Cruising Log for Tobago - June 1998

Here are a few useful tips on Tobago. We spent about ten days there.

• During the sail down from Grenada and back you will have to fight a lot of strong east to west currents pushing against you. If you use your GPS, you will be amazed by the readings of your true headings!  If you pay attention though, it will shorten your trip.

• You clear in and out of customs in Scarborough (the capital). It is a long slog to Scarborough from the other side of the island. It's upwind and against a fairly strong current.  It can be a two to four hour sail from Crown Point.

• When you clear in, you will be asked for your itinerary. It is because you have to get permission to sail to any of the harbors on the eastern side of the island, as they are very unprotected from the prevailing winds. We did not get cleared for that side, since the winds were very strong during our entire trip (30+Knots).

• The island sits along a northeast to southwest axis, which results in many of the harbors being exposed. From the guidebooks that we read, we were very interested in sailing to the harbors on the northern tip of the island and those just southeast of that tip. When we didn't get permission, we were very disappointed. When we toured the island by land, however, and viewed these harbors from shore, we were very glad that we didn't try to sail into them (looking at the winds and currents there).

• The island tour is well worth it. We rented a car and drove ourselves.
  The people of Tobago are very quiet and friendly. The surroundings are less developed than other islands in the Caribbean, but they are trying to catch up fast. There were several hotels and two new golf courses being built when we were there. Some points to visit: the fort near Mt. Irvine Bay, the bird sanctuary near Mt. Irvine Bay, Carib's Leap, snorkeling at Mt. Irvine Bay (center of the beach), at Bucco Reef (all over!) and at Charlotteville (north side of harbor, near the entrance).

• We stopped at the following anchorages: Scarborough, Crown Point, Mt. Irvine Bay, Pigeon Point and Charlotteville. None of them represented a problem from the point of view of anchoring or access. A few of them were "lumpy" due to the high winds, but that didn't represent a problem.

• Our sail back was maginficent! We left from Charlotteville at 3 a.m. with a bright moon and 25+ knots of quartering seas. The phosphorescence was fascinating, as were the flying fish. To make matters even better, the comet was visible during our whole vacation and was very clear during the sail back. It took us about 11 hours to get to Prickly Bay.