Tobago Cays and the Turtles

We arrived in Tobago keys quite late in the day. It was a windy day and Tobago Cays offers very little to no shelter from the wind. The sea doesn’t get rough because of the massive reef protecting the whole east side of the islands. But the sea gets a little choppy and seeing Turtles is much harder. We had heard all about the Turtles and were so excited. Some folks had said they are everywhere but when we arrived late that afternoon we saw none. I was mildly concerned.

Well all that concern disappeared the following morning when I woke up early as normal and enjoyed the peacefulness of the morning with my morning coffee. What followed was best described as feeling like I was in the Turtle sanctuary at an aquarium. Turtles everywhere. Swimming past our boat. Diving down, swimming on the surface and feeding on the grass below. It was surreal.

When the kids woke up we started to explore and snorkel with them. In the Tobago Cays it seems the Turtles have become largely accustomed to people and are not afraid. If you swim without any big fast movements, they will hold their course and you can really get close. All of us had wonderful experiences and really got to see them up close. With so many turtles everywhere is was obvious the kids would be doing a project on Turtles.

Please see the blog post with their project. As usual I learnt a huge amount and effectively my kids learning has become mine also. Who knew that Turtles have a built in GPS?

Other than Turtles, Tobago Cays brought us a fabulous group Braai (BBQ) on the beach, a great dive on the reef, the Tobago Cays Cup and Ryan’s wonderful bonfire birthday in the rain.

Lets start with the Tobago Cays Cup. The entire Caribbean season of Smartkat racing will get its own post also but here goes a short version. This was the second regatta we had hosted after the Bequia Cup. In Bequia we managed to get 6 teams racing and was great fun but this time we got 16!. The growth in interest was incredible and it largely comes down to the format. Kids skipper and parents/adult are crew. And what fun it is. Well Tobago Cays brought loads more wind than Bequia and things started pretty rough with the first race bringing multiple capsizes. Many of the youngsters were a little scared but most of them persisted and at times I worried that the parents were becoming a little to competitive. It was often audible through the wind the shouts of Dad’s and Mom’s on the boat. Weren’t the parents supposed to be crew?

The format was simple. We broke the teams into 4 flights with 4 teams per flight. Each flight raced each other in a round robin format with each team having 3 races. The winner of the flight went through to the Semi Final and then obviously the final. Races began at 9am and we were contesting the Final just before 2pm. So it was a long day but wonderful with lots of very competitive races. The kids and parents had a marvellous time.

All deserve honourable mention but Team Waterdogs and Luna Bay II made it to the final with Luna Bay II finishing as overall winners in a very tight final race. For me the highlight was seeing the pride of Adam having got Kenning to sail in the final race. If you knew Kenning you would know this was no small feat by Dad. Both beamed with their result. Not the first place.

BRONZE - Team Waterdogs with Mimi on the helm and her Dad Gavin as Crew

SILVER - Team Liv with Alma and her father Jonas

GOLD - Team Luna Bay II with Ryan/Kenning (they interchanged) and Dad Adam as Crew

Team

After the events of the day. All the families and more went down to the beach where Michael had prepared a feast of meat. The boats all brought various sides to share and beers and a very festive time was had on the beach. Later that evening we all bobbed home on our little dingy’s.

Finally, we managed to squeeze in a dive with Adam and Mara. They didn’t really enjoy it but Delphine and I ended up all alone holding the guide bouy and just carried on. We had a lovely dive with the highlight stumbling onto a sleeping Turtle and the massive crab inside the soft cylinder coral.

After a few days away, we returned to Tobago Cays for Ryan’s birthday. A celebration on the beach with a bonfire and marshmallows. All a brilliant idea accept the weather didn’t play its part. But we still all had a great time bar a few injuries. Worth mentioning though was the journey home in the dingy with rough seas and a very dark night and perhaps a ill advised decision to travel home a different way than we had come. The problem was I didn’t think I would be able to find the body that marks the very small channel through the reef and so I decided I would take the safe route around the south side of the reef. However I didn’t realise how far south that the reef actually went. What should have been a 10min ride home probably took 30min and was more than a little scary at times. Alls well that ends well they say.

Tobago Cays will always be remembered for the beautiful turquoise water and the turtles but certainly great friends make the place even more special.