N 12.52W61.11 Tobago Cays
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Thu 3 Jan 2013 13:12
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We are having vacation! For the first time since we
left Sweden, we seem to be able to enjoy the scenery.
The climate is so great, the waters warm and the
environment unbeliavable. Yesterday we left Bequia after spending new years eve
and the first day of 2013 there.
The new years eve was busy with killing the
langusters and boiling them, then we just had them short in the oven with garlic
and butter.
It was delicious and we had more than we could eat.
Gustaf thought that it must be the outmost of decadence when you are full and
can't eat more...
Chockolade mousse for desert and the wind picked up
really strong...
So all went ashore to check the party in the
village but I stayed on board.As the enormous firework was going about at twelve
it happened, what I feared. Our anchor started to loose grip and Salsa started
her journey towards the biggest steel ship in the bay.
After some struggling I got the anchor up and could
only circle around and wait for the rest of the family to return.
It was pitch dark and the bay full of boats. By
they returned happy and we had to start finding a better holding.
The bay is known to have patches of weed in the
sand and that is not good for anchors.
As we anchored again I stayed in the cockpit all
night to keep track on our holding.
Slept well in between.
Next day we had a great snorkeling tour at Devils
Table. Great corals and a lot of fish.
At night Lisa and Gustaf went ashore on their own
to have a dinner for two. We had a nice spagetti dinner on board.
Yesterday we took off towards Mustique, further
south in the Grenadines. Great sailing and Gustaf was very keen on learning how
to get the wind to work for you. We had half wind and made 7 knots and more.
After 2/3 of the way we got a tuna on the hook, he (Ellinor checked) weighted
about 3 kg or more and it made a good fight. Well on board it got a sip of
alchohol and slept well in the fridge.
As we approached Mustique we heard Mad Fish talking
to another boat and we asked them for advice. They thought that most bays would
be rolly because of the northely swell coming down so we decided to go to Tobago
cays, one of the most beautyful spots in the Caribean.
It is like a horse shoe of reefs and you are
protected from swells by them. In the horse shoe there are a couple of inhabited
green islands. All a nature reserve where you are not allowed to fish and anchor
as you wish.
We got a great spot and the dinghy could not be in
the water fast enought. Pristine sand beaches with palm trees and most exciting:
turtles and turtles! Erika and Andreas could have stayed in the water forever
just watching turtles eat from the seabed.
I took the kayak and did what I have dreamed of
since we left, paddle on turquoise water! The water is so clear it is
frightening when yuo drive the boat, but with the kayak it gives a great
pleasure to see the bottom.
This place is o beautiful it attracts a lot of
boats, and it would have been great to be less, but it is very quite since there
is not much to do other than swim, snorkel and go ashore to watch iguanas or
land turtles.
The amount of swedish boats is almost
unbelievalble, we are surrounded by at leat 6-10 boats that are from
Sweden.
The other big nation is England.
I was asked (thank you Pim) how we worked out the
rail on the mast with a hacksaw. Maybe those of you who saw the picture did not
read the blog from the atlantic, we managed to take off about 3 cm and the we
could put the boom back on track. It was not such a hard work to saw it off, it
took about 10 minutes of hacksaw labour.
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