Trinidad – Chaguaramas
Tuesday 26th September
The weather has not been so good and we’ve delayed our departure from Grenada for over a week. We finally got a window of opportunity on Monday morning, the wind is in the right direction and the sea has flattened a bit although it is still bouncy. We leave secret harbour around 10 am, it is going to be a long passage, our first overnight trip for a long, long time. The wind does not stay favourable for more than a few miles and we are under engine for most of the way, wind on the nose and drenched by a few short lived squalls during the day. As darkness falls, we soon settle into our overnight routine and although we cannot sail, it is a lovely warm and dry night full of stars. Not much traffic on the way. Both petrol platforms, the Hibiscus and Pointsettia provide focus points in the darkest hours,; lit up like Christmas trees they provide something to focus and aim for. Morning is there soon enough and the land magically appears from the curtains of rain clinging to its slopes. Green and very high sheer cliffs are our first glimpse of Trinidad. Looks spectacular. On our right, Venezuela looms, pretty close but yet so far… it has been a no go area for yachts for a few years, too many incidents, a bit scary.
The entrance to the bay is quite challenging. There is a passage between the main island and Monos island, the channel aptly named Boca de Monos (Mouth of the Dragon). A tumultuous caldron of swirling water is rushing around us and making both rocky sides very threatening. Not exactly what we need at the end of a long sleep deprived night, although it is beautiful with the morning light playing in and out of the rain clouds.
We have heard a lot about Trinidad, we actually call it the Marmite Island, people either love it or hate it, no happy medium. The haters point out the dirty, busy, noisy port, the intricacies of the port bureaucracy and the crime level. The lovers concentrate on the helpfulness and friendliness of the people, the professionalism of the boat yards and those working in it, as well as the lower cost of all boat services. And the quality of the food… the roti and Doubles are the best here.
We’ll soon find out in which tribe we belong. To start with, yes it is a busy working port. I don’t think we have seen this level of traffic, from huge tankers to small fishing crafts for a long time, probably since Gibraltar. I counted 12 huge vessels parked outside of the bay waiting. The water is none too clear and yes there is a bit of detritus floating around, but I was expecting Mr X to have to fight its way through plastic bags and bottles, which is not quite as bad as we heard. Admittedly you would not want to swim in the anchorage, but then you would not think of swimming in any other commercial port either! The paperwork at the customs and immigration was horrendous, we filled 12 forms, took us an hour, just as well we were the only one there. But the officials were pleasant, helpful and polite, which has not always been the case on other islands. We spent the night at anchor and enjoyed watching the big boats lead by the pilots to their berth, work goes on all night and all day, but we did not find it so inconvenient as it was portrayed. We also felt pretty safe, no one can creep up to us unnoticed, huge lights all around make it like daylight all night.