Barbados to Tobago...and rest
Gaviota
Thu 17 Jan 2008 21:35
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11.19N 60.33W
Had a good sail from Barbados to Tobago, leaving a
day later on Tuesday rather than Monday night. Managed to get the water
tank filled up at the fish dock before we left, as expecting to be in quiet
anchorages for next week or so. Sailed with an Easterly wind almost behind
us at an average of 7.5 knots, so made good time until we got pushed sideways
quite a lot by the currents to the north of Tobago and arrived at 11am yesterday
morning rather than the 9am we were expecting. Annabel wasn't sick, having
taken a couple of anti-sickness pills, and both of us managed to sleep at least
on our second 3-hour 'off' watch.
We anchored amongst 8-10 other yachts here at
Charlotteville on Tobago and dinghy'd into the village in the afternoon to
clear customs in a special office at the back of the police station. The
Indian immigration officer was particularly helpful and even changed some money
for us, as we hadn't been able to get any TT $'s in Barbados and there are no
banks or cashpoints at this end of the island; US$'s usually work, but only in
the larger establishments. Historically, the population of Trinidad and
Tobago is 40% East Indian origin and 36% African, so we wish Nishi was with us
again !
It's a small fishing village with a few little
shops which we haven't investigated yet, but we were tempted by the Wednesday
night barbeque in one of the restuarants recommended by my Lonely Planet
guidebook and the immigration officer. It was really cheap, but the
portions weren't big enough - next time we'll ask for 2 portions each
!!
Today, Thursday, we swam over to the beach beside
our anchorage and walked up some smart but old concrete steps(wonder who built
them and when?) through the rainforest to the 'road' - just a dirt track that
petered out into footpaths. We were going to get the bikes out, but ran
out of energy and Annabel got her snorkel kit out and practised using it(for the
first time) whilst Syd had (another) afternoon snooze. Maybe the bikes
tomorrow.... There are lots of colourful birds in the forest and fish in
the sea, so we'll have plenty to interest us.
Some of the other yachts here are really small -
under 20ft; we seem to be one of the biggest. There's the usual mix of
Americans, Germans etc and one Brazilian yacht - we keep referring to the
country flags in my little atlas ! Some of them don't have outboards and
row to the village, which takes them about half an hour - how lucky we are with
our motor !
We don't know how long we'll stay here - if we can
get the bikes ashore and explore the rest of the island then probably quite a
while - until next week at least because we have to check in and out of customs
even if we're only moving to another anchorage on this island or Trinidad, which
is the same country, and customs only work 8-4 Monday till Friday unless you pay
overtime! One other interesting thing the immigration officer said was
that they get moved around the different offices every few months - a good way
to keep a civil service job interesting I suppose !
Annabel
sunset, Thu 17 Jan 08
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