I Finally Did It! – Frigate Island Bay, Union Island, April 6, 2024

Ron has been a scuba instructor for over 10 years yet somehow, I never got certified.  Put this in perspective, my sister is certified, my nephew is certified, and 3 of the 4 daughters are certified.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it I just never really had the opportunity to with the girls.  So, we decided to rent a couple of tanks in Bequia while we were there and try it out.  It is better to have a private lesson anyways, am I right?  I got two dives in since it took me most of the first 20-minute dive to figure out how to clear my ears then I got to do another 40-minute dive.  We just went off the beach, but man was it fun!  I felt like I was swimming in a fish tank!  So cool and I will definitely try it again but likely not till next season.

Once we finished up in Bequia we hopped down and spent the next four days in Tobago Cays.  This is probably one of our favorite spots in the whole Caribbean to snorkel.  It is shallow and we were lucky to have the low west winds which made it ideal to see the outer reefs.  It was out first time seeing the outer stuff and I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the state of the coral and I think that compared to the inner reef much of it was in poor health.  Tobago Marine Park was insanely busy (being the week of Easter we should have known all the charter boats would be there) and we had anchored in Mayreau Island instead.  This ended up being much better with only a few neighbors and closer to the healthier reefs.  We snorkeled the inner reef for a few days and saw turtles, starfish, rays, sharks, and the coral was in much better health.  Such a pretty place.

Once the winds changed and started to increase, we had to leave and jump over to Union Island.  It was a short 4-hour sail south and we are now only 6 miles from Carricou where we plan to haul out mid-April.  We picked up a free mooring in Frigate Island Bay and had decided to wait out the upcoming blow here and start some of our boat work.  Last year we killed ourselves in the heat doing much of our boat work after we were hauled out.  This year we were going to be much smarter and do much of the work while we were still in the water where it was significantly cooler, and we could snorkel every afternoon!  This entire week has been dedicated to cleaning and vinegaring the whole boat, engine work, cleaning out all our provisions, and in the next few days taking down the sails and any outside windage in case of a hurricane. 

Ron is a follower of Colorado University’s Hurricane prediction for the year, and it’s supposed to be a doosy!  They have predicted this to be an extremely active season due to the warmer than normal ocean temperatures combined with La Nina.  They predict 23 storms, 11 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes so we will see.  I think we are both relieved to be hauling out a bit early even though our timing was based on a totally different factor – 2 of our daughter’s college graduation is May 1^st.  Although Grenada is technically out of the hurricane zone, hurricanes have hit there in the past. Thankfully they tend to bend northward before making a direct hit.  They end up with some residual effect but unless we go south to Trinidad (which is not as safe), it is the best we are going to get.  So we are finishing up the year and getting ready to put her to bed!