On June 19, I escorted Anna home to Jacksonville, and on the 21st I returned to Grenada ready for our final leg to Trinidad. At that time, we were anchored on the southern side of the island. However, a slight change in wind direction caused condition to deteriorate in the anchorage. The boat was rolling so badly that Keith couldn’t safely launch the dinghy, which left me to hitch a ride with a local, to get back to the boat upon returning from the airport.
In addition to the uncomfortable anchoring conditions, the cap on my back tooth fell off, and I needed to visit a dentist. I did attempt to glue it back on myself (I wouldn’t recommend this), but it was sitting too high, and then I couldn’t really chew on either side because my back teeth were hitting. Luckily, my repair job only lasted two days before the cap fell off again. Under these circumstances we knew we had to move to a calmer location. We were able to get a slip at Port Louis Marina in St Georges, where we spent our last few days in Grenada tied to a very protected dock.
This location made it easy for me to taxi to a dentist. Let me just say that this was not an ‘American’ dental experience! The cap did get reattached, but there was unnecessary pain involved, AND the conditions appeared to be less than sterile. I now realize that my perspective is skewed, and I am spoiled by my previous dental experiences. In short I will just second…”Grenada is not known for their stellar dental standards” (this was a comment I received from a Facebook post requesting the name of a local dentist). Anyway, after this experience, I didn’t want to venture to a doctor regarding a skin issue I was also having (this was potentially a dangerous decision…more on that later).
Trinidad is the first country we have visited, which requires incoming vessels to submit a ‘float plan’ before leaving the previous port. This plan must include the date/time and location of departure, the date/time and location of arrival, as well as, the expected route. Apparently, several years ago when Venezuela was in the peak economic and social turmoil there were some instances of piracy on recreational vessels approaching Trinidad. At one point, Trinidad sent a military escort vessel to accompany boats from Grenada to Trinidad. Since that time, things have calmed down significantly, and I am not aware of any recent attacks. However, Trinidad has continued some of the protocols to ensure the safe passage of vessels.
Do you see Trinidad? This diagram is from a 2024 publication about piracy in Venezuela.
Zona de Peligro = Danger Zone😳 If you draw a straight line from southern Grenada to northwestern Trinidad you will see that our route did pass through the edge of red.
The water in this part of the ocean behaved oddly. The surface would be very choppy and confused in one area, and dead calm in an area close by.
Another strange sight for us was the water color. Once we got within 40 miles of Trinidad, the water color took on a slate hue.
The water was still clear, but the color didn’t have any of the usual blue/green characteristics. We were later told that the water color is due to the large discharge from several Venezuelan rivers.
Here is our view from the helm as we approach land. You can clearly see one land mass on the right side of the picture, and a land mass on the left. In this case, we want to stay LEFT! The right is Venezuela and the left is Trinidad. We were advised to take the route that cut between Trinidad and some smaller island…not the route following the main channel between the two countries. The route we took placed us 12 miles from Venezuela, while the ‘main channel’ route places you within 5 miles of the Venezuelan coast.
As we turned the corner to enter the anchorage area, we were greeted with this beautiful sunset reflection.
Once we got anchored in Chaguaramas it was time to return our attention (and efforts) to preparing the boat for an extended abandonment. I hate to use that word, but that is how it felt. I’m not sure if I have explained this before, but leaving the boat was not part of our original plan!
The plan was to hop down the Caribbean chain, with the idea of being south of the ‘hurricane belt’ (area between 12° N latitude and 32° N latitude where the majority of hurricanes form) by July. Then, continue west toward Panama (staying below the 12° latitude line until November) then head north through Central America, visiting Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexico before making our way to Texas. The problem is that our original timeline was absurd! As it turns out, we had to skip many/ most of the Caribbean islands in order to get far enough south before hurricane season.
The decision to spend another cruising season in the Caribbean was obvious, but the question became what to do until November. The first option we considered was to stay on the boat spending time in Grenada, Trinidad, and Tobago. However, after talking with people who have experienced the reality of summer close to the equator. We heard many stories of how oppressive the heat and humidity are during the months of August and September. This, coupled with the fact that we were missing family and friends, made our decision to store the boat for 5 months, very easy.
We were also incredibly lucky to get a reservation at Peake Yacht Services, the #1 rated storage facility in Trinidad!
Now to prepare the boat…
One of my top priorities was to protect the exterior teak. The boat came with a collection of covers, but some were missing, some needed repair, and some needed alterations. I was lucky to find material while in Martinique.
