After many months of thought, contemplation and breath holding, I decided to leave Australia and make my way back to the UK. This has not been an easy decision as I loved living there, the people as warm as the weather, living close to the sea with spectacular scuba diving and sailing each week. However, such is the draw back to Blighty that I set about the mammoth task of moving country yet again. Not only had I to sort out finalising all my work, but I also had to find someone to take over my lease on my unit, sell all my furniture, sell my car, complete my taxes, arrange my super annuation, and sorting my finances to make a move back.
However, although I have had a great time in Australia, I only took 2 weeks holiday in a year, and worked what felt like such long hours with being oncall a big chunk of the time., so it didnt feel right to head straight back to the UK, not in November when all I read from my UK facebook friends is how awful the weather is. I felt I needed an adventure! So it is that I find myself in the Caribbean!
Let me explain – I found a website called “findacrew.net” I had heard it mentioned during my Round Britain trip by one of the skippers, but at the time paid little attention to it, but so glad I looked – this is a sweetie shop for sailors! I posted my profile, and when I looked the next day I had received 16 offers from boat owners around the world to come and sail with them. Within a couple of weeks, I had over 50 offers. Some were charging a fee, most were free, with just contribution to costs (some even paid for your food and your flight out to them!) and some were paid positions as working trips on charters. Very, very exciting!
So, with all these offers, I felt tempted to take a couple of years to circumnavigate, but knowing I have made a commitment to return to the UK, I decided to just have a “mini adventure”. With all these wonderful offers to come crew on boats, I sat down one evening and looked at the map of the world, and, naively felt that the Caribbean was halfway home from Australia to the UK – well, take a look at the map yourself and you will see what I mean! However, following a 32 hour journey and 4 flights, I arrived in Trinidad at midnight the same day I had left. Sadly, only one of my two bags made it with me, it was steamy hot, I was desperate for a shower and change of clothes – all of which were still in my bag somewhere between LA and Miami, including any cosmetics, but I was happy that all my scuba gear had arrived!
I was met at the airport by my new skipper and my new companion for nearly 6 weeks. I found him on the internet as he wanted someone to join him on his boat to crew for a short time and our dates fitted perfectly! Many people said it was a brave thing for me to fly to Trinidad and join someone Ive never before and sail with him for 6 weeks. Hmmmmm. Well, I’m not quite as stupid as I look. We had communicated for at least 3 months before I went, and I had asked for 2 referees both of whom I spoke with. One of these was a lovely woman called Sigrid, and I had the pleasure of finally meeting her
I finally met Sigrid!Just take a look at the name of her boat!
Just take a look at the name of her boat –
The “Lucky Bitch”!!
A less than hospitable welcome to Trinidad with a missing bag and a very nonchalant response to this from the American Airlines rep (it clearly happens all the time!), made worse by being met at a service station on the way to the boat yard by a man asking for money with a broken bottle in his hand (I felt grateful for the fact I had packed my squealing anti-rape alarm)! Welcome to Trinidad!!
So it was, escaping danger, we made it to the boat. He had arrived the day before, from his home in Belgium and his boat had been “on the hard” in a dry dock in Trinidad during the hurricane season. So many boats out of the water, so sad to see them all lined up, many of them having work done on them, some just being neglected.
Ive spent a year living in the Tropics of the Southern Hemisphere, and now I swapped that for the Northern Hemisphere – very much the same, hot, humid and loads of mosquitoes who were enjoying their new dish of the day – me!!
I spent the first 4 nights on the boat in the dry dock whilst we worked on the boat and made it ready to enter the water.
When I say “we” I mean the skipper, he is pretty used to doing everything alone, and I watched as the work carried on. He was helped a little by a colourful local called Raole.
I did manage to sample some of the local cuisine, including “Doubles”
and the delicious “Roti”
Watch it being made –
Even the local Iguanas liked them
They somehow knew when it was “Roti Time” and appeared from nowhere!
It was so hot in the boat yard, and the mosquitoes did bite me relentlessly but the local beer did help a little…..
What a joy when we finally got the boat onto the water – feeling we were finally on our way, and enjoying more breeze being on the water and making a better job of avoiding the mosquitoes!
Skip keeps his boat meticulously maintained
It is approximately 20 years old and was built in Sweden. It is complete with most things you would find essential when circumnavigating, the usual chart plotter, VHF, satellite phone, EPIRB, life raft, but he also has a “water maker”, solar panels and a windmill. The boat is very comfortable for two people, with 2 cabins, mine is located in the bow. Skip has spent much of the time on his boat sailing solo, but he is now inviting crew onboard. I’m his first from findacrew, as he usually invites friends when he does have a crew. I’m certainly his first English crew, as, although his English is excellent, he doesnt know many of the English names for many of the boat parts. At one point sailing, he shouted from the foredeck to let go that thing there. Luckily I knew the main sheet needed easing – his English vocabulary is expanding!
We had planned to leave on Monday night or Tuesday, then discovered there was a big celebration, a public holiday indeed, on Tuesday 13th for Diwali! This surprised me in the Caribbean, as I thought it an Indian celebration, little did I know that a large proportion of the population of Trinidad originated in India and were Hindu. What a fantastic celebration of light – a town given over to celebrate Diwali
the poorest of people put out candles and a display and the whole town was lit up, cars decorated and fitted with enormous speakers booming out music.
I had a wonderful time wandering the streets, sampling local foods handed out from women who had cooked in their own homes, and not a broken bottle in sight!
The next day we prepared to set sail to Grenada. This was an 80 mile trip, so we left Chaguaramas and found a beautiful anchorage where we spent the evening ready to head off at midnight.
A beautiful sail to Grenada, 15 hours in total, just five and half hours of this in the dark, watching the dawn break.
My favourite part was when a huge pod of dolphins joined us and rode our bows for about half an hour! Magical!
I sat right up on the bow with the dolphins jumping and nearly touching my feet!
Grenada is so beautiful, a rich fertile land and warm welcoming people, more about Grenada later, this island certainly deserves its own blog entry!
Approaching Grenada
As indeed does the scuba diving in Grenada which is lovely!
Ive been in Grenada for 9 days so far, we had planned to move on, making our way gradually North, but the outboard motor for the tender is broken and we are awaiting a part to be sent from Florida. We are at the mercy of Fedex and aware that Thanksgiving has probably slowed the process. So we are stuck here until it arrives and its been fixed So, here I am, in a little piece of paradise – not a bad place to be “stuck”!
Cheers!
