Dinner for two and Tobago Cays

Further south in the Grenadines, we spent 2 nights anchored on our own at an uninhabited island, Baliceaux, the first since we were in the Canary islands. In 1795 the Carib Indians, who had mixed for a couple of generations with a load of shipwrecked African slaves, surrendered after months of bloody fighting with the British and 5000 of them were exiled to Baliceaux. A little later they were loaded onto a convoy of eight vessels and transported to the coast of Honduras, where the winds prevented their ever returning. Now there are only goats and two skinny cows at Baliceaux. The island is very dry and eroded. The poisonous or prickly species are persisting under such uncurtailed grazing. Immediately south lies the privately owned island named Mustique, famed as the playground for the ‘ultra rich’. We gave this island much searoom.

From Baliceaux we waddled downwind on a rough sea and tucked in behind the horseshoe reef that protects the Tobago Keys. A cluster of four tiny uninhabited islands surrounded in crystal clear blue water makes the most picturesque place to anchor. The anchorage is shallow (10 feet) over uniform white sand so that it looks like your anchored in an endless swimming pool (with about 40 other yachts).