Tobago

We've come to Tobago. We spent about two weeks in St Vincent and Bequia, making a few dives and taking care of laundry, fuel and a few other items. We survived a strong Tropical Wave that came through last weekend and in a suitable window we set off for Tobago.

We cleared in at Scarborough, the capital in the south. This was probably a mistake as the harbour was unwelcoming and we immediately went back the way we'd came to anchor at Crown Point at the extreme southwest end of the island.

We travelled up the north coast of Tobago and tried a few dives. Visibility was never great but we found good enough vis at Englishman's Bay and Man of War Bay. We went around to Speyside at the extreme northeast of the island and although the anchorage was OK we didn't dive. The currents were ripping and the vis was poor. We left to come back around to Charlotteville and found ourselves motoring through confused seas of 10-15 feet! The effect of a 4 knot current meeting an Atlantic swell. Once around the corner the conditions eased substantially.

We'll spend a few more days in Man of War Bay at Charlotteville, repeating our earlier dives, before we leave for Trinidad.

Southward bound

Montserrat was our most northerly point of this year's cruise. Last year we visited the Virgin Islands and most of the eastern Caribbean islands to Antigua before skipping down to The Grenadines. This year we've filled in the gaps and by July 1st we plan to be back in Trinidad.

We stopped only briefly in Guadeloupe and Dominica, and a little longer in Martinique. This time we tried several dives in the north of the island, near St Pierre, and found them as good as those in the south. In the south we took a 6 mile dinghy round trip to dive Diamond Rock. Overall, Martinique has been the diving discovery this year as St Croix was last year.

Now we're briefly in St Lucia and in two days we'll arrive in St Vincent and The Grenadines for a slightly longer stay. Then, if the weather permits, we'll shoot for Tobago on our way to Trinidad.