the heat of the afternoon. Of course he was a lot younger than us! Each boat was then lifted out of the water by about 10-12 men and placed on the quay for tomorrow’s fishing expedition. All in all there were about thirty, 24’ fishing boats there. David purchased some King fish and they were cleaned on the spot and cut into steaks for grilling later. We returned to their house and walked down the steps to the beach and walked out in the ocean around the rock outcropping to the other beach next door. Once through the rocks it was all sand and easy going. We later swam in the surf but didn’t venture out too far as we had seen red flags flying when we past Maracas Bay Beach earlier that morning and I’m sure this was for rip currents.
Trinidadians have their own language, one of the most fascinating languages on earth. A few Trini (Trinidadian) words we have heard and have stuck in our lingo. We are called yachties here, not boaters or cruisers and Limin’ is hanging out, loafing or the art of doing nothing. I’m sure we will pick up more before we leave here after the hurricane season.
Today sitting here at the marina restaurant working on my articles, Charmaine who works here brought me over a “starch mangos” to try. This didn’t look like any mangos I have ever seen. It was yellow with spots on it and I was told to peel it like a banana and have my head over a dish or sink because it’s really juicy. According to her they have thirty seven different kinds of mangos
Carol is now getting ready for her trip back to Florida the 20th of September for three weeks and will visit with friends and family. John has ordered all kinds of “boat stuff” for her to bring back again this year and they are all taking up space at our son Steve’s house in Melbourne.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
We are now back in boat fix it mode for awhile. Our wind generator quit putting out amps so it was time to purchase a new one. What is the saying “A boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into”. John, “Brain Surgeon” tried everything imaginable to try and get it to work but no luck. John & I took off walking to where they manufacture the Kiss Generator here in Trinidad which was about a mile away. We talked to the owner and negotiated a good price we thought, but it was still expensive. John was going to have to rebuild the pole to accommodate the new generator for the poles were different sizes. Of course nothing is easy. John also was off to see about the new stainless for our chain plates which I’m sure wasn’t going to be cheap either.
After a few days in the work mode, John reminded me that one of our friends from the United States Power & Sail Squadron, Gervase Bushe, was born and raised here in Trinidad and to send him an e-mail that we were here. While we were awaiting a reply we got a message on our web page that Catherine Tardieu, a Trinidadian lived here in Trinidad and wanted us to get in contact with her. Her friend lives across the street in Palm Bay, Florida, from EZ Way Storage where John used to work part time. I sent her an e-mail and got a call the next day that she would be stopping by to get acquainted. While she was here we set up a date for next week to do some touring around. In the meantime we also received a reply from our friend Gervase with a list of cousins and friends with their phone numbers to call. We finally got through to his best friend’s wife, Joy Knaggs and she called back later they would be picking us up next week also for some touring around Trinidad.
Wednesday of the next week David & Joy Knaggs picked us up and took us on a tour around the Savannahs area in Port of Spain. We stopped for lunch at the Apsara-Indian Restaurant and had a combination of chicken, shrimp, lamb, vegetables and bread they call “Naan Bread”. Apsara is the only authentic Indian Restaurant in Trinidad & Tobago specializing in mainly northern Indian cuisine. After lunch we went up Lady Chancellor Road which is a very winding road up a mountain and when we got to the top we got a great view of Port of Spain and the surrounding area down below. We also saw the Hilton Trinidad and this is a unique architecturally designs called the “upside down hotel”, (sometimes a Jeopardy question on TV). During the day they invited us to their home on Tobago so we stopped at a travel agency to see if we could get some tickets on the fast ferry that goes there. We were in luck and got some for the coming Sunday at a cost of $33.34 US for both of us round trip. We didn’t expect them to be so inexpensive and are really looking forward to our trip there.
