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.
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