Trinidad – June 5, 2006
Trinidad has not been hit by a hurricane ever and so marks the southern end of the hurricane belt. Still, yacht insurers prefer that their insured vessels reach the equator by July 1 in order to be certain of safety. Since we are for practical purposes out of the danger zone and also in need of some refit work, we linger here for 8 days.
On one of these days, Trinidad plays Sweden in its first ever appearance in a World Cup soccer event, and I’m privileged to watch the match over a TV in a very large sports bar in the capital city of Port of Spain. At the event, I am seated immediately adjacent to a 15-piece percussion section from the Trinidad & Tobago Marching Band who, at the slightest hint of success by their team, erupt into a cacophony of cheerful rhythmic noise. T&T played Sweden to a tie, zero all, and you’d have thought they had won the Cup from the celebrations that day and night. Soccer’s a big deal here, and like many former British colonies, so is cricket and rugby.
Originally, we had planned to go to Venezuela to take on fuel, which at 65 cents a gallon is a bargain. That, however, is offset by the danger of increasingly active armed pirates marauding in the area. Only a few days before, the long time owner of a marina near where we want to go was gunned down in a daylight robbery. We decide to bypass the bargain and instead head for Suriname, formerly Dutch Suriname. We also bypass Guyana due also to its rampant criminal activity.