The island of Tobago lies to the east of the north-south line of the traditional routes for the eastern Caribbean cruisers as such it can be a difficult beat to windward. Therefore most cruising boats do not venture here which is quite a shame for such a beautiful tropical island but the upside is you have it mostly to yourself. Tobago therefore is much less developed than its neighboring islands of Trinidad, Grenada and Barbados with smaller villages and towns and fewer resorts and tourist attractions. The locals are very friendly and were very helpful to us for directions and information when we needed it. We were also invited fishing with Joe a local fisherman in Charlotteville which Devin did on a few occasions which was a wonderful way to develop understanding between locals and cruisers about each other.
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| Devin fishing with Joe |
Charlotteville is a wide bay with plenty of room to anchor however there are areas of fishing zones for pirogues that use the shallow water by the pier so we anchored in 40' which is normal, keeping out of the shallow water to allow locals to use their seine nets to fish as well. We visited Pirates Bay a few times with our friends to enjoy the beach and snorkeling as well as the fresh water stream to wash off the salt water. Snorkeling is fairly average in both Pirates Bay and Booby island but in both cases we enjoyed nearby beaches to spend an afternoon exploring as well. We all took some exercise and mango collecting opportunities on the nice walk out of town to Fort Cambleton which overlooks Booby Island and the Man of War bay for some nice pictures as well.
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| Fort Cambelton |
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| Charlotteville |
The south coast of Tobago is exposed to the tradewinds and Atlantic swells so after reviewing Doyle's guide we opted to visit a few towns by bus instead of anchoring there. The buses in Tobago are not as reliable as you might hope but they do support the local school kids and commuting workers so it seems buses early morning and later afternoon do run but the midday buses are less reliable so we had some periods of long waiting during that time.
We took a bus to Roxborough which is the nearest town with a bank and gas station for both gas and diesel as Charlotteville gas station is currently closed which was a huge shame as it would have been really easy to dinghy to the beach in front of it. There is a nice bakery, fruit and vegetable stall, pharmacy and general stores. The highlight here is through the town past the gas station to Argyle where there is a large 174' waterfall on the Argyle estate, but we were not that interested in the muddy walk and having to get on a bus afterwards that dirty.
We all took the bus to Speyside which is a very small village spread along the coast with a few very small resorts catering to the dive sites around Little Tobago. We stopped at Jemma's Treetops restaurant, a tour guide favorite, where we had a wonderful meal with lovely views of the bay and islands. Jemma's does not have a liquor license so only juices, soda and water are sold, we also found no diet soda is available as in most of Tobago. It is a very local menu with a few choices of main course as well as desserts served family style and we had a wonderful lunch.
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| Lunch at Jemmas |
We also ventured as a group to Scarborough which is the capital of Tobago and a large town spread out over the bay, the ferry from Trinidad docks here so the island's only other Customs and Immigration district is located here at the docks. As it is the other end of the bus route and for 8$TT each way it is a very nice way to see the south coast of Tobago. We got off the bus early to visit Fort King George which overlooks Scarborough from the nicely tended grounds of the fort. Some restoration of the fort has kept it in good order and a small museum is open for visitors so it's a must see. It's a good walk up to the fort and then back to the center of Scarborough and the dock area so we got in some exercise too. The town is busy with lots of local and US chain restaurants that you see so often. There are a few shopping malls and several supermarkets but everything is a little spread out so we had to walk quite a bit.
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| Fort King George |
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| The cannons |
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| The Museum |
The next stop along the north coast was Bloody Bay, it is a small bay with room for 3-4 boats and no dinghy dock. However we found several fishing pirogues moored here and seine netting from the beach. So after attempting to anchor here we gave up and all moved to Englishman's Bay.
Englishman's Bay is a postcard perfect beach and a good anchorage with no moored boats and no pier or dinghy dock. It is very protected in the bay despite 20 plus knots of trade winds outside the bay. The highlight here was Eula's restaurant on the beach which has a local menu of very reasonable price with cold beverages and beer. The snorkeling again was average around the eastern edge of the bay, fish are plentiful with very large schools of small fish inhabiting the shelter of the rocks. The swell does wrap into the bay if the wind is from the east or anything north of that, so we had a slight roll at anchor and few spills landing the dinghy.
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| Eula's |
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| Englishman's Bay |
We walked over the hill to Parlatuvier Bay which is a small village with a few variety stores and bars serving food as well. The redeeming feature is a 3 tiered waterfall called "Top Rivers Falls", just 5-10 minutes from the pier and dinghy dock.
A local fisherman pointed out the concrete path from the beach up to Glasgow's bar at Paradise Point which affords fabulous views of the harbor and a nice short cut returning to Englishman's bay.
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| Top Rivers Falls |
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| Parlatuvier |
Our next stop was Castara Bay, a lovely village nestled in the hills with easy beach access but no pier or dinghy dock so a beach landing was the only option. The village appears to be a very touristy with several villas and one prominent resort therefore there are a lot of bars and even a coffee shop in town most with wifi we could use.
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| Castara |
We went to another scenic waterfall within a 15 minute walk from the beach, behind Cheno's coffee shop where we found a happy combination of beer and ice-cream in one place! It is a delightful walk and very refreshing to bathe in the outfall pool in this tranquil setting.
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| Paradise is Beer and Ice Cream |
The next stop along the coast was the town of Plymouth & Great Courland Bay, the pier is unfortunately condemned and in any case was too high for dinghy access so we landed the dingoes on the beach. The area around Plymouth is generally much flatter than the other harbors visited so walking around town was very easy.
We walked to the Adventure Farm and Nature Reserve which is about 30 minutes or 1 mile from the pier. The reserve is very popular with bird watchers and many humming birds are fed regularly so they arrive at the ringing of the bell. There are several acres of grounds to walk around but they were a little disappointing as the ground was so dry this year due to a late rainy season start.
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| The feeders on the balcony |
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| Feeding the fish in the pond |
Moving on again we stopped at Mount Irvine Bay, which is a delightful bay with a few moorings near the north east by a public beach and the beach facilities there. We took a short 1 mile walk to the north to a small shopping area around a green triangle with pizza take away, grocery as well as a few bars and one restaurant. The walk also passes some local vendors selling roti which was so good we had to go again!
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| Local selling roti - delicious |
Our last stop in Tobago was at Store Bay / Milford Bay which is at the west end of The island and are near the only airport and therefore have more tourist activities and hotels as a result. There are 12 free mooring balls in the bay and like other visitors we used them in the 50' deep anchorage as it was so convenient.
We had a lovely day out to Buccoo Bay park and reef by local tour boat from Store Bay as no motorized craft are allowed inside the reef areas. We took a glass bottom boat tour leaving at 10am for the reef and stopped there for nearly an hour including a snorkel for 30 minutes. We then stopped at the Nylon Pool to bathe in the 2-3' deep water and use the coarse coral sand to exfoliate our skin. We had opted for an extension to the morning tour for a stop over at No Man's Land with our own packed lunch and coolers for a lazy beach day.
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| Waiting for the boat tour |
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| Entrance to the park |
There was a Dragon Boat festival on while we were at Store Bay and we walked to Pigeon Point park as it was free entrance during the festival. It is a delightful park and worth the effort to walk to for the nice sand beaches and small variety of restaurants/bars.
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| The dragon |
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| The dragon boats |
We checked out by taking the bus to Scarborough and clearing out with immigration and customs for Trinidad. It was another chance to find a great roti, so we discovered Rena's Roti shop which had fantastic made to order roti's.
The sail to Chaguaramas, Trinidad was an easy day sail with easy downwind sailing and a push from the current to help too.
