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March and April 2008
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The next Morning we got up at around 8.30am, and tidied the boat a little. We were then paid a visit by somebody who is very well known in the cruising community here in Trinidad, although his name is Fred he likes to be known as Fast Fred from "Liberty". Fast Fred is a retired United States Coast Guard Officer and one of the first things he said to us was that our practique was incorrect. We had our Trinidad flag hoisted on the port side of the boat and our yellow practique flag hoisted on the starboard side, this according to Fast Food, I mean Fred… was incorrect. Apparently one has to hoist the practique flag on the starboard side and only once customs clearance has been obtained does one lower the practique flag and hoist the Trinidad courtesy flag, also on the starboard side.(ho-hum… details, details…)
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Our private little bay on arrival in Trinidad |
Once we had corrected our massive faux pas, we asked Fast Fred what our options were as far as finding a mooring were concerned. There were many options available to us, from hiring an expensive walk on mooring, or a less expensive swing mooring, or going out on the hard which was even cheaper but not one that we considered viable. We also had the option of anchoring in a little bay about 500 metres from the main marina's at a grand total of zero cost! Being frugal cruisers this is the option we chose and I'm glad we did as it was quiet and comfortable. The only problem we had at this location was the fact that the anchor dragged slowly toward shore and we had to reset it a couple of times. On re-setting the anchor for the third time, we decided to also drop my big CQR anchor, this arrangement of having two anchors out solved our dragging problem.
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| Sunset over Port of Spain looking from TTSA |
On one of our trips to the local Hi-Lo supermarket, we met one of the local lady cruisers and during our conversation she asks where we were moored and when we told her she asked us why we don't consider going around the corner to TTSA which according to her was the best place to be as it was quiet and clean. As TTSA is a regular yacht club there were facilities such as showers, a laundry, a restaurant, a bar, a travel-lift to take boats out of the water, a workshop, a swimming pool, 24 hour security guards, and best of all, free Internet. Tertius and I paid TTSA a visit and I liked the place immediately. The assistant manager, Natalie, made us feel very welcome. After Tertius and I discussed the various pros and cons, I decided that TTSA would be our new home, and so on the 11th of February we weighed anchor, went over to the diesel dock where we filled up with fuel and then proceeded to motor round the peninsula to TTSA and settled into our new mooring. Literally minutes after arriving, we were paid a visit by Dan from the yacht "Moon Shadow" who invited us to a club "bring and braai" which takes place every Monday evening. The idea is for each person attending to bring a plate of eats which goes onto a communal table and the meat you want to braai (barbecue) for yourself. We dinghied over to the clubhouse just before 6.00pm and I was surprised to see about 50 cruisers there. After finishing our meal we were entertained by a talent evening which consisted of song and prose. The was even a young girl who did fire twirling and we later found out that she was South African. Our first night at TTSA turned out to be very convivial.
Tertius and I had discussed the possibility of flying together to Antigua to visit "Mal Tertius" but at the end of the day I decided against this plan so Tertius went ahead and arranged his flight to New York. His departure date was set for the 22nd of February. In the mean time we realised that we could not use my diesel generator at TTSA as it was far too noisy and would certainly disturb the other people in the marina. I had no option but to look around for a quieter solution which as it turned out meant purchasing a Honda 1kVa petrol generator. The only problem was that I could not find a 220 volt unit so I had to settle for a 110 volt generator. This meant also having to buy a 110 volt battery charger as my Victron charger works on 220 volts only. I am sure Zephyr now has more battery charging options than the QE2! I can charge the batteries with the main engine, the solar panels, the wind generator, the diesel generator, and the new Honda petrol generator, in either 220 volt or 110 volt flavours! I am sure that my battery charging problems are now a thing of the past.
After Tertius departed on the 22nd I set about giving Zephyr a thorough clean and wash on the inside and reorganised all the stores. I also ordered some marine ply (with help from Fast Fred) pre-cut into the sizes I needed in order to re-do the plastic storage draws that broke on the way here. However when the marine ply was delivered I noticed that it was a plywood made from pine and not marine ply at all. I told the wood merchant that this is not what I wanted and he assured me it was marine ply. Just then, Roger the manager at TTSA, came over to see what the commotion was all about and after I explained my side of the story, Roger sent for is yard foreman, Eric, who subsequently confirmed that the wood was not marine ply. Roger then asked the wood merchant if he was going to bring proper marine ply is ordered, he replied that as this, according to him, was marine ply, he was not going to change the order. Roger then instructed Eric to remove the wood merchant from the property before he called the police and as Eric is built like a "brick shit-house", the wood merchant scurried off very hurriedly even leaving his wood behind. I later heard from the guard at the gate that the wood merchant returned about 3 hours later and collected his stuff. For the next three days I tried in vain to find marine ply in Trinidad, coming to the conclusion that there is a huge shortage in this area of proper marine ply. In the end what I did was to rearrange the stores slightly whereby I put the heavier items that were in the plastic storage draws into bins and only packed lightweight articles in the drawers after I repaired them as best I could.
