After 24.5 days at sea, the crew of CHESAPEAKE has safely reached Trinidad. Compared to KON-TIKI 2, check out how little plastic trash was generated using mindful practice.
Synthia reports:
Ahoy from hey the land stuff is pretty fun too,
Sorry I've been remiss with my daily reports on my continuing adventures, I guess I've been too busy living it and collapsing from exhaustion, or maybe it's the rum sundowners.
Or both!!
Weather - Well, the sun comes up just moments after sunrise, it shines good and strong all day long warming things up a bit too much, sometimes a cloud will pass by here and there, and just moments after sunset it's gone again. Then the moon comes up, sometimes almost precisely when the sun sets, and it's big and bright until it sets a bit later on. And there's also the stars, they show up shortly after sunset and go away shortly before sunrise. And finally there's the wind, it doesn't seem to blow that much where we are right now, but just enough to chill you off when you get out of the swimming pool, and make it pretty easy to sleep at night. It's been like that since I've been here and doesn't seem like it will change much until I leave because I'm not wandering to far off from day to day so I'll just stop talking about it until something new happens, k?
Navigations - Phew, where to begin, so many things so far. I'm going to need a vacation to recover from my vacation. Thursday morning our dock neighbors, John and Maggie from England, whom have been coming back to Trinidad for some 12 years now clued us in about Jessie James (yup, really his name) a local Trini guy that basically gets things done for the cruisers, including really great road trips in his 12 passenger van. They and a group of other cruisers had booked a tour to a hummingbird habitat and there were a few seats still available. Unfortunately the skipper and admiral came down with a nasty bug and we're not feeling up for it so yes please I'll have me some of that, thank you very much, and off I went with the 2 Brits, 2 Irish couples, an Alaskan, and another fellow who didn't talk much but I think he was a Brit as well. All of them seem to leave there boats here and return year after year. Most of them from what I can tell don't do much sailing anymore, but do boat maintenance in this exotic place when the weather back home is too unpleasant.
Departing the marina at 9:30AM Thursday the first adventure of the day was just negotiating the ridiculous traffic on these ridiculously narrow roads that are not well maintained what so ever. I will never complain about the Bay Area traffic ever again. On the way to the hummingbirds we stopped at Fort George, an old lookout post from way back when cannons were state of the art, which has a beautiful 360 degree view of the northern end of Trinidad. The hummingbird place is called Yerettê, which is a private residence up in the hills that is owned by a fellow Theo whose passion is photographing hummingbirds. So to make his job easier he started setting up bird feeders, and "if you build it they will come" holds true for this place. Thankfully he decided that he must share this paradise with the world so he started doing presentations by appointment only, lasting over 3 hours including lunch, while you get to watch all these birds hover just overhead darting hither and yon. Truly amazing. After lunch we drove down the one hill and up another to the Mount St Benedict Monastery. Being that most monasteries need to generate income in some fashion, this monastery, through trial and error and many other failures, is currently in the yogurt business. We stopped in for a quick look see and a view from this hill top, then dropped down the road a touch to the Pax Guest House for afternoon tea. Located within the forest there was lush vegetation, more hummingbirds, and still a view extending off and beyond to the valley below. Then back in the van to fight the afternoon commute returning to the marina at 6PM.
As we were leaving Yerettê, there were signs to a waterfall that the Alaskan Andrew had heard of and inquired some details from Jessie James. When Andrew indicated that he just might drive back (he has a rental car) the next day for a hike I offered to keep him company and he accepted. Being that the next day was Good Friday (aren't all Fridays good? Sorry Pam, I've been living with your brother for too long) Andrew felt it necessary to get an early start before the traffic got nasty so we agreed to meet at SIX AM!! So even before the sun has risen, off we drive to Maracas Falls, and what took almost 3 hrs driving the day before took 40 minutes without traffic. After parking the car along the road side near a house a young clean cut sort of fellow walked up and warned us that it wasn't safe to leave our car parked there, nor was it safe to walk up to the falls without someone to guide us as the trail was difficult to follow and that there might be nefarious sorts lurking in the bush to cause us harm if we were not accompanied by a local. So we inquired if he would be willing to be our guide and he accepted our invitation. When we asked him what is would cost, he replied, "whatever you like". When we asked about leaving the car there, he went to check with the home owner just there and returned saying that they would watch our car for us. Darrel was the nicest of fellows, a 26 year old, in the army, that had the most beautiful accent that I could barely understand a word of, but Andrew, having spent many a season in Trinidad, seemed to not have a bit of trouble so they chatted away as I followed along. Within three quarters an hours time we had made it to the bottom of the falls, which was not flowing too heavily being the dry season. Previous visitors had set up a bit of an altar on a nearby large rock with candles and fruit and such, indicating to me that this was obviously a sacred place and therefore necessary to be anointed by the water, so with GoPro in hand I scrambled over the rocks and stood under the falls. Hiking back down we veered off onto another trail that led down to a deep swimming pool downstream from the base of the falls. I went for a swim there too. Finally returning to the car we gave Darrel a $100 TT bill (worth about $16.50 US, or the price of a relatively nice meal). During our stroll Andrew and Darrel spoke of another hike to the top of a waterfall that then leads down to a beach, an arduous 4 hr hike with either a return hike back or flagging a taxi for the car ride back. Darrel agreed to be our guild for that hike as well so the two exchanged cell phone numbers to set up a date later on. During our drive back towards the marina Andrew told me of a few other hiking spots near by which sounded like a worthwhile effort since it was barely 9 AM at that time. We stopped at the marina cafe for