Trinidad

 

Trinidad is a large island off the coast of Venezuela.  It’s a cruising destination mainly for boat maintenance and cultural activities, as well as getting away from the hurricane belt.  Cruisers don’t go to Trinidad for the beaches or snorkeling because there really isn’t much of that.  There are some beaches on the north side of the island, but not nicely protected ones.  The ones on the east side of the island have no anchoring areas and people go there by land mainly to see huge leatherback turtles lay eggs on the beaches. 

There are two main anchorages, both in Chaguaramas.   One is at the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association.  There are moorings there and room to anchor.  The other area is off most of the marinas and boatyards.  There are also moorings there as well as anchoring space.  Other anchorages are near the Yacht Club on the road to Port Of Spain and one at Scotland Bay, which is a deep bay near the Boca coming into Trinidad. 

The Trinidad people are warm and friendly and it seems that when cruisers go to Trinidad, there’s always something to keep them there longer than they think they will be.  It has some of the best provisioning in the Eastern Caribbean and quick access to boat parts.  It’s well out of the hurricane belt, so it gets crowded in the summer.  The food is great and inexpensive, - but beware of the hot sauce.   Trinis love HOT food!  Most of the food is made mild and they add sauce to it, so it’s usually not a problem at restaurants. 

My favorite is roti, a curried mix of chick peas, potatoes and chicken (or goat, shrimp, or just more veggies) wrapped up in a roti shell, which is like a tortilla but with a totally different texture and taste.  A Bake ‘N’ Shark is usually found at one of the northern beaches, carnival or other events and is basically a fried fish sandwich.  The combination of the freshly made bun and fried fish with whatever else you want to put on it is just a wonderfully unique flavor.  Another staple usually found at markets and on the streets is a “double”, another curry favorite.  There are two small pieces of flat bread, different from a roti skin, but similar, with curried chick peas on them and rolled up.  Sloppy to eat, but very good. 

Carnival is a great time of year and there are events for two weeks leading up to carnival.  I tried to attend most of them, including J’Ouvert – which starts about 4 in the morning.  Loud music, groups of people in costumes marching (they use the word chipping) down the street, some with painted faces, some covered in oil (yes, motor oil), and some with mud on them.  We were told it was a “special” clean mud.  Part of the fun of this event is knowing that sooner or later you will get mud, paint or oil (or all of it) on yourself.  Everyone has been warned in advance, so we always wore clothes that were close to being rags anyway.

Carnival music is blaring everywhere for weeks (months) before carnival and if you’re there for any length of time, you’ll find a favorite or two.  There’s new music every year and I have CDs from the two times I was at carnival in Trinidad.  For the parade days, Monday and Tuesday, most businesses are closed and streets are jammed with people, bands and parades.  There’s really no way to see it all.  But we always wore ourselves out trying to see as much as we could.

 

To contrast all that activity, one of my favorite places was Chacachacare.  This was an old leper colony on an island about 7 miles from Chaguaramas.  It’s mostly a deserted island now, except for the lighthouse keeper, any visiting cruisers or partying Trinis.  There are still buildings there and we went exploring to find many abandoned items from the leper colony, including medical records, x-rays, drugs and equipment.  For further information, see my blog about the island - http://islandfevercruising.blogspot.com/2013/02/chacachacare-trinidads-abandoned-leper.html

I spent so much time in Trinidad that I felt like it was home, and went back so much that our usual maxi-taxi driver, Jesse James, always gave us hugs and told us “welcome home”.  It’s not your usual tropical island that you think of when you think of Caribbean islands, but it’s got almost anything you need. 

Check out a few of my slide shows of Trinidad…..

Chacachacare – http://youtu.be/DYT1ExsgjjY

Trinidad - http://youtu.be/-UC4CVUa-mE
 

Trinidad - Carnival/Kid’s version - http://youtu.be/O-PcTSZfol0

Trinidad Carnival - http://youtu.be/Wj0PJj7U-Po

Trinidad Flora and Fauna  -  http://youtu.be/xz86x05MdZk

 

                      

 

 

 

Tornadoes/Waterspouts

Tornadoes that happen over large bodies of water are called waterspouts.   Somehow, the name doesn't seem to invoke the same panic as the word tornado, which sounds like havoc about to happen.  During the time I was cruising, I saw quite a few waterspouts, but two will remain etched in my mind forever. 

The first one was in Marathon in the Florida Keys.  The boat was on a dock at a tiny marina on Florida Bay.  This was in back of a fish house that has since been torn down to make way for more lucrative properties.  It was the middle of the afternoon and I was up at the fish house talking to some other residents.  Someone from one of the other boats came up yelling loudly about a waterspout, a giant waterspout that was headed directly toward our boats.  We really couldn't see much from where we were - buildings were in the way, so we all ran down to the docks. 