As it was nearing the end of February, I had to decide whether I was going to sail up to Florida or fly there to visit Caroline and Wes. If I sailed to Florida there would be a real chance of getting stuck there during the hurricane season which only ends in November. So after consulting with Caroline as to which dates suited her, I booked my flight to USA intending to arrive there on the 3rd of March. I say "intending" because the flight I was booked on was cancelled due to technical problems with the aircraft. It's quite a job getting everything ready in order to leave Zephyr for an extended period of time. Besides the regular things like shutting off all seacock's, switching the fridge off and arranging to have some of the contents stored at TTSA. I also had to lift my dinghy out of the water and stow the outboard motor. I also had to go and get special documents from immigration accompanied by a letter from TTSA, showing that I was going to return to Zephyr after visiting the USA. I also arranged for a taxi to take me to the Airport, a trip of over an hour. I arrived at the Airport at the suggested 3 hours before the departure time and after standing in a long queue and having my luggage searched for the first time in my life, (I have visited Angola and Mozambique just after their Civil War's ended, mainland China, and East Germany for example, and my luggage was never ever searched), but in Trinidad my perfect record was broken - TWICE !!!
After having something to eat, I went through security and made my way to gate 5 where I waited for an hour before they called the flight. Once we had all boarded and settled down, the cabin crew went through the usual pre flight routines, and we were set for our 3:30pm take off. But instead of taking off we just sat there for 20 minutes before the pilot informed us that there was a technical problem with the starboard engine. He asked us all to be patient as the technicians were working on the problem. After an hour of waiting, the pilot said it was taking longer than expected and that if we wish, we could get off the plane and go back into the waiting lounge making sure we took our hand luggage with us. The plane was almost full and most of us disembarked. After sitting around in the waiting lounge for 2 hours, somebody arranged for us to be given sandwiches and cool drinks, it was now 7.00pm. Just before 8.00pm we were told that we can board the plane again. Once again, after settling down and going through the pre flight routines, we were ready for take off, it was now 9.20pm. After waiting for 20 minutes, we all experienced "déjà vu", as the pilot again informed us that there was still a problem with the valve on the starboard engine. He again asked us to be patient and again we waited for an hour before we were told that we could disembark if we wanted to. This time everybody got off the plane, including a 97 year old lady. At 11.15pm we were told that although the plane was now fixed, we would not be flying today, as the pilot and crew are not permitted to work longer than 12 hours shifts, and their shift was due to end at 11.30pm!
Some of the passengers were locals who were able to return home for the evening. However, most of us, including the 97 year old lady, had nowhere to go for the rest of the evening. We were also informed by Airport Security that we had to vacate the Airport by midnight as they were due to fumigate the building starting at 1.00am. This almost caused a riot!! We were then told that we had to re-book our flights and so a long queue formed with people either choosing a 7.15am flight or the same 3.30pm flight the next day. People also started asking for food vouchers, taxi vouchers, and hotel vouchers from the airline. This also turned out to be a joke as the food vouchers were useless as the two restaurants that accepted these vouchers had already closed, the taxi vouchers were OK as there were still taxi's available. The only problem being, where the hell were the taxi's going to take us as the airline had already informed us that there were no more hotel rooms available. It was pointless for me to take a taxi back to TTSA as the club's water taxi only operates until 10.00pm, and unless I wanted to swim to Zephyr with my luggage, I had to do something about finding a hotel room.
By now tempers were starting to flare and when somebody threatened to call the police citing abuse, especially of a 97 year old lady and four other families that had small children with them, the airline suddenly found five hotel rooms. As for the rest of us, we were very rudely informed by the supervisor that the airline could do nothing further for us. At this time, I spotted the pilot and his crew walking (read: sneaking) out of the waiting lounge and I approached them and asked if they had place to sleep for the night. I found out that these nine crew members each had their own hotel room, I then asked them if they were prepared to double up which will make four rooms available which could be used by four senior citizen couples. I was told in no uncertain terms that this was not possible as it was against airline policy to share rooms. This is when I saw red! I, and a group of five Pakistani pharmacists from England, demanded to be given the five hotel names and their telephone numbers the airline said were fully booked but who accepted their hotel vouchers. I think the airline supervisor felt threatened as a couple of the Pakistanis went behind her counter and started rummaging through her papers. She, by now known as "The Bitch", quickly produced the required list. The first hotel listed, was the brand new Sheraton Hotel in downtown Port Of Spain which we telephoned. We were informed that they in fact had 38 vacant rooms!!!
