Category Archives: Trinidad

Dolphins, Scotland Bay, Trinidad

Leaving Trinidad

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I’ve waited to write again until our plans became a little more solid and now they are. It is Saturday evening and we are anchored at Chacachacare with “Runal”. There may be a weather window opening up Monday – Wednesday and we are planning to clear out of Trinidad on Monday and then move around to Scotland Bay before heading north, past Grenada and up to either Union Island or Bequia in the Grenadines. Our primary goal at this point is to take the quickest route back to pretty water and good snorkeling which will be found in and around the Tobago Cays in the Grenadines. There are many small islands that make up this area and we only stopped at a few on the way down and that was way back in July (it seems like a century ago). We’ll hang out in that area for awhile before continuing up island. “Ma’alahi” wants to be back in the Virgin Islands around the first of May and “Runal” needs to be back in Trinidad by mid-June so we’ve got several weeks to add detail to our plans. One reoccurring thought that we’re having is to go as far north as Martinique, which isn’t very far north, load up on good, cheap French wine (again), sail straight to the VI, spend 3 or 4 months there and then sail straight down to Venezuela for the hurricane season. Oh well, I shouldn’t spend too much time talking about future plans because they are so subject to change … over and over again.

We’ve spent the past several weeks doing a lot of boat work. We’ve been repainting the cove stripe on those very few days when weather conditions allow. We got 2 coats of gray primer on and then started with the dark blue polyurethane paint. It is generally too windy or rainy or both so progress has been slow. As we sit here now, the port side of the boat is dark blue and the starboard side is primer gray. Actually the gray side doesn’t look so bad and we’re getting a lot of interesting looks and comments from people when the boats swing around. I like to tell them that we just couldn’t make up our minds which color to use or that I wanted blue and my wife wanted gray. At least it is progress. The new Icom SSB radio is installed and is incredibly superior to our old SGC. There is a net we check into most evenings and it is getting a little embarrassing because our signal is so strong and so many people want to talk to us (actually I still enjoy hearing them comment that “it sounds like you’re right next to us”). But the neatest part of this new radio is that it handles our email so much better. I can get connected virtually any time, night or day and have it all sent and received in 4 or 5 minutes. So, please feel free to write longer and more often!

You may remember about the fuel line problems we had back in Texas and Louisiana when we first took off. A very small air leak allowed air bubbles to reach the injectors every few hours and kill the engine. We solved the problem by installing an electric fuel pump and never had the problem again … until a couple of weeks ago that is. The electric pump quit pumping and we discovered that our air leak had not healed itself. I ordered and had FedEx’d a new pump from the U.S. and began trying in earnest to track down and repair that leak. I started by installing a new manual lift pump that I had on board. That didn’t solve it so now I’ve replaced all the fittings and fuel hose from the tanks to the lift pump. That didn’t solve it either but I’ve got the new electric pump installed and we’re back in business. I think I’ll buy a spare electric pump when we get back to VI.

When “Runal” returned to their boat from Sweden they discovered that they had real engine problems. They had to have their engine pulled and get new rings and bearings. One day, while that was going on, we bicycled over to a beach on the north coast and had a picnic. While biking along the road we saw a couple of monkeys swinging through the bamboo trees which was a treat since the monkeys here are often heard but seldom seen. On the way back we took a side trip to a trail that we heard about and had a beautiful hike up to a waterfall. Actually, it is only a trickle in the dry season. When Towing_Runal“Runal” got back in the water we motored around to Scotland Bay with them for a shakedown. All seemed well until the next morning when they discovered a quart of oil in the bilge and their low oil pressure warning would not shut off. We towed them around to Chaguaramas and a few days later they were re-repaired and all is now well.

I mentioned to someone the other day how Trinidad is starting to seem like a third world Kemah. It’s been fun here but now all we’re doing is working on the boat and spending money; just like before we left home. We’re definitely ready to go cruising again!

SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2000

It is now Sunday morning and I’m finishing up this email before sending it on out. We had another dolphin encounter this morning, only this time before we jumped in the dinghy to go play with them I grabbed my snorkeling bag. Just like last time they came over to swim at the bow of the dinghy, only this time I was in the water, too, holding on and watching them watch me … a really incredible experience. After awhile I got out and let Claudia have a turn. Some people pay big bucks to get to do this. I guess we did, too, only indirectly. After an hour or so we got tired and dinghied back to our boat but the dolphins weren’t through playing yet. They followed us over there and started splashing around. It now feels like we’re cruising again!

Well, that’s all for now. We’ll write again when we get somewhere.

