Tobago (August 28 – October 8th) Tobago has been the nicest island we have seen so far. We have had the same thought before, when we visited Puerto Rico, Saba and Dominica. And Tobago we liked even better! What is so special about Tobago? It is one of the most unspoiled islands we have seen. Its people are extremely friendly. In the evenings they gather out on the street for a chat, which they call "liming". Life runs at a much slower, leisurely pace, which rubbed off on us. Each place we visited was very different from the other, making every day a new experience. Tobago’s nature is extremely beautiful. It has mountains covered with lush tropical rainforests, bamboo forests, waterfalls, and above all a huge variety of birds. Marcel and I have never been very much into birds, we always liked to see and hear them, but that was about it. On Tobago we have become true bird lovers. We saw so many of them and were thrilled by their colours and songs. We were actually planning to sail from Grenada down to Trinidad before going to Tobago. But we were so lucky with the winds coming out of the northeast that we decided to sail to Tobago first. We could just make it in one tack! We left shortly before dark. It was a beautiful passage with a clear moon, a starry sky and some lightning and thunderclouds in the distance. During my watch I looked up and saw the Milky Way. All of a sudden a bright green ball of fire was shooting across the sky. Was it a meteorite? I had never seen one like this before. As we got closer to Tobago, we had a current of 2½ knots against us, and the wind died. The last stretch from Crown Point to Scarborough we had to motor. We went ashore to check in, and were shocked by the hustle-bustle of Scarborough. It was very crowded and messy, but we found our haven of peace and quiet in the Botanical Gardens. The next afternoon we visited Fort King George, which is surrounded by beautiful big trees and has a nice view over the bay. When we got back to the harbour, our dinghy was completely stuck under the dock, because it had become high tide while we were gone. We tried hard but could not free it. We thought we had to eat our take-away pizza right there on the dock, but luckily we got a ride from another sailor. And we could also borrow his dinghy, so that Marcel could retrieve ours later that evening at low tide. From Scarborough we sailed to Store Bay. This was a perfect anchorage, where we stayed two weeks to rest, read, and paint. To celebrate our anniversary we rented a car to see the island. Near Mt. Irvine Bay, we visited Luise Kimme to see her colourful life-size sculptures of local people in wood and bronze. We had lunch at Arnos Vale water wheel, an old sugarcane plantation in the middle of lush tropical rainforest. When we entered the restaurant, bats were flying all around us, and for the first time we saw motmots and bananaquits. The blue crowned motmot or "King of the woods" is a bird with beautiful colours. It has green wings, a red brown chest, a bright blue head and a blue tail with a distinctive shape. We made a hike to the Argyle waterfalls, where Marcel had a refreshing shower and I had a swim. We climbed all the way to the top and then went back down through the rainforest. In the evening we had a romantic dinner under the stars on a terrace overlooking the rainforest at Arnos Vale Hotel. We also took a wonderful hike to the Rainbow Waterfall. We got boots at the small guesthouse there, and walked the muddy trail through stands of bamboo and a banana plantation. After a short walk we arrived at the waterfall. We were the only people there and had the waterfall to ourselves. It was a very idyllic spot. From Store Bay we made a dinghy ride to the white sand beach at Pigeon Point and we followed the glass bottom boats to the best snorkelling spots on the inside of Buccoo Reef. The water was clear and we saw very healthy parrot fishes and different types of coral. One of the nicest bays along the northwest coast is Englishman’s Bay. We were the only one at anchor here. We were anchored close to the nice palm fringed beach. During the day there were some people on the beach and there were a few handicraft boutiques and a little restaurant. In the evening and at night the place was deserted. When we went ashore for the first time, I misjudged the water depth and fell in the water. I felt a bit embarrassed in front of the people on the beach. The road behind the beach led to the main road via a bamboo forest. We walked to Parrot Hall to see parrots. They are not so easy to spot, as they are as green as the leafs of the tree they are hiding in. But if you get close to the tree, they get nervous and will fly away making lots of noise. They always fly in pairs; the male and female stay together for a lifetime. On the way back we stopped at a handicraft shop and started talking to a guy who made drums and other musical instruments. Kelvin George Anthony gave a demonstration and pretty soon we started to play drums together, which was a lot of fun. He explained how he made the drums. His enthusiasm was so contagious that we bought a nice drum from him in the end. From Englishman’s Bay we sailed to Charlotteville. At first we thought we would not spend a long time there. There