Dalton W. Williams
Tobago Cays
Union Island
April 2004
Tobago Cays
The
Tobago Cays really do look like this!
Turquoise waters and endless horizon.
Sandy bottom surrounded by a shallow reefs with millions of fish.
Cool Ocean breezes... and
A sky full of stars at night.
Yes! This truly is paradise!
I
arrived after a brief stop in Grenada to pick up my crew member for the trip Amy
Beam who lives on Barbados. Enroute to the Tobago Cays we stopped in Caricou to check out of Grenada and a few
hours later a stop at Union Island to check into the Grenadines.
Just imagine... four days anchored out here; looking at the view, reading books, swimming, snorkeling, relaxing and with the beautiful back ground above, making lots of pictures.
The Tobago Cays are actually five very small uninhabited islands surrounded by miles of shallow horseshoe reefs. One must be very careful when arriving into the Tobago Cays with the sun high overhead to see the reefs and pick your way through. But once you are in the center of the reefs, there is a large area of perhaps two square miles of shallow water to anchor in with white sand just a few feet below your keel.
At
night the stars seam to wrap around you all the way down to the horizon.
Add a little moon light to sparkle on the water and it looks like you are
floating in space.
The surrounding reef protects you from the Atlantic swells, even with 20 to 25 knots of wind blowing! Though I must admit that I spent most of the first night awake when the wind came up a little after midnight to make sure our anchor did not drag.
The
photo to the left is of Jamesby Island, one of the small islands in the Tobago
Cays. Though in the picture the island looks large, it is perhaps three
times the size of a football field with a beautiful sandy beach and palm trees.
Union Island
After four days here, we motored past Jamesby Island just after breakfast with the sun behind in order to see our way through the reefs at the southern exit of the Tobago Cays and back to Union Island which is only six miles away. Amy had a flight there at 4:00 in the afternoon to be back in Barbados that night.
As today was April 14th, the first thing I did was to go to the Internet Cafe and download TaxCut to complete my 2003 taxes. I was certain I would owe some money and I was not disappointed. With the help of Gary Welker and his wife Brenda back in Vail, I was able to get copies of the 1099's that had been lost in the mail somewhere and get my taxes sent off UPS International on April 15th.
Union
Island is small, but very friendly. The main town is
Clifton, a bustling small port with quite a wonderful atmosphere for a town of
perhaps 1000 people. There is the island airport which is just across the
runway from the Anchorage Yacht Club, Yes I said that right, just across
the runway which is tucked away just behind the yacht club. When sitting
on Quietly anchored in the bay, you would think the planes are landing on top of
the yacht club.
There
is grass town square with small stands around the grass selling fresh vegetables
from the island. Just past the town square is the main street with it's
brightly painted shops and across the street is Erika's Marine Services.
Erika's (the yellow building in the picture to the right) has ADLS Internet, is
the local agent for UPS, sells tickets for the airlines, arranges for laundry to
be done, and has a large selection of several hundred DVD available for rental.
The
weather turned cool and rainy on the 16 with an unusual for this time of year
tropical time wave across the island chain from Trinidad all the way north
to the Virgin Islands. I was planning on heading north but with
the rain I decided to say at Union Island and see the local regatta the following
day. The regatta was for traditional boats that were used in fishing and
island transportation in the years past. Many were old boats with a few
purpose built boats for the race. "Unity" being one of the new purpose
built race boats was built by the local sailing club sponsored by Erika's. The race start is
most unusual. Everyone is standing in the shallow water
next to their boats when the starter says "One, Two, Three, GO!" at which time
everyone jumps into the boats and off they sail.
With clearing weather after the start of the race, I continued my trip north past Mayreau to to Canouan for a pleasant evening visiting with friends on Union Jock on my way to Bequia and further north to meet Mike and Diedra on Cheshirecat, and John and Brenda on Willow who are working their way south after being in Antigua for Classics Week. I was supposed to have met them in Antique for Classics week, but Quietly was not finished in time to get that far. Thus I will be joining them in The Saints or Martinique next week after a stop in Bequia for a few days.
Dalton
April 20, 2004