Lyn's Log, 7th June 2006
Tobago

Scarborough, Tobago.
S11º11', W60º44'
10,640 miles.

We would have arrived at Scarborough, Tobago around midnight on 20th May, but as the main harbour has a notorious rocky reef outside we decided not to enter in the dark. So we hove to and drifted for several hours offshore before making our entrance at dawn. We were now arriving on a Sunday, which meant we had to pay overtime fees to the authorities. They are quite strict about reporting arrival immediately regardless of time or day or night, even if it means the officials have to get up to see you! If we had realised we were going to have such a fast trip we might have stayed another day in the islands of Salut. Anyway, it was great to be back in civilisation and have a comfortable sleep well into the morning. The Customs and Immigration were very pleasant and did not take very long. We found an ATM and got some Trinidad dollars, some bread, and later looked for a restaurant. Being Sunday afternoon, nearly everywhere was closed, but a KFC was open and we were tucking into fried chicken and chips, with red banana drink, listening to calypso music. As we listened we realised it was a song about being careful during carnival not to sleep with anyone or you might wake up dead! It was not the only time we heard songs with AIDS messages.

People here drove on the left and spoke English – well sort of. It kept taking us by surprise when stallholders spoke as we passed, and instead of us just looking blankly in ignorance, as we had through the sucession of Portuguese speaking countries, found we did understand despite the accent and perhaps should respond.

One day we went on a day trip around the island. There were just us and the driver, who chatted away giving us lots of information. He showed us the cocoa tree, of which there are many, broke the shell of a bean pod exposing the seeds inside. We sucked the white substance off the seeds and tasted the chocolate flavour. When the seeds are dried, they are ground to make the cocoa. We viewed many of the beautiful beaches and forest scenery. There was one long high ridge across the island but the rest was extremely hilly with houses built on stilts somehow attached to the pinnacles or beside the winding roads dug into the hillsides. We stopped at Englishman’s Bay and had a short swim and a drink, and then later at a restaurant built around the branches of a tree right on the beach. The lunch provided here was as excellent as the location. We drove through the forest and made another stop where, with a guide, we visited a three-tiered waterfall. The bottom pool was deep and people were feeding the fish. We clambered up to the middle pool which was about six feet deep and swam under the shower of the waterfall from above. The guide pointed out to us a tree whose fresh leaves could make shampoo, boiled dried leaves made a tea to relieve flu symptoms, and the centre of the stalks made cigarette filter tips. There were cocoa trees, bread fruit and bread nut trees, huge Japanese canes, and some pretty birds. Lastly we drove to Fort George on the high hill by the port, beside the lighthouse, where we could see our yacht and much of the island.

Andrew had to see a dentist and will have to have a tooth pulled in a few days time, so we decided we could sail round the island in that time, clockwise. I’m not sure why this was the recommended way to go because we had adverse current for 70% of the way. The first short leg was round to Store Bay, rounding the far southwest flat peninsular on which was the airport and runway. This was a rather pretty anchorage and very popular. There was easy landing on the beach, a small town and buses to Scarborough for greater shopping when needed. There was a cooling breeze in the bay and the water was magnificent for swimming or snorkelling around the rocks near the shore.

The next day we sailed to Parlatuvier Bay, although the last third of the way we motored due to making little headway against the wind on the nose and the adverse current, and then a blinding downpour. One other yacht came to join us. We anchored not far from a concrete fishing dock where we could get in and out of the dinghy with dry feet. Andrew collected a few jerrycans of water from a tap on the dock. It looked like the weather would not make for pleasant anchoring further east along the island, so we stayed here two nights. Just up the road we tried to find a waterfall mentioned in our guidebook. We crossed the little river and followed a track up high into the hills for an hour or so through thick jungle until it eventually petered out into a stony stream. Here we decided that either there wasn't a waterfall after all, or we had come the wrong way, so we went back down. This time we followed the river's edge round a bend, to discover we had been right by the waterfall at the start. There was no-one around so we bathed in the cool water, took some photos, and returned refreshed. We may have taken the wrong track at first but it had been worth it for the scenery.

The next afternoon we went to Man-of-War Bay and Charlotteville in the northwest of the island, where I bought a cap to replace the one I had just lost at sea, some fruit and two cold beers. Andrew did not go ashore.

The next morning we made our way north and east between the island and its off-lying rocks, one of which is a complete arch called locally 'London Bridge.' The water became extremely rough in this area, one of the roughest spots we have encountered anywhere with fierce cross-currents, complicated by a very dangerous unmarked rock just beneath the surface where we could see the water swirling as we passed. As we came around the northeast corner of the island and started heading south to go inside Little Tobago, the sea smoothed a little but the current increased to 4 knots against us. We motored sailed through the worst of it. It eased off somewhat as we headed west again along the south coast of the island, but did not become favourable until we were nearly back to Scarborough again, in good time before nightfall.