was a tropical storm, called "Lili" heading our way, and we were not sure if we could stay in Man of War Bay, being too exposed to the swell. But we went in and, although the bay is deep, we found a good place to anchor. The next day we went ashore and wandered around a bit. Charlotteville is a small fishing village. A large portion of the bay, close to the village is dotted with small fishing boats. With bamboo fishing rods sticking out on both sides, they look like quaint insects. There is a fish market close to the waterfront. Each morning around 10 o’clock you can hear the sound of a conch shell calling the villagers to buy fresh fish. Charlotteville provides half of the fish supply for the island. In the evening, the fishermen hang their nets to dry in the almond trees along the waterfront and sit down together "liming". We did some "liming" as well, chatting to the guy at Jane’s restaurant. This was a very nice guy, who has been very helpful to us during our entire stay, which turned out to be more than a week. He told us about an intercultural festival we had to go and see. A theatre group from St.Vincent and the Grenadines and singers from Charlotteville were performing. We went and had a great time. The audience was terrific. They were so enthusiastic that they were rolling of their seats laughing! The following day the village was very crowded, as they had organised a sports event. Groups of all over the island were coming to Charlotteville to compete. It was fun to watch them, there were food stalls everywhere, and people were dancing in the street. The otherwise sleepy town had come to life in full blast. We could not buy anything, as we had run out of cash, and Charlotteville does not have any cash machines. But the guy at Jane’s offered us lunch anyway and said we could pay him the next day. We had to go on a one and a half hour bus ride to Scarborough to get cash. We also had to go there to get diesel, because, although Charlotteville has a gas station, they don’t sell diesel anymore. When we arrived in Scarborough, we were the last ones on the bus, and the bus driver was so kind to drive us to the gas station. It turned out that all the gas stations in Scarborough had run out of diesel, as the day before was a public holiday and no diesel was delivered to the island that day. Our bus driver decided to drive all the way to Plymouth on the other side of the island to find us some diesel. Luckily, they still had enough in Plymouth. The bus driver brought us back to Scarborough and only charged an extra 10 TT (1.8 Euro) for the detour. He even arranged a place for us to leave our jerry cans while we went shopping. We have also made fantastic hikes in the area around Charlotteville. From the road to the lookout point on Flagstaff Hill we saw many parrots, and had a great view over the bay and St. Giles Island. We were contemplating how it would be to own a house here with such a marvellous view. On the way back we discovered an old dirt road to the East, which was not marked on the map. Thrilled with excitement we followed that road through the rainforest. This was a great experience, we were totally on our own, absorbed in pure nature. It felt as if we became part of it. Unfortunately, we had to turn around before we reached the end of the road, as it was getting late, and we did not want to walk back through darkness. We took another nice hike along the old west coast road between Charlotteville and Bloody Bay. Here we also saw great places to build a house. We had quite some excitement when tropical storm "Lili" passed 70 miles north of us. This storm passed much further south and closer to us than prognosed, and later developed into a hurricane. Around 3 pm the wind suddenly came from the west and in no time reached 40 knots. This was accompanied by very heavy rainfall, so that we could hardly see anything around us. A few boats had problems with dragging anchors. Our spade anchor was holding perfectly well. During the night the wind reduced, so that we could sleep comfortably. From Charlotteville we sailed around the northeast tip of Tobago, passing London Bridge, to Bateaux Bay on the eastside of the island. Although the anchorage was rolly, we spent a few nights here. We made a trip with a glass bottom boat to the reefs around Goat Island and Little Tobago, where we went ashore to see the bird life. We saw the largest brain coral in the world, and beautiful queen angelfishes, which are bright blue and yellow. This was so inspiring, that I painted one a few days later, when I learned how to do fabric painting with Tiina, an artist from Finland, who set up the nice Batiki Point Boutique in Buccoo. We went to the Crafton Bird Sanctuary where every day at 4 pm they feed the birds. We also hiked the Gilpin trail in the rainforest with a birdwatcher. He spotted birds for us everywhere. He imitated birdcalls attracting the birds, so that we could see them. If you want to get an idea of all the colourful birds we saw, have a look at our video clip and photos. Close to the end of our stay on Tobago, my left knee started hurting. There was no orthopaedist in Tobago, so we had to go to Trinidad to find one. Luckily, we had planned to go to Trinidad anyway to do maintenance on the boat.
