Along Trinidad's North Coast

Not far from the Orange Suspension Bridge over the Marianne River is the Laguna Mar Beach Hotel, owned and operated by 82-year-old Gottfried Franz Zollna, aka “Fred”. The Cocos Hut restaurant is the only restaurant in Blanchisseuse and since it was time for lunch, we stopped. Blanchisseuse, by the way, translates to washerwoman and was so named because the local women did their laundry in the Marianne River.

The restaurant is located in a converted cocoa drying house. It's a pleasant venue with outdoor tables on a covered veranda, sheltered from the street by lush flowers and shrubs. Butterflies and birds flitted about as we drank cold beers and rum punch and made our choices from the menu. The lunch itself was nothing special, but Fred was a charmer. We spent a good portion of our lunchtime chatting with him about his colorful life from post-war East Germany to Canada to California to the US Marine Corps to Trinidad.

As planned, we made several stops on the return trip. The first stop was at the ill-kept Our Lady of Mount Carmel cemetery. Overlooking the Caribbean, it was a beautiful spot, but the gravestones were overgrown and crumbling.

We stopped at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church as well, a few miles up the road. It was a small, picturesque little country church with two bronze bells out front ready to beckon parishioners to Mass.

Simple, but lovely, the inside of the church was still decorated for Easter.

The best stop, however, was at Las Cuevas Beach. Las Cuevas, the caves in Spanish, was busy, but the wide expanse of beach accommodated everyone comfortably. The caves along the beach afforded great little nooks and crannies for people to seek shelter from the sun and set up their picnics.

As always, we were looking for the sameness in people as well as the differences. We observed parents carefully watching their children on the beach. Children made sand castles and played in the surf. Universally, covering up your brother with mud has always been a particularly enjoyable beachfront pastime.

We headed back down the serpentine road to Port of Spain and to Chaguaramas. Our friends on Wind Wanderer were leaving to head back to Australia and we wanted to wish them farewell.

Tomorrow we head out for five days of touring Trinidad. We're all packed and ready to go. Come along with us.

Arrival, Earthquake & the North Coast

Lin's flight arrived early, believe it or not, at the Piarco International Airport and we were there waiting to greet her. We whisked her away as fast as we could whisk in late afternoon traffic and before you know we were sitting comfortably in her little apartment on the waterfront at Power Boats, sipping wine and unwinding. Dinner next door at Sails was pleasant with a light early evening breeze that followed a short, but cooling downpour earlier. Mr. Melody, the evening's entertainment, “kareoke-d” old BeeGee songs and the greatest hits of the 70s & 80s. We enjoyed dinner and left before he came to our table with his microphone. We were up early the next morning and, while David chatted with Rawle about his day's work plan for Nine of Cups, I headed down to Lin's for a morning cuppa. We sat on the deck outside her apartment, chatting and planning the day when the deck suddenly started to vibrate and sway. We thought, perhaps, somebody heavy was coming up the stairs, but no, there was no one. Then, it happened again. An earthquake … a tremor really … to start Lin's first day of vacation in Trinidad. We found out later it was centered off the coast of Venezuela and registered 5.7 on the Richter scale. No damage done.

Trembling finished, we headed off for points along Trinidad's North Coast. Lin had brought a Rough Guide to Trinidad and Tobago with her and it provided a good resource for things to see and do along the route. We climbed up, up, up across the Northern Range along a circuitous, switch-backed, narrow road that seemed barely wide enough for one car, never mind two way traffic. Deep ditches lined one side of the road, perhaps handling run-off during the rainy season. The other side of the road was a steep drop-off to the abyss below with guard rails and curbs sometimes in place. Drivers are crazy here. They speed, tailgate and pass mercilessly. After a rather exciting drive, we came to the lookout at the top which provided outstanding views of the Caribbean Sea below.

A few vendors were selling sweets and we chose some to try. Our favorite was chip-chips … a dried coconut and brown sugar concoction that was sweet enough to last for a month. The spiced cherries and mangos we sampled were definitely not to our liking and after a gingery taste, they were discarded in the nearest trash bin.

We continued along the North Coast Road, the road descending steeply now to sea level. High cliffs gave way to thick foliage. We saw teak and old banana trees reminiscent of the plantations that once dominated the area. Stands of bamboo arched over the road. We caught brief glimpses of the sea and finally white sand beaches replaced the thick foliage and rocky coast. Spindly coconut palms dotted the shore and we were in Maracas Bay, one of the more popular beaches on the island.

We found the Maracas Bay Village to be more interesting than the main beach which was quite crowded with beach-goers, vendors and take-away joints, despite the fact it was a weekday. The village beach, though smaller, was picturesque with its brightly colored fishing boats and life guard shack.

