Chaguaramas, Trinidad
10.40.822N
61.37.899W
OK, so I took the month of July off. Let me see if I can bring you up to date.
We hoisted our main sail and lifted anchor at 4:30pm from True Blue, Grenada and waived good-bye to Wayfinder and Indigo Moon as we headed south to Trinidad and they southwest for Venezuela. Take Time would follow us later in the evening as they estimated less time in crossing for their trawler. That night 6 boats made the crossing from Grenada to Trinidad in two groups of three. We in the first group and Take Time in the second.
As soon as we cleared the harbor, we unfurled the jib and turned off the engine. As luck would have it, we had a 12-18 kt wind on our beam all the way to Trinidad which made for a quick trip in spite of the westward currents that often slow cruisers down. However, due to the currents, we would often encounter areas of choppy seas. So, there was no problem in staying awake on watch.
As is our custom on overnight passages, I took the 8pm -11pm watch. However, since it had been a long time since our last overnighter, Dale elected to snooze in the cockpit during my watch which I elongated until 1am. With the radio constantly being used among all of the cruisers, I knew he wasn’t getting much rest. When it came time to dodge the uncharted oil rigs half way between the two islands, I woke him up discussing our options with the other boaters. You wouldn’t believe the lights on these things. They are so bright, you start trying to dodge them miles before you get anywhere near them. When it became clear that I’d be closer to Venezuela than I would be to Trinidad if I continued to follow the leader of our little group, I decided to just go through the middle and try not to hit anything. As it turned out, that’s what we all ended up doing and we still didn‘t get anywhere near them.
There were even ships among the rigs that you couldn’t see because all of the lights merged together. Thank heavens I was beyond the one I was closest to when I first saw it. As it is, I’m still not sure he didn’t have to avoid me when I changed course to bring us back to our original heading. By this time, Dale was up and took over. The rest of the night was uneventful.
The wind died as the sun rose and we were forced to turn on the engine to pass through the opening between Trinidad and Venezuela before entering into Chaguramas Bay, Trinidad. The guides say that Chaguramas was a U.S. Naval base during WWII, however, at this point, you certainly can’t tell. Now it’s a commercial harbor with several small marinas surrounding it’s perimeter.
My first impression upon entering between the small islands leading to Chaguramas was reminiscent of our entry into the Dominican Republic. Lush green tropical foliage on sheer mountain sides with rushing water squeezing between the islands heading out to sea. The early morning hour brought the incredible noise of thousands of green parrots moving in pairs from their nesting site on one side of the harbor to the other side of the harbor for whatever reason. We learned later that the parrots move from one side to the other every morning at dawn and every evening at dusk.
We rounded again between a couple more small islands into Chaguramas Bay about 7:30am. Unfortunately, the beauty from a distance gave way to the reality up close. The harbor is clearly commercial with diesel spills practically a daily occurrence. The water, surprisingly clear at times, has trash and the fishermen’s leftover chum being pulled back and forth with the tides.
The anchorage is deep with hundreds of boats; large commercial vessels, small fishing boats, private yachts and the occasional oil derrick towed in for repairs. Dale noted that there appeared to be more masts “on the hard” than there were in the mooring fields and marinas. Although I hadn’t envisioned anything in particular with regard to Trinidad, this certainly wasn’t what I pictured when people spoke of it.
After clearing customs, we immediately pulled into our slip in a marina named Coral Cove which was just across from the customs dock. We plugged into air conditioning and, as you can tell from my lack of punctual posts, vegetated.
We slept the remainder of that Sunday, waking only to eat dinner at a very nice local restaurant and catch up with the rest of the world on CNN before heading back to the rack.
