14 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It rained again last night and we had one squall with strong winds, which forced me out of bed at four o’clock to put up the spray hood to try to keep the cockpit dry.
It was sunny in the morning, so we went for a walk around the local area. There’s a really nice municipal beach, with lots of food stalls and even life guards. It’s a very popular place with the locals – the tourists go to another beach at Pigeon Point and have to pay £1.50 entry fee. We walked around the point and ended up at the airport, where we found a Tourist Office – Glenys found a flyer for a horse riding centre – she hasn’t been riding since we’ve been on the boat.
On the way back to the boat, we called back into the municipal beach and bought a take away “Crab and Dumpling” for lunch. We only just made it back before it poured it down. “Crab and Dumpling” is the national dish for Tobago, but we weren’t impressed at all. It consisted of crabs legs cooked in a curry sauce with rubbery, flat pieces of stodgy cassava dumpling. We struggled for ten minutes trying to get some meat out of the crabs’ legs and then, in danger of starving to death, we gave up and had a cheese sandwich.
It cleared up in the afternoon, so we went snorkelling in the afternoon, but the visibility in the water is less than two metres, so we only persevered for fifteen minutes.
15 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It was sunny in the morning, so I did some jobs. Our deck is topped with teak planking, which is screwed down to the fibre glass deck. The screw heads are then covered with 10mm teak plugs. I had over a dozen plugs that have come worked loose over the past few months, so I spent a pleasant hour removing the screws, drilling a deeper hole and then replacing the screws and plugs.
I’ve been a bit worried about our batteries (again!) Recently, we’ve had to run the generator for an hour a day to make sure that the batteries still have 50% charge left at the end of each night. I suspected that we might have a dud battery, which is pulling the others down. I disconnected all six of the batteries, left them for an hour and then measured the voltage on each of them, but they all stayed at the same voltage of 12.3 Volts. This is not a very conclusive test, so I spent a couple of hours on the Internet researching into electronic battery testers and ordered a simple one that should give me a good indication of the state of each battery. It only cost £60 and I’m hoping that it will be worth its weight in gold over the coming years. Craig will bring it out with him at Christmas.
Glenys has booked us both on a two hour horse ride tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to with mixed feelings.
16 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
First thing in the morning, we went to the beach, chained the dinghy to a wire fence and then stood outside the local beach bar. With typical Caribbean humour, it’s called Bago’s Bar. Why’s that funny? Try “We’re going to Bago’s Bar”. Not got it yet? How about “We goin’ Tobago’s Bar” … in Tobago…
We were picked up by Lennon, who, with Veronica, runs the riding stables. They have five horses and are lovely people. They only take small groups and only take their horses out once a day. We had a great time. Their horses are all thoroughbreds, which originate from Trinidad where racing is a big sport. Several of their horses are ex-race horses. They took us out on a short trail ride around the Buccoo Bay area, past the edge of the mangroves and onto the beach.
The tide was high and the surf was rolling onto the beach, so it was a challenge to persuade the horses to go around the Manchineel trees into the crashing surf. When we arrived at the end of the ¼ mile long beach, Veronica steered her horse into the sea and called for us to follow. Surprisingly the horses seemed to be okay with struggling along with the water lapping across their backs. At times my horse was swimming as it came across deeper patches. I wouldn’t say that the horse was enjoying it, but seemed resigned to the ordeal. It was hard work gripping with our knees as we had no saddle or stirrups and the pressure of the water was sweeping our legs back.
After fifteen minutes of wading, we climbed back onto the beach and returned to the stables, where we hosed down the tired horses. It was a fantastic experience and if you’re ever in Tobago give them a call (http://www.being-with-horses.com)
We returned back to the boat, had lunch and collapsed. It rained heavily in the afternoon, which prevented us from going into Scarborough to clear out, so we chilled out with a book.
17 November 2011 Store Bay to Mount Irvine Bay, Tobago
We went into Scarborough first thing in the morning, went to Immigration and told them that we’re going to the north of the island. We did a bit of shopping and posted our driving licenses back to the UK to get the address changed. Hopefully, they will process them quickly; send them to my brother Andrew, who can send them onto Brett and Craig, who can then bring them out at Christmas. It’s a logistical nightmare living on a yacht.
We motored around to Plymouth and anchored off the dock where the cruising guide suggested. Within five minutes a local fisherman came rowing out on a kayak and told us that we couldn’t anchor there because they put out seine nets very early in the morning and we would be in the way. We told him that we were going to spend the night in Mount Irvine Bay, which placated him.