David and Claudia

Trinidad

Yeah, Still in Trinidad

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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 nightRunal_On_The_Hard_2 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 Al_Runa_LuAnn_Doug_2them 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

Trinidad

Another Trini Update

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Monday, January 24, 2000
We’ve spent the last 2 weeks in Chaguaramas while the new teak galley floor has been built and installed. It is now finished and is beautiful. We upped anchor and moved back to Scotland Bay this afternoon. Our friends on “Beyond” prepared a campfire and Scotland_Bay_Bonfire_3“organized” a barbeque tonight. Doug and LuAnn on “Whisper” and Neil and Rosie on “Dreamcatcher” arrived this evening and we all brought something for the grill to go with the baked potatoes (in the coals), salads, bread, and beans. A beautiful night and a great meal was had, with the howler monkeys and tree frogs making background music. The phosphorescence was incredible tonight as we dinghied back to the mother ship. It’s great to be cruising again. We’re still waiting to hear from Al and Runa in Sweden about when they plan to return to Trinidad. We’re thinking about heading west to Isla de Margarita in Venezuela (about 140 miles away) and spending some time there before returning to Trinidad … we’ll make plans in the next couple of days. We are both anxious to be on the move again. We heard on the net this morning that St. Louis and Tennessee are in the Super Bowl this year … how did that happen????
Let us hear from you,

David and Claudia

Chacachacare, Dolphins, Scotland Bay, Trinidad

Still in Trinidad

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CHACACHACARE (cha-ka-cha-CAR-ray)
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are off to an exciting and successful New Year. I’m sure that back home every small and insignificant computer glitch is causing front page news (since apparently the world has not come to an end due to Y2K problems) but here we haven’t heard any of that. We had a nice Christmas dinner with a large number of other cruisers, potluck style. We wereScotland_Bay_Maalahi_5 still anchored at Scotland Bay but dinghyed around to Chaguaramas for the event. It was just getting dark on the way back and as we were entering the bay a very large dolphin leaped straight and completely out of the water directly in front of us; scared the heck out of us at first but I turned the dinghy around for another look and he did it again. We both thought that was a pretty neat Christmas present. The next day we moved the boat over to Chacachacare_Nuns_Quarters_3Chacachacare Island, about 6 miles away. Chacachacare was a leper colony until the late 60’s when it was vacated. The ruins of the buildings (the hospital, chapel, doctor’s house, nuns’ quarters, etc.) make excellent exploring. The lab in the hospital still contains patients’ records, x-rays and boxes of medicines; very fascinating. We also hiked up the mountain top to the lighthouse where on a clear day the views must be wonderful.

NEW YEAR’S EVE (or OLD YEAR’S NIGHT)
After a couple of nights at Chacachacare we headed back to Chaguaramas to check on dock space at the yard where our new galley floor will be made and installed next week, get some supplies and make some phone calls. We had planned to go back to Scotland Bay for New Year’s but instead went back to Chacachacare with some other cruising friends. There were other friends over there for the new year and before dark we all got together for a dinghy Y2k_Raftup_Group_4raft-up with a few snacks and drinks. We had dinner aboard Rob and Debbie’s catamaran “CAVU” along with Paul and Natalie from “Renegade” and Earl and Sue from “My Bonnie”. After dinner we awaited the new year by playing a game of “Farkle” (where I got the nickname “Monkey Man” just because I picked up a dropped dice with my toes (that’s another benefit of this cruising life, you might get dressed up for an evening on someone’s boat, but you still go barefoot!)) and then laying on their foredeck (trampoline) looking up at a most awesome array of stars on an unusually clear night…a very memorable new year.

ANOTHER DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER
We were having coffee in the cockpit the morning of Jan. 2, when Debbie paddled over on a float. When Claudia turned around to greet her, she noticed a pod of dolphins were feeding in the bay. Debbie paddled out toward them, but we jumped in our dinghy and after going over to “CAVU” and picking up Rob we took off to get up close which we did. These were the largest dolphins I’ve ever seen and being in the dinghy we were right next to them on the water. Some of them swam right with the dinghy, just like they do with the big boat. I’d speed up and so would they and they’d slow down when I did. We only turned around to go back after they finished their fish breakfast and left the protection of the bay, and after one of them flipped his tail right in front of us and gave us a good soaking. We all thought that was pretty neat, except for Miss Augie.

