Limin´ and diving

To lime, that is to spend time with friends doing nothing, something that the Tobagonian people do a lot, and also something that we sailors are familiar with.

Life here in Charlotteville is very peaceful and pleasant. We start the day with a simple breakfast (the fridge is broken again) in the cockpit, watching the beautiful Man of War Bay come alive. Fishermen swimming out to their boats, sailors going ashore in dinghies, cars and animals moving around on the main road just above the beach. We change to bikini and a dress, pack our bags with dry underwear, get into Volare and try to get ashore without getting wet, sometimes a bit hard when landing on the beach with braking waves coming in from behind. We lock our dinghy to a street light just above the beach, although no one else does, it has become a habit from the Grenadines but here it's actually not necessary. Then we say good morning to the people we meet on our way to the t-junction where our dive teacher picks us up. We drive over the hill on a very winding road and we practise our equalising while going down into Speyside. Speyside is not as charming as Charlotteville but it's where most of the serious diving is done. Today, for the first time, we went out on the dive boat to Little Tobago and did our first ocean dive. Though, we only went three meters down. We did some of the skills that we have done before in the pool and practised more on the hovering. It's fantastic how you can adjust your level in the water just by breathing, but we are still struggling a bit with the buoyancy, and sometimes we did involuntary crashes into the sand bottom. When we got back to the dive centre our teacher opened the bar and told us to write in our new log books, dive one is completed! Tomorrow it's time for a 12 meters drift dive, exciting. Diving is also about relaxing, under the water, perfect for lazy sailors. But after a day with many new impressions we are tired and hungry. Arriving back in Charlotteville in the afternoon we go for lunch on one of the local places. You choose between chicken or fish and then you get rise, macaroni pudding, lenses, potatoes, green bananas and salad. It's the same at all the places, now we have come to like it. If the fruit and vegetable truck is in the village we go over to it and check what's left. Last time there was no lettuce or tomatoes, but the man promised us that if we come back on Tuesday he will have it for us. We will be there. Here are more fresh fruits than in the Grenadines, bananas are back on our menu. After lunch we are usually more tired and ready to go back to the boat for a siesta. We unlock Volare and push her out into the water, jump in quick and try to get out before the next wave crash over us. On our way to Cantare we always meet some other sailor, today we were invited to a German solo sailor. Although we had planned to take a nap and then clean the boat, which is much needed, we ended up staying there until sunset. Tomorrow Cecilia, a friend of mine, arrives. We don't know when, but hopefully we will be back from the dive. If not, I'm sure some of the sailors or local boys will entertain her. Limin´, that's something we sailors are good at. / The Captain

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1 comments:

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