Putting the Boat to Bed

Trinidad has somewhat of a rough and tumble reputation among cruisers. Most cruisers opt to spend hurricane season in the more laid-back environs of Grenada and save Trinidad for haul outs and repairs. After a long discussion with a 14-year Caribbean cruiser, he suggested we sail to Trinidad and haul the boat out rather then leave it in Grenada. His reasoning was “Yes, Grenada is rarely hit by hurricanes, but Hurricane Ivan in 2004 destroyed the marina where you are planning to stay. Do you want to relax and not worry when you visit your grandchildren in Seattle?” Good logic.

Route from Prickly Bay, Grenada to Chaguaramas, Trinidad.

We left Grenada around 5:00 pm on July 11^th for the overnight trip to Trinidad, plotting a course to sail between two large offshore oil rigs and allowing enough “easting” to compensate for a strong easterly current. The trip was enjoyable, with a nice 12-knot breeze on the beam and gentle seas. There was one exception, however.

At about 2:00 am we were transiting the area between the two oil platforms. They are lit up like Christmas trees and very easy to spot. The problem was all the boat traffic in the area: service boats running back and forth between the oil platforms, shipping traffic from South America, and unmarked buoys for the oil rigs. Trying to make sense of all this, with the myriad of lights ahead of us and the multiple dots on the radar screen, was not easy. I also tend to be a little drowsy at 2:00 am. All of a sudden something caught my eye that didn’t make sense (not hard at this age). I thought I saw a glimmer of a red light coming towards us (not good, this means you are on a collision course and the other boat has right-of-way). I thought of waking Meryl, but I still wasn’t sure of what I was seeing. You also tend to be on edge since there was a piracy incident in this area several years ago and two cruisers were murdered. All of a sudden the red light became brighter and I realized the vessel was approaching us at high speed. Trying to think of which way to turn to avoid a collision, I yelled at Meryl to come up and help out. Next thing I know a huge white searchlight had blinded me and our VHF radio crackled to life. I could now see the outline of a large 60-ft. Navy-type vessel circling us and decide it would be a good idea to answer their radio call. After playing twenty questions (they were very professional, but I still didn’t know who I was talking to), they welcomed us to Trinidad and went on their way. We later learned it was most likely the Trinidad Coast Guard doing drug interdiction work, although locals told us they are far more concerned with weapons being smuggled into the country. It was a little tough to relax after that incident, but fortunately the rest of the trip was fairly benign.

Approaching the headlands of Trinidad after the all night crossing from Grenada.

We rounded the southeastern point of Trinidad and passed through a narrow channel into the large bay of Chaguaramas. Once a sleepy fishing village, the port is dominated by five large shipyards that cater to both large commercial vessels and yachts/powerboats. We had an appointment to haul out at Peakes Yachting Services and made arrangements to tie up at their dock prior to the haul out.

Getting into the dock was a bit of an issue, however. The wind was blowing fairly strongly on our beam and we had to go the backside of the dock with little room between the dock and shoreline, then somehow reverse the boat and back into a narrow slip while Meryl caught a buoy forward to tie off a line that would prevent us from backing into the dock (this is called a Med moor and is very common docking method in Europe) and I kept us from hitting the boats on either side. The problem is our boat will not back up to the right (because of the rotation of the prop) so we had to frantically hail a passing dingy to act as a tug boat to straighten the boat up has we reversed in. It wasn’t pretty, but we did eventually get tied up.

The marina offers five days free moorage if you are hauling out and we intended to take advantage of the offer. Trinidad is very hot and humid in the summer, so having access to dock power meant we could run our small air conditioner, which is just strong enough to make the cabin tenable at night.

Eric, the incredible Dutchman, who rescued Meryl's favorite glasses from the depths of Chaguaramas Harbor.

We did have one mini disaster before the haul out. Meryl was standing on the back of the boat looking down at the water when her glasses slipped off her head and fell “in de magi.” These were the first pair of expensive glasses she’d owned ($400) so we weren’t going to lose them without a fight. Normally I would have dove down for them, but I was still recovering from a bad cold and very congested. One thing we’ve learned while cruising: you lose no honor by asking for help when you need it. We got on the 8:00 am Cruisers Radio Net the next morning and asked for help; we immediately had three offers from cruising boats. We dingied over and picked up Dutch-born Eric off the sailing vessel Gabber, a 30-ft. steel boat he and his wife Ernie had sailed over from the Med.  

