Chapter 8: Trinidad Again

I noticed our sailing speed was slow. I looked over the side and saw that we had some growth we needed to take care of. I had scrubbed the sides several times with mask and snorkel but it was beginning to not last very long. It needed to be done better. We headed back toward Trinidad around the north side of St. Giles.

When we got near Tobago I found a sandy beach area and anchored off that. A quick hull inspection showed that it had been too long since my last cleaning and we had some significant growth started on the hull. Long grass was trailing all along the waterline and we had the start of barnacles down deeper where there was less sunlight. Just scrubbing it would mean At Last would go for a month or so before the next scrubbing.

It had been two years since she had been hauled so we needed to do more than just scrub her. Part of the problem is that bottom paint erodes over time. It is made to do that. It has stuff in it to slow marine growth, but it is also made semi slick so it will wear off. As it wears it slides off a lot of marine critters too. That's what makes it work. If At Last had fouled this soon after hitting warmer water, the bottom needed a new treatment.

There was one big problem. There was no boatyard with working hoisting equipment anywhere I knew of. Electricity was off. Most hoists used large electric motors. It seemed getting some type of generator and hooking it up to a hoist was beyond our ability. We would have to do this the old fashioned way. We would have to careen the hull. Before we did that, we needed the supplies and tools.

We got back to the marina again. I laid in the supplies we needed which included bottom paint, anti-foul, scrapers, tape, rollers and brushes to name a few. We spent the night there. We had canned food for supper as usual. Charlotte opened a can of peaches we had found. They were a bit sweet for me. I soaked mine in a bowl of water for 15 minutes before slowly eating them.

Sleep that night just didn't want to come. It was very close in the berth. We had been together for a couple weeks now and I had not had any release in all that time. I wish I could say we woke up spooned every morning with me grinding myself into her. The reality of the situation was that I can't sleep pressed right up against someone else, particularly when it's warm.

On top of that I was worried about finding people, how do we start growing food. How do we go about doing all the things we need to do to prevent us from falling back into the stone age? Did we want to keep modern life with all it's pollution?

I suspected most of the world would be just as happy to go back to wearing fur drawers and herding sheep or scratching in the dirt for a few ears of corn. I know there had to be people somewhere.

Could we trust the rest of the world to leave us alone? Most of the political turmoil was caused by different tribes and religions failing to get along. Oh well, it wasn't something I could solve myself.

Where had all the yachtsmen gone? There should have been 20 or 30 boats moored here. They went somewhere. We needed to find them. Were they up the Carribean island chain more or closer to Venezuela, it was just southwest of here and there were lots of small islands off the coast of Venezuela. Further up the island chain it got more dangerous. Hurricanes came barreling through there an average of 6 times a year.

The storms started as a low pressure off the coast of Africa. The dry dusty wind was probably the cause. Anytime from June through December you could have a hurricane. With no weathermen to tell you, and miles and miles of ocean it would not be smart to get in front of a hurricane. Strong hurricanes had been known to almost flatten an island.

No, if the boaters had gone anywhere, it must have been closer to Venezuela. If we could catch up with them maybe we could make a go of it. I started to feel better now that I had some ideas about what to do. I kissed Charlotte lightly on the cheek as I dozed off. I knew it was around 2 a.m.

The had a quick breakfast of coffee and oatmeal. I had already made preps for leaving when Charlotte brought his oatmeal up. I was eating and sailing at the same time. They found a nice sandy beach on a tiny neighboring island that had a nice gradual slop. It was not protected, but it would do for us. We put out an anchor from the bow and backed up to drop a stern anchor. We paid out line while I maneuvered further in to shore. I jumped in the water with a third anchor, (this was my sand anchor) and I walked it in a ways and dropped it and stepped on it to set it. This would keep us from floating back out.

Next, I got one the halyards from the main mast and tied another line to it. In sailors jargon, a rope is made of wire usually so the term "line" is used when referring to Dacron, nylon and other small cordage. Halyards allow you to raise and lower sails. Because a mainsail halyard goes to the top of the mast, it is ideal for helping careen the hull.

I had Charlotte stow everything inside extra well while I tended my line. It was all about to be tilted radically over. I had the line tied to another and wrapped around a palm tree exerting just enough pressure on it to ensure the boat would lay over on it's side as the water went out. It was just enough pressure to ensure it would swing the way I wanted.