Brazil to Trinidad

Trinidad was our next port of call after we heard that there were sea snakes up
the river in French Guyana. It had been too long since we were able to go
swimming and the small pool in Cabedelo had become a distant memory.
Unsure about the murky water of Brazil's inlets the only waters we felt safe in
were in the clear Equatorial currents flushing along the continental shelf. This is
where we needed to be anyway as the mouth of the Amazon spills large pieces
of debris into the Atlantic creating trouble for any 40 foot yacht, but we had
other problems. A fisherman and his young companion on their 18 foot Dory
came whizzing over to us in the calm conditions, pointing to his marker buoys
marking his net which all seemed to be in a perfect line. We changed course
paralleling them, what happened next came as a shock. Beside the small boat
motoring around 150 nautical miles of the coast with no mother ship in sight,
we had tangled our under water profile in one of the buoyed ropes. We were too
far away for the fisherman to notice but we continued for another 4 miles before
we hove too.
With a metre swell lapping the windward side of the boat the task in hand
became a little difficult. We decided to trail a buoyed line off the stern and
another line attached to me. Kitted up with my emergency scuba kit ( a 5 litre
dive tank, a regulator and a basic tank harness) I gingerly climb down into the
clear blue. Holding onto the stern waiting for the right opportunity, I could see
two large rectangular polystyrene buoys on a long rope that disappeared into the
depths and held under the boat by one propeller blade. It took just seconds to
cut away the taut rope as it catapulted passed me. Safely back on board we
motored the boat out of irons and sailed off unaware of our second equator
crossing.
Land fall came later that evening with an unusual light in the distance, this is
Venezuela's east coast and we had every right to be concerned. There had been
recent pirate activities and we were not going to take any risks. All running
lights were turned off and we ghost along, passing Trinidad's oil rigs and over
the top of the island.
We arrived in Chaguaramas mid morning greeted by the greenery that reached
down to the waters edge and the beautiful homes along it.
Checking in with customs went smoothly but less can be said for immigration.
After waiting for half an hour it was our turn to declare our passports. Before
we could proceed the large over weight man came out from behind the bars of
his office and said, I'm formally cautioning you under the laws of Trinidad for
wearing camouflage clothing. Unaware of the law I said sorry as he pointed to
some written clause pinned up on the wall behind the bars.
Apart from our uncomfortable entry into the country we were able to move on.
We had connections here from an English policeman working on St Helena. He
claimed that he owned the yacht club here. Knowing that he probably thought
we would never make it here, we were interested in checking out his story and
status on the island. As we thought, no one had ever heard of him.
Like any long distance cruiser, we make our own friends. It was here we met
our friends Josh and Katia on yacht Hope a 34 foot Rival.

There were two things we liked about Trinidad, the food and the cost of diesel.
The large curry rotis and the sticky BBQ chicken wings, the best I had ever
tasted and the fuel... where on earth would diesel cost you 15 cents a litre?