As we reached the docks, I realized that if it actually did come to our marina, there was no way to help the boats.  We couldn't get them out of the way and if we tried, we could be running right into it.  The only thing we could do was stow the canvas, wrap the sails and clear the decks of anything we had laying around.  It was a big waterspout and we had no way of telling how fast it was coming toward us, it just seemed to be sitting there looking ominous. 

In the end, it just seemed to dissipate.  The funnel detached itself from the water and lifted itself into the cloud.  What a sense of relief! 

The second major one I saw was in Venezuelan waters.  We were traveling from Los Testigos, a group of small islands that are mostly unpopulated except for a few fishermen.  We had been hit by lightning and were on the way back to Trinidad to get everything repaired.  We left early morning and the weather was overcast, but not threatening.  By the time we were about halfway to the mainland Venezuelan coast so that we could run along the coast and stay out of the eastern tradewinds, we were totally out of sight of any land and the clouds were building. 

We knew it would be a soggy trip, rain didn't bother us much since we had a good bimini, dodger, and we put up the side curtains, so we were mostly covered.  Of course, by that time we saw a waterspout, another huge one, off to our starboard side.  Since we had no background except the sky and the Caribbean Sea, there was no way to tell which way it was going - we couldn't just go the other way.  There was no way to figure out how close it was either.  It could have been a smallish one really close or a huge one a mile away.  Again, it just seemed to be hanging there.  We watched it for what seemed hours, hoping it would disappear.  

We kept on moving, hoping we were going the right way to leave it behind us.  We figured we had just been hit by lightning the day before, nothing much worked on the boat because all the equipment was fried -  so why not add some more excitement with a waterspout!  Luckily, it seemed to fade and we could see it disappear into the cloud above it.   Our passage along the Venezuelan coast that night was a bit tense because there were thunderstorms all night - we had already been hit by lightning the day before, but we were the tallest thing out there - and I had my hands on the wheel.  Of course, here could have been more waterspouts, but we couldn't see them in the dark.   Sometimes it's better not knowing.

In both of these situations, we were lucky enough to have those waterspouts dissipate and return to the clouds and leave us unharmed.  What a relief. 

Betty Karl
http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G

How About a Wine Tasting?

While I was cruising in Margarita, Venezuela, I was contacted by a cruiser friend who wanted me to buy him a case of a certain wine.   Since it's much cheaper in Margarita than most of the Eastern Caribbean, I told him that was no problem.  We knew we would meet up again during the next few seasons. 

I wrote down his description of the wine - what picture it had on the label and the type.  Unfortunately, he didn't remember the name of the winery or brand.  OK, I didn't think it would be a problem to buy a case and I knew just the store to get it in, they had a great selection. 

On my next trip to the store, I went to the wine section and scanned the bottles, to my amazement, multiple brands of that same type appeared with the same type of picture, an old fashioned picture of a mother cradling her baby.  There were at least 10 different brands.  I decided not to buy anything that trip, but had contact with him in the next few days.  He said he didn't know which brand was good, but just pick any one and it would be fine.

Great, now it's my decision - and there's so many!!  I decided this was a good excuse to have a wine tasting party.  That way, we would all rate the different wines and I would buy what the majority thought was the best of the bunch.  I talked to a few people and they thought it was a great idea and a wonderful excuse for a party - like we needed excuses! 

A California couple on a catamaran insisted that we do it on their boat, they said they were wine connoisseurs after having lived in California.  We decided what type munchies we should have and I bought numerous bottles of that type wine and settled on a date. 

We all gathered together on the catamaran.   Because the California couple had been to many wine tastings and had some of their own, they wanted to organize the tasting.   Fine by me, I knew they were more experienced than I was.  We had a great time doing the test and surprisingly, a lot of us agreed which were the better wines.  Everyone agreed that the party was a success and that it was great to do something different for a change.

My friend and his wife were thrilled when I delivered the case of the most popular wine and thought our selection was great.  I told them the story and thanked them for the wonderful party we had.

Betty Karl

http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G

How To Buy a Boat

  Sea Turtle

Back in time, I was looking for a sailboat to go cruising in.  You know, just sell everything, hop on the boat and get out of the States for an unknown time frame.  Destination – Caribbean!

We went to a large yacht sales office in St Petersburg, Florida and one of the salesmen started showing us some used sailboats, about 35’.  We spent a good part of a day looking at all kinds of boats.  The only thing that caught my eye was a 35’ Morgan with a centerboard and an aft cockpit.  It seemed solid and the layout was pretty good, although I grew to hate the fact that the galley was along the starboard side of the boat instead of being a little U or L shaped area near the companionway. 

We were going through the storage lockers, looking under the cushions and generally poking through things.  My partner found the cable that brings up the centerboard or lowers it and started playing with it and checking the little winch for it.  He jiggled things around for a while, then left the cabin to talk to the salesman on the dock. 

