Safe Sailing to Trinidad

[beachgirl1952]

quote: how do you deal with the 90 days max stay in Curacao/Bonaire?

since 10-10-10 Bonaire is "abroad", so cruisers go back and forth to Bonaire from here, just for a few days, a very much easier sail than go to Aruba (like in the old days) ...

[siroismi]

Thanks for the updated info..

Michel

[countrybimm]

we just dropped our boat off at powerboats, april 21.i cant believe people are worried about the sail from grenada to trinidad.chagaramus (sp?) its a great place to store your boat.as for safety, port of spain has the possibility to be rough if your a bar goer.make the sail during the day and you will always have other sails in your view.didnt hear of one report of piracy on the net.we flew out april 26th.so unless things have changed dramatically, people are lying.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by countrybimm

we just dropped our boat off at powerboats, april 21.i cant believe people are worried about the sail from grenada to trinidad.chagaramus (sp?) its a great place to store your boat.as for safety, port of spain has the possibility to be rough if your a bar goer.make the sail during the day and you will always have other sails in your view.didnt hear of one report of piracy on the net.we flew out april 26th.so unless things have changed dramatically, people are lying.

No people are "not lying" - they are just having different experiences. Everything varies with time and experience. Every island in the Caribbean and most every cruising boat experiences different things depending upon both their attitudes and their point in time when they visit each island.
- - Trinidad and the operations in Chagauramas Bay are under intense pressure from the new Prime Minister to "clean up their act" and get people back to work. You will find advertisements in all the regional sailing rags from Chagauramas Bay trying to get out the word that they are trying to do a lot better than their past history. Whether they can accomplish that is yet to be seen. Nothing happens quickly, but it is good to hear some positive reports.

[countrybimm]

He wanted to know what the conditions were like, not the history of piracy in the caribbean.turns out there were some believe it or not.stay current.there's enough on this thread already without just dumping info just to get a word in.

[Teej]

Originally Posted by kathrine33

I am looking for a buddy boat to do the crossing with, I have booked a haul out at peakes for 31st may, and will be weather watching in prickly bay, from about 23rd may. on hunter 45ft sailboat

.
Don't know if you've already found your weather window and sailed to Trinidad. If not, I wanted to let you know that I did not find a buddy boat to sail out of Prickly Bay to Chaguaramas and had a perfectly safe sail without any incidents. Such was a common story with other cruisers that I talked to in Trinidad. Grenada Customs told me that the last incident that they heard about was in December, 2010.

Rather than leaving out of Prickly Bay, we moved the boat to St Davids to get a little more easting prior to departing for Trinidad. We left Grenada shortly after midnight and arrived in Chaguaramas 12 hours later and, as mentioned above, without any incidents.

While docked at Crews Inn prior to being hauled, I was told by several cruisers to lock up my dinghy and outboard at night even though it was suspended from davits elevated on the boat. Apparently there had been a rash of outboard thefts this past December but that too seems to be under control, at least during my 4 day stay at the Marina before being hauled at Peakes.

So, my advice is to maintain a good watch during your passage and be security conscious once in Chaguaramas.

teej

[kathrine33]

well I came overnight from grenada with 3 buddy boats, we had a pleasant trip. we have been in the anchorage 6 days, we listen to the net every morning and nothing bad.
the customs here have been nicer than most that I have met travelling from Puerto rico to trini.
I am due to behauled at peakes 31st, their service so far is excellent.
an opinion on shrink wrap from them was it could make a theft harder to detect,
also you can hire a dehumidifier, if leaving the boat for long period

[Teej]

kathrine33,
Glad you and the floatilla also got to Trini without incident - that seems to be the common (and fortunate) message from cruisers this sailing season.
Re your comments on boat prep w.r.t . shrink wrap and dehumidifiers, I offer the following:
1. I was quoted over $800 US to shrinkwrap my 38' catamaran and Peakes could not do it because of backlog until the middle of June. I opted to use industrial grade tarps (bought from Budget Marine just down the road from Peakes) for substantially less money and the tarps will be reusable for future storage requirements. Two large tarps gives me adequate coverage of my boat and gives me the same protective functionality as the shrink wrap option. Like many boats there in storage, I also had a light, inexpensive protective wax applied to the hulls and topsides for protection. It will be removed when I return to the boat after the hurricane season and then a premium polish will be applied.
2. Several service companies advised me to use A/C rather than dehumidifiers for my storage requirements. There are several rental providers readily available there. I had one installed and the boat was kept delightfully cool while I was on the hard getting the boat ready for storage and I left a very cool, comfortable boat interior when I left the boat and flew home.

Info offered for your consideration.

Teej