Greetings, again from Trinidad. In our last update we mentioned that we were waiting to hear from our friends in Sweden, Al and Runa, about their return to their boat, “Runal”, in Trinidad. The same night that our message went out we received an email from them saying they would be back in Trinidad on Jan. 31st … and they were. We met Al and Runa when we all lived at Waterford Harbor Marina (in Kemah, TX) back in the early 90s. They left to go cruising in June ’92 and when we chartered a boat in the BVI with our other friends, Vern and Louise and Laddie and DJ, in the spring of ’93, they brought “Runal” over from Puerto Rico and joined us for our week of “cruising” the Virgin Islands. In the fall of ’94 they invited us to join them for a week or two cruising Grenada and the Grenadines, where we began learning what the cruising life was really like. We joined them again for Carnival ’96 in Trinidad. Each time we’d go home highly motivated to get our boat (and budget) ready to go cruising, too. And more important, we got an insight into what the life was really like and which equipment for the boat was most important. When they flew to Houston in Jan. ’97 for a visit they stayed with us on “Ma’alahi” and invited us to spend some time with them in Sweden that summer (Runa is Swedish and they always spend the summer months (which is also hurricane season) in Sweden with her family). So, in a nutshell, we have enjoyed many memorable vacations due to the hospitality and our friendship with these two.

And, do you remember Doug and LuAnn on “Whisper” from an update we sent last summer? For those of you who don’t, they are the very first people we ever met that actually lived on their boat and cruised the islands. This was back in ’87 – ’88 and we met up with them again in Grenada last August. Well, they’re still in Trinidad, too, and so we got to introduce them to Al and Runa. In fact, we had them all over to our boat for dinner the other night. It was a real treat for us, having both sets of our “cruising mentors” on “Ma’alahi” at the same time!

Speaking of a small world, we spent about a year and a half living on the boat at Marina Del Sol in League City (next door to Kemah) in ’95 – ’96. While we were there we met a couple, Gary and Gail aboard “Carpe Diem” (actually, Claudia met them because they had a little dog, too, and I was always at work and seldom at home). Even though we didn’t know them well, we did remember them when we met up with them in Grenada this past summer. Well, a few nights ago we received an email from them. They have since returned to the Virgin Islands and were filling us in on what they’d been up to since Grenada. They also mentioned that they had sent an email out a while back to their “newsletter” group and they happened to mention that they had run into David and Claudia in Grenada, who they had known back in Texas. Well, they got a reply from some friends they had met while cruising the Chesapeake the year before, Roger and Jeanette Kelley, wanting to know if that was David and Claudia “Shields”. Well, you already know that it is. So, who are Roger and Jeanette Kelley? They are a couple in San Jose, California, who we bought our boat from TEN YEARS AGO when we lived in San Jose! Gary and Gail passed along their email address so I sent them a note letting them know that it was really us and that we finally did get the boat and ourselves out cruising. It is amazing and scary how often this sort of thing happens. There’s a lesson here … always be nice to everybody; you never know how and when you may meet up again!

Trinidad is a hard place to leave. It is not uncommon for cruisers to come for a few weeks and stay for years. We have been on guard about this and are definitely planning to leave. We’re just not sure yet exactly when we’re leaving or where we’ll go. Our 3 months is up this week and we have an appointment with Immigration on Thursday to get an extension. “Runal” is hoping to get their boat back in the water this week and get it all ready to set sail for the Grenadines. Our guess right now is that we’ll leave with them and cruise that area for awhile. Then, we’ll sail down to Venezuela and cruise some areas that we’ve been hearing much about before sailing back north, across the Caribbean to St. Croix and the Virgin Islands. We’ll keep you posted.

David and Claudia