Laying up in Trinidad?

[donradcliffe]

I have exactly the opposite view.

1. Trinidad may have a high crime rate, but it is way safer than Panama, Columbia, or Venezuela. One fellow cruiser got mugged in the stairway of the immigration office in Colon, and the standard procedure is to take a taxi between shops in broad daylight.

2. You need to supervise or have supervised any boatwork if you want good results, whether it is in Miami or Trinidad or Panama.

3. The spoken language in Trinidad is English. You can communicate easily and directly with workers, managers, and bureaucrats. Not so further west.

4. Trinidad has a customs office in Peakes yard, where you can pick up courier shipments duty free and (mostly) hassle free. Not so in Grenada or further west.

5. Trinidad has way more boat infrastructure than the other places. Big, well maintained travelifts. You will have your choice of welders, wood and fiberglass workers. Good Mechanics and electrical workers are harder to find.There is a boaters office with a book which lists all the workers.

6. If you have any questions in Chagaramas, they will be answered on the morning VHF radio net.

7. Trinidad has Carnival, with spectacular costumes and great music. You can watch, or better yet participate.

8. Trinidad has Jesse James, a tireless ambassador to the yachties, who organizes tours to Carnival and the many other attractions. If you get sick, Jessie will take you to the right hospital, etc.

9. I don't remember a single boat being hit by lightning in Chagaramas, but if your boat spends hurricane season in Panama it has a significant (15%?) chance of being damaged.

10. Both Peakes and Powerboats have pretty good security, and at least Peakes has a fenced within the fence to store layed up boats.

11. If you leave the boat in Trinidad, it is easy to spend another season in the Windwards. Once you go downwind, you aren't coming back.

[nhschneider]

My boat is currently shrink-wrapped at Peake's in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, and has been there since April of this year. I feel very comfortable having it there and I don't worry a bit about theft (I am aware that some boats at nearby Power Boats have had theft issues). Although there are parts of Trinidad that are only seven miles from Venezuela, Chaguaramas is at the complete opposite corner of the island.

My insurance company, Top Sail, requires that my boat be south of 10°N or north of Cape Hatteras between June 1 and November 1. Trinidad is south of 10°N.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[Cheechako]

Peakes or Powerboats both are good and secure. Proximity to Venezuela not a problem at all.