Granada to Trinidad
We had everything ready on the boat and we left the marina
for a mooring ball in Prickly Bay. We wanted
to be there because the Immigration and Customs office is right there and it is
a straight shot out of the bay for when we leave. We paid for two nights because we plan to
leave on Sunday to arrive in Trinidad on Monday. If we arrive on a Saturday or Sunday we would
have to pay an overtime charge when we arrive.
We made a trip to Immigration and Customs to check out of Granada on
Friday so we would not have to pay an overtime charge to check out on a
weekend. We were supposed to leave
Granada by 2:00 pm Saturday but stayed the extra day illegally. On Saturday Cori took her kayak and met up
with Sperry and her fishing friends to help out another day. In the evening we met up with Mike and Helga
from Making Mischief for happy hour and pizza and to say good bye to friends.
Sunday was our last chance to get ready to move. The waterline had gotten very dirty while at
the marina so Cori got in with her scraper and scrubbers to clean it while I
got the batteries topped off one last time.
We don’t want low batteries on a passage. About 5:00 pm we raised the mizzen and main
sails, with two reefs in the main, and dropped the mooring to head off to
Trinidad. We were leaving in the evening
because it is about a 12 hour trip and if we leave in the morning we would
arrive after dark. We started off doing
7 knots but as the night went on we ran from 4-6 knots. The seas were running 7 foot but again, as we
continued they dropped to about 4 foot.
There is also a strong current running east to west so we needed to
compensate for that in our piloting. By
morning the winds had dropped to the point we had to motor the last 5-7
miles. We arrived in Chagaramas about
10:00 am and started looking for the Customs dock. We missed it, got into a tight harbor and had
to get turned around without hitting anyone.
We made it and back into the main harbor we asked a couple in their
dinghy where we were supposed to go. Their
response was to pick up a mooring and dinghy in which we did. Once we cleared Immigration and Customs, no
small feat, we made a side trip to Power Boats Marina to see where we were
going. Before moving to the marina we
stopped at the fuel dock to top off. I
felt like a power-boater. We needed
about 45 gallons. Everything here is
metric and Trinidad/Tobago dollars. We
put in 169.8 liters at a cost of $892.00 local currency. Sounds like a lot but it is about 48 gallons
at a cost of $86.00 US. From there we
moved to the dock we had reserved. We
had a mess when we tried to dock. The
slip was bigger than we are used to so our lines to the pilings were too short
and the stern was not secured as we tied up the bow and we ended up against the
boat in the next slip. Fortunately he
had a lot of fenders out. Cori got into
the dinghy to get multiple lines to the pilings and eventually we were tied securely. It was our poorest showing of docking skills
in many years. We were lucky there was
no damage to either boats but our pride took a beating. I almost wanted to do it again to show them I
do know how to dock our boat. We spent
three days at the dock removing the sails and getting ready for the haul out.
One more chance to laugh at Dale: we are putting the dinghy
on the foredeck so it needed to be cleaned.
I took everything out of it, including the oars, and motored around to
the dinghy dock. Or tried to motor to
the dock. I ran out of fuel not quit
there, with no oars, only a bucket. I
tried paddling with the bucket but ended up leaning over the side and using my
hands to finally reach another boat so I could pull myself to the dock. The marina manager saw me and called over to
tell me not to worry, they would not let me drift off to Venezuela. They didn’t have to launch a boat to get me
but were ready to. After cleaning it up
I added a bit of fuel and motored back to the boat and got it hoisted onto the
deck. Next was giving the bottom a good
scrubbing. In the evening we joined a
group of cruisers for a pot luck dinner.
Thursday morning we were hauled out and moved to where Hi
Flite will be spending the summer. The
only mishap was when the lift operator caught a water spigot and broke it off flooding
the area until maintenance could get around to fixing it. We have been working our butts off getting
everything ready. We got the hull
polished, the biggest job and are working at getting everything stored
away. We have never left the boat for
this long and everything needs to be removed and stored out of the
weather. The biggest concern is the
humidity. People complain about coming
back to several months of mold growing.
We are taking a friends advice and renting an air conditioner to run
while we are gone to control the humidity.
We are enjoying the culture, what little we see. We are eating breakfast and lunch from the
roadside stands outside the marina but have not gotten any further afield. We will have to wait until November when we
get back.
Now a review of the trip: we left North Carolina November 21st
with our first stop in Puerto Rico. From
there we moved to the Spanish Virgin Islands, the US Virgin Islands, the British
Virgin Islands, the Leeward Islands and then Windward Islands finishing up in
Trinidad. We traveled a total of 2376
nautical miles or 2734 statute miles. We
essentially traveled from New York to Los Angeles at about 7 miles an hour or
just a bit faster than a jogger.
This brings us to the end of our 2016-2017 winter cruise. But not to worry, we are starting our next
adventure tomorrow. We will be flying to
the British Virgin Islands to meet up with Lee and Sharon on Allegro to be crew
for them as they bring their boat back to Newport RI by way of Bermuda. Once back in the USA we will work our way to
Spearfish SD for the summer with plans to return to Trinidad in November to
relaunch Hi Flite for the next adventure.
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