breakfast and then drove on towards Macqueripe Bay at the end of the road. Along the way we stopped for a short stroll through the Bamboo Cathedral, which is a path through a towering bamboo forest. When the wind would blow just enough the bamboo stalks would bang together like a living wind chime and I felt like I was a miniaturized human walking through a patch of tall grass. We made another stop at a park with this ginormous tree that has dozens and dozens of other plants growing from it; bromeliads, ferns, vines, even other trees. Truly a "Tree of Life" indeed. Finally at the end of the road we came to the beach parking lot almost completely full, with possibly the last spot just for us. Strolling down to the beach there were many families enjoying the water, kids climbing on to the derelict remains of an abandoned loading dock (the valley used to be a sugar cane plantation) to jump into the water, young mothers with their infant babies still in diapers playing in the sand, and one muscular ebony fellow covered with sand strolling up the beach singing some beautifully sounding hymnal about repentance and salvation - then stopping to raise his arms up to the sky to take in the suns energy - then turning, pausing, preparing, then sprinting full speed the short length to the other end of the beach. Repeating this as if he was in a trance, all the while the crowd of beach visitors almost unaware of his ritual, until a young women spoke to him and he smiled and laughed and began chatting with her. Huh. Andrew then lead the way up the trail to the ridge looking down on the beach and also off to the north towards Tobago and the open space of ocean that I had just traverse two days previously. The path led on a bit more then started to descend down a steeper bit then into another bamboo forest and finally opening up to a clearing with a golf course, and an open air club house, that was open for business, selling chilled beverages. Ding ding!! Resting there for a good while, Andrew mentioned another waterfall just up a ways which sounded doable, but we decided that we should first return back to the car (the way we came) and then drive back to the golf course before hiking this second waterfall. On the return hike through the bamboo forest we encountered a group of Howler Monkeys (including a tiny little one) perched high up in the bamboo stalks with the male member howling and barking warnings to us of their presence. I hope the GoPro video captured it appropriately. Returning to the car seemed a much shorter hike than the way in and we drove off back towards the marina arriving about 2 PM completely involved in conversation so forgetting to turn off for the golf course and the second waterfall hike. Another day perhaps. Returning to the boat for a quick lunch and to check in with the skipper and admiral who were feeling worse cold symptoms I gathered a few things and retired poolside where I spent the rest of the afternoon working on recovering from the mornings workout with a man 14 years my age that I could barely keep up with. I certainly hope I'm as young as he when I reach his age.
Today I slept in to half pass six and enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee on the boat while reading the gossipy local newspaper that is delivered daily to our uh, boat step. Seems that yesterday there were reenactments in both Trinidad and Tobago of Jesus bearing the cross through the streets lined with wailing women and Roman guards holding them back, followed by sermons with the message of practicing love and forgiveness over revenge or self gratifying judgement. Good stuff. Before the heat of day could set in I did a few chores around the boat, and wanting to give the Sunbrella boat cushions a good scrubbing as the accumulation of salt and sweat from our passage made them too unpleasant to me to even want to sit on, they would have all of the day to dry. The admiral and skipper wanted to walk around to the other side of the small bay where the boat yard scheduled to haul their boat was located, so I tagged along as well. Spending some time browsing the chandlery (boat stuff store) we then strolled over to the restaurant next door for breakfast before walking back to the boat at just about high noon and the accompanying heat of the day, so I again grabbed a few things and headed back poolside like any reasonably sane person would do. About half until sunset I walked back around the other side to join up with some of the cruisers again for Shark-n-bake dinner at the Wheelhouse Cafe. Many of the same from the van ride tour and a few new faces. Turns out one of the Irish lasses races Folkboats and has been to 2 regattas over the years hosted by the St. Francis YC in SF. Andrew was also in attendance and he's got another hike (not the 4 hour one, thankfully) in mind for tomorrow so I guess I should finish up here and get some sleep.
Sightings - Old Forts, Hummingbirds, Monasteries, waterfalls, bamboo forests, beaches, howler monkeys, and KRAZY drivers!!! None yet: muggers, drug dealers, prostitutes, sex slaves, or any other mean or unhappy people.
Food - Wednesday Dinner at The Lighthouse Restaurant here in the marina: grilled fish of the day (sea trout?) with LOADS of vegetables and french fries with a most strong and yummy rum punch. I couldn't finish my dinner and glad they forgot to bring the 2nd rum punch (one was plenty). Thursday breakfast: granola & yogurt onboard. Lunch at the hummingbird house: homemade pumpkin soup & tossed salad. Afternoon tea at the Pax Guest House: brown bread with jam, sliced cheese, cucumber, some sort of sweet bread, and tea. Dinner: potluck salad and a pork chop with the cruisers at their Thursday night potluck BBQ. Friday Breakfast before hike: some tasty veggie stuff on a roll from a street vendor. Breakfast after hike: veggie quiche and coffee. Lunch: tossed salad and slice of bread on the boat. Dinner: PBJ. Saturday Early Breakfast: Fruit smoothly and coffee. Saturday later Breakfast: Salt fish scramble with a Bake (bread roll sorta like a ciabatta). Late lunch: passion fruit yogurt and fruit. Dinner: Shark-n-bake, which is a Trini dish that's basically deep fried shark in that ciabatta bread thing with a choice of a few different sauces. Mighty tasty must say.
Word to my peeps -
Now that I have direct wifi access, tho limited to the range of the marina, you can send your questions or comments to me directly :
[email protected]
so that Terry does not have to be burdened with forwarding them to me any more. Big round of applause to Terry for his tremendous efforts in sharing my adventure tales. Yea!!!!! Smooch.
Chow from the s/v Chesapeake, 1200 GMT position
10-41'N x 061-38'W, COG 0, SOG 0 kts, DTG 0 nm
http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Chesapeake
[email protected]