I sat down and looked around, just soaking up the atmosphere – it really didn’t have a bad closed-up-boat smell.  Then, I realized I heard an alien noise, there was water gurgling and it wasn’t the waves lapping the hull on the outside.  This was inside the boat!   Not a good sign! 

I called up to the guys on the dock – “Hey, I hear water running in, you better check it out!”  I heard the salesman make a comment to my partner, “She’s just hearing the waves on the hull.”  Furious, I stuck my head out the companionway and said “You can think that or you can stop this boat from sinking, it’s up to you.”  And I climbed out and got on the dock with them. 

Something about my attitude worried the salesman and he decided to check below and see what was going on.  Sure enough, when my partner was checking out the cable for the centerboard, something snapped and allowed the water to leak in the bilge from the tube encasing the cable.  It was the last touch that it needed to break apart from age and use.

We left the salesman there dealing with the problem and went home.  I did like the boat and it was the only one I liked that was in my price range.  The next weekend, we called the salesman to see if the boat had been saved and what the story was.  The problem had been fixed and the boat was still available. 

We went to see it again and decided to make a low offer, figuring the owner would be glad to get rid of it because it was just costing him money at this point.  The offer was accepted and in a short time, the boat was ours and would take us from Sarasota, Florida and on to the Bahamas, through to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and then to the Virgin Islands and down the island chain to Grenada.  And that’s where I found another boat I liked…….

Betty Karl
http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G
 

Chacachacare - Trinidad's Abandoned Leper Colony

                                                       http://youtu.be/DYT1Exsgjjy

Chacachacare is an island about 7 miles off the coast of northern Trinidad.  For years now, it has been inhabited only by the lighthouse keeper, iguanas and other wildlife.  It does include Trinidadians who arrive on boats for weekend camping and cookouts.  Cruisers also anchor there for weeks at a time.

In the past, it was a leper colony, but since leprosy was brought under control, the last patients left in the early 1980s.  It was just abandoned, no one bothered to clear out the furniture, medical equipment and records or other personal items.  The buildings are slowly being reclaimed by Mother Nature and time.  This was one of my favorite places in Trinidad, the buildings were great examples of wonderful architecture of the islands, set on the hills surrounding the bay.  Large windows and doors brought in the light and fresh air – no air conditioning for this community. 

The community was self-contained and included a bakery, hospital/clinic, movie theater, library,  numerous churches and dormitory-like buildings for the patients.  Patients well enough to work built the buildings, worked in the gardens and helped in other areas.  Patients were taken care of by Dominican nuns, who lived in buildings across the bay.  There are a couple cemeteries on the island, most notably, one by the nun’s quarters that contained graves of the deceased nuns who had worked there. 

These days, it’s deserted most of the time.  When we were there, we would always take a hike up to the lighthouse, about an hour walk.  There were great views of both Venezuela and Trinidad from the top of the hill.  The lighthouse keeper was always friendly, they had a rotating staff, but they still got lonely being the only person living on the island. 

Unfortunately, Chacachacare was downwind from Trinidad and the bay was open to the east.  During heavy rains, trash would flow into the rivers to the bays of Trinidad and over to Chacachacare, catching in the big open bay.  Every time we would go over there to stay in a quiet, uninhabited place for a while, we would go over to the beaches and make a big pile of the trash and burn it, trying to clean up the place for the next visitors.  The idea caught on and we found that other cruisers were also cleaning up the place when they went over. 

I felt like the island was a museum of sorts, a look into the lives of people who were unfortunate to have a disease that separated them from everyone they knew.  Some patients spent most of their lives there and had no idea what life would be like when they moved back to Trinidad when the colony closed.  Cleaning up the beaches in the bay was the only way I felt that I could show my respect for the island and the people who had lived there.

Betty Karl
Chacachacare slide show - http:/youtu.be/YT1EXsgjjyY

Winter

Most people think of winter as cold.  People who live in the northern States have the idea that Florida is warm all the time.  This is to let them know that some people who live in Florida (and points further south) think that any temperature below 70 is cold.  That would be me. 

Today was an overcast day, high was about 55, about 10-15 mph winds and I was freezing!   Mostly, I stayed inside, with the heater on, still cold.  In the winter, I pretty much stay cold, and I'm sure that some of it psychological.   I know it's cold outside, so no matter how warm it is inside, I feel cold.  Did I just hear someone say something about a wimp?  Yes, that would be me.

I was raised in upstate New York, so I know what really cold is.  I lived in Florida for years and it's a damp cold as opposed to a drier cold up north.   Not to mention that my blood got really thinned out.   Then, I went cruising and spent years in the Caribbean, where I almost never got cold, except sometimes on night passages.  Especially in the winter, with the breeze and no sun - yes, the wimp got cold.  The picture above is from Union Island, by the way. 

