We were up early. Once again, our starboard side cabin was against the pier, and if the sounds of the thrusters hadn't awakened us, and sound of the gangway being set up almost directly beneath our cabin would have. No matter; we were anxious to get an early start today. G actually went for a short run (he is training for a race in Honolulu...kind of), and checked out taxi prices while he was off the ship. When he returned, we had a quick breakfast on the Panorama Terrace and made plans with Johnny and Jere to go to the island's closest beach. At 9:30am we met up on the pier and hired a taxi to take us the approximately 25 minute drive to Pigeon Point Beach ($40 per taxi, round trip).
I had no idea that Tobago was as large as it is, roughly 160 sq. miles (26 miles by 6 miles). The town of Scarborough, where the Pacific Princess docked, is a sizable one, but the entire island has only 54000 residents (called Tobaganians...really). We were impressed by the quality of the roads that we took to get to the beach, and our driver, Sugar, told us that, though their economy is totally dependent on tourism, they get a lot of funding from oil-rich Trinidad. It shows. But Tobago was more like Curaçao in feeling and not a bit like Bequia yesterday. Bequia is an extremely small, sleepy island. Tobago is bustling, though not nearly as much as Trinidad does.
We paid $3.50 each to pay for a day's admission to Pigeon Point Heritage Park. The landscaping was beautiful but the beach was really incredible. Located on the southwestern tip of the island, there really is a point, and on the north side of that point is the Atlantic Ocean and rough surf and high winds and the beach there is not safe for swimming but is perfect for windsurfing and kite surfing and sailing. G and I went there first, and watched all the water sports for about 20 minutes but the wind was so strong that my contacts couldn't take anymore than that. Walking just around the point, the beach was calm, and protected by a surrounding reef. The sand was white and powdery (and stuck to everything) and the water was just like in Antigua, that beautiful blue-green color but more opaque than translucent.
We rented one chair for $5 and G sat in it but I spent much of my time in that gorgeous water, swimming the entire length of the beach two times. Tha day was sunny and the water was warm (the island is just north of South America). That was G's joke du jour: "We don't have a lot of latitude about wearing sunscreen in Tobago". Haha. I did walk down to the two shops that were open on the beach to look for t-shirts for the boys (their sisters are taken care of) but they had nothing appropriate. Today was the official Boxing Day holiday in Trinidad and Tobago (yesterday was the official Christmas holiday) and most of the shops were closed. Oh well, there's always Barbados. I know I'll find something there.
We asked our taxi driver Sugar to return for us at 2pm but he actually stayed and waited the entire time we were at the beach. Tobago is a 'pay on the return' island and I think he was afraid of missing out on the fare. We arrived back at the port about 2:30pm and used the free WiFi in the terminal for a few minutes. It was nice to be back on the ship a little early today. Today was a formal night, as superfluous a thing as exists. Formal night on a beach port night. Sigh. Still, we were dressed formally and in the PES Lounge by 5pm to watch our sailaway from Scarborough. It was funny...I overheard someone across the lounge talking about this blog (I heard my name and that caught my attention). I couldn't see who it was but they were talking about Urinary Euros. It's funny how those silly sorts of things are the ones that have staying power. Last year two readers were quoting to me my words about the BIG!!!!!! $500 Treasure Hunt Drawing*!!! (*must be present to win) and Vonage (For free! Get the app!!). Harious.
The sun had not yet set when we went to the Club Restaurant for dinner, and we had a beautiful view of the nearly the entire Tobago coastline before it got dark. I ate lightly; I was attending tonight's Stammtisch, with different wines paired with different foods than when I did this earlier this year. Our officer hosts were Bar Manager Andre, Hotel General Manager Leonardo and Food and Beverage Director Andrea and there were 12 passengers and we all got along like gangbusters and it was a very fun event. When it was over, I went to the Cabaret Lounge to catch the tail end of Duncan Tuck's guitar performance and then to the Casino Lounge to listen to Jere for a few minutes.
We've had quite the discussion about Leonard Cohen's song Hallalujah. A passenger had requested it early in the cruise, and Jere could play the melody (he plays everything by ear) but didn't know the lyrics. I Googled the lyrics and did a screen capture of them and Air Dropped them to his iPhone (and that's a whole other story). Jere was appalled by the lyrics (and that's saying something). So last night at sailaway, I played the YouTube video of Father Ray Kelly singing Hallelujah with different lyrics. Well, Jere and Johnny immediately sat down in their cabin and wrote new lyrics in 20 minutes, beautiful ones about cruising and love. He sang them for us tonight and I was amazed again by their talent. I stayed in the Casino Lounge long enough to hear them, but had to leave shortly afterward. It was after 9pm and I hadn't yet typed one word of this post. And I was tired!
Captain D promised us, although our weather last night and today was far better than forecasted, that we are now sailing north against the trade winds in the open Atlantic Ocean en route to Barbados and it would be rough overnight. This time he was exactly right. We are rocking and rolling and we were happy to call it an evening and get to bed early.
