Apr. 20, 2009 - The Cays and strange weather phenomenananana
All experienced yachtsmen need to understand the weather and one of the most important weather situations leads to a feature technically described as ‘hammocky’. Normally in the Tobago Cays its too bloody windy as there is nothing between us and Africa but a reef so trying to get into a ‘hammock situation’ results in lots of flapping and cursing but little relaxation. The photograph therefore shows a very rare meteorological phenomenon and is not at all a picture a lazy slob drinking beer in the sunshine. Er - well actually it is and it was so nice to get here and find the wind a mere zephyr with the sun shining. By the way the uninhabited island in the background was the other film set for the Pirates of the Caribbean films – we are going to dinghy around to it today and see if Jonny Depp did actually bury any treasure there. We seem to be surrounded by turtles and when I snorkeled the anchor we saw, squids’s, an Eagle ray, more turtles and loads of small fry. I managed a dive on the reef yesterday and it’s by far the best in the Caribbean, I took Fi there in the dinghy in the afternoon and it was almost as good, just snorkeling.
There are several traveling companions with us – Appleseeds our Canadian friends, Troutbridge and a few more, so we all met up on the beach last night for a few beers and to watch the sun go down. Thedevice on the dinghy is now in the category of ‘the most wanted thingy what we never thought of’ – It’s a hand operated blender and makes very good rum punches amongst other things. What a special way to spend the evening – followed by ‘find the yacht’ as there was no moon and my ‘automatic’ anchor light had not come on.
Started on ‘the list’ today ie the list of things we need to do before hauling out. If it’s like last year, all we will do is add things to it and it never gets shorter. So it’s back up to Bequia tomorrow and St Lucia towards the end of the week.
We are actually really looking forward to getting home now. Two seasons in the Caribbean is enough, it’s too crowded and you can actually have enough of a good thing. Fi and I are really looking forward to living in our own house again – after we buy one that is! What do we do next – no idea, if we come out again next year we may head up to Cuba, the Bahamas and then the East Coast of the US. However if someone wants to buy the boat we may well be open to a sensible offer. Or none of the above and something else.
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