Returning to the Tobago Cays

The wind is dying down and the boats are departing quickly. We joined the cavalry it appears, and headed to Tobago Cays, only an hours sail away. We were the 10th boat in our little anchorage from last time between the two islands. Amazingly mainly Swedish and Norwegian boats and a few French. We landed getting the mooring buoy just opposite our new French friends in El Gaucho, she is originally from Argentina which explains the boat name.

Leaving the emptied Chatham Bay

We went out to snorkel in the midday sun on the reef to get good light, but the current and the waves were too strong, even for Rowan. So we tied to a buoy near the turtle reserve and swam ashore to Baradel Island. A glorious white beach which we had all to ourselves with only two boats anchored out there. We have heard there can be up to 200 boats around in peak season, hard to imagine. We decided to take a path up to the top of the island, which was pretty brave as we had no shoes, the ground was boiling hot and full of little stones, and spikes from all the thorny cactus. A great walk up passing plenty of iguanas, initially we had wondered who had brought their dog onto the island and allowed it to poop on the path. We soon discovered it must be iguana as poo was everywhere. Another obstacle to avoid in our bare feet! It was a good view over the reef and out onto the Atlantic. We spotted so many turtles and some were enormous, which I am thrilled about. I just hope they can now revive the conch which have been devastated. We are anchored next to mountains of old conch shells. They must have been as abundant as garden snails at one time, and I do remember seeing them everywhere 20 years ago in the Bahamas. I have not seen one on the ocean floor alive yet. Our swim back was like a starry night sky as the sandy bottom was covered in enormous star fish. They seem plentiful but I worry about them, as so many boats won’t pay the mooring ball fees and insist on anchoring, I wonder how many star fish have sore heads?

Rowan’s collection of starfish

Baradel Island

We had supper on board El Gaucho with two other French boats, Silvena made a curried scallop dish which was delicious, but most probably the scallops came from Scotland! There is very little fresh fish to buy. Fascinating meeting the other yachties. One couple are on their 30 year old boat, he is a dental surgeon and every few years he sells his business and they go sailing for a few years until they run out of money and go home. They have sailed all over the North sea, Ireland, Scotland, the Outer Hebrides and they love it. The also go to northern Norway a lot and up to Greenland. Crossing the Atlantic is no big deal for them. Thank goodness El Gaucho is new to sailing like us. In fact their one engine has stopped working and Rowan is going over to help him jump start it tomorrow!

All the Scandinavians are youngsters, all looking under 20 to us, they were partying hard last night, and we heard endless dinghies roaring around in the dark, all a bit of a nightmare as it is tricky water out there in this wind. I suspect they have all had a drink and driving without torches. Thank goodness we did not have far to go, as typically we had forgotten our big torch but at least had Rowan’s phone. Mysteriously all our lights had gone off and as we had not locked up and with so much boat activity about we rushed back to PolePole. We managed to switch the lights on no problem and we are not missing anything, so another little quirk we will just have to live with. Thankfully my solar garden string lights are working really well, so the boat was not in pitch darkness.