Although our main reason for coming here was to ‘play mas’ at Carnival, Chaguaramas, where we are anchored, is also a main hub for sailboat construction and maintenance in the Caribbean. The bay is surrounded by six huge boatyards, and there are probably 1,500 yachts here of various size and description. All of the major equipment brands are represented here, and you can get everything from new electronics installed to teak decks. A key attraction for many people is that labour is cheap, especially when compared to North America.
We have a small lingering issue with our rigging. Although the boat is almost new (now 4 years old), I think when it was originally rigged the shrouds that support the mast were built a touch too long. It’s normal that new wire will stretch a little bit over time, and for that reason, the shrouds terminate in a turnbuckle, a device that allows the rig to be tuned by adjusting the tension.
The turnbuckles on our capshrouds, and one of the intermediates, are fully closed, which means they can’t be tightened any more. The shrouds are not so loose that we’re risking our rig, but given we’re blue-water sailing it’s time to do something about it. The answer – I think – is to cut the rigging off at the swages, and install new mechanical rigging terminals called Sta-Loks. They’re reasonably simple to install because they don’t need a machined swage, but we need to source the parts and make sure that once cut the new parts will fit in the turnbuckles at just the right point. No room for mistakes! Fortunately we’re in a good spot with several riggers around.
Chaguaramas is also base to a some of the commercial ships that support the offshore oil platforms, of which there are many in Trinidad (including a number run by BHP) so we see them docking and loading frequently – a number have helicopter pads.
7 Feb 2008
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