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| Fire Worm |
We arrived at Undersea Tobago at 0830 on Monday 28th for our first scuba of the Caribbean! We had been told the first dive of the day was to be a wreck on the Caribbean side and then a dive on the Atlantic side!
Derek the owner was to be our dive guide for the day and Ellis was the boat skipper. Loaded up and ready to dive we set off towards Mount Irvine Bay! The destination was the wreck of the ferry formerly called Sacred Ibis and renamed Maverick! She had been the ferry between Tobago and Trinidad until she became too small for the requirements and was sold to a private owner. He used her to transport goods up and down the coast of Tobago until she ran out of steam! She then lay in Store Bay at anchor until she was acquired by the Tobago Tourism and dive board and they planned to sink her to create an artificial reef. Her sea cocks were open and according to Derek she took almost the whole day to sink, as she sunk to the ocean floor at about 20 meters she hit bottom and cracked almost in the middle before the stern settled! In the 5 years she has been on the bottom, Mother Nature has taken over and decorated her with living corals and fish!
The coral covering her has tiny white flower like tips, the effect looks as if she is covered in snowflakes! It's is very pretty! In amount this white soft coral are fire worms! They are about 4 to 6 inches in length and covered in tiny white hair-like things that, when disturbed, flare out and the sting is apparently severe! In my ignorance I was touching and fanning them to make the white hairy 'flowers' that they shot out appear! I only heard after we had surfaced what they were!
Derek the owner was to be our dive guide for the day and Ellis was the boat skipper. Loaded up and ready to dive we set off towards Mount Irvine Bay! The destination was the wreck of the ferry formerly called Sacred Ibis and renamed Maverick! She had been the ferry between Tobago and Trinidad until she became too small for the requirements and was sold to a private owner. He used her to transport goods up and down the coast of Tobago until she ran out of steam! She then lay in Store Bay at anchor until she was acquired by the Tobago Tourism and dive board and they planned to sink her to create an artificial reef. Her sea cocks were open and according to Derek she took almost the whole day to sink, as she sunk to the ocean floor at about 20 meters she hit bottom and cracked almost in the middle before the stern settled! In the 5 years she has been on the bottom, Mother Nature has taken over and decorated her with living corals and fish!
The coral covering her has tiny white flower like tips, the effect looks as if she is covered in snowflakes! It's is very pretty! In amount this white soft coral are fire worms! They are about 4 to 6 inches in length and covered in tiny white hair-like things that, when disturbed, flare out and the sting is apparently severe! In my ignorance I was touching and fanning them to make the white hairy 'flowers' that they shot out appear! I only heard after we had surfaced what they were!
Ignorance is bliss! I even caught one on my hand that had been dislodged by the bubbles as we swam through the hold of the ferry! As it slowly floated down I put my hand underneath it and it landed softly and began to crawl! As it moved between my fingers I moved to suddenly for its liking and it's white stinger flowers appeared! Ignorant to their meaning I felt the burn but ignored it as she kept crawling off my hand and up the arm of my wetsuit! I then realized the rest of the group and moved on and turned my hand over so she could continue her drift to the floor! I was feeling the stinging burn between my fingers where she had touched but it wasn't bad just a itchy burn! I was lucky! Derek our dive master couldn't believe my luck! As I say ignorance is bliss!. I should know better than to touch unknown things underwater!
Huge Angel fish watched cautiously as we swam through the wreck! A school of Snapper darted ahead of us! Tiny fish in every colour combination swam through the soft corals that cover the entire hull!
The second dive was off of Tobago airport runway and called 'Flying Reef'. By this time the weather had come in and turned the way green! Although everything not lit by a flash was green the dive was awesome! Tobago is working had at re-establishing their reefs and it is working! The fish are plenty full and every colour of the rainbow! We saw at least 5 nurse sharks, the largest of which was almost 2 meters! Lying placidly on the bottom on the reef as is their nature! She only wriggled irritated when Derek pulled her out by her tail! Then she moved off a little, frowning at the intrusion to her solitude!
Banded clown shrimp in their red and white stripes were peeping out of the coral, curious as to what we were up to! The blue green and mauve Parrot fish moved lazily out if our reach as we swam by! We saw a number of Rays swimming by in the distance! despite the relatively poor visibility the dive was great! Well worth the effort!
