We had a wonderful 3 days at Chacachacare Island. It was quiet – just us and one other sailboat (a couple from B.C. whom we haven’t officially met but have been chatting with for a few weeks. They are friends of Sharron and John). On Sunday, Mark and I did a crazy uphill walk to an old lighthouse and a current radar tower. The uphill was a killer – about 2.8km but the view was worth the hike. We could clearly see Venezuela in the distance as well as the bay CK was anchored in. A huge flock of black vultures have made the area their home and they weren’t super impressed by our visit. Coming down was easy and we were back onboard for lunch. We also got lots of swimming in on Saturday and Sunday – last ocean swims for the season.
On Monday April 13th we made the short 7nm trip back to Chaguaramas and went straight to our slip at Crew’s Inn Hotel and Yachting Centre – pretty fancy name!! Well the marina matches its fancy name alright. The docks are concrete and look new. They have good facilities – laundry, showers, 2 restaurants and a pool!! So far we haven’t used the pool but we did go out for lunch on Monday!!
This marina also holds the customs and immigration offices so this is where Mark cleared us in when we arrived on April 10th. I had mentioned in my last post that there was a story about our clear-in process. Trinidad is very well known for its complicated clear in process. The Sunday before we arrived, Mark and I spend a few hours filling in 7 forms with all our information. Many of the forms asked for the same info but that’s just the way Trinidad likes it. Those documents were emailed back to our storage yard (Peake’s). The day before we crossed, Mark sent our exit document from Grenada, copies of our passports and a few other forms. We were all set to clear in – or so we thought!! We arrived April 10th around 8 am and after a frustrating anchoring process (it’s a difficult harbour), we lowered the dinghy and off Mark went. First stop was Peake’s marina (they had all the forms). They printed everything and made copies of some documents then they explained the clear in process to Mark. Stop 1 – the health office – the officer filled in a form and that was it. Not too bad! Stop 2 – Immigration. That’s where everything fell apart. The first thing they said was that I had to be present (normally only the captain goes ashore) but they were willing to work around that. Next 2 of the forms we had already filled out had to be done again – with carbon paper to make copies! They also had an online component to be filled in. Last stop – Customs. Here Mark had to fill in a form by hand – 2 copies but he had just finished filling out the same form online at immigration. What a long process!!
We’re now in storage mode – get the boat ready for hurricane season and a rest on land. Mark and I both have our lists of jobs to be completed – some now and others once we’re are out of the water. Our haul-out date is April 20th so we have a good amount of time to get our jobs done!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 