Tobago Cays

The turtles turned out to be on the shy side we saw them surface around the boat, but as soon as we were in the water there was no evidence that they are around. We did some great snorkeling by Frigate Island and on the outer reef with Mike on Minx and one evening after 8 we snorkeled Frigate Island for lobster. Night time brings them out of their hiding as they feed at night and are easily spotted by the light of the dive light as it illuminates their eyes sparkling almost like little diamonds. We saw many of these delicious creatures but unfortunately they all were very small, the tail would have only been the size of a big shrimp and that's way too small. We did encounter a huge moray eel which was on the prowl as well.
The following day October 13th we had a nice Birthday celebration aboard Paradise with guests Cynthia and Mike. Dinner was wonderful and started with appetizer of lobster bits, baked over with Béchamel sauce and Parmesan (yes we did get two lobster which was just enough meat for an appetizer) presented on flat scallop shells, followed by wonderful pizza ala Minx, Spaghetti Carbonara Paradise style and for desert a Rhubarb crisp ala Manuela. We were so full every body vowed not eating for at least two days, well that vow was all forgotten the next day.
Cynthia and I ventured ashore to explore Ashton which is a very small town on Union island I don't think any tourists ever come here other than cruisers. Every third house was a grocery store of some sort which sold only the essentials. I had to laugh at the one store with the biggest sign "Variety and Grocery Store", so we went inside to find only old clothes and behind the counter a shelf was just below the ceiling which had 6 cans of sardines and two cans of tuna for sail = THE GROCERIES of course they were heavily dusted and too high up for reach. What we also noticed and I've been noticing in all the Grenadines and even Trinidad, pretty much every store has a if not two big posters of Obama on the walls. The locals were just super friendly and we had chats here and there and before we realized it, it was pasted lunch time, time to go back and feed our hungry men.
Cynthia had a dental appointment in Grenada and so they finally left Paradise alone in this beautiful and quite anchorage, the only visitors where the turtles. Unbelievably on October 16th we had our first thunderstorm of this hurricane season which missed us by one mile. This really has been a good year with mild tropical waves and this one was by far the wildest. We did get a lot of rain and each squall had high winds of 35 knots and in just one squall we collected enough water to fill our sun shower and even add about 15 gallons into our tank not to mention that mother nature cleaned Paradise of all the salt and dust, she sparkled.
The entire time since we left Grenada we've been trying to send our updates to our Blog with position reports but propagation was so bad we never got connected. We heard that the sun has lots of sun spots which interfere with radio waves, so our updates are not as frequent as we'd like, sorry.
It was time to head on as we are getting to the end of our stay in the Grenadines but not before we visit the beautiful Tobago Cays once more. Besides Sid's toe finally felt good enough to get going again. Sid jumped into the dinghy, hooked the engine up on the hoist, I hoisted the engine up onto the bracket, then Sid hooked up the dinghy on the davits and whoops he slipped on the dinghy floor and his big toe slammed into the transom of the dinghy. It hurt so bad I even had tears in my eyes. So his toe is back to being battled and bruised again. But we did move the next day and motor sailed the 9 miles to the Tobago Cays. Just after we had rounded the corner of the northwest side of Union the water turned into a washing machine and we had an almost 2 knot current with us pushing us into the oncoming swells, a mess and we were sure that we would have a wild ride all the way. But then we remember that last time on arrival we had the same effect and realized that it is a local condition with the currents wrapping around the north side of Union and sure enough the further we sailed away from the corner the calmer it got. Luck was on our side as we got lifted by the wind and never had to alter course until we arrived at the north end of Mayreau the wind did that for us. From here it was a short 2 miles hop to the entrance of the Tobago Cays were we anchored in our old spot and as the day went along charter boats joined us but left before sunset leaving us alone in this colorful and scenic place. We watched a movie after dinner and after that noticed some big fish swimming around the boat so Sid hung the light into the water. We never got to see the big fish but a shadow we thought was a turtle came closer and as it was just few feet away from Paradise we realized that our visitor was a baby manta, wow, how kewl is that. So we'll be here for a few days enjoying this beautiful part of the world taking in all the beauty nature has to offer. Including having some lobster delivered by one of the locals who recognized us from our last visit. Well, the lobsters were delivered and the size I had ordered but the arranged prize for 50 EC for two doubled on delivery, no thanks, I don't like to be scammed, so much for trying to support the locals.
While Sid was soaking his smashed toe in hot salt water I jumped into the salt water and snorkeled the reef behind us which was full of fish, I've never seen so many in one spot, I was literately surrounded by hundreds of fish from all shapes and colors, just amazing. Then of course I had to swim with the turtles again, but this time without my camera. I found groups of up to 6 turtles in one spot all munching away on the sea grass a sight I will never forget. Next to all the fish and turtles I spotted a good size sole and cuttlefish, how lucky could I get.
Remember the little bird that came visit us here last time flying down below surprising Tika? I wondered if she would come and visit us again and had some bread crumbs ready just in case. She never came until the last morning I had just opened my eyes wondering about that little bird and there she was sitting on the life line in the cockpit watching us sleep. I got up and moved the bread crumb dish to the captain's seat, while she watched flew to it and munched away for at least 10 minutes, she even cleaned up after the crumbs that fell on the floor. When she was all done she looked at us before flying off with a loud chirp, I guess she said "thank you".