Eric was a certified dive instructor and at 6’ 1” and tussled blonde hair, he certainly looked the part. The water off the end of our transom was around 27 feet deep and he first tried free diving, but with no luck. I got out my SNUBA rig and after another 15 minutes of searching he popped out of the water with Meryl’s glasses in hand. He had found them under a piece of paper after searching for over 40 minutes. Naturally he wouldn’t accept any money (cruisers rarely do for helping) so we gave him and Ernie all of our perishable food since we wouldn’t have refrigeration while hauled out.

We spent the next several days getting the boat ready for the haul out and packing for our trip home. Leaving the boat in the tropics requires a lot of preparation, including: wiping the entire interior of the boat down with a mixture of vinegar and water to prevent mildew, sealing the heads, removing all perishable food from the boat and sealing the rest in plastic containers, sealing all openings into the boat, storing the outboard down below, securing anything lose with ropes and cable locks, etc. I also had to remove the autopilot system to take it back to Seattle for repair. This should have been easy but the cables to the control head would not pass through the holes at the base of the binnacle, so that involved several hours of fidgeting to get them thru. It’s never easy.

Maneuvering a 44 ft. sailboat with a 6 ft draft backwards into the second slip from the left was a challenge.

On the morning of the haul out we had to move the boat from the inside dock around to the haul-out dock. Sounds easy, but we managed to include some drama in even that simple process. Getting the boat to make a tight left turn is difficult since our prop naturally pushes the bow to the right. We did all the math and figured a way to use our spring lines to force the bow around. After much planning I pushed the throttle forward and to my horror the steering wheel wouldn’t turn. I immediately knew what the problem was but it didn’t prevent us from sidling up to the boat to our left. Luckily we both had fenders out, but I had to rush down below and disengage the autopilot from the rudder. I had assumed this would happen when I removed the unit but there was still one more mechanical piece that had to be removed. We finally got the boat moving forward around our neighbor boat and kept trying to turn hard to the left to avoid the shallower waters near the beach. We still managed to bump along several rocks (low tide) on the bottom as we rounded the end of the dock, but thankfully everything went smoothly after that.

Peakes Yacht Services has a huge Travelift capable of lifting large fishing boats.

Getting our bottom pressure washed in preparation for new bottom paint.

They really pack the boats in at Peakes. Unfortunately we couldn't use our AC, refrigeration, or toilets once on the hard.

After the boat was safely secured on jack stands in the yard, we went down to see if there was any damage to our neighbor boat. They were gone for the day so I jumped on board and luckily the only thing broken was one of their lifelines that our outboard motor had snagged. I latter went back and talked to the older Austrian couple on the boat and explained what happened, telling them I’d arranged with a rigger to fix the damage at my expense. To my amazement he refused, saying it was a bad swage fitting and he should have fixed it long ago. Amazing.

The only other incident was that our bilge pump decided to die, so I hired a local guy to look at it. In all the instructions for leaving your boat in a yard, the number one recommendation is to make sure your bilge pump is in top working order in case the torrential rains somehow enter the boat and fill it like a bathtub. Mine was off the job and collecting unemployment. It was 14 years old and it needed to be replaced anyway. It’s located in an almost inaccessible part of the bilge and I couldn’t even reach it without removing the engine. I had them design a stainless steel pole that allowed us to pull the pump up for servicing and repair. Should have been designed that way originally.

We ended up staying in a basic hotel room the boatyard had the night before we left. The boat didn’t have AC when it was in the yard so we really looked forward to some air-conditioning and a nice cool shower before our flight to Seattle the next day.

After nearly two years of cruising we've gotten a better feel for what needs to be on the boat and what doesn't, and in the "what doesn't" category were heavy blankets, fiberpile jackets, and any clothing made of cotton. We managed to fill up four large boxers with junk off the boat. Getting all this stuff off the boat (now 15 ft up in the air) and across the yard to our hotel was a challenge. Getting it on the airplane was going to be another challenge.

"You want to check all that to Seattle?"

Up at 4:00 am for the one-hour drive to the Port-of-Spain airport. Luckily the flight had empty seats and soon we were soaring above Trinidad for the four-hour flight to Houston and enjoying a long deserved rest on the airplane.  

Looking down at the boatyard as we flew over Meryl and I both took a collective breath of relief after a hectic five days. After a one-hour layover at Houston we were on our way home to Seattle to reconnect with family and friends.