15:12.11, 12:38.98N 61:21.28W
We got plenty
of fuel and water from Petite Martinique – glad the weather was calm, the swell
alongside the little dock was pretty big, boat all over the place.
For some
reason unknown to us – PM is duty free (I guess because it is so small the
Grenadan government can’t be bothered to get to fussed about it) so we had cheap
fuel. . . and also stocked up our
booze lockers!
Then headed up
to Tobago Cays which is a huge barrier reef and some little uninhabited islands
to the east of Mayreau. The whole
area is a national park and this unfortunately means you aren’t allowed to dive
without a local dive operator, but, it also means no fishing takes place and the
cays are absolutely full of fish, to the snorkeling is good.
The entrance
to the cays isn’t difficult it just looks a bit daunting at first, we sailed
around the north point of Mayreau then down a safe channel into the cays
themselves. The whole area is
surrounded by a horseshoe shaped barrier reef a couple of miles long. We anchored in the northern half
looking out across the sea to the east with waves breaking on the reef. The water is bright blue with
white sand below the boat. Our
first evening was lovely, with no lights around the stars were as bright as when
you are out at sea sailing at night…. Then the wind came. . . . we couldn’t move
the boat as we didn’t fancy trying to navigate about in the dark. The anchor held fine but the boat
bounced around in the swell that started to come over the reef. Ended up sleeping in the stern cabin as
sleeping in the front was impossible.
Next day we
moved around into the lee of one of the islands and all was much more
peaceful. In the park they have
marked out an area with buoys where you are not supposed to drive your
tender. This is called the ‘turtle
watching area’ I thought this
sounded crazy, turtles can go anywhere, they like eating sea grass, but they can
go and eat sea grass wherever they want so I didn’t think I would acutally see
any turtles.. Even so, I put on
mask and swam from the boat to the designated turtle observation point. I was amazed – saw 3 turtles in the
space of about 10 mins. One was
huge, about 3 ft long with two remora accompanying it. So it must be an especially nice
sea grass here and the turtles aren’t too bothered about people snorkeling above
them and they probably are happier without tenders zooming over the top of them
every 2 minutes.
We
only stayed one more night in Tobago cays as there is supposed to be quite a lot
of wind coming in over the next couple of days and the cays aren’t brilliantly
protected. We may well go back as
they’re not far away – it would be good to explore the islands some more and do
some more snorkeling but we wanted to get to better shelter so we headed off
this morning to Bequia (said ‘Bek-way’ )., which has much more shelter . .
.
Nice
little house on PM 'main' street
Had
to take a picture of the perfect postcard palm trees - Saltwhistle Bay,
Mayreau. Too many charter yachts and t-shirt sellers for our liking
though
Snorkelling pic in the Tobago Cays, clear water a couple of
metres deep and lots of fish
View from the boat - Tobago Cays, little rocky
islands close by and 'Jack's Island' on the left (looks like a thin
strip) - perfect flat, palm tree ridden island where Jack got marooned in
'Pirates of the Caribbean' . This island is called Petite Tabac and is
outside of the main Horseshoe reef, it was the only island we couldn't really
get to in the weather as you get some big waves. . too big for the
tender... once you go outside the barrier reef. Bigger islands in the
backtround are Union in the distant right and PM in the middle
background. It was a squally day when this pic was taken.
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