Up early again, waiting for the email to tell us where/what to expect that never came. We rounded the island from where we had grabbed a ball the previous night and with the ‘guessed’ gps coordinates spotted what looked like the right place. At least about what I had seen on google earth when i looked up the location before we left on this journey.

Our time was supposed to be 6:30am, we were there 10mins early and sort of spotted some folks opening gates etc, we dropped anchor and tried to check for the lost email and started cleaning and putting things away. Christine worked on the interio first thing in the AM and on the way over (packing, stowing valuables, int/ext cushions and cleaning. A little while later the tractor started down the runway pushing a trailer and we knew we were in the right place. It took a while but they were ready for us, motioned us in. Luckily it was a very very calm bay and only a little boat wake, but driving a fiberglass boat into a very sharp looking steel trailer that really only had a few inches on each side between the hulls was a little unnerving, but no one was hurt we just took it slow.

By 9am we were stacked in the yard and we started to clean and put stuff away. Drop the Jib, cover the sail cover, drop the dingy, put away the lines, etc. Phillipe is the nicest guy you will meet, he came out to meet us as we were taking pictures of the haul out action and watched his guys position the boat in the yard, etc. He took Christine to do laundry as Wayne and I did all the sweating we could muster, enjoying a beer every now and again. Christine came back from laundry, as today is Good Friday, everything is closed, but she managed to swindle her way into CrewsInn facility. We had done most things, including some of the cleaning Christine had not completed on her list, and then we waited for Phillipe to do a walk through. We waited quite a while but was definitely worth the wait.

Tractor pulls us out on a trailor

Stopping traffic everywhere we go

He knows Catana’s inside and out, flexes here, stresses there, all that needs attention. I sure wish he was our original surveyor as he gave us a lot of valuable insight: all very minor things, fixes and preventative items, but great suggestions on how to solve/fix problems and potential issues. We talked about the work we wanted to have done while there, and he is going to quote them with exact individual pricing. Sort of like a menu, with the exception of the cockpit table that might need more work than expected. The down side was that it was hot outside, we had run out of beer, and the water was running thin too. Oh and he suggested we remove the main sail. Okay we had spent an hour or more adding the sail cover over the lazy sail bag, now to undo that and somehow get that 300 lb main flaked, the battens removed, the reefs, lines, and sail bag down – so thats gonna have to wait till morning – too hot too tired.

Some more waiting as the Taxi’s were not running or wanting to run us around, so Phillipe offered us a ride to our hotel, but we had to wait till he was finished for the day, another 1 1/2 hours later. Oh well, more heat, more things to pickup around the boat, and started the main sail removal, but we finally made it to an airconditioned hotel with a shower.. I smell fabulous, exactly the opposite of how I was a few hours ago. Everyone is showered and off to dinner.

Long long day, then just when we thought it was just about over, the island of Trinidad disappeared right in front of our eyes. One moment we could see it, then it was gone, completely gone. This wasn’t the Bermuda triangle strangeness but a torrential down pour. Of course we had chosen the narrow passage as it was closer to the customs and immigrations office that we were running out of time on. Basically fought through the rain to find the island silhouette and motored through soaking wet.

Found the basic area where boats were but took a while to spot mooring balls, it seems all of our guides stop at Grenada, the only thing we had was some PDFs that I had downloaded while researching this place. No comparison to a Chris Doyle guide. Anyway, we spotted one ball inside the marina area, but it was a bite to tight so choose another one and used the happy hooker and quickly 1/2 way secured the boat, dropped the dingy and speed off to find customs/immigration. Here everyone has to be present to check in, again we were not really sure where to go, but we found immigrations with 30mins to spare. Filled out the paperwork and we are here! We have to come back on Saturday to really check out and off the boat with the paper work from the storage yard, so we’ll be traveling fools between Port of Spain and Chagaramas – seems like something out of Austin Powers movie when you say it.

Quick bite to eat and a beer after customs and we are about to zonk out, for tomorrows early morning call to haul the boat. The email from the yard gave us instructions to expect another email tomorrow, uh? @ 6:30am is our haul out time, this should be interesting.

Chagaramas, or at least the 2hrs we have been here is a commercial port. Lots of big ships, docks and boat yards, not what you would call picturesque, but we’ll see when we motor over around to the otherside where we’ll be hauled out in the AM.