Tobago, Lesser Antilles
Dawn broke after a night of smooth sailing and found the Sea Cloud IIoff the southernmost nation of the Lesser Antilles chain, the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Our anchorage was a very beautiful bay named Man O’ War Cove due to the myriad magnificent frigatebirds constantly circling overhead – their piratical lifestyle, stealing in mid-flight from other birds, having earned them this infamous name.
After a fascinating presentation by our onboard historian, Dr Robyn Woodward, on the original peoples of the area and the dramatic effects of the discovery of this part of the world by Europeans, we decided to make the most of this beautiful spot and lowered the Sea Cloud II swim platform to dive into the warm Caribbean waters and luxuriate on floating mattresses tethered to the ship.
In the early afternoon, we had the opportunity to explore this beautiful island and disembarked in the town of Charlottesville, a sleepy little fishing village where old wooden houses were nestled under giant breadfruit trees. We boarded small mini-vans and traveled up a steep road that cut through dense tropical vegetation, crossing over a peninsula to Tyrrel’s Bay that overlooks the beautiful offshore islet of Little Tobago. This tiny islet is a seabird sanctuary and breeding ground for frigate birds, boobies, and most spectacular of all, thousands of red-billed tropic birds. To get there we braved a ride in rickety glass-bottom boats (the adventure continues!) run by local fishermen and traveled over a small patch of coral reef named Angel Reef - the highlight of which was undoubtedly seeing what is reputedly the world’s largest brain coral: twelve by sixteen feet! We landed on a makeshift dock, our collective experience in expeditionary landings coming very much in handy, and started walking up to the top of the islet where we were surrounded by hundreds of tropic birds in flight, their raucous courtship calls resounding on the surrounding cliffs despite the crashing waves below – truly an unforgettable sight!
Returning to the dock, we were greeted by rum punch and local beer before returning to our beautiful ship at dusk, having had our fill of land and ready to be back on the sail.
Dawn broke after a night of smooth sailing and found the Sea Cloud IIoff the southernmost nation of the Lesser Antilles chain, the twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Our anchorage was a very beautiful bay named Man O’ War Cove due to the myriad magnificent frigatebirds constantly circling overhead – their piratical lifestyle, stealing in mid-flight from other birds, having earned them this infamous name.
After a fascinating presentation by our onboard historian, Dr Robyn Woodward, on the original peoples of the area and the dramatic effects of the discovery of this part of the world by Europeans, we decided to make the most of this beautiful spot and lowered the Sea Cloud II swim platform to dive into the warm Caribbean waters and luxuriate on floating mattresses tethered to the ship.
In the early afternoon, we had the opportunity to explore this beautiful island and disembarked in the town of Charlottesville, a sleepy little fishing village where old wooden houses were nestled under giant breadfruit trees. We boarded small mini-vans and traveled up a steep road that cut through dense tropical vegetation, crossing over a peninsula to Tyrrel’s Bay that overlooks the beautiful offshore islet of Little Tobago. This tiny islet is a seabird sanctuary and breeding ground for frigate birds, boobies, and most spectacular of all, thousands of red-billed tropic birds. To get there we braved a ride in rickety glass-bottom boats (the adventure continues!) run by local fishermen and traveled over a small patch of coral reef named Angel Reef - the highlight of which was undoubtedly seeing what is reputedly the world’s largest brain coral: twelve by sixteen feet! We landed on a makeshift dock, our collective experience in expeditionary landings coming very much in handy, and started walking up to the top of the islet where we were surrounded by hundreds of tropic birds in flight, their raucous courtship calls resounding on the surrounding cliffs despite the crashing waves below – truly an unforgettable sight!
Returning to the dock, we were greeted by rum punch and local beer before returning to our beautiful ship at dusk, having had our fill of land and ready to be back on the sail.
