There's just something about that colour 'deep purple' ...... I think that's probably been said before ..... But look at that insect trapped in an overdose of heavenly pollen ........ What a magnificent sight that must be, when you are the size of a dragonfly and you hover like a helicopter, above such a magnificent water lily in full bloom .......
Do yourself a favour and double-click on these two photos ............ What sheer perfection .....
And that streak of 'Royal Purple' continues into other activities, like the Pizza night, at the 'Prickly Bay Yacht Club' in GRENADA, where wine, beer and rum punch make 'cruisers' do things that they will generally regret in the morning .....
And that's all because the 'Steel Pan Band' plays such wonderful music, that hanging on to your inhibitions becomes humanly impossible ........ See, even the pans have that streak of 'Royal Purple' .......
By morning however, one of us is not feeling so 'lekker' ....... We, meaning 'Her Purple Highness' and I, have joined Mark and Willie on the yacht "LIAHONA" and are sailing to the island of TRINIDAD about 80 miles away ..... We do not remember a great deal of this ...... I know we departed at 0300 hours, but the rest of it is dark ....... A grey day follows with a sloppy sea, but "LIAHONA" rides the waves like a champion and we are so impressed with the gentle motion that we begin again, to ask them 'questions' ..... We seem to do this every time we come onboard ........... It starts off with .... "Look how much space there is in this cockpit" ....
That's Mark and Willie, in their gracious yacht which is more 'home' than yacht, for they have lived on board for more that thirteen years, raised their daughters on the boat, and are now cruising full-time, for the sheer love of it .......So you might well be wondering why we are sailing with them and not on "ARITA"........ Well, we have a watermaker pump that needs to be repaired in TRINIDAD .... They are going to TRINIDAD for the hurricane season, so why not jump on board and then fly back and save ourselves the hassle of 'clearing in and clearing out' for a two day visit, when our destination is across the Caribbean Sea to CURACAO ...... So we will sail with LIAHONA to TRINIDAD, and then 'sail in the sky' back to GRENADA .... Piece of cake really .....
TRINIDAD is majestic with its lush volcanic cliffs covered in vegetation and little islands made of limestone that jut sheer out of the ocean floor .....
Now just look at this aft cabin on LIAHONA with all that teak finish and look ..... In another cabin is the washer/dryer ...... Now that's how you keep a 'Queen' in comfort .... Surely this is 'cruising luxury' .... No, 'luxury' is when someone else does the washing ..... I remember that ......
Did you check out the galley and the size of the dance floor in the salon (saloon) ....... So now you can understand why every time we come on board, we get into this 'discussion' ............
The bunks in the forward cabin are more likke double bunks and guarantee a 'dream' sleep ...... But to pretend that Willie and Mark are in their pool on the aft-deck of LIAHONA, would be pushing it a little too far ..... The pool is at the Coral Cove Marina where they will be spending four months of the hurricane season ...... They certainly provided us with some 'un-accustomed' luxury for this trip ..... Wonderful people and wonderful hosts ......
But it is the water-maker pump that has brought us here, and as soon as they open it up and see the broken pieces, we know we need to open our cheque book really wide......... By now of course, we have taken the maxi-taxi (bus) to Port-of-Spain, to look around, see the sights and have a 'roti' ........ For TRINIDAD is the home of rotis ....... Today, it's a spicy mix of beans, sauce and shrimp, wrapped up in a doughy blanket ....
CORAL COVE Marina and CREWS INN are in CHAGAURAMAS, a well-protected bay that is the cross-roads of inter-island traffic and cultures ...... All day long the fishing vessels, pirogues and dinghies fly back and forth without ever really slowing down ..... Some have ventured out of the Irinoco River Delta and others have arrived from other parts of the Venezuela mainland, that is only 15 miles away from TRINIDAD....... And in the bay are supply ships for the oil platforms that are standing along the coastline like lone sentinels ...... Whoever wants to complain about 'border control' in the US, should come for a re-fresher course in 'insanity' right here ...... And the tuna boats seem to be manned by Malays, Phillipinos, Guyanese or perhaps Indonesians .... Who knows? .....
Just look at the design of this pirogue with its three outboards ...... That's got to be straight out of Thailand or somewhere in the East ......
A cruiser's motorbike ..... Sort of third cousin removed from a KAWASAKI off-road 800 motorcycle, suffering badly from dwarfism ...... 'Pram' is a good name for it, and here then is your TRINIDADIAN roti ...
One definitely gets the feeling that you are not too far from the mighty AMAZON RIVER, and when you see a bird's nest in the rigging of a local fishing boat, you know he didn't go to the Artic to do his fishing ...... In fact, the trawlers leave TRINIDAD and travel about 600 miles towards the Equator where they catch 'export-quality' tuna like those below, all cleaned on board and ready for shipment in refrigerated air cargo when they arrive to unload .........
Oh, and docks are always great places to do a quick fashion shoot ....... And all those masts you see in the distance behind the fishing trawlers, are yachts placed 'on the hard' for the four months of hurricane season, while the owners re-couperate in more temperate climates ..... Hurricane season is oppressively hot and humid for we are only 10 degrees north of the Equator ..........
Those frozen yellow-fin tuna take some heavy lifting ......... Massive fish, worth a bunch of money ....... We watched them being washed, then weighed and samples taken with a special prong and given a 'grading' before being wrapped in plastic and placed in a waxed cardboard container for shipment ...... All very professionally done by white-uniformed staff in a freezer house ....
Took a taxi to the airport in Port-of-Spain and if you ever need one, call this guy called "JESSIE JAMES" ....Gave us the low-down and all of the political scandal details, while driving us through the rain ..... We were not nearly as wet from the rain, as we were from the laughter ......
But we certainly came back to Earth pretty fast after our half-hour flight when we went through Customs and Immigration in GRENADA .... " Where are you staying?", "On our yacht "ARITA" anchored in Mt. Hartman Bay" .... " Any boat parts?" ..."Yes, a pump that we took to TRINIDAD from GRENADA for repair" ..."O.K. go in that line" ....... Well, there is no line, just us two, and then another Custom's Officer approaches and lets us know that they require five percent of the repair value ....... I immediately start thinking about that 'bull' we saw on the old airport runway on our last trip around the island, and I dig my heels in and say "SORRY< BUT NO WAY" ...... Anyway, an hour and a half later, we are still discussing the matter with the Chief of Customs, who says .... "No, it is not a duty, and it is not a tax .... It is sort of a service charge" ..... To which I'm kind of forced to reply ... "So what service did GRENADA provide?" ..... And so we go in circles for another half hour, ..... End result ....... We hand over $US 40.00 and we say "Goodnight" for it is 'The Law' that if you bring a 'boatpart' into the country, you have to pay 5% irrespective if you took it out of GRENADA in the first place and it has been yours all along ..... Pointing out that I also took my camera and my shoes out and brought them back in did not seem to faze him ..... We parted friends, GRENADA richer, us poorer, but richer for the experience .... Now that too, is cruising ....
Saw these signs in TRINIDAD that clearly leave very little to the imagination .... There was also a sign in Port-of-Spain outside an office that read "TAX APPEAL OFFICE" .... Now that's the sort of office GRENADA should have, but what is really worrisome is that the sign on the right was produced and manufactured in AUSTRALIA ..... Laurie and I need to get there soon, to straighten things out a bit ...... Get some of those top-less grandmothers off the beautiful beaches ...... Wait, Laurie is about to become a grand-mother .... O.K., maybe not that one so much ......
