Tobago

Calypso is now anchored in the emerald green, crystal clear waters of Charlotteville, Tobago, a tiny village at the northern end of the island in Man o' War Bay. This is the start of our Caribbean adventures and, if indicative of what lies ahead, I think we’re in for some great times!

Tobago is a small, sparsely populated island of 45,000 inhabitants with huge areas of protected forests. The birdlife is quite amazing! We’re anchored next to a remote beach where we can see the green parrots in the mango trees, the pelicans fishing off the rocks and the frigate birds soaring above. We can snorkel around reefs in the bay to view the tropical fish and our boat is visited by turtles occasionally. We also plan to do a bit of hiking around the mountainous terrain which looks amazing.

At the moment, it’s incredibly peaceful here as there aren’t many other yachts; a couple more from South Africa, a Dutch, 2 French and one British yacht which we have been meeting since leaving Cabedelo. We had a fish braai (BBQ) on the beach one night and took a trip into the capital of Scarborough on the southern end of the island to try to find a bank, some fresh veggies (a fairly rare commodity) and an internet café (also few and far between and incredibly, painfully slow). Such is island style!

And how about some fishing for fresh-water shrimp in the rivers and waterfalls? We were told that we could catch them by using a net with pieces of coconut. Yea, well, no, fine. We went off on this expedition with Bronte & Helmke from Cooee Too, another SA boat, and DID actually catch a couple but ‘couple’ was the operative word. Anyway, it was fun trying.

Shortly, we’ll leave for Chaguaramas Bay in Trinidad where we will spend the majority of the remainder of the hurricane season hauling out and doing general boat repairs while making plans to meet our daughter somewhere further north for Christmas, which we’re really looking forward to!

Our long journeys are over for the time being. From now on until we leave the Caribbean, it will be short trips island hopping so, once we get over the shock of prices here, we intend to make the most of these beautiful anchorages.

Ho hum, I wonder how the other half are living!!!

PHOTO ALBUM:

Shopping for Fruit & Veggies

En Route to Scarborough

Charlotteville Village

Pirate's Cove & Beach

Waiting for our Roti Lunch - Yum

Fishing for Freshwater Shrimps

Sunset Over Man o' War Bay

Iles de Salut

Our next journey took us up the coast, past the muddy waters of the Amazon (even as far as 120nm off shore!), over the equator (with the essential offerings to Neptune), through a couple of days of the doldrums and, a week later, we dropped anchor off Iles du Salut in French Guiana, made famous for the “Papillon” story on Devil’s Island. There was absolutely nothing there but tranquillity and coconuts however, we loved the peacefulness and spent hours swimming and walking around the islands with Paul collecting coconuts (I think we’re all coconutted out now!)

There are three islands which were originally known as Iles du Diable and were used as a penal colony from 1852 to 1946 where political prisoners and habitual criminals were imprisoned. Conditions were such that many prisoners died due to the unhealthy conditions and very few escaped.

During our stay, we were boarded by the Gendemerie Maritime who asked us to evacuate the region for a night as there was to be a satellite launch – the island is in the fallout zone. French Guiana is home to the European Space Agencies launch site so we sailed into Kourou overnight and were really privileged to watch the launch – quite spectacular! The sky lit up just as brightly as though the sun were up.

Back to the islands for a couple more days then off on the 6-day trip to Trinidad & Tobago catching our supper en route. Sushi and drinks as the magnificent sunsets played out ahead of us – what more could a mortal soul ask for?

PHOTO ALBUM:

Crossing the Equator

The Doldrums

No Shortage of Coconuts