June 30, 2009

Pitons Still

We spent a week in the Pitons, what a glorious place. We took the opportunity to snorkel every corner, play endlessly on the beach and tour about the country side. We hiked to the volcano, which is collapsed so you can go into the cone and see the sulfur, water and steam being emitted. Further down the volcano you could bath in the pools of water that are black from all of the mineral content. We then hiked into some natural water falls with the same original source, but by then cooler and purged of the mineral content so crystal clear.

We left the Pitons at about midnight to sail to the Grenadines, having one of the best sails we have had in a long time, perfect winds and very light seas. We in fact skipped our initial destination and sailed another 30 miles to the southern Grenadines settling in the Tobago Cays. The Tobago Cays are a set of uninhabited cays that are protected by the Horseshoe Reef to the east, such that you literally anchor with full exposure to the Atlantic ocean with only the reef breaking the seas. The snorkeling has been outstanding. There are several small beaches, we have been on a mission to visit each. There are several turtles here that have been relaxed in their feeding so you could snorkel quite near them.

Beyond Horseshoe Reef to the east lies, Worlds End Reef. Conditions were clam enough for us to snake the dinghy through Horseshoe Reef and make it out to Worlds End for a snorkel. Great barrier reef that clearly sees little activity given its exposure to ocean swells and the difficulty of getting there through the other reefs. After we finished our snorkel we turned around and headed back to the anchorage, quite frankly we dared not go any farther.

Well weather and time close in now. There is quite a wave forecast for later this week (waves become depressions become storms become hurricanes). This one is the strongest we will have seen yet but not nearly strong enough to move into depression category. We have a haul out date in Grenada mid July so we will likely let this wave pass then make the last miles to Grenada.

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