Right on schedule…at 11:00 am on July 1, we were radioed to enter the travel lift slip. This is the most nerve wracking time…no one likes to see their boat swinging😬
This place hauls so many boats, they have this process finely tuned. They transferred Right Hand to a trailer to free up the travel lift for the next boat. You can see them already entering the chamber.
They backed her up all the way to our designated spot.
And in short order, she was blocked and braced.
Within a few days, the open space in front was packed!
Alma Joy has many positive features, and we have discovered another wonderful aspect of her large size. We were able to fit all of our top deck toys inside the dinghy. There are two kayaks, one paddle board, and two electric bikes tucked neatly beneath that cover!
The blue canvas covers look so nice!
Oops…there’s a repair I forgot to make.
This was the other really stressful part of our preparations to leave. Our boat was fully provisioned for a possible war. We carried so many dry goods and emergency supplies that we could have easily survived for 9-12 months if something had happened. However, now all of that food had to be removed to ensure we weren’t going to attract insects and rodents. We did relocate a large Yeti cooler to the pilot house bench, and I packed it with unopened items that had ‘best by’ dates of 2026 or later. I included bay leaves, cloves, and cinnamon bark throughout to deter insects. The cooler is tightly sealed to make entry by rodents impossible. The only concern is if something I stored is carrying some type of eggs that might hatch🤷♀️. We shall see! In the meantime, there were some very happy marina workers who went home with many bags of food.
During our week of boat prep, we decided to take advantage of a turtle nesting excursion. It was explained as a 9 hour commitment consisting of a two hour drive each way, and possibly 5 hours of waiting for turtles. We traveled to Matura, on the east coast of Trinidad, and waited at the pavilion for a turtle sighting. Trinidad does an excellent job of protecting the turtles. No one is allowed on the beach except a few trained guides. They spot the turtles, and wait until the digging process has begun before people are allowed to go out on the beach to witness the laying of eggs. Apparently, once the turtle starts laying eggs the turtle enter a trance like state where human contact does not disturb them.
Unfortunately, we waited there from 7:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. and did not leave the visitor’s pavilion. There was no turtle sighting on that beach all night. We speculated that the surf was possibly too rough. If a turtle were to get flipped over it has no way to right itself. That would be almost certain death (obviously not on this well manned beach, but the turtles don’t know that). It is also true that we were visiting at the end of the nesting season so maybe we just missed the event. People who visited a few days earlier were lucky enough to see a turtle laying eggs, and baby turtles hatching from a different nest…wow! The only turtle we saw was the mosaic one on the tile floor.
It was 1:00 a.m. when we called it quits, and we still had a 90+ minute ride back to the marina. The road to the turtle center was a bouncy, bumpy dirt road that was cut through very dense rain forest.
We were able to get on the road at 2:20, and arrived back to the boat at 4:00 a.m. The next morning we were regretting that decision! We still had a lot of prep work before our July 7 flight back to the U.S., and we were dragging.
Are you kidding me? At some time during the night, a tree fell across the road (bringing down several smaller trees with it) while we were there, and we were trapped on the inside in the rain forest. We had to return to the turtle center, where they were able to contact help. When we returned to the tree there was a vehicle on the other side, and several men with chain saws working on the tree(s).
Keith jumped right in there to help drag branches as they were cut.
We were able to get on the road at 2:20, and arrived back to the boat at 4:00 a.m. The next morning we were regretting that decision! We still had a lot of prep work before our July 7 flight back to the U.S., and we were dragging.
There was some excitement at the marina, the next day. A juvenile whale shark made a wrong turn and got caught between the dock and the beach. It did finally get out to deeper water, but it was a stressful situation. Unfortunately, I read a few days later that the whale shark was found dead in a different location😢
On July 7, we flew from Trinidad to BWI airport, and on July 9, we picked up our ‘land yacht’ for our next set of adventures. Once we made the decision to leave the boat, for hurricane season, we had a brief discussion regarding what we might want to do during our time away from the boat. We quickly agreed that some land travel would be a fantastic way to use that time. Within a week, Keith found the perfect camper for our travels. We have spent the last two weeks turning the camper into our home, and we will soon be off on our next adventure. The only plan we have, at the moment, is to head north.
Personal note: Everything is good now, but on July 8, I visited a Patient First location for a strange skin condition I had been dealing with for a few weeks. As it turns out, I had a MRSA infection that required both oral and topical antibiotics. In retrospect, I should have sought medical care much sooner.