The next day Catherine Tardieu picked us up and first she took us to the Chaguaramas Military History & Aviation Museum which is 12,000 sq. ft. and covers over 500 years of history – along with military vehicles, vessels, artillery and aircraft. We were surprised at the size of this museum because it didn’t look that big from the road. We were then off to lunch which was on a street they call the avenue where we saw beautiful murals painted on the walls along the street. Immediately to the west of Queen’s Park in the Savannahs we saw the Magnificent Seven which between the years 1903-1909, which were truly great years for Trinidad and their magnificent expression, seven beautiful buildings situated on land of the former St. Clair sugar estate. They were truly outstanding mansions of a type never seen before in Trinidad. They are known today as “The Magnificent Seven”. 1) 1904 Queens Royal College – Boys High School – built in an Italianate style and features a grand clock tower; 2) Hayes Court (Anglican Bishops Residence – named after Bishop J. Thomas Hayes; 3) Mille Fleurs – was once a private mansion with impressive iron fretwork and also known as Prada’s House, is now owned by the state; 4) Roomer - a private residence – built in the French Baroque style, was once known as the Ambard Building; 5) Roman Catholic Archbishop’s residence; 6) Whitehall – The Prime Minister government office - opulent Moorish-style mansion; 7) Stollmeyer Castle – built to resemble a Scottish Castle with turrets, and named after the family who built this miniature Rhine castle and now is owned by the government. We then went over to the Botanical Gardens which was on the northern end of the Savannah and saw both the Presidents house and the Prime Minister’s.
The rest of the week went by fast with John doing some boat work and Carol catching up on laundry, work on articles and pictures.
Sunday 8/23/09 loomed rainy and dreary. We took a Maxi Taxi (cheap bus) to the end of the bus line where the ferry dock was located right across the street. For whatever reason, we had to be there two hours before departure. Our ferry was a sleek looking ship that traveled at 50mph and had four engines for a total of 40,000 hp. Even with this speed it took us 2 ½ hours to get to Tobago.
Tobago lies just 20 miles off the northeast coast of Trinidad and has an area of 116 sq. miles and is a typical tranquil Caribbean island with white sandy beaches and clear, turquoise water. When Columbus sighted the island it was occupied by Caribs and he named the island Bella Forma. Today its present name is a corruption of tobacco, a crop which the native Caribs grew. Initially the island was isolated from and unknown to Europeans for many decades until 1632 when Dutch merchants established a colony there. In 1791, over 90 percent of Tobago’s 15,000 residents were African slaves, most of who worked on the many sugar plantations island wide. For the next 200 years, Tobago changed hands 33 times among the Spanish, Dutch, English and French, all of them rival colonists. The island was finally ceded to Britain in 1814 by the Treaty of Paris. On April 6, 1889, Tobago was annexed administratively to Trinidad - on the insistence of the British Government and in an effort to secure more financial stability for Tobago, the island became a ward of the colony of Trinidad. Primarily due to the decline of sugar production in Tobago, the finances of the two islands were then merged and managed under an all-white legislative council of members sent from Britain. Today with a population of 46,000 nestled in 15 valleys around the coastline, this island is the perfect demonstration of how man can live in harmony with nature. Tobago’s central hilly range, the main highland ridge, forms much of the island’s topography and is the home of the magnificent rain forest – the oldest protected nature reserve in the Western Hemisphere. Although Tobago lies to the south of the hurricane belt, it was nevertheless struck by Hurricane Flora on 9/30/1963 and severely changed the face of Tobago’s economy. The hurricane laid waste to the plantations of banana, coconut and cacao, which largely sustained the economy. It wreaked considerable damage to the largely pristine tropical rainforest that makes up a large proportion of the interior of the northern half of the island. Subsequently, many of the plantations were abandoned, and the economy changed direction away from cash crop agriculture toward tourism. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan, although less severe than Flora, also caused significant damage. I was also told this island was the place for the filming location of the Walt Disney movie The Swiss Family Robinson.
