Greetings from Connecticut! When we published our last blog entry we had just arrived in Trinidad. We had not cleared into the country because, well, things shut down early on the islands. After a lovely evening on Che Figata we were able to clear health, customs and immigration the next morning (June 10). That could not have happen soon enough. Chaguaramas Bay, where those arriving to Trinidad by private vessel must clear in, is very much a working harbor. Highly industrial with extremely dirty water littered with debris. Let’s just say that it is nowhere you’d want to take a swim and certainly not someplace where we could make water so getting to a dock was a priority. We were not permitted to move to our reserved dock space until we had finished the check in process. Fortunately, as we said, we were able to complete the process the next morning and by early afternoon we were med moored in our marina slip. In addition to an endless supply of clean well water (which was free!) we were able to run our AC at night. We were in heaven.
Of course, you have to take the good with the bad. The good news was free, clean, water and AC. The bad news is that there was no internet. Well, specifically, there was internet at the marina but the signal was not strong enough to reach us at the dock. Fortunately, there was a cafe and restaurant just a dinghy ride away with free WiFi so when we got to the point that we had a nice collection of online tasks that required internet we headed over to the cafe for a leisurely lunch. The benefits of island time is that no ones rushes you away from the table and we enjoyed a few hours of strong signal internet bliss. Eventually, though, we headed back to the boat to continue our work preparing Che Figata for her life on land. More on that exciting work below.
When we arrived back at Che Figata we noticed that our electric cable was unplugged and was wrapped around our davits. (Our davits are the arms that raise, lower and hold our dinghy.) Frankly, we were more than a little annoyed. We figured that someone unplugged our cable because they needed the outlet we were using momentarily and just left our cable unplugged rather than putting it back in the outlet when done. How inconsiderate! We got back on Che Figata to drop off our electronics and then Zack proceeded back above deck to replug in our cable. And that’s when we learned what really happened!
As Zack came out from below deck he was greeted by our Austrian neighbor, Ernest, who told us that while we were gone there was a short and fire where our power cord connected to the extension that allowed our power cord to reach the plug. He found the fire after he had heard loud pops and crackling while sitting on his boat and came out to investigate. Once the fire was out he unplugged the cable for safety and draped it on our davits. (We immediately felt quilty for assuming bad intent!) We were very, very lucky. First, we took apart the end of the power cord and discovered that the power cord was not damaged — no melting. What was damaged was the connector to our power cord on the extension. This was great news because that is something that is easily replaced. Second, the electrical short did not damage any of our electronics! That is a real danger anytime there is a short so we felt incredibly lucky! Still, we gave Ernst some excitement during what is otherwise a pretty mundane existence as you sit at the dock waiting for your boat to be hauled.
We also had some excitement of our own. The point of coming to Trinidad was to be in a place outside of the hurricane zone during hurricane season. As we explained in an earlier blog entry, we have insurance throughout the Caribbean during the entire policy year. That said, our insurer will not cover damage to our boat from named storms during hurricane season (July 1 – November 15 according to our policy) if we are within the hurricane zone at that time. If we weren’t going to leave our boat for three months we may have considered keeping Che Figata in Grenada. Trinidad is just 80 nautical miles from Grenada making it easy to escape to Trinidad if it looked like a hurricane was going to hit Grenada. But we were not going to be on our boat. We were leaving Che Figata for 3 months to get in all of our doctors visits (in advance of our circumnavigation), attend our younger son’s wedding and visit family. Given the low incidence of named storms hitting Grenada, a lot of full time cruisers choose that option — even if they are leaving their boat for an extended period. We just didn’t feel comfortable doing that. So the plan was to haul the boat in Trinidad and keep her on the hard where highly skilled boat workers could do our annual maintenance as well as any necessary repairs, or enhancements — there are always enhancements! — while we were away. After thinking through the logistics, we agreed on a haul date of June 14.
On the morning of June 14 we left the dock early to go out to the harbor to empty our waste tanks. (Unfortunately, there was no pump out service available.) We also planned to top off our fuel tanks which is highly recommended to reduce the risk of condensation in the tanks. We were able to empty our waste tanks but as we approached the fuel dock we were told they were out of diesel. (Which was very interesting because they continued to fill the diesel tanks of fishing boats after we were told the diesel was gone. Apparently, the diesel was only empty for foreign cruisers like us and not locals.) So we proceeded to the travel lift dock where our nearly 60,000 pound boat would be secured with straps running under the hull and lifted out of the water. Getting into the travel lift dock was harrowing. It was the narrowest of concrete docks — no fenders other than what we had on the boat. Once, again, Captain Zack navigated Che Figata like a champ! A little nick on our rub rail but, otherwise totally unscathed!
