4th and Final Leg: Grenada to Trinidad

People often ask us if we’re afraid of traveling at night.  The answer is both yes and no.  No sailor enjoys sailing too close to land at night and we generally try to avoid arriving anywhere at night, especially a place we don’t know.  However, being out at sea at night is delightful.  As our friend Alex of Bluewater Sailing puts it:  “Night sailing is one of those things that you have to do to fully appreciate.  The stars dazzle on a cloudless night, and the sound of the bow breaking through the waves soothes the soul. Your senses are heightened, and it begins to feel as if you are closer to the sea…” We concur.

We left Grenada on Tuesday at 1:00 a.m. under clear skies and a beautiful moon—a ‘Waxing Gibbous’ in fact (a term I just learned off the internet).  We had decided to leave at night in order to arrive in Trinidad early afternoon in order to clear immigration and customs before it closes at 4 o’clock.

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Trinidad on the horizon

The journey was relatively easy and we would’ve made it in under our estimated 12 hours if we hadn’t caught a mass of sargassum in our prop somewhere along the way. Patrice suspected that we had caught something below at one point as Taka Trois seemed to be dragging a bit, but it wasn’t until we put the engine on just before arriving and heard an uncharacteristic gurgling that our suspicions were confirmed.  We put the engine in reverse and a mass of that stuff came to the surface at the stern—ugh!

Sargassum is a brown seaweed that grows to several meters and can float in the open ocean. We have seen increasing amounts of it on this trip—much more than ever before. Although it is an important part of marine ecosystem, it makes life difficult for fishermen and boats and has been wreaking havoc covering beaches throughout the Caribbean this year. Photo Courtesy of GCRL

We did make it to the customs dock in Chaguaramas in plenty of time, but unfortunately had to wait in an interminable line at immigration as the ferry from Venezuela had arrived just ahead us disgorging a load of immigrants and visitors.  At least we were fairly entertained while we waited by the dialogue between the Trinidadian officials and some of the Venezuelan visitors.  Here’s just a sampling of what we heard:

Venezuelan #1
Immigration Officer: Why are you coming to Trinidad? 
Venezuelan:  For a wedding.  
Immigration Officer:: When’s the wedding? 
Venezuelan: I don’t know.

Venezuelan #2
Immigration Officer: Why are you coming to Trinidad? 
Venezuelan:  For surgery. 
Custom’s Official: What kind of surgery?
Venezuelan: I’m not sure.

Venezuelan #3
Immigration Officer: Why are you coming to Trinidad? 
Venezuelan:  To accompany my son who is coming to study in here. 
Immigration Officer: How old is your son?
Venezuelan: 27

In spite of the delay, we were all clear and had Taka Trois settled into her new berth at Crew’s Inn marina before sunset and in plenty of time to celebrate our arrival back in Trinidad--three years to the day of when we left on March 31, 2012.  How to describe how it felt?  Surreal, to be arriving here by boat; excited, Trinidad was our home for three years after all; relieved, as always when we reach a destination safely and a bit sad that this journey is over….