CANOUAN and THE TOBAGO CAYS

A wild night in Canouan
We had a pleasant sail down from Bequia to Canouan in benign conditions and sat at sundown enjoying our drinks in the cockpit although we had some rain showers. Belle was tired from the days sailing and found she had left her hatch open above her bunk. We all do this [ once ! ] I got my head down too, but the squalls kept coming and the winds got stronger. Canouan harbour is a bowl and the winds swirl around coming from all directions and the rain storms were intense. So neither of us got much sleep until morning when the wave went through. I was slightly doubtful about heading to the cays but by the time my second cup of coffee was going down the skies were brightening so we made the short passage over to a little piece of paradise that is called the Tobago Cays.

Turtles in the Tobago Cays
Belle had snorkeled for the first time in Bequia and I was hoping for easy conditions in the Cays which was what we found. We spotted the first turtle within 30 seconds of getting in the water and as viz was so good it was easy to follow the one we spotted and also pick up others grazing on the seagrass..

One was missing a rear leg but we saw that three leggers do OK

I was working around the edge of the buoyed area when I spotted the biggest stingray I have seen so far at least three feet across and more than seven feet long. Mindful of Steve Irwin's fate I kept a safe distance.

The next morning we went snorkeling again this time in a spot where the fish hang out over coral heads. As well as the usual surgeons and parrot fish Belle drew my attention to a big spotted bat ray with a tail gunner. I am not sure what this parrot fish was doing but he was keeping station under the back of the rays body.

It looks like there is a healthy population of adult conch in the cays, this one was typical with a good lip which is the sign on a sexually mature adult. I also saw quite a few lobster of a good size, certainly well past the minimum but people must be restraining themselves from picking them up.

Finally I had my usual scene stealing upstaging little spotted box fish putting on a show for me.

Back on board the cheeky grackle which had been taking bread from Belle's hand in the cockpit had found the mother lode inside the cabin and pecked through the plastic cover to get to the good stuff.

Rubbish in paradise
Some people are just rubbish. They leave this sort of stuff on the perfect beach as well as carving their pithy messages on agave leaves and tree trunks.

Lots of iguanas spotted on Baradel, this was good news as the last two times I had visited they had been none on view and I wondered if some needy local had harvested them. Iguana meat fetches more that steak in the market here.