Tobago Cays Turtles

After a blustery stay in Union island, we sailed to the Tobago Cays. A marine park, it is perfectly isolated and uninhabited. We anchored for three nights between Petit Bateau and Petit Rameau. The first snorkel around the boat, I saw three arrow squid swimming together. The second snorkel on the other side of Petit Bateau, we saw hundreds of fish and lots of corals. We did a drift dive on Mayreau Gardens in which we saw sharks and finally, on our last snorkel the day of our departure I saw three turtles grazing in the waters off Turtle beach. And on that beach I saw a lizard.

So the wildlife around the Cays was exactly as promised and then some.



We had left for the Cays around noon for a short hop of four Miles from Union. Union was fun but it was a bit spoiled by the fraudster trying to get away with delivering us three gallons of diesel less than we paid for. So I had to go to the police to get them to talk to the guy (named Des, drives a boat called Angelo) and get him to return the money.

The sail was rough because it had been blowing force sixes and sevens for three days. But once we got into the reefs, the waves subsided and we only had some current to contend with while looking for a nice anchorage.

The procession of vendors started immediately with bread, T-shirts, ice, lobsters and fish. The next three days, we were repeatedly reminded of what was on offer and even bought a T-shirt. More useful items were baguettes at the somewhat elevated price of 15 EC dollars apiece and ice at 25 dollars a bag. But it was all very cheery and never too much of a nuisance.

The snorkeling was fantastic and when the outboard handle broke, the park rangers were kind enough to offer us a tow back to the boat.

When we snorkeled Turtle beach on the last morning, we saw hawksbill turtles underwater eating and coming up for air in a very gracious dive.



After we got back to the beach, a giant lizard was observing us and only very slowly, as we got closer to look at it, did it seek a higher vantage point.



The sail out of the Cays was a short pleasant hop to Canouan with a lasting memory of a wonderful experience.