Tobago Cays or Bust

 
We got up early and dingied into the boatyard at Carriacou to clear Customs. The night before we got all our clearance papers in order and found we’d overstayed our visas by about three days. Unsure as to how this would be handled, we envisioned spending our lives in a Grenadian dungeon or paying an outrageous fine.  Luckily the office was crowded with cruisers trying to clear out and the Customs guys were very mellow.  He seemed to ignore our overstayed visas but did mention we had overstayed our cruising permit by THREE MONTHS. OMG. Turns out we just had to pay the standard fee and we were on our way.

We had, as the British like to say, a fresh breeze (15 to 20 knots) on the short crossing to Union Island. Again the single-reefed main and genoa kept the boat on her feet.  We had much consternation about going to Union Island since this is near where s/v Rainbow suffered a vicious machete attack by three local teenagers. This obviously embarrassed the local government and one theory is Union Island should be a safe place for awhile.

In most harbors the boat boys rush out to meet you, sometimes in speedboats, sometimes rowboats, and sometimes paddleboards.

We anchored in the small harbor at Clifton and immediately had a boat boy approach the boat to offer us a mooring buoy. We anchored, but did take him up on his offer to ferry us into shore so we could go to Customs. Unfortunately when he opened the pelican hook to our lifelines the pin sprang out, did a double gainer before hitting the deck and then bounced into the ocean. Things to fix number 7?

Bucky turned out to be a good guy and took us into shore where we took a short walk to the airport to clear Customs. The Customs guys were friendly and efficient, despite our having to fill out the obligatory forms. Back at the dock Bucky was waiting for us and ferried us back to Flying Cloud. So much for our hopefully unfounded fear of Union Island.

Beautiful downtown Clifton, with a nasty fringing reef all the way around.

Leaving Union Island you have to take a long looping left turn to avoid the fringing reef, then a (what else) close reach around the Mayreau Island to the safer northern approach which avoids the numerous reefs surrounding Tobago Cays. Much to our surprise when we rounded the northeast corner of Mayreau there was a huge six-masted sailing ship, the Club Med 2, at anchor.  It’s actually a big cruise ship with a somewhat functional sailing rig. Anchored just outside the Tobago Cays National Park, the ship disgorged hundreds of fun seekers to the local beaches. After just being around cruisers for the last six months it was interesting to see real (and very white but soon to be sunburned) people again.

Since we were approaching the Cays from the north, or back side, we couldn’t see the actual area until we rounded the northeast corner of Petite Rameau, where we were presented with a sea of masts from all the anchored boats.  Horseshoe Reef surrounds the Cays in a full semi-circle, so there were lots of protected places to anchor, but it was still very crowded (I later talked to a local and he said “Oh mon, dis is empty right now.”) We anchored too close to a French boat (how appropriate), got the Hatch Hoody and rain catcher up and moved the boom to leeward so the sun would hit the solar panels, then grabbed our books and relaxed.

The charter boats seem to like to anchor right next to one another. Between them and the island is the turtle preserve where we plan on snorkeling tomorrow.

Since it’s December and the start of the cruising season, a majority of the boats were charters out of St. Lucia. You could tell by all the white, white bodies on board and their urgency to jump in the water as soon as their boats anchored. They have way too much energy to be cruisers.

Soon a boat boy named Mr. Quality motored up and asked if we wanted any fresh baguettes or banana bread in the morning. We said yes and yes (but we should have asked the price first). Later another boat boy came around and we bought some fresh caught dorado which he cut into steaks for us.

Now we really felt like we were cruising again.