Huge Angel fish watched cautiously as we swam through the wreck! A school of Snapper darted ahead of us! Tiny fish in every colour combination swam through the soft corals that cover the entire hull!
The second dive was off of Tobago airport runway and called 'Flying Reef'. By this time the weather had come in and turned the way green! Although everything not lit by a flash was green the dive was awesome! Tobago is working had at re-establishing their reefs and it is working! The fish are plenty full and every colour of the rainbow! We saw at least 5 nurse sharks, the largest of which was almost 2 meters! Lying placidly on the bottom on the reef as is their nature! She only wriggled irritated when Derek pulled her out by her tail! Then she moved off a little, frowning at the intrusion to her solitude!
Banded clown shrimp in their red and white stripes were peeping out of the coral, curious as to what we were up to! The blue green and mauve Parrot fish moved lazily out if our reach as we swam by! We saw a number of Rays swimming by in the distance! despite the relatively poor visibility the dive was great! Well worth the effort!
We had planned to go into Scarborough the next day, check out and leave! But we got chatting to John, where we had left a load of laundry when we went into town and discovered he could get good priced diesel! So much for leaving! He could only go fill the containers at 4pm so we had to wait!
We sailed out of Store Bay at 09h20 on the 30th November. By 11h25 we were anchored in Mt. Irvine Bay. The attraction here is the Grafton Caledonia Bird sanctuary. It used to be an Estate but when Hurricane Flora wrecked the nearby forest in 1963 bird sought food nearer to human habitation and the owners adopted these feathered orphans, feeding, watering and protecting them. On the short walk there we spotted on the side of the road a huge snake! Sadly it had been run over by a car and was dead. It was over a meter long and as thick as my arm! It was the most beautiful colours. While we were busy examining it (it was not damaged in any way, the car must have broken its spine or something) a car stopped. We got chatting to the driver a local tour guide. He told us it was a Rainbow Constrictor and was quite common in the area! He also offered us a lift to the Bird Sanctuary, which we accepted!
We were still walking up the path towards it when we spotted out first Blue Crested Motmot. Nearer the old homestead we were welcomed by the cackling screech of the Rufus Vented Chachalaca! There are no cages or anything in this sanctuary, all th birds are there “voluntarily”. I was excited to see what else we could spot. It was then the common and multiple flying Mosquito attacked! Man I have never seen so many. We kept walking into the forested sanctuary for about 15 minutes until neither of us could take it anymore. We couldn’t even look for birds as every time we hesitated and stopped moving to spot birds the number of mozzies on us multiplied by thousands so we looked like we were wearing a suit of them! We finally gave up and ran for the road! The Chachalacas seeming to have a good cackle at our discomfort! We have officially renamed it as the Grafton Mosquito Sanctuary!
We were not blown away by the anchorage either and so immediately set sail for the next anchorage being Plymouth in Great Courland Bay! We spent the night there and headed for Englishmans Bay in the morning.
Englishmans is scooped out of the rocky forested coastline and edged with a flawless beach. Nestled among the trees is the “One Stop Shop” restaurant and souvenir store. We snorkelled then went ashore for coffee and cake and a walk up the hill to photograph the Bay from above!
The next morning it was off to Charlotteville. This was the next “check-in” port where we had to visit Immigration and Customs! What a mess! The Immigration officer in Scarborough told us that as we were coming from Trinidad we didn’t need to see Customs at all! We double checked when we went in check out again and were told in no uncertain terms that it was not necessary!
Our arrival in Charlotteville coincided with lunch so we had to wait. Eventually at 3pm we gave up! On our way back to the boat we stopped at the vegetable seller, he asked if we had found Customs as he had shown us where the building was originally! When we told him we had but no one was there, he said he had forgotten to show us the “other office” and proceeded to point out a house near to the offices! We went and knocked and a bare chested chap came to the door looking very irritated! He told us to wait at the office he would be there in 5 minutes!
When he arrived and found we had not checked into or out of customs in Scarborough he had found a reason to take out his irritation on us! He informed us we would have to go back to Scarborough and complete customs! When we explained why we had not he made as if he did not believe our story; but he finally called Scarbrough and spent the next 30 minutes on the phone complaining that the last 6 yachts that had arrived had the same story as ours, to whomever was listening. So we were saved! Or we hope so, we will only know when we go to check out again in about a week!
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