Towards Trinidad and on the Hard

Uneventful overnight journey from Store Bay. Arrived in Chaguaramus Bay, near Port-of-Spain around 0930. Put the boat on a temporary mooring and headed in with the Tangaroa to do a bit of research. Seb had discovered a small hole in the fiberglass at the back of the keel while doing an inspection dive in Pirate’s Bay (probably created in the shallow waters of The Gambia). This meant the boat needed to come out of the water for repairs. Chaguaramus is a cruiser’s dream at this time of year. The chandleries and well-stocked, there are an incredible number of boat yards and people around who can fix almost anything you can dream of breaking or needing on your boat. Amazingly, the Pjotter was out of the water and on the ‘hard’ by 1400 that afternoon, just a few hours after our arrival. After this it took no time before we were visited by a rigging specialist (confirming that all is in order), a refrigerator specialist (able to fix rather than replace what we have and include a freezer!) and a fiberglass specialist who took a look at our keel damage and agreed to show us how to fix it on our own! We were also able to rent an apartment for the time that the boat is out of the water and we moved ourselves in there in the afternoon. A very gratifying day’s work.

Our days in Chaguaramus Bay look like this. Breakfast in our apartment, overlooking the bay, one of us stays on monkey duty and the other wanders up to work on the boat. We meet up again for lunch and the work continues until 1600 at which time we head off with Jan-Bart and Monique (s/y Victory), Caroline, Tamar, and Suze (s/y Tangaroa sans Weird) and Bas, Reina and Kim to the pool for a swim (and often a beer). BasReinaKim have a beautiful 53-foot aluminium ship named Kim that they spent the last four years building and are now finally enjoying. Kim is also the name of their 4-year old daughter and she and Emma have become good friends. We have recently also been joined by the Mjolners (yippee!) and they are now taking part in the abovementioned activities with great enthusiasm.