After securing our boat and doing what was necessary to begin the lift process — among other things the yard needed to remove our forestay which was a little complicated because we installed our awesome electric furler which we have waxed poetically about — it was time raise Che Figata! We had assumed that when they were ready to begin the lift process we would be asked to leave the boat. Wrong! Before we knew it we were being lifted in the air along with Che Figata. And not only that but the travel lift moved away from the dock to deliver Che Figata to her designated spot in the boatyard with us still on board. We waved to our fellow yachties, working on their boats, as we passed by. It was like being on a float in a parade. We did our best royal wave as we travelled through the “street” in the boatyard lined with sailboats on jack stands. We will admit, it was a bit unnerving but also somewhat fun. Definitely an experience that you don’t have everyday — as in never! If we had any doubts, this experience reinforced that we weren’t in Kansas anymore!
We were only in Trinidad 10 days. During this time we were busy getting Che Figata ready for her life on the hard. There was a lot to do and we needed every minute of those 10 days. Che Figata needed a thorough cleaning inside and out. Though we had an AC installed in our forward hatch to keep the interior of Che Figata cool and act as a dehumidifier, we still needed to wipe down all of the interior surfaces with a soap and vinegar solution to prevent molding. This included all the wood work, countertops and the headliners that cover our interior ceiling. We had to vacuum to make sure there was absolutely no trace of crumbs on board. We needed to turn off and clean out both of our refrigerators. Anything unopened but that required refrigeration was donated. Anything opened was tossed. We had to apply grease to a small section of each of the jack stands holding up the boat, the feet of the ladder giving us access up to our boat and any cords leading to the boat. This is to prevent insects from crawling up the surfaces to enter our boat and have a party while we were away. As an extra measure we distributed ant and roach traps throughout the boat. We had to polish the stainless — and there’s a lot of it on our boat — and decommission our engine and genset. We had to line up contractors for all our maintenance and repair work and hire a caretaker for our boat to provide oversight as the work was getting completed in our absence, run the freshwater flush for our watermaker every two weeks and generally monitor our boat while we were away (e.g., monitor the batteries and charge as necessary, make sure the AC continues to run). All of this required multiple meetings and lots of written instructions. And, of course, we had to pack for 3 months making sure that we had both summer and fall clothing since we would be spending the month of September in Chicago. We didn’t finish everything on our punch list until 6:30 PM on June 20 — just 3 hours before our taxi was scheduled to pick us up to take us to the airport for our 12:40 AM flight on June 21. Phew!
Despite all the work, we enjoyed our brief time in Trinidad. We didn’t have time to explore the country — we are saving that for our return in early October — but we did enjoy the camaraderie of fellow cruisers. Though this was our first time in Trinidad (last summer we sailed back up to New England for hurricane season), there is a large contingent of cruisers that have been coming to Trinidad for hurricane season for years. Not only is it safely outside the hurricane zone but Trinidad is known for skilled contractors who do every manner of boat work (e.g., canvas work, decommissioning, bottom painting, electrical, etc.) for a reasonable price. These Trinidad veterans arranged some group dinners as well as cocktail hours at the Roti Hut! Aside from the opportunity to have some fun at the end of long days of work, this gave us an chance to pick their brains to make sure that we were doing everything we needed to do before taking off.
Interesting fact — though this might fall in the category of too much information! Once our boat was on the hard we moved into a small efficiency apartment at the boatyard. For $75 a day we thought it was well worth it. With our boat on the hard we no longer had any refrigeration. More importantly, we had no working toilets. During the day you could use the toilets and showers in the boatyard but at night your option was climbing down a steep ladder in the dark to use the facilities or pee in a bucket. To us it was a no brainer. We had a lovely room with a small kitchenette, a great WiFi signal and AC. Still, most of the people that we knew in the boatyard very proudly chose to stay on their boats until they departed for the US. We had no such pride even though it did mark us as lily-livered. Apparently real sailors don’t abandon their vessel even when it is on land.
After 18 hours of travel, we arrived in Connecticut, very tired but unscathed, the afternoon of June 21. We have a long to do list while we are here — attending to doctors visits, ordering things we want to ship to Trinidad or bring back with us, getting Zack’s passport renewed, buying Jill a dress for our son’s wedding and visiting with our daughter and friends from NY and CT. It will be a whirlwind of a 6 week visit and then it’s off to Seattle for the wedding.
With Che Figata taking a hiatus on land we will probably take a hiatus from our blog (don’t cry!) and not publish our next entry until we are safely back in Trinidad around October 5. Until then we hope everyone enjoys their summer and early fall.
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