When we arrived in Scarborough, the capital of Tobago, David Knaggs and his daughter Lorraine picked us up. They have a lovely 3 bedroom pool home in Bucoo, Tobago with a lovely 180˚ view of the ocean. The next day we went out for lunch at a little restaurant called “Shore Things Café & Crafts”, which had very good food. After lunch it was back to their house for a nice swim and limin’ (hanging out, or the art of doing nothing) for the rest of the day. The following day we drove up to Fort King George overlooking Scarborough Harbor. David then took us on a little island tour around part of the island. After our tour we went down to the ocean and did some snorkeling and swimming off a small reef. The days flew by in a flurry and it was time again to head back to Trinidad on the ferry. What a great island to visit if you get a chance.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
We decided that it probably wasn’t too safe to stay in Granada since they had two hurricanes two years in a row, Ivan 2004 and Emily 2005. They hadn’t had one before Ivan for 50 years. Since we had decided not to go to Venezuela we decided to go to Trinidad instead. We got the boat ready with the 18 dinghy engine up on the deck, left at 1300 on Thursday 7/30/09 with two other sailboats. The trip started out with seas 4’-5’ with the jib and mainsail up doing 4-5 knots, sometimes doing 6+ knots. When it got dark we never turned on our navigation lights and also didn’t’ speak on the VHF radio and beforehand had picked channel 19 to use to talk between the two other boats if necessary. We were told to do this because when we came by the gas rigs there could be pirates hanging around. When we got 2/3 of the way to Trinidad we saw the gas rig Hibiscus. It was huge and awesome to view it from about 2 miles east of it. Around 0100 it started to blow and rain and that continued most of the night. It was a horrible crossing with water coming over both sides again. It sure wasn’t what the forecast had predicted. At daybreak we were about 10 miles out and had to slow down so we didn’t get in the Boca de Monos channel until after 0800, otherwise we would have to pay overtime charges. We had lost our traveling companions during the night but we saw one already there when we got to the customs dock. The other sailboat had gone way west and arrived later that morning.
Trinidad is 7 miles NE of the coast of Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago gained independence from Great Britain 8/31/1962. It became a republic on 8/1/1976. Head of State is the President and Executive power is vested in the Prime Minister and Government following democratic elections every 5 years. Currency is Trinidad & Tobago (TT) dollars and 6TT = $1 US dollar. The language here is English. Trinidad is in the outer edge of the path of the hurricanes and tropical storms. It has 1,864 sq miles in area, 50 miles by 45 miles and approximately the same as Rhode Island in the US. Trinidad as recently as 18,000 years ago used to be linked to Venezuela and part of South America. Trinidad’s first inhabitants – the Caribs named the island “Lere” (pronounced “ayirie”) meaning land of the hummingbird. Today 16 different species of the brilliantly hued creatures inhabit the island. It is also an island which includes rain forests and swamps with monkeys, parrots, macaws, manatees and giant leatherback turtles. Wildlife also includes poisonous snakes such as the fer-de-lance, bushmaster & coral. Its people invented steel pan (a byproduct of the oil industries discarded oil drums), calypso and whose Carnival is considered the best in the world.
During World War II the US established major naval & air bases in Chaguaramas, Trinidad. 30,000 Americans used to live here. Chaguaramas is now part of a national park which includes tropical rainforest, lush valleys and is home to monkeys & parrots. Chaguaramus Bay is in hilly country and supports large numbers of pelicans, corbeaus (vultures) & frigate birds, which ride the thermals like dark kites.
A few years ago yachts rarely visited Trinidad and felt Tobago was to far east to visit. About 12 years ago Don Stollmeyer the manager of a boat yard called Power Boats invested in a used 50 ton travel boat lift and now the industry of yacht services has grown to a thriving industry with over a hundred businesses and thousands of people. A handful of boat yards formed YSAT in 1994 and is a nonprofit organization, is the watchdog, the helping hand and voice of the industry. It wears many hats including contractor referrals, problem resolutions, custom & immigration, tourism information and marketing, government liaison, events, compliments & complaints, environment, moorings in Chaguaramas Bay, water taxi & Caribbean Marine Assistance.
