Things changed very quickly for us this past weekend. Mark went to shore on Saturday, March 28th to get a few grocery items and while he was gone, the boat started turning around the anchor. The wind in Grand Bay was all over the place and that made for a tricky anchor situation. When the boat spins like that, the anchor can get pulled out – not fun. We had a choice – we could reset our anchor (and hope the boat didn’t keep swinging) or we could pull up anchor and leave! So that’s what we did – pulled up and sailed the roughly 5nm south to the Tobago Cays.
The Tobago Cays are made up of 5 small islands and many reefs. The whole area is a marine park and there is also a protected sea turtle area. There are many mooring balls around the islands or you can anchor (they prefer cruisers to pick up a mooring ball to help save the coral from anchoring damage). We arrived at the most northern island – Petit Bateau and found an empty mooring ball. We were settled on the ball by about 1 pm. It is an absolutely stunning area – blue, clear water with several white sand beaches. It’s also very crowded – lots of sailboats plus a few mega yachts and mega sailing vessels. We spent our first afternoon snorkeling the reef right beside us. It’s was very interesting to see the different variety of coral (unfortunately not super healthy) and so many tropical fish. We also saw a sting ray just resting on the sandy bottom.
Our plan for Sunday was to work on the black water tank problem (still not able to pump out our tanks) in the morning and then check out the east reef area in the afternoon. Mark started the nasty job around 10am and boy was it a stinker!!! Fortunately Mark finally found the source of our problem (this after checking hose connections, the macerator pump and other parts of the system). The hose that connected the macerator pump to the through hull (a very long hose) had a clog somewhere. So out it came and we worked on removing the clog on deck. After much finagling, the hose appeared to be clog free!! By that time it was 1 pm so we stopped for lunch. The hose still needed to be reconnected and there was clean-up to be done so we really didn’t have time to go exploring. But 🤞🤞 our problem has been resolved and we’ll be able to empty our holding tanks when we next move into deeper water!
Today March 30th we got our chance to explore the east side islands and reefs. We went to Baradal Cay and left the dinghy on the beach. Some other cruisers were out with their kite surfers – it was a great day for that kind of activity. We put on our snorkel gear and had a great swim with the sea turtles. The area just west of this little island is a turtle sanctuary. We saw many turtles and they were so used to drivers that they just looked at us as we went by. The water was very clear and visibility was perfect. We also heard from our friends Sharron and John – they are heading to the Tobago Cays tomorrow (March 31st) so we’ll meet up with them. One of the neat specialties of this area is the bbq put on by locals. They prepare lobster, fish, ribs and chicken with a whole bunch of sides. We’ve booked dinner for the 4 of us tomorrow night!!
Looking forward (as we always do), the wind is starting to build in the second week of April so we’ve decided to leave the Tobago Cays on April 1. We’ll stop at Union Island to get some groceries and to clear out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. After that we’ll continue down to the south end of Carriacou where we’ll check into Grenada. We’re hoping to be in the south end of Grenada by Friday, April 3rd where we’ll wait to cross to Trinidad!!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 