Tobago ho!

We are finally on the move again. We had a lot of fun in Trinidad, meeting new friends, exploring parts of the island, and going on lots of long walks with the dogs, but our hull was getting super crusty with barnacles, and we hadn't been able to swim for more than 2 months (there is a lot of oil and fuel in the water). It was time for a change.

On Friday Sept 6, we raised anchor (which was also crusty with barnacles), went from the TTSA anchorage to the Chaguaramas area to fuel up, then hopped over to Scotland Bay on the west side.

We woke up Saturday to the sound of monkeys and birds, rather than car horns and loud music. It was lovely being more remote.

We spent most of Saturday cleaning the hull and preparing for our travel to Tobago. We had official word that we would be able to take the dinghy over to Chaguaramas to clear out with customs and immigration, then we could go bay hopping east​​​, planning to arrive in Tobago after a few relaxing days of travel.

On Sunday morning, we went in early, visited immigration to get our travel papers, then customs to get the boat clearance papers. I asked for confirmation that it would be ok for us to stop at Maracas Bay over night...<record scratch>...I got a completely different answer.

They told us that we were not to stop anywhere for any reason until we reached Tobago. If we had an emergency, we could stop, but then we would have to go back to Chaguaramas to clear back in, clear out again and start the passage all over.

Um. Ok...​

Suddenly our 4 hour day hop just became a 12.5 hour race against sunset (we strongly prefer not to go into an anchorage in the dark). It was 9am by the time we got back to the boat, and 9:30 by the time we raised anchor. Could we arrive before sunset?

Thankfully, we had some good advice about heading to Tobago from Trinidad. You want to hug the north coast of Trinidad, staying within a few miles of land, to avoid the worst of the current that runs east to west. Keep motoring directly east until you reach Grande Riviere, then turn north east. If you are very lucky, you will have enough wind angle to sail (or motor-sail) your way to Tobago during the last 4.5 hour stretch.

Our buddy boat (SV ROAM) left 30 minutes before us, and they are generally faster than we are when motoring, expecting to go 6-7 knots. We plan to go 5-6 knots under motor. They decided to follow the rhumb line (the direct path) from Trinidad to Tobago, since the forecast said that there wouldn't be much wind.

It turned out that our strategy worked! We arrived just ahead of ROAM, maintaining a higher average speed. They ended up fighting a strong current and motoring directly into the wind for quite a while. But we both managed to set the anchor just before sunset!

The sea state wasn't bad at all. The worst of it was in the open waters between Trinidad and Tobago, and even that wasn't terrible.

Early on, we had land-effect winds, where the warmer land caused the air to heat up and rise, drawing a breeze from the sea. It wasn't much wind, but it was something, and it was at just the right angle out of the north for us to be able to get a 0.5 knot boost in our speed.

Eventually this ran out and the dominant wind shifted to directly on our nose. But, once we turned away from land, we had a really good wind from the south east, again at a perfect angle to give us a good 1-1.5 knot speed boost.

After dropping anchor, we called customs to check in and let them know that we would go officially check in on Monday morning. They said no worries!

Monday morning, we called a taxi and went to immigration, handed over our packet of papers, then went to customs to check in and get our "bay hopping" permit. The process was easy and quick.

When we arrived back at the boat, ROAM decided to go one bay east. We hung out for a bit, had lunch, then raised anchor to join them. As we arrived, we were greeted by a massive storm. We got our anchor down just in time, and hunkered down for what ended up being several hours of high winds and lots of rain.

It was very wet and a bit uncomfortable, but nobody dragged anchor, and all was well.

We have been here for a week now, and it's been lovely. They have beautiful beaches with very soft sand, and clean, clear water. The pups have thoroughly enjoyed running on the beach, swimming in the water, and chasing the frisbee.

We have found everyone here to be friendly, helpful, and welcoming. The food is quite good, and it's easy to get a taxi to take you places. And there seems to be a more consistent breeze to help cool us off at anchor.

We really miss our friends from Trinidad, be we are also really glad we are here in Tobago. Here is a sample of pictures from our time here so far...