Ricky and Leon have left now, but we didn’t finish writing up
our blog, so let me catch up. Our last full day in Tobago Cays
was spent doing more snorkeling and dinghying around the
beautiful reefs. We had an amazing morning snorkel –
highlighted by seeing a huge sting-ray laying on the bottom
of the ocean, in only about 10 feet of water. We hovered over
him (her?) for a while, keeping what we hoped was a safe
distance, until he slowly lifted up from the sandy bottom and,
spookily fluttering its wings, floated away from us. Much of
the afternoon was spent doing more boat projects. Rick and Leon
helped Mark diagnose a water leakage problem – and we all spent
a few hours getting some stale water out of the anchor locker.
Somehow the whole day flew by and before we knew it, it was time
for another swim off the boat, a magnificent sunset, and a great
pasta dinner (thank you Leon for doing all the cooking and Ricky
for overseeing everything). We stayed up late to watch the
moon – amazed by the amount of light it was casting on the
sea. Within a few days it will be full and it was so bright
that you could literally read by it. “The boys”, as we like to
call them, became true converts to the boating life. Except for
a few minutes spent on shore on one of the tiny Tobago Cay
islands behind us, we spent about 72 hours without touching
land, and everyone loved it. Rick loved the idea of going from
the big boat, to the little boat (the dinghy), out to the reef
to snorkel, and then back to the boat again so that the whole
day was spent on the water. We had a perfect vacation together.
On Sunday, we picked up anchor and sailed over to Union Island.
We took a little detour close to Petite Martinique(Grenada)just
to extend the sail by a bit since it was an absolutely gorgeous
day to sail. By about 2:00 we were anchored behind the reef at
Union Island – another beautiful anchorage, but not quite
as magical as Tobago Cays. The anchorage is right near the
airport at Union, so we were scanning the skies looking for
Shirley, Cathy and Brock’s plane to arrive from Barbados. We
are pretty sure we saw it land – just after 2:00. We dinghied
over to shore to look for lunch and our new guests. It is a
small island, but it was still a fun surprise to walk into a
restaurant and find them all sitting at a table – the only
people in the whole restaurant. Later that evening we all went
out to the very nice Bougainvillea Restaurant to celebrate
Shirl’s 80th birthday. It was a beautiful place and the dinner
was lots of fun. Pina Colada’s for everyone – with doubles for
the hard-core drinkers (like Mom).
Today, Monday, we brought Leon and Ricky in from the boat and
met everyone else down by the dinghy dock. We all walked to the
airport (a 4 minute walk) to send Leon and Ricky home. It was
sad to say goodbye having spent such an amazingly fun week
together. After provisioning the boat as best we could, we
returned to the Tobago Cays with our new guests late this afternoon.
L.