After 10 months in Australia and New Zealand working and
visiting family we returned to Trinidad via Vancouver where our son Ryan and
partner Raquel live
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Horseshoe Bay, Vancouver
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Cathy and Eric
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Ryan operating the Water taxi
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We arrived back at Chaguaramas in Trinidad to find the
landscape dry dusty and barren after extensive bush fires across the road from
where our boat was stored.
We’re surrounded by fellow cruisers from all around the
world working on their boats and waiting out the hurricaine season and some
preparing to leave their boats and fly out to see family and friends.
It is fun meeting like minded boaties and sharing stories of
the places we have ventured and adventures had
The smoke was from a burning fishing boat which we went to photograph
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There’s a great atmosphere and camaraderie in the boatyard.
BBQs and musical events are popular beside the pool on the waterfront
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A radio net operates
daily with information on upcoming events, weather and general marine info.
Eric has been sanding and masking the hull in preparation
for painting. The weather will be our biggest challenge.
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Cathy has been sewing new covers for outside equipment and
inside décor
We’ll be out of the water for several weeks doing
maintenance and improvements.
During this time we
plan to do some land travel before going back in the water and beginning our
Carribean adventures.
To make this blog entry a bit more interesting I decided to
interview some of the yacht owners around us and ask some questions which may
be of interest to our readers
Luc and Debbie aboard “Plucky Lady” a name Debbie chose have
been afloat since 2001. Debbie is originally from Guiana but has made
her home abroad with Luc from Belgium. There favourite place so far in their
travels is up the Essequibo river off the Baganaru island resort in British
Guiana. When asked what equipment on board they couldn’t do without they said
their windsteering.
Tom and Janis are from Arizona,USA and have been cruising
since 1986 aboard “Tomboy” Tom since a
boy had dreamed of sailing around the world and both wife Janis and his
daughter he says are “Tomboys”. Their favourite place due to the people and
associations was Roderick Bay, Ngelasula in the Solomon islands. They would not
be without their windvane and GPS.
Christian and Anne who are French have been cruising aboard
“Tidom”for the last 18mths. Their yacht was named by the children of a previous
owner who loved the Jungle book stories . Their favourite place so far is
Madeira. They decided that they could not do without their autohelm
Dave from Australia left in 2013 aboard his yacht “Eliana”,
named after his 2 girls, Ellie and Annabelle. Dave is a solo sailor and says
his most valued items aboard he would find difficult doing without is his AIS
transponder, auto steering and chart plotter. Dave’s favourite place so far is
St Helena.
Jean Louis, a frenchman, originally from Madagascar lives aboard
his yacht “Sagarmatha” named by the previous owners after a mountain peak on Mt
Everest, started cruising in 1982 from
Tahiti which is his favourite place. He has lived in many places around the
world where his job has taken him but always returns to “Sagarmatha”
Out of Africa is owned by John and Joanne from Sth Africa. They have been aboard for 4 yrs and say their favourite place so far has been St Helena. Their most valued item aboard is their IPad which has multi uses with GPS and navigation programme
Mike from the USA has been cruising for 10yrs aboard "This side up" and has her for sale. He plans to retire from the sea to a property in Oklahoma. He wouldn't be without his autohelm and his favourite place was Bali
We had a spell of good weather and got the hull painted.