When we finally got to the customs dock in Chaguaramas it was around 0830. Custom & Immigration was pretty straightforward and the cost was $9 US. It was really weird when we got our money changed we were walking around with $100 bills. We thought we were rich for once. When we left the customs dock one of our fenders got caught on the pilling and the attachment line broke. As we were getting it in we noticed that one of the chain plates came out and looked like it was rusted through. I guess the stress of the fender pulling on the opposite shroud made it come loose. One thing good about it happening the way it did at the dock and not while we had the sails up during the horrendous night last night. It could have been a disaster with maybe the mast coming down. We continued on our way around the hill to the other side to a place called TTSA (Trinidad, Tobago Sailing Association) which is considered in Harts Cut. TTSA is the home of yacht racing December through May and has races on a regular basis. When we got anchored we both crashed till the next morning. We sent out e-mails to everyone that we were here and got one back from our son Steve that he was coming for a visit on Monday. It was a mad dash to get the boat in shape for our first guest since we left the states. We had no idea where to go or what to see while he was here. On Monday we checked with the marina to see where we picked up a bus (called maxi taxies here) to take us to the airport. We found out the maxi taxies (yellow & white stripped) stopped right out front. We rode the bus to the end of the line where we walked one block to another terminal which had red & white stripped maxi taxies going south. We were dropped off about a mile from the airport and were told to hail a taxi because they didn’t go into the airport. I guess the information we had received was all wrong which isn’t unusual as we have found out. Our son arrived 30 minutes ahead of time and we were glad to see him. He rented a car and we were off doing a little sightseeing through Port of Spain the capital. John got to drive and being British they drive on the left side of the road so it took some getting used to. Also John wasn’t familiar with the roads yet and it was a good thing we had a map of the area. Steve was intrigued with all the Rastafarian’s around and took pictures like crazy. The next day we loaded up the gas and diesel cans and went and got fuel. Diesel was $1.11 US and Gas $1.75 at the gas station which if we had gone to the marina it would have been triple that amount. Wednesday 8/5/09 we got up and took off for the Chaguaramas Golf Course where we found a path which was to take us to Edith Falls. It was a beautiful walk through all the swaying bamboo and lots of heliconias (flowers). Some places it was thick overhead cool & dark underneath. We never saw any animal life whatsoever except for a few birds and a snake. We were looking for parrots and monkeys. Edith Falls only exist at the height of the wet season. The falls when running, are suppose to be an impressive 600 feet in height with a pool to swim in, but this is only during the rainy season. When we saw them, we called them the “trickle down falls” because only a little stream of water was coming down. The next day we took a winding drive through the Northern Range’s rainforest with beautiful views of Cyril’s, Balata and Maracas Bays. We stopped at Maracas Bay which is a wide, white-sand beach, thick with palm trees contrasting against the backdrop of verdant mountains. They have lifeguards, changing rooms, showers, picnic shelters and food huts selling cold Carib beer and the infamous food delight “Shark & Bake”. We had never tried this before and it was very tasty. The one end of the beach was covered with Bumboat’s (local fishing boats). The next day we took the dinghy and went around to Carrera Prison Island and took a lot of pictures. This island is used as a rehabilitation place for prisoners, not your hard core type. The next night we were sitting in the cockpit talking and around 2350 the band over at the Tsunami Bar/Restaurant (off our stern) started playing extremely loud and you couldn’t hear yourself think. We endured it until around 0200 and finally crashed. When we awoke the next morning they were still going strong and they finally quit at 1000. John said if they were going to blast away next week he was going to break down and turn the A/C on. Steve left after a six day visit and hope he enjoyed his visit here in Trinidad.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.