Grenada - Back Again

Well we had a nice final week in Tobago. From Plymouth we went to Castara Bay where we were able to hike with Linda & Steve (Seaman's Elixir) to a beautiful waterfall and freshwater pool. We then spent some time in Englishman's Bay snorkeling one of the nicest reefs we've ever seen. We were glad we snorkeled it because the next day we got a bunch of rain that murkied up the water. Our final stop in Tobago was Charlotteville which is a small fishing village that is out of the way for most tourists. We were hoping to fill up with cheap diesel while we were there (cost was about US$0.95/gallon), but unfortunately the local gas station was out of diesel and gasoline and didn't get a new shipment while we were in town. We now know we should've filled up our jerry jugs when we were over in Store Bay with easy access to fuel. We have really enjoyed Tobago and we hope to come back next year. Our only complaint had to do with the procedure for clearing out of immigration. There is only one office, so we had to take a taxi from Charlotteville to Scarborough and it took an hour and a half each way, plus an hour wait. We were sad that we had to spend our last afternoon in paradise trying to get our paperwork arranged instead of taking a hike or going snorkeling. But other than that, Tobago was an amazing island and we were glad to have the chance to see it.

We arrived back in Grenada yesterday after an interesting crossing. They are putting a new oil rig in the ocean north of Tobago and of course it's new home just happened to be right on our course line and we just happened to be there as they were installing it. We could see it miles away on the horizon (it was a huge structure like you'd see in the Gulf of Mexico). It was being towed by a tug --quite a sight, this tiny boat pulling this massive thing along at about 1 knot. So we had to go around and give him a two-mile berth. Then an enormous motor tanker comes whizzing by (well, "whizzing" in boat terms -- going 14 knots) and wants to pass by both us and the tanker, so it was a little nerve-wracking being within 1 nautical mile of this huge ship. Normally we prefer to keep our distance from those guys. But both the tanker and the tug/rig knew we were there and we were in VHF contact with them, so we weren't too worried about getting run over! Shortly after that we joined up with a rain cloud going exactly our speed and direction, so we were soaked by the time we made it to the marina at Clarkes Court Bay. It was definitely Miller Time, which translates to "Carib Time" in Grenada. We headed up to the bar and met back up with some old friends, Barb & Chris (Moonsail) who are going to be managing the marina for a month while Bob takes a vacation. We plan to leave the boat (and our cat, Boris) here under their expert care when we come home for a visit next week. Looking forward to seeing everyone back home!

Where we are:
Location=Clarkes Court Bay Marina, Grenada
Lat=12 00.628
Lon=61 44.349