One of the Pakistanis jumped up on to the counter and at the top of his voice announced that the Sheraton Hotel had rooms for all of us. His announcement caused a riot and a stampede this time. But our trials and tribulations were not over yet. "The Bitch" then informed us that her computer terminal had gone off line and as such she could not print our hotel vouchers. She then proceeded to pack their things up and wanted to leave her station, but the passengers were having none of this and they simply surrounded her. At this point I took a chance and told her that she was lying and that I had just checked her terminal and that it was working perfectly and in order to avoid a nasty situation, she had better start printing our hotel vouchers. She had no option but to capitulate and print the darn vouchers. The Pakistanis and I were fairly popular for the next 20 minutes until we left to catch our taxi's to the hotel. The taxi situation was also a joke as each taxi would only take one passenger and their luggage. The reason for this was the fact that the airline paid per taxi and not per passenger, so the more taxi's that ran the more hey earned! Thankfully I was in the first group of people that arrived at the taxi rank so we ended up in a convoy of 14 taxi's each with a single passenger heading off to the five star Sheraton Hotel at 2.00am!!
I must admit that our fight was well worth it as my hotel room was spacious and very luxurious. Even the shower was a glass work of art, and the flat panel television set must have been nearly 842 inches wide, (or so it seemed). We arranged for the taxi's to pick us up at 11.00am for our 1 hour trip back to the Airport. So there we were again, but this time in a convoy of 18 taxi's, each with a single passenger, heading down the highway towards the Airport. I found this journey extremely funny as people were waving at us and traffic was moving out of our way, all because they must have thought that we had something to do with Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles who were visiting Trinidad at the time. When we arrived at the Airport and got out of our taxi's one by one, we were literally greeted with gasps and stares from the people as they too must have thought we had something to do with the Royal visit. However our fame did not last very long because as soon as we entered the Airport building we had to stand in the same long queue with Joe Bloggs and start the long process of checking in. And yes, I was again randomly selected to have my bags searched! This situation is ridiculous and has to stop forth-with!
At least this time there was nothing wrong with our airplane and we took off on schedule. I did notice however, that we had a new pilot and crew for this flight. I wonder what happened to the previous night's crew? A fitting end to this story is that who should sit next to me on the flight, but a senior technical employee of the airline who had flown in that morning. He was totally unaware of the previous night's drama and I did not hesitate to give him the whole story, being backed up by two other passengers who were within earshot. This man, Ted, promised to report the incident to head office, he also asked me for my e-mail address which I gave him. About a week later, while I was with Caroline and Wes, I received an e-mail from Ted informing me that the airline was busy with an investigation and that I will be informed of the outcome. I had also lodged a complaint via the airline's website but have not had a reply to date, nearly five weeks later. It looks like it's back to the old adage: "It's not what you know, but who you know". And the final little twist in this tale, is that Ted is also a "yotty" and so we spent the next 3 hours talking about boats and sailing.
Oh, by the way, if you can avoid it, don't ever fly American Airlines!!!
Their service and personnel suck!!!
Clearing into the United States has always been problematical for me in the past in as much as their security system is very picky and quite anal. Added to this was the fact that my American visa was in my old, expired passport and I was not 100% sure if this was going to be acceptable, despite being told that it was acceptable by the American Consulate in Cape Town. I must say however, that my journey through customs and immigration went very smoothly and fairly quickly, they did not even search my luggage! Caroline and Wes were waiting for me in the arrivals hall and it was so nice seeing them again. We did the trip from Miami to West Palm Beach in just under an hour, chatting all the way.
I spent the next 22 days having a ball with Caroline and Wes. During the week I had most mornings to myself as Caroline works mornings only now, but she did take some mornings off work to spend more time with me. Wes on the other hand works seven days a week and he is out of the house by 6.00am returning at around 5.00pm weekdays, and midday on weekends. Caroline took me walking and cycling a number of times, we also went shopping and dining out. We visited a museum, went jet skiing, visited the Kennedy Space Center (got you another cap for your collection Craig), and we also spent a few delightful evenings and afternoons with Wes's family, and attending the birthdays of Wes's sister, Susan's two daughters. One evening Wes took me with him to drag racing, Wes drag races a highly modified blood red Ford Mustang and his times were according to me, very good. However, I was absolutely blown away by the times being set by the big 4 x 4 turbo diesel trucks! One of these trucks came up against Wes, and although he beat it, the margin was not that great. Wes took part in four races, and won them all. I wished I could have been a passenger with him, but this is not allowed, besides I don't think he would have appreciated the extra weight.
