With all but the autopilot repaired from the lightning strike, we headed to Scotland Bay to stage for our overnight motor-sail to Tobago. This was to be our last trek heading east. It will be down hill from there back to the States. As we rounded the corner to the “boca”, the local term for inlet, a large pod of bottlenose dolphin approached the Adamo and began frolicking in the water and performing aerial acrobatic tricks the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
It was good to be sailing again, good to be heading to new islands.
We entered Scotland Bay, dropped anchor and Sue fixed an amazing pork tenderloin dinner. Our friends on L’Aventura planned to sail with us to Tobago. They had been stuck in Trinidad for three months and had missed the Orinoco river trip because they just could not get work completed. They got jerked around by a refrigerator guy for well over a month. They also had an engine rebuild. When you go cruising you often hear: “you’re living the dream”. Yep, but sometimes the dream is a nightmare. L’Aventura has had its share of those. They entered Scotland Bay and we waited for nightfall. I had purchased two Cuban cigars, one for the Adamo crew and one for the L’Aventura crew. As we sailed through the “boca” into the Caribbean Sea, we lit our stogies to celebrate our long awaited departure.
With a half moon out, light winds and a very calm sea it was looking like an easy passage. Then came the radio call an hour and a half into the trip. L’Aventura was loosing oil at an alarming rate out of the rebuilt engine. They were turning around to get it looked at by the people who did the rebuild. Yep, “living the dream!”
Our crossing was uneventful except for when Sue was at the helm and out of nowhere there was a spotlight dead ahead. The local fishermen sit in the dark out there and flash a light at you if you come close. She veered off about 100 feet away from it. It scared her to death. Fortunately, we had heard of this happening to others so we didn’t think it was pirates.
We were greeted in Tobago by a stunning sunrise and a beautiful un-crowded bay in Charlottesville. Phillip was ready to go “diving, diving, diving!” So after clearing in at immigration and customs, we hit the water. No luck spear fishing though. While we explored the bay we found fresh water rivers with waterfalls, great for showering and, Phillip being Phillip, also great for hunting.
He actually found giant crawfish and caught them using my shirt. An hour later we were eating sautéed crawdads as well as black fin tuna sushi we had purchased from a local fisherman. We were back in the saddle.
