7-08-02 We finally did leave Charlotteville and Man of War Bay after our 5 week stay. What a great spot, we could've stayed even longer, but then we would've had to "excavate" our anchor to retrieve it. We are in Buccoo Bay on the southern end of Tobago after stopping in a few anchorages along the west coast. The main attraction in Buccoo is the weekly fiesta called "Sunday School". Once a week, the village puts on a street party which lacks any religious affiliation as the names suggests. We attended our first Sunday School last night and were delighted with the live steel-pan music, food, drinks and dancing. Steel pan, or steel drum, music is a perfect example of Caribbean ingenuity which originated in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). When British authorities in T&T tried to stifle Carnival by banning use of African drums, the islanders invented a clever replacement. They would bang on the plentiful oil drums. Eventually they heated, bent and crimped the tops into a concave shape, creating 20 distinct notes. Today, steel pan bands are a staple of Caribbean music. The sound is heavily influenced by rhythmic traditions from West Africa and sensual in nature. It was wonderful to see the locals dancing to the beat. We enjoyed it so much, we are planning to attend again next week ... and maybe we'll get a few dance lessons from the locals.
7-18-02 We're now at the most southern tip of Tobago in Store Bay. It's the touristy end of the island with the airport, resorts, hotels and golf courses. Still not very built up, just enough for simple, low-keyed tourism. The anchorage is calm, since a big reef at Buccoo eliminates any swell from rolling into Store Bay. We're anchored near a big resort and can listen to steel pan bands or lounge-music every evening from our cockpit. Very nice. We'll be off for Trinidad in a couple days. Sad to leave Tobago after our 2 month stay, but time to move on.
7-26-02 Wow, what a shock to come into Chaguaramas, Trinidad and see so many American yachts! It's the most Americans we've seen since leaving the States four years ago. Chaguaramas (Lat 10°40.8'N/Lon 61°37.9'W) is on the NW corner of Trinidad and just west of the capital of Port of Spain. It used to be a major US military installation during WW II and is now one of the Caribbean's chief yachting centers with probably 2,000 boats here in the abundant marinas. Many Americans/Canadians and other international sailors come here for hurricane season - usually to leave the boat in a safe harbor and fly home for a few months, returning in November when the hurricanes have blown by. After November, it is safe to sail north through the Caribbean. Many sailors spend 4 or more years just in the Caribbean, traveling north and south with the seasons. The same amount of time we spent so far on our voyage around the world. We are slowly making progress on our project list: stainless steel welding for our Monitor Windvane, new canvas awning made for the cockpit, new boat batteries, food provisioning, haul-out for an insurance survey, general cosmetics (hull waxing/teak cleaning and oiling), check rigging, etc. As we've said before, there's always something to be done onboard a boat, especially one that has seen so many ocean miles. It's tough work as it's very hot, humid and often rainy as we are in a mountainous region of Trini. We'll spend another week finishing up the projects and then hopefully we can rent a car and do some sight seeing.
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