October in Trinidad

We spent the morning grocery shopping, which turned into quite an eventful morning with a few hours spent at the hairdresser. Alex went to get her hair dyed back to its normal colour as the bleach blonde she had was causing more damage to her hair than it was worth. As a result, we now have a beautiful brunette on board. We went to Sails for dinner that night and enjoyed some good food whilst running into a few old friends.

Off to dinner

 My mom had arrived back in Trinidad after we had seen the movie 'Taken 2' and she was very upset that we didn't wait for her. . . so off to Movietown it was! My dad went with her my sister to watch it, whilst Alex, Josh and I went to go and watch an animated movie about monsters called 'Hotel Transylvania.' Needless to say, we were in stitches we laughed so much throughout the movie. I'm not giving anything away but for those who have watched it or who will watch, I know you will understand when I say. . . scream cheese. 

The Jangles crew

 We decided to take Alex out for a little test sail to a place in Trinidad called Chacachacare. The old abandoned leper colony. On the way there, my dad threw the danbuoy overboard and shouted man overboard. . . surprise man overboard test! So I ran to point whilst my brother took over controls of the boat. There was no wind so luckily no sails had to be put down in this practice. . . but I have a feeling it won't be the last one. We were one of the only boats in Chacachacare, so we settled into a nice spot for the night. As night took over, little lights began flashing on the mountainside. Now given that this is an ABANDONED leper colony. . . imaginations began to run wild on board. One passenger on board, won't mention any names (Alex) has the biggest imagination of all and has clearly watched to much Walking Dead as she spoke of zombies on the island. What we didn't know (but found out the next morning) all of our talk had gotten my dads imagination running. He slept with an arsenal next to his bed, he had the flare gun, a wooden batton and a torch next him the whole night. He was apparently going over all the possible points of entry throughout the boat. . . and we thought we were the ones with the imaginations. . . haha. We motored back to Chaguaramas and moored at the Crews Inn dock.

Josh lying in the rain at Chacachacare

Alex, Josh, Rebecca and I took the car for a few hours. I showed them the bamboo cathedral (a natural arch created by growing bamboo) and then we went to Movietown. We had seen little glass ovals with jellyfish inside them that had been created by bubbles. The jellyfish glows in the dark so we went to go and get one for the boat. We all went to watch 'Here Comes the Boom' which, was another comedy but a good hearted feeling one. 

On Sunday, we had our first bad encounter with the weather. The outskirts of Tropical Storm Raphael hit Trinidad. We were attached to the end of a floating dock at the Crews Inn Marina. Waves came through which made the whole dock move up and down, taking the boats with it. One of the docks next to us, the cable snapped and half the dock came loose. The monohull next to us was rocking so much that we were on constant watch that it didn't hit our boat. One of the lines on the monohull snapped and the owners were no where to be found so we luckily attached it back to the dock with one of our lines before it hit us. A video of what it was like is attached below. The weather lasted an hour or so and then began to calm down. A cruiser (who we were convinced was a bit under the weather) came onto the radio. He proclaimed that he had been reading online and there was seismic activity going on and that if it created a new island we should all go and claim it in the name of the Cruisers! A while after that a song was being played over the radio. . . don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing's gonna be alright. . . by the same cruiser! Needless to say by this time we were all in stitches and found this guy hilarious! He came on and off the radio for a while and even said if anyone had any cuts he wants to stitch them up but the requirement is that they brought a bottle of rum among! It was a very eventful afternoon to say the least.

Monday evening I went to the pool for a swim. As I swam about something caught my eye. . . a little flashing light in the bush. I watched for a while and then the flash came again! I soon realized it was but a little piece of magic. I watched the firefly and then saw another one. . . and all of a sudden there were lots of them! I marvelled at these mystical creatures. . . little sparks of hope planting magic and wishes in the eye of the beholder. I thought of people who capture fireflies and keep them in a jar. . . but I thought it would be best to wish upon them as you would a star. I watched them float through the sky and disappear into the night, holding onto the lingering presence of them as little bits of magic had been sparked within me.

You are probably all wondering what we are still doing in Trinidad. . . . Well here's the list: the autopilot failed, the rudders are out of alignment, the vhf radio isn't working, the saildrives on the engine need to be sorted out, contaminated diesel caused the generator to fail and has caused sediment build up in all of the engine filters, so a cleaning process needs to go into action to decontaminate the diesel as well as all the filters need to be replaced. Oh the life os a sailor. . . at this point we are hoping to leave by Thursday but i'm not placing my money on it. . . .