Tobago Cays

Tobago Cays is comprised of a horseshoe-shaped reef and several small islands. Turtles swim by at the rate of one every fifteen minutes. There is a turtle sanctuary a short dinghy ride away. There you can swim with the turtles. We are told these are Green Turtles. They have very sweet faces and don't appear to mind the intrusion into their habitat. The turtles dive down to the floor, nibble bits of sea grass and swim up for air. The island near the turtle sanctuary has iguanas, century plants (autographed by visitors), and lovely yellow finches. All around us is water in shades of aqua and blue. Anchored nearby is a Brigantine. I only know this because of the sailors we have on board. She's an old wooden boat with a pirate flag flying.

Snorkeling was okay--the reefs were not in great shape, but adequate to support a diversity of marine life.

Last night we went to a "beach party" sponsored by folks from Union Island. For $44 they pick you up, transport you to a lovely beach, and serve you fish, lobster, plantains, rice, potatoes, and fruit. The guy who set us up is Mandyman and his son Neil sang for us.

Back on the boat, our sailors sang seafaring ditties -- heave ho and so on. Need to grab the lyrics to say no.

Today we're off to Bequie to spend our last two nights aboard the Betty Blue.

Mustique

We finally sailed today between St. Vincent and Mustique. With four plus experienced sailors on board, I just sat and watched. The sailing was very exciting - it's been a long time.

We swam to shore and sat on the beach. There was a "pack" of goats -- mothers and babies. If you know the collective known for goats, let me know.

Mustique is a private island owned by "The Mustique Company." There was an emergency phone on the beach with instructions to pick up the receiver and notify the person who answers. Of course this means there is a whole lot of security on this island.

Catch the photo of the boat that just pulled in next to us. Maybe they'll invite us over for cocktails?

We're just preparing to pile into the dinghy to go to dinner at Basil's. Apparently Mick occasionally makes an appearance, we will see.

St. Vincent

Yesterday we travelled all day -- Melissa, Rob, Paula, Bill, Amber, Greg, Pete, Rob. This is a new experience for me, I am so used to transporting solo. Quite fun to have an entourage to turn to -- a moving party of sorts.

Right now it's 7:00 am and I'm sitting on the balcony of our hotel looking our at the boats -- which one is ours? We set off at noon today for a week of very close quarters.

The island straight ahead is Bequie (sp), our first stop.

The night was very noisy with call and response dog barking peppered with cock-a-doodle-doos. My favorite was the truck blaring reggae rap. Made me feel at home on IQL to hear inappropriately loud rap music muffled through a car.

Mining the attic - Penpals

In 1964 I was 14 and pen pals were popular. I found letters from two -- one from Japan -- a boy -- and a girl from Illinois. Apparently neither piqued my interest because there weren't too many letters. Once the Beatles came, things changed a bit. I somehow got a pen pal from the UK -- Newark to be precise -- and I have stacks of letters from her. In a letter from '64 she enclosed cancelled UK stamps, a baby picture, and an adult picture. Ann Boyd is tall and thin and had a strange expression on her face--goofy, frightening. I remember being alarmed on seeing her photo because I couldn't really see her face. I'm not sure if I wrote after that -- or for a long time after. Somehow I feel like a Seinfeld character, wanting my pen pal to be stunningly beautiful. In her last letter, she said p.p.s. "I luv you." She made a "J" with tiny x's at the bottom of the page like cross-stitch. Now I would say she had a great body -- nice and lean and probably looked great in clothes. And I would ask her to send a smiling head shot.

We were both passionate about the Beatles. I was fascinated by the Beatles' home, and she was interested in America. Reviewing her letters, I can imagine her as an academic or perhaps a schoolteacher, now retired. 

She sent me a pin from Scotland -- one of those pins that you use to hold your tartan skirt together but in miniature. I still have that pin -- obviously it was a treasure.  I think I sent her perfume, but always feared it did not arrive safely in spite of her assurances. I have a box from Newark. I had assumed this was New Jersey, but now realize it's Newark, England.

I can tell from her letters that she was very motivated, a good student. I wonder where she is now?

In my stash were also a few letters from my sister and one from my brother. He lived in Long Beach - working for Lockheed -- and she was visiting for the summer. I also had a few letters from Jenny's boyfriend -- actually he was just a "friend" to her, although he wanted to marry her. One of them is a proposal of marriage to me. Of course it was a joke, but it had me going for a moment -- did I date him? Carl? No - I did not and I was 15. I do remember, back in those days. I still shared a room with my mother (why?) and I remember going to bed with a vague sex fantasy about Carl. I wasn't so sure what to fantasize about, but I made the best of it. In looking back at the letters, it appears my mother was quite taken with Carl, as apparently I was, but my sister did not care for him in that way.

The letter from my brother is short, a rarity, perhaps the only letter he ever sent to me although I did get Christmas cards -- which I did not save.

Off to the Grenadines

....tomorrow morning.