Christmas Greetings from Chaguaramas in Trinidad

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Dear Friends,

 

Here we go again & another year is nearing its end.  It's been quite eventful, but so have been the last seven or so.  : - )

 

It doesn't look like Christmas here in the Caribbean at all, especially as it is tropically hot and humid all the time.  Fortunately our Dutch friends Arno & Peter lent us a small air-conditioner.  Otherwise we probably would have long gone crazy here "on the hard" at Powerboats.  We might be mad anyway.  Just the other day the boss here, Don Stollmeyer, said that he should get his head examined for building three boats.  I feel the same about people who have owned three boats.....

 

But I better start at the beginning. 

 

Last year this time we were still in Richards Bay, South Africa and couldn't leave there as we had a broken shroud.  When that was finally repaired, we went around the Cape of Good Hope, which was one of the most nerve wracking trips we have ever made.  Nothing really bad happened, but we were well aware that this could change in an instant.  The weather reports are no longer reliable and in the rough conditions there things break a lot more than elsewhere.  After the shroud we needed a new course computer, new steering cables, the rudder quadrant got damaged, the saildrive packed up and and and.  Whew! 

 

We were more than happy to be arriving in Hout Bay, which Liping soon renamed Howling Bay.   There are plenty of storms in the area, but in Hout Bay you have the added katabatic winds which quickly reach 60 knots and above quite often.  Pretty amazing to watch, really.  It was pretty damn cold as well, but we still liked it there. 

 

When we left, we were accompanied by numerous small albatrosses.  These guys are very cool fliers.  I never got tired watching them from the warmth of my survival suit which I had bought at a public auction in Whangarei.  For the first week or so, I almost constantly sat outside to look at them during my watch.  Then came an unexpected stop in St. Helena for a stud on our fresh-water automatic pressure pump had broken in the rough conditions and all our drinking water ended up in the bilge.  We only had emergency rations in jerry cans left. 

 

This time (and for the very first time ever) we sailed together with another boat.  Kirk on SALSA, a bright red Alberg 30, had left on the same day, albeit from a different harbor.  While we had an excellent sail with 25 knots right behind and only the genoa up, the little SALSA was rolling very badly, making life for Kirk more than a little miserable. 

 

St. Helena was pleasant enough, even though the anchorage was pretty much in the open ocean.  Just imagine if your dinghy outboard packs up at just that place, preferably at night.  Soon we were ready to continue to Brazil, with much the same conditions as the first leg of the trip.  Because of the abominable crime rate, we passed Salvador de Bahia right by and went straight to Itaparica, where crime is not quite that bad.  

 

We didn't stay very long over there either as we were eager to get our saildrive fixed.  The best place for that seemed to be Chaguaramas in Trinidad.  We went too far offshore (as we usually do) and were rewarded by a strong counter-current as well as a prolonged calm.  We were obviously in the doldrums or

Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).  As a result the much smaller SALSA, which had stayed much closer to shore, arrived three days before us.  The end of our life as yachties was crowned by a 50 knot squall with plenty of rain and zero visibility amongst heavy traffic between Trinidad and Tobago. 

 

Some friends have left already, some are still here and some will be arriving soon.  By now Kirk is already in Cartagena and I have to agree with him on one thing.  The End of a circumnavigation is more than a bit anticlimactic.  One might even call it a major letdown.  It seemed as if the only one who was visibly happy for us seemed to be our old buddy Jörn Grote from Hamburg who has been living in Trinidad for ages and would like to do a circumnavigation himself.  The wife of our friend Capt'n Fatty had already warned us against the "post partum depression", but alas, it didn't really help.  "The way is the goal" (Confucius) is probably the best way to describe the whole endeavor. 

 

It feels pretty weird fixing the boat, just to sell it right after and we miss (Already!!!) Madagascar, Chagos, New Zealand, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, all our friends over there and many yachties we might never see again.  And we are looking at pictures of the San Blas Islands.  I am almost tempted to disregard the voice of reason and simply continue sailing...  Cool was the fact that our very good friend Michael Herbst on TANOA got the coveted prize from Trans-Ocean this year for his circumnavigation and his voyage around the south of Australia and Tasmania.  Congratulations, Michael.  Well done! 

 

Costs have gone up considerably since we were in Trinidad in 2006.  It is no longer inexpensive here and repairs and the prices for spare parts are astronomical.  Looks like the Caribbean is not our cup of tea, just like Brazil.  However, our Dutch friends Arno & Peter did some wonderful work on our middle hull (nacelle) and our saildrives are in the shop getting new bearings, new drive-plates and so on.  Soon that will be finished and we can continue with antifouling and do the rest in the water.  US$ 30 per day on the hard gets to you after a while, especially if you have done nothing but spending money for the last seven years.  As soon as our boat looks reasonable again, we will start to seriously look for a buyer.  We are even contemplating a yacht broker, as we really should get on with our lives and start to earn some money again. 

 

Aurora Ulani is in 4th grade in Calvert School and she is still a very good student.  She really doesn't like practicing, though.  On top of that she has to deal with German Pusteblume 3 as well as Chinese reading and writing.  Just recently I found out that I have now lost my permanent residence (PARC) in Taiwan for sure and would have to start the whole process from scratch again.  I have no work-permit and I can't even simply extend my Taiwan drivers license.  And for Liping it is very much the same in Germany.  No matter where we go, it means back to square one and a whole mountain of paperwork.  Right now it looks as if Germany is out for financial reasons, so we will probably soon be teaching children in Taiwan again.  Many of our old students are married by now. 

 

I contacted two yacht brokers already and was told that times are singularly bad for selling a boat now and the location isn't much better.  I might have much better chances elsewhere, particularly Australia.  We will only entertain that notion if we can't get any reasonable offers here.  But who knows, we might still get to visit the San Blas Island and to meet a few of our old friends again.  : - ) 

 

Now we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Hope all is well with you and yours! 

 

Cheers!

 

Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani Jacobsen

Catamaran DHARMA BUM III

HolgPhone:   +18683995675

LipingPhone: +18683325494

Powerboats, Chaguaramas, Trinidad, 10°40'51.70"N 061°38'02.71"W

Position:  http://www.pangolin.co.nz/xtras/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=WDC7641