Pierre La Borde was just five years old when he accompanied his parents, Harold and Kwailan La Borde, on their 1969, four-year voyage around the world on the Humming Bird Two.
The La Bordes, who were married in 1959, had already made their maiden voyage in the 26-foot vessel, Humming Bird One, to England in 1960. It was subsequently sold, and says Harold "is somewhere in Europe."
The forty-foot Humming Bird Two, on the other hand, was purchased by the Trinidad and Tobago government in 1973, and can be seen from the lighthouse on South Quay. And according to Harold "is rotting away there. It is a sad thing, especially when you talk about taking care of historical things."
Pierre remembers more about his second voyage from 1984 to 1986 around Cape Horn in the 55-foot Humming Bird Three. "I have some memories of the first voyage, but a lot of it is lost, just instances that stick out in your mind." Although it was on this voyage that his younger brother Andre, now 29 years old, was born in New Zealand.
In 1992, Harold and Kwailan made a second voyage in Humming Bird Three to Barcelona, Spain, to carry the Trinidad & Tobago flag across the Atlantic for delivery to the country's Olympic team. "It took a year and we came back via Madeira and the Canary Islands. Just Kwailan and myself and some young fellas." says Harold. To-day the entire La Borde clan, except Andre, who lives in the country of his birth, operate the Humming Bird Marina at Chaguaramas.
"We have been here from about '94" explained Harold " there was nothing here in those days. Power Boats next door had just started up, Crew's Inn, on the other side, was nowhere in sight, and Peake's lower down had not started. It was bush, we had to clean the land, put up some toilets and a small shed, and with help from the National Gas Company, started training youngsters from various schools to sail."
The La Bordes, who rent this land at Chaguaramas, trained about ten youngsters at a time. There was no accommodation and so they slept on the Humming Bird Three, which is still well-kept and stands moored to their jetty. "I would take them out sailing to Scotland Bay, they learnt navigation, steering, anchoring, knots, seamanship in general. The youngsters were very thrilled with the whole thing, some were a little scared at first, and the mothers would come down during the day to find out how they were doing."
Regrettably, after an enjoyable three seasons with the youngsters, the sail-training stopped as the La Bordes took the plunge and started their marina, which had always been Kwailan's vision. However, La Borde firmly believes "sail-training is something the country needs. All the Maritime countries of the world have got sail-training for their youth, we do not even have one school".
"We had to keep up with the times, and also to keep our heads above water. The Marina is something we were very familiar with from having sailed all over the place and visited marinas all over the world, so we knew what we were about and the pitfalls as well."
The Humming Bird Marina is the smallest on the peninsula, but this was what the La Bordes applied to the government for because what they had in mind was the sailing school so a bigger piece of land was not needed. "This is a lot to us and we make the best of it, tying up about twelve boats to the jetty and another three in the cove." They may not always be full, but there are always boats alongside, especially in the peak season when boats come down to Trinidad to avoid the hurricane season and to avoid paying large insurane rates up north.
Pierre lives on the compound, while Harold and Kwailan live a stone's thrown away at the Macqueripe cottages.
At the marina, the La Bordes berth their visitors' vessels, supply people to work, although the voyagers, as Harold prefers to call them rather than yachties, do a lot of repairs themselves. The pier is the centerpiece of the marina, but there are the workshed, office, and all necessary facilities, such as, water, electricity, laundry and fax machine, and above all The Voyager Bar, where the counter is decorated with pictures of all the pioneer voyagers from Columbus onwards, and memorabilia from the Humming Bird voyages. Snacks are served during the week and on Saturday night, dinner is served, but strictly by reservation, through calling 634-4046.
The voyagers stay and average of one month at the marina, but depending on how much work they must do to their boats, can stay up to five months, preparing for the long voyage across the Pacific, since there is a lot of stocking up of spares etc. It is very convenient for them to work down here, and at the same time enjoy the experienced advice of all aspects of sailing from the La Bordes, who have seen the sea in all its beauty and in all its malevolence.
And for us who may wonder whether this family has any fears about the oceans, Harold was firm "we do have a fear, which makes us more prepared to deal with all the problems of the oceans. Of course we have faith in the Almighty also, who has looked after us, so we pray at sea and give thanks for deliverance."
The highpoint in all their travels was the journey around Cape Horn "it is supposed to be the roughest part of the ocean. It is the Everest of the sea. If you have rounded the Horn, it is like scaling Everest" says Harold " and it probably is harder having come from thousands of miles in your own boat. It is known as dead men's road."
Yet says Pierre, whose former wife, Ave (with whom he has a ten year old daughter), sailed around the Horn with him "Cape Horn was the reaon for my coming out of university and making the trip in the first place, to go the southern route, one of the roughest, so reaching it and seeing it was probably the highlight of the whole trip. There was no moment we thought we were facing death. We knew it was a strong boat and that we were good sailors. Just moments that were extremely rough and you would worry about the safety of the boat, which was damaged by the waves and so on. We would stop at sea for a day and rest as we were so tired battling the elements. We would take down the sails, lock up the boat, eat, sleep, gain strength and go on again next day, and then do repairs over a couple of days."
Does Harold have any plans for the year 2000? At age 66, Harold has something in mind but says "Kwai and I have not decided on anything specific as yet. What we would like to do is to go back to Spain on a pilgrimage of faith, that will be the name of the voyage. Kwai would like to go to a place called Garabandal in northern Spain where Our Lady is appearing. I would especially like to go to the most sacred shrine in Spain - Santiago de Compastella (St James, the patron saint of Spain), a very large shrine where sailors have gone on pilgrimages, including Christopher Columbus. They have gone to thank God for their deliverance and seeing them through with their voyages. This is of course God's willing."
A voyage of that magnitude means taking a year off from work, but in the past Harold, who worked for nearly twenty years as Marina Development Specialist with the Chaguaramas Development Authority, and Kwailan a retired French and Spanish teacher at secondary school level, have gone unpaid to do other voyages.