Tobago (August 28 – October 8th) Tobago has been the nicest island we have seen so far. We have had the same thought before, when we visited Puerto Rico, Saba and Dominica. And Tobago we liked even better! What is so special about Tobago? It is one of the most unspoiled islands we have seen. Its people are extremely friendly. In the evenings they gather out on the street for a chat, which they call "liming". Life runs at a much slower, leisurely pace, which rubbed off on us. Each place we visited was very different from the other, making every day a new experience. Tobago’s nature is extremely beautiful. It has mountains covered with lush tropical rainforests, bamboo forests, waterfalls, and above all a huge variety of birds. Marcel and I have never been very much into birds, we always liked to see and hear them, but that was about it. On Tobago we have become true bird lovers. We saw so many of them and were thrilled by their colours and songs. We were actually planning to sail from Grenada down to Trinidad before going to Tobago. But we were so lucky with the winds coming out of the northeast that we decided to sail to Tobago first. We could just make it in one tack! We left shortly before dark. It was a beautiful passage with a clear moon, a starry sky and some lightning and thunderclouds in the distance. During my watch I looked up and saw the Milky Way. All of a sudden a bright green ball of fire was shooting across the sky. Was it a meteorite? I had never seen one like this before. As we got closer to Tobago, we had a current of 2½ knots against us, and the wind died. The last stretch from Crown Point to Scarborough we had to motor. We went ashore to check in, and were shocked by the hustle-bustle of Scarborough. It was very crowded and messy, but we found our haven of peace and quiet in the Botanical Gardens. The next afternoon we visited Fort King George, which is surrounded by beautiful big trees and has a nice view over the bay. When we got back to the harbour, our dinghy was completely stuck under the dock, because it had become high tide while we were gone. We tried hard but could not free it. We thought we had to eat our take-away pizza right there on the dock, but luckily we got a ride from another sailor. And we could also borrow his dinghy, so that Marcel could retrieve ours later that evening at low tide. From Scarborough we sailed to Store Bay. This was a perfect anchorage, where we stayed two weeks to rest, read, and paint. To celebrate our anniversary we rented a car to see the island. Near Mt. Irvine Bay, we visited Luise Kimme to see her colourful life-size sculptures of local people in wood and bronze. We had lunch at Arnos Vale water wheel, an old sugarcane plantation in the middle of lush tropical rainforest. When we entered the restaurant, bats were flying all around us, and for the first time we saw motmots and bananaquits. The blue crowned motmot or "King of the woods" is a bird with beautiful colours. It has green wings, a red brown chest, a bright blue head and a blue tail with a distinctive shape. We made a hike to the Argyle waterfalls, where Marcel had a refreshing shower and I had a swim. We climbed all the way to the top and then went back down through the rainforest. In the evening we had a romantic dinner under the stars on a terrace overlooking the rainforest at Arnos Vale Hotel. We also took a wonderful hike to the Rainbow Waterfall. We got boots at the small guesthouse there, and walked the muddy trail through stands of bamboo and a banana plantation. After a short walk we arrived at the waterfall. We were the only people there and had the waterfall to ourselves. It was a very idyllic spot. From Store Bay we made a dinghy ride to the white sand beach at Pigeon Point and we followed the glass bottom boats to the best snorkelling spots on the inside of Buccoo Reef. The water was clear and we saw very healthy parrot fishes and different types of coral. One of the nicest bays along the northwest coast is Englishman’s Bay. We were the only one at anchor here. We were anchored close to the nice palm fringed beach. During the day there were some people on the beach and there were a few handicraft boutiques and a little restaurant. In the evening and at night the place was deserted. When we went ashore for the first time, I misjudged the water depth and fell in the water. I felt a bit embarrassed in front of the people on the beach. The road behind the beach led to the main road via a bamboo forest. We walked to Parrot Hall to see parrots. They are not so easy to spot, as they are as green as the leafs of the tree they are hiding in. But if you get close to the tree, they get nervous and will fly away making lots of noise. They always fly in pairs; the male and female stay together for a lifetime. On the way back we stopped at a handicraft shop and started talking to a guy who made drums and other musical instruments. Kelvin George Anthony gave a demonstration and pretty soon we started to play drums together, which was a lot of fun. He explained how he made the drums. His enthusiasm was so contagious that we bought a nice drum from him in the end. From Englishman’s Bay we sailed to Charlotteville. At first we thought we would not spend a long time there. There