OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Pow­er Boats Ma­ri­na di­rec­tor Sian Aboud is not hap­py that this coun­try is still mak­ing yachties from oth­er coun­tries fill out forms and is not us­ing a mod­ern mar­itime no­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem.

On Sun­day, over 100 yachties flee­ing Hur­ri­cane Beryl made their way to Trinidad to seek shel­ter as the weath­er sys­tem head­ed to­wards the Wind­ward Is­lands as an ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous Cat­e­go­ry 4 storm.

Ves­sels could be seen from the Fore­shore in Co­corite and along the var­i­ous bays in the Ch­aguara­mas Penin­su­la. Hur­ri­cane Beryl was de­scribed as hav­ing a life-threat­en­ing storm surge.

The Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion grant­ed Guardian Me­dia ac­cess to their op­er­a­tions room at Pow­er Boats Ma­ri­na in Ch­aguara­mas. In the cen­tre, over 50 yacht own­ers were fill­ing out im­mi­gra­tion and cus­toms forms. Yacht own­er Randy Pot­ter, who is a US cit­i­zen, said the hur­ri­cane de­ceived sailors, and many of them left in a pan­ic.

“We came from Grena­da, and we made the pass fair­ly quick. We did about 13 hours to cov­er the 90 miles from St George’s Bay to here, ar­riv­ing yes­ter­day evening,” Pot­ter added.

“I’ve got to say, the doors were flung open. We’re very much wel­comed here in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and you guys have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­al­ly get on the cruis­ers’ board as a des­ti­na­tion.”

He said on Sun­day they sailed in­to the bay in front of the wa­ter park, and his ves­sel was the first there. Pot­ter said when he woke up, he was sur­round­ed by 30 oth­er boats. That fig­ure has since in­creased.

Vice pres­i­dent of the Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion Jesse James is lead­ing the co­or­di­na­tion.

He said, “This re­al­ly crept up­on us; no­body was ex­pect­ing it to de­vel­op so fast. The folks in Grena­da were like, it seems to have been shift­ing north-north­west, but it just crept up so quick­ly, and we got in­to emer­gency mode. We are al­so get­ting as­sis­tance from the Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, Paula Gopee-Scoon.”

James added that Cus­toms and Im­mi­gra­tion waived their fees and have been as­sist­ing. The Coast Guard was al­so called in to help pro­tect the an­chored ves­sels.

But while Aboud was hap­py for the as­sis­tance be­ing ren­dered, she was up­set that T&T was still is­su­ing forms for yachties to fill out and lament­ed that it was the on­ly coun­try in the re­gion do­ing so.

“Peo­ple are tired. They’ve been at sea for 16 hours, and now it’s go­ing to take them four hours to clear in­to Trinidad. It’s in­sane. It’s not fair, and the Sail­Clear (mar­itime pre-ar­rival no­ti­fi­ca­tion plat­form) takes you ten min­utes, and you will do it while you’re at sea. So that when you get here, all the doc­u­men­ta­tion has ar­rived be­fore you have. And we don’t have to deal with this.”

The Ma­rine Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion ex­pects more sailors and their ves­sels to seek refuge here.