Tobago Expedition: Day 12

The weather has taken a down turn. While we’ve not had the most spectacular weather so far, there have been sun breaks and the water has been relatively calm. That is starting to change. The rain is becoming more persistent and the waves are growing. All day today the breakers have been hitting the beach with an incessant crash. Some of the waves are rolling all the way up the beach and spilling into our front yard. From inside, it sounds as if a storm is raging, though this morning was clear and beautiful.
As it’s Sunday, today is our no-dive day. Which is just fine with me as I don’t fancy fighting the surf to get out to the boat. After waking late (I love Sundays!), my roommates and I wrangled our boat captain into taking a walk up the hill. Rumor has it that there’s a fort overlooking the bay, and we’ve been itching to leave the site. Everyone else was still recovering from last night’s party, so our small group of five wandered up the hill alone.
We found the fort, which is nothing more than a gazebo and two cannons on a grassy patch of earth sticking out towards the bay. This prime real estate commands an incredible view of all of Man O War Bay and stretches to the northwest horizon. We sat in the sun and took in this breathtaking vista, relaxing and enjoying the solitude.
While I have found everyone in the house to be good people, it’s nice to take a break. Living on top of each other day in and day out does start to wear on one’s nerves, and the trip up the hill was just what the shrink ordered.
As Coral Cay is a British organization (perhaps I should say ‘organisation’), most of the volunteers it attracts are British. We have a smattering of Americans present; myself plus two others, and we’ve adopted a misfit Brit- collectively, we are Team America. In addition, Coral Cay runs a scholarship program where they invite two locals at a time to participate in a month-long program that includes dive training, science courses and surveying.
In the house, we currently have two Trinidadians, three (and a half) Americans, and twelve Brits. Volunteers range in age. Our youngest is seventeen, here on an extended spring break. At the moment, the oldest is thirty-five, though there was a sixty year old gentleman here not too long ago. Gender-wise, women out-number the men twelve to five. Professions run the gamut from student to the temporarily unemployed to upper level management. The only factors this group has in common is a love of diving, a desire to conserve marine life, and enough time and money at our disposal to make the trip happen.
The complement of the expedition is constantly shifting as people come and go on a regular basis. There are two ‘intake’ days per month: one day for dive trainees, and again a week later for already certified divers. The minimum stay is two weeks, but beyond that volunteers can leave whenever their schedule demands. We have a few short-timers such as myself, here for just two weeks. Several people are here on the month-long program, and still others are staying for two months or more. The mix of people make for a great group, but soaking up the quiet on that hilltop this morning, with only the sounds of the waves far below and birds chirping, was music to my ears.
Before we left the fort, we took a hard look at the colors in the bay. Further out to sea is a darker blue, moving in towards shore the water becomes a beautiful turquoise blue, and then halfway to our cottage, the bay becomes a nasty, dark-sand murky mess. There is a line clearly demarcating where the run-off from the rains ends and the clear water begins. It’s much too far from the beach to swim out to, so there won’t be any shore diving in the next few days. Good thing we’ve got the boat working again.