"It is $600.00 a month for the ferry service for roundtrips Monday to Friday". "I will spend more than that in gas, plus is the wear and tear, traffic, and the stress". I must say he was right. The adventure on the fast ferry began much earlier, when I presented myself at the cruise ship complex for the 9.10am sailing. After purchasing tickets you are searched and your belongs scanned by security and seated in a waiting area. After boarding the 150 seat vessel I found the seating quite good, with plenty leg room and space to move around. We sped off and quickly hit 34 knots (yes I asked the captain), and San Fernando was a mere 45 minutes of old talk and chatter.

The return trip at 2.15pm was a little more eventful. As I found myself waiting outside the water taxi terminal at 1.00pm as the policy is not to have customers in the waiting area while the vessels are being re-fuelled. The waiting area is quite different from the air conditioned cruise ship complex at Port of Spain. The area is basically an open air but covered area, fenced and enclosed, with the only open area to the floating berth. Security here was a little different, and no scanners and X-rays were present. Security manually searched passengers, and the area is loaded with 5 security cameras.

As I boarded the vessel along with maybe 40 odd passengers, a nuts vendor came on board and was immediately approached by passengers. "I going cricket". He responded boldly. I cyar sell no nuts on the vessel". As the vessel launched the nuts vendor quickly announced his nuts for sale. "Salt, fresh and honey roasted only $5.00." "But doh make no mess. If ah see ah shell on the ground ah go get vex because they go blacklist mih from the ferry, so if you buy eat clean." The vendor talked for the entire trip to the annoyance of some passengers. People bought nuts just to hush him up on the return leg 50 minute journey.

It is a very professional service managed by NEDCO. However I am fearful due to the lack of demand for the service at off peak hours the service is just a waste of tax payers monies at that time. In addition I have been reliable informed by Mr. Tstt that the 7.00am Pos - San Fernando trip only contains an average of 10 people. I think more marketing needs to be done to sell the service for Port of Spain people heading to San Fernando. The service is sold out from San Fernando to P.O.S on the morning, with the reverse on evenings. What do you think? Is the new service a good thing for Trinidad and Tobago?