Hard Times (Trinidad)

 

After 58 hours of travel, and an absolute saga of a journey to get to ‘boat home’ from ‘Sydney home’, I’m now back on board Serenity Now.

The boat, for now at least, remains up on stilts, on the hard in Peakes Marina in Chaguaramas, Trinidad. The hurricane season that we’ve been trying to avoid hasn’t followed the usual pattern at all this year. The only system (so far!) that came anywhere near (Hurricane Fiona) decided to track North, and didn’t make landfall until it was all the way up in Canada (edit: since starting this entry Hurricane Ian has decimated Florida and is now moving on towards the Carolinas)

Since returning, I’m feeling a bit mixed up and torn; having said goodbye to my mum and family in the UK, and in turn, then tearfully leaving Charlie back in Sydney, I’ve had quite an emotional few weeks. This has translated into me sometimes shedding tears at the slightest thing, and sometimes acting like an absolute ass - Chez’s diary, if she kept one, could probably expand on the latter state, she being on the receiving end of my occasional outbursts.

I’ve once again thrown myself into the listed jobs which remain before we splash again - due in 2 weeks from now. Wins so far have been fixing both the washing machine and the induction hob, and polishing the propeller.

Two days after arriving back from Sydney these jobs came to an abrupt halt.. the tickle at the back of my throat that’s been a mere hint for the last few days, turned my voice into a full blown Barry White impersonation, and had me heading to my bed half way through the day. Hoping it’s just a aeroplane-bug I picked up en route home, rather than anything more noteworthy. The next morning, after a night punctuated by frequent ineffective coughs I woke feeling decidedly worse. Thankfully, having taken one of our self tests, it turns out not to be Covid, so as my dad would have advised - I need to ‘stop shamming’ and get on with it - which, slowly, I did.

We took the free marina shuttle bus to Massy supermarket, an activity which Chez has enjoyed whilst I’ve been away. The little mini bus is filled with a United Nations of her newly met marina buddies. Massy is, by Caribbean standards, really pretty good. However, having recently sampled the cornucopias that are English and Australian supermarkets, it’s a sad and sorry shop by comparison. Still not feeling too good, and not being a fan of shopping at the best of times, I make a poor companion for Chez as I slowly mope along the aisles with her. Once shopped, I’m very glad to be back on the boat - and back to my bed once more to see off the last of my mystery malaise. A day or so later, I’m back to close to fully recovered - so it’s back to the jobs: cleaning and repairing the swim ladder, scrubbing the deck, replacing the tarp that’s strapped over the boom to give us some shade. Then the gas hob packed up, so I took a break from the jobs list to work on that for half a day instead. It seems to be an electrical fault, with the suspected offending wire going deep into the bowels of the boat (where I used to go when I was fixing the rudder bearing) - I tracked down the problem, a faulty switching relay. The local chandlers ‘Budget Marine’ had one to replace it, but with a $1048 price tag (hardly what I’d call ‘budget’), I looked for cheaper alternatives. I managed to devise a way to safely bypass it completely without the need for expenditure other than my time - a commodity I remain rich in. This saving called for a celebration - well perhaps not directly related, but we did have dinner out the next night anyway. Dinner out was a short walk from the marina at a restaurant called the Wheelhouse - they were hosting the AGM of the OCC (Ocean Cruisers Club) - an organisation we’ve been tempted to join based on their rather well designed burgee: a yellow flying fish on navy blue background - and despite an invite from the locally famous Jesse James to sit in, we opted to enjoy our dinner in the bar area with the locals instead. Entertainment as we dined was supplied by a local 20:20 Cricket game on the TV and two battling locals having a fierce game of pool that resulted in balls frequently flying from the table. Dinner was good and plentiful - me opting for cheeseburger and chips, and Chez taking an absolutely massive blue marlin steak - the other 3/4 of which we’ll be having for dinner tomorrow night.

After a few more days in sweltering heat (still above 30 degrees at midnight last night), we’re all but ready to return to our more usual state of bobbing around in the water, swimming off the stern to cool off…. Ahh, can’t wait!

But wait we did: the weather taking a decided turn for the worse, and the tender flat out refusing to inflate.

The torrential rain eventually eased (having flooded the north of the island to news worthy proportions), and I was able to bodge up the faulty valve in the dinghy sufficiently until we can source a replacement (likely to be in Grenada). We did briefly consider buying a whole new dinghy, but with an impressive local price tag of $20,900.00 Trinidad dollars (about $5k Aussie) we decided against that option for now.

The day finally rolled around, when we really couldn’t put off leaving any longer. At 10am on Friday 7th October we were pulled out of our home for the last two months. The team at Peakes Marina, made quick work of our re-entry to the water, and before you know it, Chez is waving farewell to her friends and yoga buddies. There followed an hour of mildly frustrating anchoring attempts, every other boat in the anchorage being tied to a fixed buoy, but no buoys left for us. Despite that, we are now happily settled just off shore, bobbing around (an unfamiliar sensation for the moment). More adventures will have to wait, as I’m drawing this particular entry to a close there.