We've had a great time here in Trinidad, though it's pretty hot with limited airflow in the anchorage, we've stayed in both Crews Inn and later in Powerboats marina where we could run the AC permanently for a reasonable fee. We've needed it!

Our main reason to be here was the seminar for the Nereids rally which we joined nearly a year ago. Today we depart! The seminar was interesting and graced with ministers from the Trinidad and Guyana governments, as well as the deputy mayor of Saint Laurant du Maroni, the ultimate destination of the rally.

We've also been doing many little boat jobs with which we've had moderate success. We've been so impressed with the availability of good workmen here in Chaguaramas and with Don from Powerboats in particular, that we will be back here to haul out in November. Don will personally help us get Duplicat onto his magic trailer where we can do all the work we need. Don is also coming down to Guyana with the rally, albeit a bit later - so we can discuss the plans with him then.

So, onto the rally. We area leaving this afternoon to make the arduous passage to Guyana. Hopefully we'll get just enough North in the wind to make it a relatively easy beat, but we'll see. We expect slow going but have plenty of time. We'll spend a week or more in Guyana on the Essequibo, before moving onto French Guiana. We will take our time to meander back afterwards.

The blog will move into 'HF' mode, with just text updates and position updates twice daily if I can. I have also put the positions of the other boats doing the rally onto the map and they update twice daily. Should be interesting to see how the fleet manages on the passages. Some plan to sail all the way, some will motor a bit. We have quite a bit of fuel onboard, so may do a mix :)

We are Looking forward to getting underway again!