Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago

PHOTO LINK click —–>> Bermuda, Trinidad and back to Tobago we go.

John and I flew to Bermuda for a quick 2 weeks.

We were kept mighty busy with appointments, meetings and business to see to, the time flew. We did have a few very nice dinners with our family, visited my Dad daily, spent time with the animals, and I was able to get the woodlands sorted for yet another year. Plus we traded rooms within our area with Kate. Overall it was a successful short visit.

On our last day we even managed to

drive to the west end – Dockyard – and look around. However once again we never managed to get to the beach for a swim.

We returned to Trinidad with Ethan and Rhianna who will stay with us for 5 weeks this summer.

Since returning we have stocked up, readied the boat, done our necessary chores and are now ready to head back to Tobago.

The weather on the 1st day back was non-stop rain, yes it’s rainy season but that is not the norm, and the kids were worried that every day would be rainy. The following days were bright and sunny.

We took Ethan and Rhianna for a dingy ride around Chagaramus Harbour to see the sites. Both of them were amazed by the number of birds soaring overhead and the amount of plastic trash floating around the bays.

Another day we took the shopping bus and got all our kit for the next 5 weeks. Ethan was amazed by the size and the extent of the development in Trinidad.

We had previously booked

a zip- line excursion,

which Nancy and Dave also wanted to do with us. We were picked up by Martin and dropped off for the opening time of 10 am. It is located in the Macqueripe Bay area, which is very scenic, and the zip-lines run right through the rain forest. It is a large recreational area on the north coast.

After being kitted out we climbed to the 1st platform. Nancy was 1st followed by Rere, then Ethan, myself, Dave and John bringing up the rear. Rere was extremely nervous, really on edge, as this was her 1st time ever throwing herself into space. Nancy and Dave had skydived before and the rest of us had zip-lined in Belize. The guides showed us all what to do, demonstrated and coached us well. Rhianna had a perfect 1st flight and never looked back. It is a long 7 line course which is linked together by rope bridges that also climb through the tree line. We all had an excellent time!!

Afterwards we headed to the beach at the facility and had a refreshing swim. It was a great outing enjoyed by everyone. The next day the rain returned with a vengeance.
We decided to leave the marina on the Saturday, (day after zip line), so we visited with customs and immigration to get permission to travel, which in Trinidad is a really big deal. Their rules demand that you inform them of every bay you intend to anchor, once you leave one customs and immigration check in point and then check in with the next customs and immigration office upon arrival. Why? Because they have a pirate, human trafficking and drug import/ export problem here due to Venezuela being next door.

We briefed the Ethan and Rhianna on respectful behavior explaining no hats can be worn,
no chests exposed, sleeves must be worn and no attitudes are allowed. These people don’t mess around. Upon arrival the kids were duly impressed with the huge stubby machine gun, stun gun, handgun, 2 radios and bulletproof vests worn by the huge customs lads. We were granted permission to move along to Charlottesville, Tobago, but expected to leave ASAP and arrive within 3 to 4 days and check into Charlotteville.

We returned to ready the boat for moving into Scotland Bay, but while doing this we were shown some of the might of the officials. The customs and immigration dock was right across from our berth and so when a siren sounded we
looked across and saw that a patrol vessel, (in fact it was a police vessel), had arrive witha sailboat of about 40+ feet, called Sabrina – Austrian flag, tied to its side. The officials all heavily armed, maneuvered the sailboat along side the C & I dock, tied it up and all without any sight of who’s ever boat it was. They then appeared to lead 2 South American looking individuals from the boat, then direct a blond lady below decks followed by a police dog team. They then appeared to start searching the vessel. Goodness knows what had happened but it didn’t look good for who’s ever boat it was. The authorities really don’t mess around in Trinidad and Tobago. We headed out to Scotland Bay so don’t know what happened after we left.

The rain started as we neared Scotland Bay and by the time we anchored everything was nicely damp. Scotland Bay is a huge bay surrounded by rain-forested slopes. As it was the weekend and there were some local party boats in the bay which were competing to see who could make the most noise with their DJs screeching and speaker systems pounding out “music”. We had a swim, enjoyed dinner and the evening and headed to bed early.

At 5am the alarm sounded, John and I arose to find the rain pouring down.

Plus we had been invaded by flying termites/ants about 3/4 of inch to 1/2 inch long. The deck covered and cockpit smothered in bugs, like unbelievable!! Plus it was raining. So we cleaned up and postponed leaving till later in morning.

However after setting off some hours later about 3 miles along the north coast it was again pouring buckets of rain and visibility was about 10 feet ahead. Then we lost oil pressure, rpm, etc…. the engine alarm came on. So there we were no wind to speak of, pouring rain and we were off the north coast without engine power! Not a good position to be in. Luckily John quickly found it was a broken fan belt……10 mins later, another fan belt on and we were off again. Then 1/2 hour later the same thing happened so he fixed it again, this time using a new belt. Meanwhile visibility was like 0, the rain still poured, thunder sounded and lightning flashed, the kids were anxious and I was worried.

We struggled on and got as far as La Vache Bay,

which was said to be a good anchorage for the north coast. We went in and found the bay to be wonderful. There we anchored for the night in order to regroup.

The bay was actually very beautiful, around 17 waterfalls all
around with rain forested slopes, huge cliff faces and caves with several small beaches. The sun came out, the mist rose from the rain forested slopes, the birds swooped and we were all thankful for the pit stop. We cleaned up, dried everything out, explored the bay in the dingy, swam ashore to a small beach and enjoyed the rest of the day.

After staying the night we set off at 6am hoping to get to Tobago. All went well, we motor sailed all the way to Store Bay, Tobago without any problems. It was just very tedious heading into wind and swells all day, made Store Bay at 4:30. That evening we went ashore for dinner at The Jade Monkey and stayed the night.

The next morning John checked engine again and found the alternator bracket was broken in 2 places. It is a thick strong bracket, which was broken in 2 places, so was in 3 parts. This must have happened with fan belts incidents. Luckily we knew another cruiser nearby, another John from South Africa, who has all his welding gear onboard. So the 2 Johns went ashore and hooked up to
someone’s porch outlet and welded it back together. As we were there longer than expected we took the opportunity to stock up, have gyros for dinner and spent the night. So we hoped to reach
Charlottesville the next day.

We did reach Charlottesville the next afternoon after setting

off at around 9am we arrived just after 1pm. It was again a motoring event as we had the wind on our nose, but at least we had a current behind us for most of the way. The shoreline of Tobago is beautiful and watching it go by kept us occupied for a good bit of the trip. In Charlotteville we checked in with
customs, Mr. Charles, who remembered us, but were unable to see immigration, as they were not in.

So we headed into the village to the roti shack where again we were remembered, ordered rotis for dinner and felt like we were almost back home. Even Joe the fisherman came to visit to meet the kids. They are such decent people here.

The following day we were able to settle into the regular routine of reading, followed by breakfast, then schoolwork and chores and off to play for the rest of the day.

We chose to go to Boobie Island to snorkel.

There we found the water to be not as clear as when we were last here with Laurie and Iain. We swam to the beach area below the fort, played off the beach and headed over to the

beach in Pirates Bay,

which is where we are anchored. There we swam, walked the beach and played. It was a very enjoyable day our 1st really fun day since leaving Chagaramus.

The following day during breakfast the propane ran out. What a pain as there is nowhere here we can get it. Plus we have to have propane for the stove and barbeque. So off John went with the propane bottle and he’s still not back.