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| Gemini space capsule at Kennedy Space Center |
Wes doing his thing at drag racing |
Caroline and Wes on their jet-ski |
My shopping list was quite long and I managed to get everything except an Iridium phone. I also managed to have my instruments replaced which were probably the most important item's on my list. I also put my details down on two specialist web sites advertising for sailing crew and have had several replies so far. I will spend the next couple of days going through the applications and hopefully will find somebody suitable. My friend Ken from South Africa has also shown a keen interest to join me for the next leg but I am not sure how quickly he can get here as he is busy going through a sticky divorce at the moment. Another friend of mine, actually my new fiancée Kass, also wants to come sailing with me but she can't get away from her work in England. There might just be another divorce in the offing, ha, ha.
While I was in the USA, I also contributed hugely to the bottom line of Ben & Jerry's ice cream having consumed about 14 pints of the stuff I so love. My all time favourite flavour was Chocolate Brownie ice cream, but I think this has been surpassed by Cinnamon Bun flavour, but I am still not sure so I will have to try a few more before I make my mind up. Talking about stuff to eat, on the last night with Caroline and Wes, Caroline made us a delicious pesto pasta with pink prawns, both Wes and I had second helpings which we rounded off with lashings of good ice cream.
On the 27th of March 2008 at 5.30am Caroline got out of bed wilfully to take me to the Airport in Miami! Those of you who don't know Caroline will not be aware that she is definitely not a morning person, and to see her up at this time of the day, (it was still dark outside), was quite something. Wes left the house as usual at 6.00am and we left at 6.25am. Caroline took the turnpike to Miami saying that it would be quicker than the I95 which it probably was, but we still hit traffic near Miami. Despite this we still got to the Airport on time but were amazed at how many people were standing in long queues waiting to check in. There were about five separate checked in areas but none were signposted so we had to go and look for an airline employee to find out in which area I had to check in. With literally hundreds of people milling about and standing in long queues, there were exactly two employees one could ask for advice. The one lady was very pleasant but gave me the wrong information, and the other lady must have been related to "The Bitch" from Trinidad, she was absolutely awful and I was determined to tell her so once I had checked in, but because time was so short I decided to drop it and rather spend the last few minutes with Caroline. We said our goodbyes, hugged some, more goodbyes, a couple of more hugs and lots of waving until I had cleared security and started going up the escalator.
...and yes, if you can avoid it, don't ever fly American Airlines!!!
Their service and personnel definitely suck!!!
The plane which was full, left 20 minutes late but the flight down to Trinidad was one of the most picturesque flights I have never been on. We flew over nearly all the islands in the Caribbean chain and as the sky was cloudless, the vista was quite beautiful. I was glad to have had a good window seat that wasn't over the wing. We landed on time and I had no problems clearing back into Trinidad. I waited outside the Airport building for my prearranged taxi to arrive, which it did 20 minutes later, giving me time to quickly grab some Kenfucky Tried Chicken, as I was starving. Just over an hour later, and having been brought up to speed with regards Trinidad News by my friendly taxi driver, I caught the TTSA water taxi back to Zephyr. Everything was fine aboard my ship except that she was extremely dirty on the outside. By the time I had opened all the Seacock's, closed all the cupboards and drawers, unpacked my bags, put away the napthalene pellets, and made a much sought after cup of coffee etc. etc., it was starting to get dark. I still had to clean the barnacles off the dinghy and the outboard motor before I could re-launch them and be mobile again, but I decided to finish this job in the morning as I was quite knackered by this time.
The next morning I cleaned and re-launched the dinghy, and finished unpacking. Although it is supposed to be winter here, the temperature reaches between 30° and 32° C during the day and so not much work gets done from about midday to 4.00pm. I did manage, however, to wash the cockpit down though.
Notwithstanding the fact that I haven't decided on new crew yet, there's a big problem at the Panama Canal. There are over 200 sailing vessels waiting to go through and the two Marinas on this side of the canal are bursting at the seams. At this time of year between 100 and 150 sailing vessels go through the canal per week, but they are only allowing about 20 boats to go through per week. And new arrivals are being told that it will take at least six weeks to get through. If I found suitable crew in the mean time, and set sail directly for the canal, I will only arrive there at the end of April at the very earliest, by which time I am told the delay will be even longer. This means that I will only get into the Pacific Ocean sometime in July, which according to those in the know, is far too late in the season. I am now looking at two other options - one is to put Zephyr on a yacht road transporter and truck her to the Pacific, and the other is to rather sail around Cape Horn. There is a third option as well and that is to sail to Europe or back to Africa. decisions decisions....
