Our return to Trinidad was a bit of a disappointment. We had great expectations about finding Bernice the seamstress and having cushion covers and clothes made, but she is no longer doing work, or at least not around the marina. I had planned to get our teak varnished, and had gotten lazy about keeping it up because the man who did our varnish there 7 years ago was an artist and the price was very reasonable. We had a big list of work that we wanted to have done, but we quickly learned that prices have gone up, sometimes quadrupled in 7 years, and the quality of workmanship has declined. We had our sails repaired because that couldn't be put off, but we realized too late that we should have had the work done in South Africa. The marina is still nice, but isolated and not very picturesque. We had the boat out of the water for five days while we had the bottom painted and Tom repaired the broken thru hull fitting. We were very happy to launch after five days and return to the marina. Then we mentally prepared for our next leg. We went to the produce market and the supermarket, got fuel, and sadly said goodbye to some good friends who are continuing on to Panama. That's the hard part of sailing the world, saying goodbye to the wonderful people you meet along the way.
We did a day trip to the Asa Wright Nature Preserve, which was beautiful, but the road to the Preserve was unreal. It was carved out of the side of a mountain, and was supposedly two way but it was often only wide enough for one vehicle, and had many blind turns.
We left Trinidad mid-day on Saturday, both of us a bit reluctant to leave. It is only 500 miles to the BVIs, a short trip for us!