Round the back of Union
Irie
Thu 24 Apr 2008 02:07
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Position 12 36.29N 61 27.03W Chatham Bay, Union
Island
Tuesday 22nd April
Well the days in Tobago Cays just sort of merged. We'd
originally planned to stay there for two or three nights, but that turned into
four and then again into six. It's an idyllic place, with mesmerising views of
the sea and the sky, and loads of underwater interest. For the first time this
year, the weather's been really settled, with a steady fifteen
to seventeen knot wind, and only a couple of small rain showers in a
week. There are more turtles here than last year, and it's possible to
spend ages within a few feet of them as they graze on the sea grass, surfacing
for a couple of gulps of air every five mnutes or so. They all seem to be
greenbacks, and range in size from tiddlers to well over three feet in length.
Reef squid are here in force, usually hanging around in groups of five or six
and idly changing colour as their surroundings alter. At one point a group of
them suddenly turned pale and shot off, then a shoal of small fish flashed by
before the cause of the problem thundered in - fifty or so large predators in
tight formation and high speed hunting mode. Still, I suppose we'd
all blanch if we thought our name might be lunch. Two other firsts are worthy of
note - firstly a two foot queen trigger fish, startingly coloured and with
vividly distinctive 'smile' colour lines, and secondly the first view of a
Caribbean shark. Swimming off a beach and then round a shallow point, the
visibility was only about fifteen feet, when a darkish shape rose
from the bottom and swam away, displaying the brownish hue and distinctive tail
of a nurse shark some nine feet in length. They're pretty harmless, and we've
swum with sharks in other parts of the world, but it still gets the juices going
when it's totally unexpected and in less than three feet of murky
water.
On Friday we had a text from Kumari on passage from
Cariacou to Union. We made contact on the radio, and they appeared on
Saturday having cleared into the Grenadines. It ws great to catch up with Alan,
Gillan and friend Fleur, and we shared an occasional beer and severa rums,
before a final evening barbeque on the beach. This was run by local guys who
come over from Union, the food was excellent, the location stunning
and the return dinghy trip only a little wet for those in front.
The days in the Cays left some space for boat jobs. The
most rewarding of these was fitting the regulator for the wind generator.
Somebody (nameless) didn't fit the fuses when the gear was originally fittedall
the way back in Plymouth, then ran the generator in a lot of wind and concluded
that the dumping circuits had been damaged. The regulator has therefore been
bypassed all the time, which is no problem except tat in a load of wind, the
vooltage can get rather high. Anyway, the steady wind from the ocean gave a
great opportunity for testing - it was rewired and, hey presto, the power
dumps at 14.2 volts to the accompaniment of a gentle buzzing. Thye buzz could be
faintly annoying were it not for the smug reward of fully charged
system.
On Tuesday we bade farwell to Kumari, and moved the few
miles south to Union Island and Chatham Bay. Irie had not been round to the west
of the island befre, but prompted by reports from Nano we thought we'd give it a
go. It's excellent, a large. perfectly calm bay with a long beach and steep
volcanic hills on three sides. It's a beautiful setting, the only downside being
occasional fierce gusts that whistle down the hill, skitter across the bay and
cause the boat totug and veer at its snubbed cable.
Our swimming pool at the Cays
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