Tobago Cays 12 38N 61 28W
Gryphon II
Chris and Lorraine Marchant
Wed 20 Jan 2010 01:46
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These islands are a bit more crowded than when we were
here before Christmas but they retain their charm. Despite the charter boats,
many of which are giant catamarans, the water retains its turquoise colour and
the beaches their white sand. We swam with turtles again
and also explored the reefs further.
 There are shoals of electric blue surgeon fish and gaudy
parrot fish alongside all the other reef fish. The water around the reefs is
only 5 or 6 feet deep with the reefs themselves only about 2 feet deep,
mostly too shallow to swim over, but it does not matter as the majority of the
fish hug the edges of the reef where they can quickly retreat into the reef
itself.
  We also visited one of the islands where we had been
told there were iguanas, and sure enough there were, once we realised where to
look. They were in the boughs of small shrubby trees, presumably eating the few
green shoots on the tips of the branches. They do a good line in head nodding
and posturing when they feel threatened, before running away into the
bush.
 This evening I rowed over to a small Norwegian Vega, the
same class of boat we had sailed here on years ago. There were 2 young
guys on board who were escaping business college for a year and living off their
student loans! They had crossed from the Cape Verdes in even less time than we
did this time, only 14 days. We took 20 days in our Vega. They prove that it is
still possible to cruise cheaply, although everyone seems to have ever larger
boats with ever more fancy gear on board. We are frequently one of the smaller
boats in the anchorages out here and yet 28 years ago we were not unusually
small whereas today the Norwegian Vega sticks out as a little boat.
Spot the fish!
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