Glenys made a roti for lunch and we ate it while watching the locals seine netting on beach. It’s a very labour intensive operation with 15-20 guys heaving the very long nets up the beach. They appeared to be getting a good catch of fish.
We motored around to Mount Irvine Bay, which is lovely with three nice looking beaches. We went snorkelling off the northern point. There was a huge amount of swell, with waves crashing on the rocky headland. This meant that the visibility was not very good and the surge made snorkelling a challenge.
18 November 2011 Mount Irvine Bay to Man of War Bay, Tobago
We were woken by loud music just after six in the morning as some sort of procession went by with a lorry loaded up with huge speakers and blaring out reggae. In the UK, they’d be arrested for noise nuisance, but here they had a police motorcycle escort.
We motored along the rocky coast to Englishman’s Bay. As we headed north, the coastline changed from low-lying sandy reefs to be more mountainous, with steep jungle coming down to the edge of the sea where the surf beats against rocky cliffs.
We anchored to the north of Englishman’s Bay which is cut out of the steep sided jungle with a lovely beach and coconut palms hanging over the pale sand. We did a scuba dive off the northern headland. The water was still a little murky, but it was a nice dive site. Our last dive was in Bonaire six weeks ago, so it great to get back in the water.
After lunch, we motored up to Man of War Bay and anchored off Pirate Bay. We went into Charlottesville and visited customs and immigration. The customs guy gave me a bit of a hard time because I hadn’t reported into the customs office in Scarborough, but he eventually chilled out.
We looked around the small town which has a few bars and shops. It is a very quaint little place, with a strong tradition in fishing. We went to a few shops and bars and discovered that no one sells beer in cans. In one bar, the girl looked at us like we were crazy as she shook her head and repeated “Beer in Cans?” This was a disaster as we only had six cans left in the fridge. Although glass has no place on a boat, we bought a case of bottled beer in desperation.
This is another beautiful anchorage. There’s an idyllic beach on the shore and we’re surrounded by steep-sided jungle, where we can hear parrots squawking as they fly in to roost in the evening.
19 November 2011 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Our mysterious “clacking” sound on the engine seems to be happening most of the time now, so I had another go at trying to pinpoint what it is. I ran the engine for a few minutes and initially, it all sounded OK, but then as I revved the engine, the “clacking” sound started. It appears to be coming from the front of the engine, but it’s very difficult to pinpoint. I switched the engine off and restarted and the “clacking” sound was not there initially, but started again when I revved the engine. It’s a mystery.
I gave up and we went for a dive on the northern point of the bay which was a great dive site – very interesting with lots of fish. We went to look for lobster, but alas none to be seen. Fifteen years ago, we were able to catch lobster “on demand” in this bay – have they been over exploited here?
After lunch, we chilled out for a while, and then I went snorkelling to try to catch some fish with my pole spear. I had an enjoyable hour or so, but only managed to spear a couple of flounder and a parrot fish. We saw loads of big snapper on our dive, but they are all in water deeper than 20 metres, which is beyond my spear fishing depth.
We had the flounder for dinner, but there wasn’t much meat; it was bland and a little mushy – I won’t bother with flounder again.
20 November 2011 Man of War Bay, Tobago
I woke up at four o’clock worried about the engine, trying to decide what to do. The “clacking” sound appears to be getting worse, so I need to find out what it is and get it fixed, before something breaks. I lay there agonising about where to get it fixed – do I go back to Trinidad and get Gittens to sort it out? I know that Falco is very good at his job and would sort it out, but do I want to spend another two weeks in Trinidad? The alternative is to go to Grenada, but it takes longer to get things done there. It kept me awake for an hour.
I did some more investigation on the engine. I found that when the engine is first turned on at low revs, then it sounds OK. Revving the engine a few times will start the “clacking noise”, which will be continuous until I drop the revs back to idle, when it disappears. Having established that I can reproduce the fault, I removed both fan belts to see if it was faulty bearings in the alternators or the water pump, but it made no difference. It sounds like it’s at the front of the engine, so I think that it is either the fuel pump, injector pump or valve clearances on the camshaft. In any case it’s something that I can’t fix, so we’ve decided to go to St David’s Harbour in Grenada later this week, where there is a Volvo dealer.
It rained in the morning, so we went for a dive after lunch. We dinghied over to the south side of the bay to look at an isolated rock, with breaking waves. I stuck my head under water and it looks like it’s a huge pinnacle, but unfortunately the swell was too great for us to anchor off it. We went to the shore and did an OK dive – still no sign of lobster.
I chilled out for the rest of the afternoon reading a book, but Glenys felt dynamic and scrubbed the waterline.