After cruising, I moved back to Florida where the summers are nice and warm - actually they seem warmer than the Caribbean, except maybe Trinidad.  The winters here seem to have gotten colder than when I lived here before cruising, but it's probably me being a wimp again.

Yes, I am lucky I don't have snow to shovel.  I do have ice frozen on my car on some mornings when the dew has frozen and I have to turn on the car heater - I don't have an ice scraper.  I would never be able to live anywhere north of here.   I keep saying I need to move further south........

Betty Karl
http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G

Creativity

For me,  creativity sometimes manifests itself mostly when I'm in an amazing place.  Usually, it would be a beautiful, out of the ordinary setting that would fill my senses.  Watching a sunset on a beach, with the low hanging clouds tinged with shades of colors from the setting sun - sometimes they seem closer than usual, as if they're trying to envelop me. 

When I was cruising, I vividly remember night passages when I would be scribbling phrases in the dark so that I would remember different things the next day when I'd want to write them into the log, or write an article about an idea that just popped into my head.  I found if I didn't write at least key words, I'd somehow forget the exact words or idea that was just perfect, and the words wouldn't sound as expressive the next day as they seemed the night before.

Other times, I remember things that are like a photo I can still see vividly in my mind, although no photo exists.  Sitting in the cockpit of my boat on passage from Venezuela to St Thomas, I remember looking back at the dinghy davits, solar panels on top of them.  The Southern Cross was bright and perfect right above them.  The rest of the sky was brilliant with stars that illuminated the waves as they came toward the beam of the boat and the boat, heeled over, slid gracefully over the top of the wave into the trough.  It was a beautiful night and even though I was allowing myself 10 to 15 minute naps to get some rest, I sat there for a long time, just watching the sea and the sky and drinking in the experience. 

On another overnight passage, I was sitting in the cockpit looking out at the black night, feeling apprehensive, since I was running away from a hurricane that later devastated Grenada, which I had just left.  I was feeling a little drowsy until I noticed movement in the water - and light!  Dolphins had come to play near the boat, following alongside and the phosphorescence made them glow so that I could see their entire shape.  It's as if they knew I needed company, what a way to get rid of the sleepiness! 

The beauty of the islands helped me create hundreds of photos, some better than others, of course.   The features of the landscapes of the different islands and beaches were just perfect for creating photos that I can still get lost in.  I can still remember the day I took some of these pictures, the subject matter makes it that vivid in my mind.  Sometimes a photo will bring back an entire day.

If you're having trouble creating, try a change of scenery, a walk on the beach or a hike in the mountains to see a vast panorama.  You'll be surprised what a new outlook you'll have.

Island Fever book available at

http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G

Visit my Facebook page at

www.Facebook.com/IslandFeverCruising

Island Slide shows available at

http://www.youtube.com/user/IslandFeverCruising/videos?flow=grid&view=1

Island Fever - The Beginning

Many years ago, I got hooked on books about traveling by sailboat. Mostly, the books in the library were about people sailing around the world, visiting remote islands and telling how beautiful everything was. I read them all. And then I started thinking it would be great if I could do the same thing one day. The idea kept growing.

Whenever I took a vacation, it would be to the Caribbean islands, there were pretty beaches, clear water, good hiking and exploring - and great photos. I was sitting with my partner one day on the balcony of our little house up a steep hill in Marigot Bay in St Lucia, looking at the boats in the harbor. I convinced him that the cruising live would be great and I could sell everything: my house, my rental houses, vehicles, everything - and buy a sailboat to live and cruise on. That started this wonderful plan.

I started selling things, looking at sailboats to buy, preparing to leave. It took about two years to get everything done and we moved onto the sailboat and left the dock for the last time.

Along the way, I decided to create a narrative log - to keep memories of what went on, what we did, who we met and where we were. Then I decided I would write articles about different subjects, but all concerning living and cruising on a boat in the Caribbean. This is how Island Fever was born - and it has now been published, both in Kindle and paperback.

For 7 years, my partner and I traveled together, exploring islands, meeting other cruisers as well as locals, having great times. Then one day, he decided he no longer wanted to continue and left the boat. Instead of heading the boat to the nearest boatyard, as a normal abandoned female would have done - I decided to find crew to help, after all, it was a 47' sailboat. More stories to tell about that! I finally decided it was safer for me and the boat to just do it alone, so I did. I rationalized that I really had been doing it alone since the crew I found were not much help, so it wouldn't make much difference. The last 3 years after my partner left were accomplished either with non-helpful crew or by myself.

If anyone has ever had any interest in travel by sailboat, wants to know what it's like, what we did all day and what we saw - this is the book. I address all sorts of subjects - scenic island tours, boat projects, having pets on board, hurricane evacuations, and some funny anecdotes.

Betty Karl
http://amzn.com/B009RCO02G