CAR RENTAL
We came back to Chaguaramas the next afternoon. “CAVU” and us decided to rent a car for a couple of days to see more of Trinidad and we had committed to pick up Doug and LuAnn from “Whisper” at the airport the night of the Jan. 4 upon their return from South Carolina for the holidays. I have driven on the left before (in the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands) but never with the steering wheel on the right. It didn’t take long to make the adjustment and after a couple of days, it seems natural and I actually prefer it. We explored Pitch_Lake_Debbie_Rob_Claudia_Davidthe south of Trinidad and saw “Pitch Lake” where pitch is mined and exported for road pavement and we drove through the rain forest to the north coast and Maracas Beach where the island’s best “Bake ‘N Shark” can be had…and had some we did. Tomorrow we’ll make a grocery run with the car before turning it in. Then (MAYBE) we can finally get started on some of those boat projects, ha ha!

FUTURE PLANS
Nothing new to report here. We’re going to get that new galley floor done and then either go west to Venezuela, Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba before heading northeast back to the Virgins, or start working our way back north from Trinidad, or go west as far as Isla de Margarita (in Venezuela) then come back to Trinidad before working our way back north. Don’t know exactly how we’ll route it but we are planning to be back in the Virgin Islands this spring. We’ll let you know when we figure it out. Until then, enjoy yourselves and keep in touch. Please use our sailmail address, wcw5564@sailmail.com, unless your message is particularly long or includes attachments, then use the hotmail address, wcw5564@hotmail.com. Sailmail has finally opened their east coast station and it’s now much easier to get connected so I’m not checking hotmail as often now.
Till next time,

David and Claudia

Trinidad

Trini Update

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Greetings, everyone.

We’ve been in Trinidad now for 3 weeks, plenty of time to have a good quantity of “sea growth” on the anchor chain and snubbers. We’ve made pitifully poor progress on all our boat projects, but have adapted to the social routines and goings on here quite rapidly. We’ve attended Sunday church services with Doug and LuAnn from “Whisper”, gone to Wednesday movie nights with Peter and Karen from “Tanee” here at TTYA (Trinidad & Tobago Yachting Association (more on that later)), killed lots of time playing “Mexican Train” (a domino game played with double 12’s), had Thanksgiving dinner Thanksgiving_Bob_Susan_Turkeywith Bob and Susan and 3 other couples aboard “Sunrise” (complete with turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberries, candied yams and bananas, pumpkin custard (explanation to follow) and a lot more, sampled the Food Courts at 3 different shopping malls (Long Circular Mall, West Mall and Excellent City Centre) and Claudia has completed 3 shopping trips for the incredible variety and low prices of the many fabric shops in downtown Port Of Spain (in spite of the fact that she HATES to sew (the prices are that good)). We’ve had pizza at Joe’s Pizza (twice), bacon cheeseburgers at The Lighthouse (twice), all-you-can-eat shrimp at MOBs and fried chicken at KFC (yep, Kentucky Fried Chicken). We even discovered a specialty store at West Mall called Peppercorn’s that sells Pace Thick & Chunky Picante Sauce (mild, medium and hot) and TORTILLA CHIPS!!!! Since we’ve successfully made our own fresh tortillas (both flour and corn) we have determined that from the eating point of view there is no reason to ever leave here. However, there are other points of view to consider so we have not yet applied for residency.

As I mentioned earlier, we are anchored at the Trinidad & Tobago TTYA_Dinghy_DockYachting Association. This is the best anchorage in Trinidad and we pay a monthly fee to use their dinghy dock, water, garbage disposal and other facilities. It’s within walking distance of Chaguaramas where most of the marinas, restaurants, shipyards, chandleries and a couple of small grocery stores are. The TTYA phone number is (868) 634-4519 and their fax number is (868) 634-4376 in case you need to contact us faster than I check email.

We did have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. “Sunrise” roasted the turkey, made the dressing and hosted all 10 of us. Claudia has perfected her Amaretto-peach cheesecake (via the pressure-cooker) so she made another one of those plus experimented, quite successfully, with a recipe for the yam and banana thing. She offered to make pumpkin pies before we realized that we couldn’t find any frozen pie shells here. As she anguished about making pie crusts, I found her a recipe for a pumpkin custard and another recipe for individual shells made from flour tortillas sprinkled with sugar & cinnamon. Topped them with some crushed walnut pieces and a little whipped cream and finished off the Thanksgiving dinner quite nicely.

