‘Dead ahead were the bows of an unlit freighter'

Paul Dale has a harrowing near-miss with an unlit freighter at night while on a 110-mile voyage from Trinidad to the Grenadines

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Amid the humid late afternoon, the four of us – owners Marjorie and I, and crew Mary and James – checked ourselves and our Dufour 41 Alexa out at the Customs and Immigration Office at Chaguaramas, Trinidad in the Caribbean.

This is always a slightly scary experience as this was– infamously – one of the least friendly immigration offices in the Caribbean. It stank of rum and weed, which we did not find very comforting, and the officials were aggressive: ‘Hey, if the paperwork ain’t right I seize your boat!’