was a tropical storm, called "Lili" heading our way, and we were not sure if we could stay in Man of War Bay, being too exposed to the swell. But we went in and, although the bay is deep, we found a good place to anchor. The next day we went ashore and wandered around a bit. Charlotteville is a small fishing village. A large portion of the bay, close to the village is dotted with small fishing boats. With bamboo fishing rods sticking out on both sides, they look like quaint insects. There is a fish market close to the waterfront. Each morning around 10 o’clock you can hear the sound of a conch shell calling the villagers to buy fresh fish. Charlotteville provides half of the fish supply for the island. In the evening, the fishermen hang their nets to dry in the almond trees along the waterfront and sit down together "liming". We did some "liming" as well, chatting to the guy at Jane’s restaurant. This was a very nice guy, who has been very helpful to us during our entire stay, which turned out to be more than a week. He told us about an intercultural festival we had to go and see. A theatre group from St.Vincent and the Grenadines and singers from Charlotteville were performing. We went and had a great time. The audience was terrific. They were so enthusiastic that they were rolling of their seats laughing! The following day the village was very crowded, as they had organised a sports event. Groups of all over the island were coming to Charlotteville to compete. It was fun to watch them, there were food stalls everywhere, and people were dancing in the street. The otherwise sleepy town had come to life in full blast. We could not buy anything, as we had run out of cash, and Charlotteville does not have any cash machines. But the guy at Jane’s offered us lunch anyway and said we could pay him the next day. We had to go on a one and a half hour bus ride to Scarborough to get cash. We also had to go there to get diesel, because, although Charlotteville has a gas station, they don’t sell diesel anymore. When we arrived in Scarborough, we were the last ones on the bus, and the bus driver was so kind to drive us to the gas station. It turned out that all the gas stations in Scarborough had run out of diesel, as the day before was a public holiday and no diesel was delivered to the island that day. Our bus driver decided to drive all the way to Plymouth on the other side of the island to find us some diesel. Luckily, they still had enough in Plymouth. The bus driver brought us back to Scarborough and only charged an extra 10 TT (1.8 Euro) for the detour. He even arranged a place for us to leave our jerry cans while we went shopping. We have also made fantastic hikes in the area around Charlotteville. From the road to the lookout point on Flagstaff Hill we saw many parrots, and had a great view over the bay and St. Giles Island. We were contemplating how it would be to own a house here with such a marvellous view. On the way back we discovered an old dirt road to the East, which was not marked on the map. Thrilled with excitement we followed that road through the rainforest. This was a great experience, we were totally on our own, absorbed in pure nature. It felt as if we became part of it. Unfortunately, we had to turn around before we reached the end of the road, as it was getting late, and we did not want to walk back through darkness. We took another nice hike along the old west coast road between Charlotteville and Bloody Bay. Here we also saw great places to build a house. We had quite some excitement when tropical storm "Lili" passed 70 miles north of us. This storm passed much further south and closer to us than prognosed, and later developed into a hurricane. Around 3 pm the wind suddenly came from the west and in no time reached 40 knots. This was accompanied by very heavy rainfall, so that we could hardly see anything around us. A few boats had problems with dragging anchors. Our spade anchor was holding perfectly well. During the night the wind reduced, so that we could sleep comfortably. From Charlotteville we sailed around the northeast tip of Tobago, passing London Bridge, to Bateaux Bay on the eastside of the island. Although the anchorage was rolly, we spent a few nights here. We made a trip with a glass bottom boat to the reefs around Goat Island and Little Tobago, where we went ashore to see the bird life. We saw the largest brain coral in the world, and beautiful queen angelfishes, which are bright blue and yellow. This was so inspiring, that I painted one a few days later, when I learned how to do fabric painting with Tiina, an artist from Finland, who set up the nice Batiki Point Boutique in Buccoo. We went to the Crafton Bird Sanctuary where every day at 4 pm they feed the birds. We also hiked the Gilpin trail in the rainforest with a birdwatcher. He spotted birds for us everywhere. He imitated birdcalls attracting the birds, so that we could see them. If you want to get an idea of all the colourful birds we saw, have a look at our video clip and photos. Close to the end of our stay on Tobago, my left knee started hurting. There was no orthopaedist in Tobago, so we had to go to Trinidad to find one. Luckily, we had planned to go to Trinidad anyway to do maintenance on the boat.