The weather here has been interesting. This is the rainy season here in Trinidad, but when Hurricane Lenny swept through the Caribbean he sucked up all the moisture and we had very little rain for several days. Things changed back to normal late last week, though, and we’ve had several Texas-style thunderstorms in the past few days, including a tornado that touched down and did some damage in downtown Port Of Spain. When it doesn’t rain it gets pretty warm during the day (not like Texas in July, that’s why I said “warm” not “hot”) but it always cools off nicely when the sun goes down. Speaking of Lenny, it is very unfortunate to have such a late-season storm in the Caribbean. Several boats that we’ve shared anchorages with along the way departed Grenada and Trinidad early in November heading back up island only to run headlong into Lenny. We’ve heard reports of several boats that were lost in St. Martin and in St. Croix; some that were still in Trinidad when we arrived but got too anxious or had commitments to get back north too soon. It’s a lesson we’re glad to not have to learn the hard way … it ain’t over till it’s over and Trinidad is a great place to be until it’s over. There has been a great deal of damage to all of the islands from St. Martin all the way down to even Grenada. Even though the hurricane itself didn’t come close to most of these islands, Lenny changed the normal wind direction from east to west all the way down the island chain. This caused very large ocean swells, up to 20 ft., to break on the west coasts (normally the leeward side), washing away roads, docks and other coastal facilities which are normally on the protected side of the islands. I’m sure this will weigh into our decisions on where we’ll spend time once we do leave Trinidad.

We were very happy to receive visitors last week. Randy Hummel, a friend and business associate for many years, and his friend Lonie and his parents are visiting Trinidad & Tobago. We corresponded via email and arranged for them to come out to TTYA and spend some time with us. We shared a few beers aboard “Ma’alahi”, went to Chaguaramas for dinner and then back to TTYA. The next morning I was amazed at how quickly that afternoon and evening had passed. We sure do like having visitors from back home. Hopefully, we’ll see more of you soon. There’s nothing like hearing the latest goings on from the old work place that makes one feel the joy of retirement all over again! Randy even brought us a beautiful set of double 12 dominoes, a late request from us, and they were the envy of the whole crowd when we played Saturday night. Thanks again, Randy!

Since I’m using an internet connection to send and receive email via Hotmail instead of using the radio via Sailmail, you can probably see that messages can be quite lengthy. That works both ways, you know. While we’re here in Trinidad we can handle more frequent and lengthy messages from you than when we’re limited to those short, text Sailmail ones. Still, please, no jokes, virus warning hoaxes or other internet chain letters (I still have to rent internet time) but it would sure be good for us to get to keep up with what’s going on in your world, too.

That’s it for now. When it quits raining, I’m going to head over to Chaguaramas and line up somebody to give us a quote on laying down that teak floor in the galley. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too.

David and Claudia

Trinidad

Trinidad Goings On

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TTYA_AnchorageWe’ve been here 5 days and it is easy to see why so many cruisers come here for a couple of months and stay for years (we continue to plan on being exceptions to that rule). It’s not the beaches or the water that’s the attraction; the water looks very much like Galveston Bay and the beaches are not nearby. But the people are the friendliest in the world, the boating services and facilities are many and the living costs for us are very inexpensive. It is amazing to sail into another country so far from home and know so many people when you arrive. Our friends Al and Runa who have been down here for about 6 years aren’t here (they are still in Sweden due to the illness of Runa’s mother) but other friends that we met when we were here 4 years ago are here in addition to almost everyone we’ve met on the way down.

Every Friday morning, one of the large grocery stores in Port Of Spain arranges for free transportation to and from their store for the “yachties”. We were picked up by the “Maxi Taxi” at 8:30 and returned by 11:00 with our 12 bags of groceries. We found everything we were looking for except tortillas, so we’ll be making use of the tortilla press we brought back from the US.

Mood_Indigo_2Tonight we’re going to the “Mood Indigo” concert. This is a well-known jazz band made up of cruisers that have been playing together for several years. We’ve heard of them but have not yet heard them. Everyone has mentioned the concert to us so I’m sure there’s going to be a big crowd.

One of the reason’s so many boat projects get done here is that the teak wood is so CHEAP. It actually grows on trees here. We’re going to have the cabin sole in the galley redone. I removed the rotten floor in there a few years ago and we’ve been living with the plywood look for too long. Everything is so inexpensive here that the running joke is that you’ll go broke saving money. We’re well on our way.

Well, that’s the update for now. Keep in touch.

David and Claudia
11/13/99

Update 11/16/99:
The Mood Indigo concert was unbelievably GREAT! We’re sure staying busy here. Today is laundry day for us so I sneaked off to the internet cafe to get these emails out. Radio propagation hasn’t been real good down here but this works very well. Continue to send emails to the sailmail account, though, because we can get them via the internet and hotmail also.

Trinidad

We Are in Trinidad

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This is just a short note to let everyone know that we left Grenada on Monday night, Nov. 8 and had a great sail down to Trinidad, arriving the next morning. Everyone we’ve met on the way down island is here (just about) and we’ve been very busy getting around to see them all (haven’t accomplished it all yet). I’ll write a longer note soon detailing all that goes on here.

David and Claudia