Friends from home......

Since our last post we've been very busy, the Turners and the Twiggs, both friends from Painswick have visited Tobago. It's been an action packed few weeks with beach BBQ's, snorkelling, fishing, rainforest exploration, kayaking, pretty exhausting really!

Yummy fish sandwiches

We woke one morning to the sight of a black tip shark lying on the back deck, Dave had been night fishing and had rather a surprise catch!! He cut it into steaks and we enjoyed it for lunch with some fresh bread rolls made by Steve.

The boys disappeared very early one morning for a fishing trip with our good friend Milton. Three hours later they returned with three big tuna and pretty unsettled stomachs !

The visibility of the water changes daily, depending on the flow off from the Orinico river but we have been lucky recently and had some great snorkelling.

French angel fish

Smooth Trunkfish

Unexpected surprise...

Written by Darcy...

Dolphins ahoy !!!

As we were finishing our Colombo curry we heard a cry front from the bows, mummy came rushing (Daddy said not to run!) to where we were devouring our food and panted  "Dolphins, there's dolphins in the bay, look!" We all looked and there, in front of the beautiful sunset was a magnificent pod of dolphins, with fish jumping like shouting,  "help", because these ones were feeding. We all jumped into the dingy, Helen, Euan, Daddy, mummy, Joe , Hazel, Isla and Me, naked and all and set of into the most pretty site that people would of paid millions for! We followed them around the bay as they played alongside the dingy, thinking we were their friends. When we turned off the engines we heard them puffing and I saw one of the blowholes! They nearly tipped up the boat they were touching us! Auntie Helen was astonished and could not believe it, the sunset was one of the best we had ever seen as well. 

We went to 'lovers Bay' which is a tiny beach which has pink sand, I collected some to bring home!

Pink Sand

Fun with my cousins, Joe and Hazel

As promised to mummy's friends who say there's never any photos of her on the blog, couldn't find any on her own!

Grenada to Tobago...

Having got the genoa fixed in record time in Grenada then checking and re-checking the weather forecast, we set off at 4pm for the overnight sail to Tobago. Tobago lies South East of Grenada and it can be a notoriously tough sail into the wind and sea. When we set off the forecast showed some north in the wind and moderate seas. We managed to cook pizza in the early evening as the sea was fairly calm. The girls went to sleep in the saloon as sleeping in the cabins can be very noisy and bouncy whilst sailing.
Dave stayed up all through the night and I managed to catch a couple of hours sleep in between watches. We managed to motor sail all the way as the wind was coming slightly from the north. It was a comfortable passage for which we were very grateful. The winds were a fairly consistent 12-14 knots all night and the waves were mostly 1 -1.5m. There were plenty of sheet lightning clouds around but they were evenly spaced and Dave managed to steer a zig-zag course through them to avoid a dousing or a squall. As we made better time than expected we arrived at Store Bay in Tobago at 4.30am. After anchoring and sorting all the lines out we were ready to collapse just as the girls woke up! I have to say a few DVD's were watched that day.

overnight from Grenada to Tobago

We were slightly apprehensive about going back to Tobago having spent an amazing five months there on our previous boat ten years ago. Several people, especially those in Grenada, warned us that it had changed and asked us why we wanted to go back. I can safely say that it does not seem to have changed at all and we are very happy to be back, and even happier that other people aren't sailing here because we've got it pretty much to ourselves !
My eldest brother and his family joined us in Tobago, our youngest crew so far.

Spot the new arrival!

Hazel,our youngest crew member

Englishmans Bay, which is halfway up the west coast of Tobago is as idyllic as we remembered and we were  one of only two boats in the anchorage. The thick rain forest comes right down to meet the sea and only a couple of tiny houses scatter the hillside.  Parrots and Cocrico's (Rufus vented Chacalaca - if you're a twitcher!!!), which are birds similar to pheasants that live on the forest floor, chatter all day long. At night when all the lights are out the forest comes alive with fireflies which resembles a glittering Christmas tree. Can you tell that Tobago is our favourite place?!

Englishmans Bay

French Angel fish

This week we've caught and eaten, squid, lobster, Bonito ( a small species of tuna) and Grouper, not a bad diet.