Good Friday, or any Friday is a great time to tell a sailing story. Easter always marked the end of the Caribbean chartering season. The season runs from Thanksgiving to Easter. I was based for many years with my CT72 in the British Virgin Islands, I eventually moved to Saint Martin because of the incredible hassel from the US Coast Guard. (More on that in other posts.) After completing a mind boggling 12 to 15 week long charters, (More on chartering in other posts) it was time to prepare my yacht for the Atlantic crossing to Europe, sort of my vacation time since when I would arrive I would do the summer charter season in the Med, primarily Greece and Turkey. Although there are many fine fine shipyards (Tortola) and Chandeliers (Saint Maartin) and skilled craftsman in the Caribbean I was driven because of cost to curiosity to sail to Trinidad. Trinidad provided low cost labor, inexpensive parts and expert craftsman. I'm sure it has changed but a day laborer cost twenty dollars a day, a whole chicken 27 cents and a full glass of rum for the cost of a coke. However the year I'm thinking about I had a very good reason to go to Trinidad, Teak! For sometime I had been watching my bow sprit deterorate. On the CTs the bow sprit is a solid twenty feet long and a foot square. It is made of furniture grade Mahagony. It was painted so I couldn't see the extent of the dry rot. I checked the prices in Miami usually the cheapest place to buy lumber and discovered to my chagrin a piece of lumber that large would cost me $15,000 to buy and ship. Ouch! So after waving bye to my new best friends after giving them the vacation of their life and the scattering of most of my crew I set off for Trinidad with at least one loyal crew member. I always enjoyed the trip of roughly 550 nm. The boat was quiet. It is an easy reach. Set the sails turn on the autopilot and sit back and enjoy the journey. Usually I was under a bit of a time constraint so stopping was out of the question. If you want to have fun you need to get your work done first.

Being Easter, the shipyard wasn't fully staffed. I got the boat on the hard took a deep breath and caught a taxi to the Teak Mill in the mountains. I'll write more about Trinidad, but if you want a facinating and beautiful vacation don't hesitate. After about an hour ride into the mountains I came to the largest teak forest in the western hemisphere. With the blistering hot South American sun beating down I talked the forman into letting me buy my log. I searched through piles of cut logs and finally found the perfect one fro my bow sprit. We stepped behind a shack and began negotiations. It would be a cash transaction with the proceeds going into the forman's pocket. I was reminded this was illegal several times as he furitivily looked over his shoulder. He agreed to mill the log into a one foot square and arrange for a truck to bring it to the shipyard later that afternoon. The cost $600 dollars and $25 for shipping. Beautiful!

Tomorrow I'll continue with the story.