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.

BEQUIA to CANOUAN TOMORROW FOLLOWED BY SOME TIME IN THE TOBEAGO CAYS

Of South tomorrow. I was going today and it would have been OK as it turned out but the online weather radar was showing some heavy showers and squalls last night so another day in Beautiful Bequia.

Chris Doyle's cat spotted anchored off the Fig Tree.

BLOOMIN BEQUIA

The mangoes and breadfruit are plumping up.

The flowers are coming out.

It must have been all that rain.

But the sunsets are still the same.

FERRIES and SUNSETS

They work hard at keeping the ferries well painted. There are two more ferries run by the Jaden line that are not in shot. That makes eight or nine ferries where there is only traffic for three at the most.



What makes it even more curious is that all the ferries belong to one extended family.

We have had a wide variety of sunsets as the weather has been pretty disturbed of late.

In some the Lords and Ladies of the sunset have gone for the technicolour look and used their fluorescent acrylics but in others it has been the subtle approach and the pastel palette.

WET WET WET

Did I say it was wet?

Nothing to do with the group just the weather for the last few days. Badly needed rain has been thundering into the islands and flooding the roads dinghies and water tanks of the islanders and cruisers. I could have filled the tanks many times over if I was set up to collect water off the decks.

The swell has gone around to the North too which means that I am getting a little roll even tucked up as I am in the NE corner of Admiralty Bay.

I have been out to the Devils table a couple of times before the swell arrived and on the second visit saw not just one lionfish but at least seven and it could have been more as they were moving around. The conservation group I report to tells me they have spread down as far as Trinidad and have made it out to Tobago. As luck would have it I had not bothered taking my camera due to the dull conditions, so no pics. They would not have been much good anyway as they were 15 to 20 feet down and hiding in the shadows.

Here is a pic of a couple of grand old ladies of the ocean both on charter, one a rich mans folly built of all the latest composite fibres in the Royal Huisman Shipyard and driven by the latest high tech sails, the other built on the beach here in Bequia and driven by some well worn canvas.

But both are up to the job of keeping charter guests content.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION

OF BEQUIA

Others may circle the world. We have just circled Bequia.

First it was over to the mainland and snuggled up in Young Island Cut so I could visit the flesh pots of Kingstown.

Then it was an early strt and the short sail over to Battowia which is really only a lunch stop on a quiet day with the winds south of East. I swam ashore and got a pic of some turtle tracks but there did not seem to be any nest sites.

I snorkeled around looking for lionfish and saw two quite deep. They were under a shelf and the shots I got just did not come out. If seems that they are spreading even more rapidly than was feared with reports from both Trinidad and Tobago of sightings.

Then it was over to Friendship Bay for a night stop and a walk ashore to see what is going on with the different hotels. Only one seemed to have customers. Times are bad.

A stop off at my favourite snorkel spot behind Petit Nevis. I aslo stopped next day at Quatre Vents before heading back to Admiralty Bay civilization and WIFI!
I spotted this pretty little dinghy at the dock. A change from the ubiquitous rib with 15hp outboard.

The fish cleaners were at work leaving evidence of their gutting and cutting in the water.

I treated myself to a luch out and there saw evidence of a more unusual restaurant visitor in the shape of a goat. Only in Bequia.

BROWN BOOBIES, BEACH BOATYARD and BIG STUFF

It was a noisy morning with much splashing as two brown boobies worked a shoal of bait fish right beside Elephants Child. The fish were frantically trying to escape as they were harried from below by some predatory fish while the boobies snacked on them from above.

The owner/builder/designer of Confusion a winner in her day were again hard at work on the beach making some last minute alterations in the search for more speed.

But although she went well it was not to be this year.


A different class of boat handling was shown here. This mosquito tanker wriggled her way in through the anchored boats to the 4 mooring buoys that position her in the exact spot where she can pick up the sunken hose through which she delivers her cargo ashore.

No busy tugs to push her nose around. No bow thruster to push it around either. But a carefully laid anchor pulled the bow around through the wind which enabled the crew to throw the first line to the local speed boat which was all the help he had.

It has been blowing hard at times the last few days and here is someone who will be looking for the local sail loft.