Tobago Cays
July 12th. We slept in a steady 20 knot wind, let me tell you it's better than those katabatic crazy gusty winds coming down the mountains. It rolled a bit but in general it was a very nice night. We woke up to the sun that was nice too because the last two days were gray and squally. The air is cool too so all is good. We sailed for a little to get to Tobago Cays National Park. Then the winds kicked up on the nose, we had to motor. We decided to go the north entry so we had to go around Mayreau Island to get there. The NW corner near Saltwhistle bay had confused seas and steep waves from the strong currents that move around these islands. Tobago Cays, the color is turquoise, clear but the currents are wicked. We anchored south of Baridal Island to be close to the turtle sanctuary. Mark, from Cavu gave me a tow with my kayak since the winds and currents made my way there impossible. I stayed in the water for three hours. Can you say pruned? George stayed on Picaro and took care of some little repairs and he checked his zincs. I swam with the turtles. I was about four to six feet from them. I could just float and watch. I saw star fish, big conch, came face to face with two small barracudas, a big sting ray and a smaller one, blue tang, angelfish and many smooth trunkfish. There was one turtle that was missing it's front left fin, it was swimming pretty well. I don't know if it was born with it or lost it with an accident. I tried asking it but no answer. They are not scared of you if you float and stay pretty still. They eat grass at the bottom. The most I saw was three together. I love swimming with the turtles. My next thing on the bucket list will be to swim with dolphins. I baked some brownies after a late lunch, laid down with a good book and took a great nap. We had a potluck with Mark and Noelle on Picaro. Three bottles of wine later under a full moon, concluded a great fun evening.




July 13th. . We woke up from a rocky couple of hours. It was high tide and the winds gusting around twenty knots, so the waves were going pretty good. The Tobago Cays are surrounded by a huge horseshoe reef so when the tide rises the swells are that much bigger coming over the reef. Cap't George went to sleep in the aft cabin but I managed to sleep through it in our cabin forward. I decided to do a load of laundry, it was t-shirts day. We didn't even drop the dinghy. We kayaked to the turtle sanctuary. I saw more today than I did yesterday. At one point, I had five turtles together just eating the bottom grass; very cool to just observe and admire how graceful they swim. I saw again my three legged turtle and noticed this time that they have a little silver tag on one front leg. We met the cruisers from Amelie, Marie-Claude, Mark, Meghan and a nice little blond boy Mathew. She's from Montreal and Mark from Calgary. We drifted back to Picaro for lunch then kayaked over to the little island of Jamesby for a little hike and one of the most beautiful views. We walked up the hill, pretty easy, but you need shoes. We crossed paths with one dead iguana and three or four very lively ones. We sat there, thinking of where we are right now, what we think we should do next, what's our vision. It was so peaceful and the beauty of nature glittered around us, different shades of colors, wonderful sounds, sweet smell of lilac flowers. We could see fish, little tiny ones being chased by bigger ones, and the birds that were trying to get them from above. Quite a raucous watching all this from the top of the hill. Then that beautiful female bird, a Frigate bird that just glides without batting her wings. We stayed there a couple of hours. I invited Marie-Claude and Meghan to see my GoPro Studio program. Meghan likes those things so I wanted to show them and we had a chance to talk about our experiences and them as a sailing family with children, and places we've been. We had a movie with dinner and watched the moon rise. It was beautiful, peaceful and romantic. I think today was one of my favorite day with my husband. I think the setting was amazing. I recommend the Tobago cays to everyone that is ever in the neighborhood.