We have also been told that the fees to go through the canal have changed and that there are also new charges which are being levied. If a sailing vessel has never transited the canal before, there is now a measuring fee which is $450 per boat. In the past if you told the authorities that your boat was 36 foot long, they believed you, but now each boat has to be measured the first time they go through the canal. Large tankers, cargo vessels, passenger liners etc. have all been measured in the past but these are all commercial vessels which warrant measuring as canal charges are determined by the length of the craft. Sailing vessels fall into only two price categories - those up to 50 feet and those over 50 feet. But yet every sailing vessel must now be measured. Each boat must also have a pilot aboard as well as four line handlers. When sailing vessels go through the canal they raft six boats together and in the past each raft of six boats had one pilot and four line handlers. Pilots cost $200 per day and line handlers cost $100 per day, and it takes two days to transit the canal. Canal fees are $975 for Zephyr (I KNOW she is under 50 feet...) So before the new set up, it cost roughly $1175, but now it costs around $2625 which is a huge increase, more than double!! Oh well......
News Flash
I have just heard on the BBC world service (9th April 2008)
that American Airlines has been grounded due to safety issues.
Don't say I didn't warn you...
Zephyr must come out of the water for a hull clean and some other work that needs attending to. The barnacles are BAD here... my dinghy was also full of them. I chose a place called Industrial Marine Services (IMS) on the recommendation of Fast Fred from "Liberty", this and the fact that they are the cheapest in the area. So on Friday 11th April, I decided to take a taxi to IMS to "check the place out" and to see where their slip is so that I will know where to head for. The boat storage yard is very nice, there are adequate ablution facilities, even a laundry, BUT the place is really far from the shops, customs/immigration etc., they also don't have an internet connection :~( Oh well, it's not THAT bad, there are cheap mini-bus taxi's running all the time.
On Monday morning the 14th April 2008 I left TTSA and went to IMS on the other side of the isthmus to haul Zephyr onto the hard. I was up at 4am to get ready and untie the umbilicals that held Zephyr onto terra-firma. It was a glorious morning and when I pulled away a little after 5am, dawn was just breaking. The journey there, (6 & 1/2 nautical miles away) went without a hitch. However, when I arrived at the slipway at the appointed hour, the place was deserted. There was even another yacht on the hard right in front of where the Travelift has to pass in order to reach the slip. So, I made myself a cup of coffee and idled around the area watching the Venezuelan fishing boats unload their catches. Eventually, at just before 8am, a bunch of guys ambled down and beckoned me to come into the slip - backwards. Going in reverse is not easy for Zephyr as she tends to go to port for the first 25 meters due to "prop-walk", but as there was ample sea room, I went quite far out and once she was mobile, I had control. So in we went and tied up securely. Then I had to wait while they moved the yacht that was in the way, and at 8:40am the Travelift returned and we proceeded to take Zephyr out of the water. Once out, she was moved back onto a concrete platform, (called a scrub-pad), and her hull was thoroughly scraped down and pressure cleaned. She was then taken into the yard and was securely parked by 10:15am. The first thing I noticed was how HOT it is being out of the water! 33° C in the water is much cooler than 33° C out of the water!! I must also remember not to use the toilet on board, something I almost did a few times now. Another thing I noticed, my favourite friends are back - mosquitoes - lot's of the buggers!! So now it is work time and I have a ton of things to do...
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| Out she comes. 14th April 2008 |
...and get's a good cleaning |
On the hard. She looks so small... |
Happy birthday Caroline !!! May you have many more.
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| Craig has graduated, and I am so proud of him!!! |
After fixing a few things aboard Zephyr, which included fitting the new sailing instruments, I decided to put the boat into deep storage and fly back to South Africa as it was no use trying to go through the Panama Canal due to the 6 to 7 week delay there. This would have meant that I would have been too late for the sailing season in the Pacific. Another consideration was the fact that Craig was graduating on the 23rd of April 2008 and he asked if there was any way I could be there. I arrived back in South Africa after 31 hours of flying going via New York and Dakar. It was good to be back, for a while at least. I spent two weeks in Johannesburg, during which time I had to also sort my credit card out as it had been cloned somewhere and purchases were being made in Cape Town while I was in Johannesburg. How my bank picked these purchases up I don't know but it was a good thing that I was home to sort this out. I also had my birthday in Johannesburg on the 28th April and due to some personal family upsets I rank this one as my worst birthday ever. My previous worst birthday was in 1975 when I was in the SA Army - go figure.
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