We are back in Trinidad, and back in the water, safely tied up at Crews Inn.  Today (November 13, 2012) is the first day of Divali and all of the stores and businesses are closed in Trinidad and Tobago.

Divali (also spelled Diwali), also popularly known as the Festival of Lights, is perhaps the most important 5-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. Divali is an official holiday in India, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Fiji.

The name Divali is itself a contraction of the word Dīpāvali, which translates into “row of lamps”. Divali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (divas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil, lightness over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. During Divali celebrants clean their homes, wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with others. Some Indian business communities begin the financial year on the first day of Divali wishing for good luck the following year.

We have been to a celebration of the festival twice in past years.   Here is a link to our former coverage.

But I have gotten ahead of myself.

We returned to Trinidad on October 29, having taken a direct flight out of Miami, burdened with one more bag than when we left, having purchased a new portable drill, a new 12-volt battery charger, a bunch of zincs for the stabilizer hydraulic oil cooler, a thick book entitled “Wordpress for Dummies” (have you noticed our blog’s new look?), and lots of little things for the boat.  Yachties returning to their boat must go through customs and immigration twice:  once in the airport and once at the offices in Chaguarmas.  At the airport immigration we show the papers that were provided by the marina on our earlier departure from Trinidad; which papers document that we are returning to our vessel (and hence have no return ticket back out of Trinidad).  At the customs stands there are multiple booths such as are found in other countries:  some for locals and some for visitors; some labeled “nothing to declare” and some “something to declare”.  We knew from prior experience that as returning yachties we were to ignore all of those lines, and instead enter the office to the right of the “regular” customs stands.  As has always been the case, there is no sign indicating such; one just has to learn it the hard way.  Although Trinidad is a major destination for yachties wishing to leave their boat in a location sufficiently far south to be below the hurricane zone, we must constitute just a small fraction of the visitors arriving in Trinidad by air, since the official in the office always has trouble knowing how to complete the paperwork, as is made evident by his frequent peeks at the carbon copies of former entries.   Our delay was especially long this time, since the official could not find the appropriate book for making the entry and consequently had to step out of the office for several extended intervals.  When at last we had the appropriate copy of his entry, we could depart the airport and meet our driver from Jesse James’ “Members Only” taxi service.  When we reached Chaguaramas we then had to stop at port customs and show our airport customs paperwork and the items we were importing.  There was no charge for such an importation, since we were bringing in the goods as a “Vessel In Transit”.  Then, a quick visit to the Immigration office, where it was confirmed that our passports had been stamped at the airport, and we were free to return to our boat, which had earlier in the day been removed from Peake’s secure yard to the working yard.

When we entered our boat our first activity was to look at the check sheet we had left on a counter.   The person who was to enter the boat at least every one or two weeks was to have made entries with dates and items checked.  We were gone from September 11 until October 29, but there were only three entries, with a gap of 38 days between the last two entries!  In fact, the last entry was the day after we called to notify him that we were returning on the 29th.  We will not use that individual again.  Yachties might be interested to know that he is Anthony (Tony) Joseph, and his business is called “De Price is Right”.   He was not even apologetic about his failure to perform.  Very disappointing especially since he had been recommended to us.  The main reason we had him watching the boat was to insure that our watermaker did a fresh water flush every week.  It occasionally has to be reset.  If it failed to flush for a number of weeks, we would be faced with possibly replacing its expensive membrane.

There were a number of maintenance items to be completed before we could splash:  we had the boat compounded and then waxed, we had the bottom washed and sanded and then painted with SeaHawk 77, and we had the rudder, prop and skeg cleaned down to bare metal.  The skeg was then prepped with a special primer, followed by an epoxy primer, and then painted with the bottom paint.   On the rudder and prop Barb and I applied PropSpeed.   Also, before we left Trinidad to return to the States, we had the anchors hot galvanized and we reversed the anchor chain.

So our time on the hard was busy, but we also found time to get about a bit.   Barb went on several shopping expeditions, including a trip to the downtown market where she took some pictures.   We especially enjoyed being reunited with cruising friends Ann and Steve (Receta), Devi and Hunter (Arctic Tern) and Janie and Paul (Shian).   Once again we enjoyed eating rotis and bus-up-shuts at Grace’s at Power Boats and bake-n-shark at the Wheelhouse Pub.  We went to several movies, including an evening out at the new Imax theatre to see the latest James Bond movie “Skyfall”.   Regular screens are going to seem rather hum-drum after watching an Imax showing.