Well it’s not pretty. Curfews or lockdowns in many places. However, we’ve just arrived in Trinidad and couldn’t have had a warmer welcome!

All Done with a Smile!

We arrived in Chaguaramas, Trinidad after a nice 37 hour sail down from Martinique, stopping off for the night in Scotland Bay. With the Q flag up, Yvanna at Peakes told us to standby on VHF 69 to wait for port health to come and check our COVID vaccination certificates and PCR test results from Martinique and take our temperature. Then we got a call asking us to meet Yvanna at immigration. All port health clearance had been completed by her without having to see port health and she helped us with all the paper work. We asked for two months stay and immigration told us they would give us three months. All done with a smile.

Customs too!

Next Customs. Very friendly and welcoming and zero charges at either department. No more PCR testing if you are vaccinated and have arrived with a negative PCR test from your previous port done within 72 hours. (I believe if one has taken longer than 72 hours due to weather or just a slow boat they won’t mind).

Everyone is so happy to see us arriving. Not only lots and lots of dolphins came to greet us but fishermen and taxi boats waving to us welcoming us back to Trinidad. So good to be here again. The other good news is that Scotland Bay has been cleaned!  We didn’t see any trash and I’ve never heard so many Howler monkeys or seen so many dolphins on our approach and inside Mono passage.

Leaving Martinique

When we left Martinique, all bars and restaurants were closed. Before leaving we went to the bakery and as usual there were people queuing outside as only three people are allowed inside at any one time. I saw a lady outside and she threw her arms up and walked away. We got to the bakery and the shutters were down – Closed.

No-one in Le Marin – even the PCR Testing Centre is Empty

There was hardly a soul to be seen in Le Marin. We walked up the stairs to the tourist office, closed, with an arrow directing you to the PCR testing center. So we popped inside, no one to be seen. Went to Leaderprice to stock up on a few things for Trinidad, 4 lines, 20 people or more in each line, 30 minutes to check out.

On the boat I sent an email to the same empty PCR testing center to book an appointment, as is written on a notice on their door. I got an immediate reply, it was automated, asking me to email name, birthdate and telephone number, which I already had. I replied again. No answer this time. It felt like we were in some futuristic time lapse!

You can’t even hire a car as you are not allowed more than one kilometer from your home or boat.

Not even any Sun!

The few shops that are allowed to be open are only open till noon. I think this lockdown in Martinique is to go on until some time in September, but it all depends on the COVID cases. We didn’t see the sun in days, the sky was white with lots of Sahara dust blocking the sun.

I can imagine people getting fed up and going out to demonstrate that they don’t want any more lockdowns. We kept ourselves busy onboard and there was lots of cheap wine available, but how long can you endure this?

Different Story in St. Maarten

St Maarten compared to Martinique – you wouldn’t know there was a pandemic going on except that curfew started at 9pm to 5 am. The few restaurants that were open started serving at 5 or 6 for the evening meal, as everyone had to be out and home by 9!

You would see the odd crowd of masked people waiting outside a COVID PCR testing center. The Fort Louis marina was kind of closed for repairs as was the main ferry dock where they were completely rebuilding the offices, one small office out of a container was operational for the St Barts ferry.

Anquilla ferry now was running only from the Dutch side, I think near the airport. The Sandyground bridge was now closed until October for repairs and maintenance, but they let you pass by dinghy only on one side close to the shore after complaints that they had closed it off completely even to kayaks.

At least in St Maarten there was a bit more life going on. But the curfew was meant to end on such and such day but it was suddenly extended. One never knows what is going to happen next and I can see my friends who live there kind of getting used to living like this.

So we took our honeymoon guests to Tintamarre which was lovely, lots of catamarans and power boats full of tourists arriving and dropping off the tourists to swim and then departing after an hour or so. Then more arrive and do the same thing.

Rotting Seaweed and Murky Water

Ile Pinel was also busy but the smell from rotting weed made any boat anchored there leave early and we were the only boat spending the night there, early next morning we also left.

I hadn’t realized at the time that it was weed accumulating on the other side of the island and rotting. I had told our guests that this was a marine park and one of the best snorkeling spots. I couldn’t see a thing in the water, the water was a murky red brown? All I can think is that it was caused by the rotting weed. All the sea in Orient Bay was murky.  Sadly a swimmer died there after a shark incident last December, so we didn’t see any swimmers except kite surfers. It’s also not much fun swimming with weed floating all around you.

Colombier in St Barts was lovely as usual, except for the smell.

No to Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Nevis and St Lucia!

Could we just check out and sail to Antigua like in normal times? NO.

Or to St Kitts or Nevis or St Lucia? All NO.

Be prepared to spend anywhere between US$100 and US$150 for each person for every PCR test that you will have to take, often before leaving and again on arrival. Plus in places like Grenada and St Vincent you have to take and pay for a quarantine mooring.

Apart from it’s nice and warm here when it’s cold in the winter in Europe and the USA, I don’t see the fun of taking your boat down here and being locked into one island.

It’s actually very interesting writing about the reality of what it’s like down here in the islands and hopefully in the future I will be able to read this again and think, Wow! we really went through all that.

Larry Tyler
SV The Dove

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Larry is the owner/skipper of The Dove and has been chartering in the Caribbean for 30 years. Find out more about the rules and regulations for each island via this document.

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.