Yacht charter Spain - Meditteranean sailing holidays

As we pulled off the dock at Secret Harbour and headed out through the bay towards Tara reef, past the lines of boats at anchor showing the scars of their battle with Ivan, and past the lines of boats on the rocks and beaches, many of which would be not worth salvaging after a week of flooding and pounding by the water, I decided I would 'make history'. The only reason I wasn't here amongst these boats on September 7th was because I had been delayed, by a lethargic Customs service, importing some parts for the boat down in Trinidad. I deliberated that I would probably be the first person in history to write a letter of thanks to the Trinidad and Tobago Customs and Excise congratulating them on their thoroughness (incompetence) and assistance (disinterest) in helping process my consignment.(please note the pics attached depicting the scene at the Customs shed at Port of Spain's Piarco Airport where I spent a whole day tryin g to 'clear' two packages........and failed!)......fine chaps, to a man, not least because they'd been trained in 'the art' by the British. And as a result, I was not in the wrong place at the wrong time!

And so it was round to the adjacent anchorage of Hog Island, a short distance to the east. We'd been given the name of a boat, by Nick in Secret Harbour, with whom we could liase. We called them on VHF as we approached, and let them know of our arrival. When we connected, it seemed bizzare that there was hardly a feeling that anything out of the ordinary had happened here. The boat we met was undamaged, as were most of the boats in the anchorage! Had they had a hurricane here! Those who know the place please excuse me when I say that I've always felt that Hog Island had the reputation of being the down-market end of the yachtie world. But this time they got lucky. One ketch on the beach of the small isand, and the infamous bar, venue for many a debauched party, and only a few feet from the water, almost unscathed....... .

.apart from the loss of the coconut palm roofing out front.......easily replaced!
There had been a couple of other boats thrown up into the mangroves, but they had already been recovered.
I must admit that I felt slightly uncmfortable handing over the supplies to people who didn't appear to need it. I took some time to cruise the anchorage to look for people I knew. Surprised, I came across Dick, an Aussie I knew from St.Maarten, singlehanding on his boat. I asked him how it had been, and he looked at me and said "well, that's my sixth hurricane and it wasn't the worst!" My thoughts were, 'how can you be so crap at watching the weather that you end up going through six hurricanes!
'.........but he is Australian! I moved on to look for Suzie, a British girl on her boat 'Gypsy', who's well known for her Celtic fiddle playing.

I knew she'd not be far away. I find the boat, but there's no sign of a dingy indicating 'someone at home'.
I call her name anyway, and eventu a lly she appears at the companionway, bleary-eyed........after a storm you need to sleep!........but for a week! I ask her how she is and eveything's 'cool'. "How did it go, you know, through the hurricane and all?" "Well", she replied, "it was going great, I was holding well, and then I looked out at one point and out of the mist and spray there was this trimaran flying through the air like a 747.........took out the mast and all the rig!........but everything's cool! I told her I had a 'special delivery' from Trinidad with her name on it. She replied that she'd be leaving in a day or two and didn't really need anything.
'Then give it to somebody else' I said, my responsibility is to make sure you get the parcel........what you do with it is your business!
On to see if South African Gary a long time aquiantance of mine is home on a nearby boat. Negative!
Not around. But for sure, Gary, who I've named 'The Grim Reaper", has better things to be do ing than sitting on his boat after a golden opportunity like this!! Where would we be without the South Africans?............a lot better off, for sure!

Meanwhile, Andy and KC took a dingy ride round to Clarkes Court Bay, to see what's happened to the marina there. We had heard that it wasn't good. They had been asked to check on an American woman known as Mo. They returned , reporting that they had found Mo, that she'd been decidely unfriendly, and that she didn't want anyone to know that she was OK! OK? And the marina? Well, Mo's boat was still attached to the marina dock........but the dock wasn't attached to anything else! In fact. the whole marina had been destroyed, and the docks had drifted apart.