A gazebo, apparently a new addition, adorned the pier and seemed to be the meeting place for young people. People fished off the end of the pier.

We walked barefoot in the sand along the beach, stepping over mooring lines that moved higher and lower with the surge. A committee of vultures (yup, that's the right collective for vultures) milled around the fishing boats, scarfing up old fish guts and whatever else they could scavenge.

We continued on the coast past several more beaches and through tiny towns, around sharp corners and over one lane bridges that forded the many small rivers and streams in the area.

Our destination was the Orange Suspension Bridge across the Marianne River at the end of the road in Blanchisseuse (Blahn-she-shers). We'd seen several pictures of the century-old bridge and thought it would be a great photo opp. Our plan after the bridge was to backtrack, stopping at places of interest we'd missed on the journey out. Lin's Rough Guide was a couple of years old and did not reflect the fact that the bridge had been condemned and replaced in 2012. The old bridge was left in place as a pedestrian bridge and historical site, but was not particularly photogenic despite its history. We took pics anyway.

Join us tomorrow as we backtrack along the North Coast Road, have lunch with an 82-year old German/American ex-pat and cavort in the Caribbean Sea at Las Cuevas Beach.

The Blue View - Replacing a Cutlass Bearing

When we hauled Nine of Cups in December, as soon as the power wash was done and all the sea life was removed from her bottom, I took a walk around looking for problems. For the most part, everything looked good – no blisters, the anti-fouling looked depleted but good, no play in, or issues with the rudder. We hadn't run aground since the last haulout, so there wasn't any damage below the waterline. There were several expected maintenance issues, but the only surprise was that the cutlass bearing needed replacing. The cutlass bearing supports the propeller shaft as it exits the hull, and the actual name is a stave bearing. Originally, they were made of the hardwood, lignum vitae, which is resistant to rot, is very hard and doesn't swell when wet. We know of at least one sailboat that replaced their worn cutlass bearing with a locally fabricated hardwood version when the modern equivalent wasn't available, and it worked just fine.

The name 'Cutless' is actually a tradename owned by Duramax Marine for their molded rubber stave bearing. This then evolved to cutlass bearing and became the generic name. I think if I walked into a marine chandlery and asked for a stave bearing, I'd get some puzzled looks – but everyone knows what a cutlass bearing is. For a boat the size of Cups, the bearing consists of a bronze tube with a grooved nitrile, rubber-like lining.

Since it was eight years since we last replaced it, I was half expecting that it might be time again. To determine whether it needed replacing, I took hold of the end of the prop shaft and wiggled it up and down and from side to side. There should be virtually no movement with a good bearing. I was seeing considerable play in the shaft, so I knew it was time for a new bearing.

The first step in removing the cutlass bearing is to remove the propeller. It is pressed into place with a large nut and cotter pin. These come off easily, but the prop itself is always reluctant to come free. I remember the first time I tried getting ours off – I spent most of a day prying, heating, tapping and pulling on it before renting a prop puller tool. All boatyards have such a tool, usually homemade, that makes the job quite easy. Here at Power Boats in Trinidad, I couldn't rent just the tool – I had to hire the guys along with it. The cost was higher, but they had the prop off in just a few minutes.

Next, the prop shaft has to be removed. On Cups, this entails disconnecting the hydraulic piston connected to the rudder, removing the anode on the rudder, then removing the shaft coupler and shaft seal. I also had to remove the pulley for the prop shaft generator. Once these were all loosened and pulled off, the shaft slid right out. I used a scouring pad to clean and polish the shaft.

Removing the cutlass bearing itself is next. It is held in place with two set screws and, in theory, once these are removed, the end of the cutlass bearing can be gripped with a pair of vice-grips or pipe wrench and the bearing can be pulled out. If only it were true. We were in Tahiti the last time we replaced it, and I spent two days trying to extract it. I tried all sorts of schemes and finally resorted to cutting it in half, patiently sawing through it with a hacksaw blade. This time I hired the same guys that had the prop puller. They cut through the old bearing in just a few minutes, using a SawzAll fitted with a 10” blade. In order to pull the bearing out, however, they had to perform some surgery to the end of the shaft tube as well.

The new bearing was slid into the tube, and I gave it a few taps with a piece of wood and hammer to ensure it was seated. The set screws were screwed into place, and with help from Marcie, the prop shaft was slid back in. It was a tight fit in the new bearing, and lubricating it with a little dishwashing soap and water helped. The rest of the process was the reverse of the removal process.

The final step was to repair the fiberglass that was cut when the old bearing was being removed. I mixed up a batch of West System epoxy, thickened with 403 filler to about the consistency of peanut butter, and built up and faired the damaged edge. Once it cures, I will sand it, then give it a couple of coats of anti-fouling.

Hopefully, it will be another decade before we have to replace it again.