Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine February 2016

FEBRUARY 2016 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 20
— Continued from previous page
The once stately Bocas Lighthouse was faded and in sad shape. Solar panels had
been added. No lighthouse keeper was needed any longer. The area was all fenced in
and an unsightly, erector-set communications tower stood beside it. A committee of
vultures had established their territorial presence on both structures with no intention
of moving.
We ambled back
down the path,
much faster on the
descent than the
ascent had been,
and dinghied back
to Nine of Cups. We
weren’t really disappointed
as much as
dismayed by the volume
of trash and
garbage that had
accumulated in such
a beautiful place.
Chacachacare Island
remains under the
A vulture perched on the top of the roof and eyed us furtively
auspices of
Trinidad’s national
parks system, but it
appears it’s an
orphaned child. It
would take an army
to clean it up and
haul all the refuse
away. We postulated
that a prison work
detail would make a
good dent in it, but
then who would continue
to keep it up?
We’re hopeful that
the workers we saw on the wharf are the beginning of a solid reclamation project.
If You Go
Trinidad Customs requires that cruisers obtain a permit to visit Chacachacare and
other bays in the area. The permit is free, and easy to acquire at the Customs office.
Bring your incoming Customs paperwork with you.
We were questioned by other cruisers as to security issues at Chacachacare. We
checked with several local sources including Don Stollmeyer at Power Boats and knowledgeable
Fast Fred. Neither was aware of any problems while anchoring inside
Chacachacare Bay. We visited for a week and had at least two Trinidad & Tobago Coast
Guard boats stop by to check that we were okay. We never experienced any problems.
Our Digicel data package allowed us internet on the boat, but even on high power,
VHF was not reliable beyond the bay.
Marcie Connelly-Lynn and her husband, David Lynn, have lived aboard their Liberty
458 cutter since 2000 when they sold up and sailed off. Since that time, they’ve put
over 85,000 nautical miles under the keel and visited more than 36 countries on five
continents. Their philosophy of “just a little further” has taken them around the world
and around the five Great Southern Capes with lots of stops to explore along the way.
The old Bocas
Lighthouse is now
kept company
by a modern
‘erector set’
communications
tower
They completed their first circumnavigation at Cape Town in 2015 and are currently
in the Caribbean. They blog daily at www.justalittlefurther.com and maintain an
extensive website at www.nineofcups.com.
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