Tobago Cays is a paradise on Earth—long white sandy beaches with palm trees leaning toward the water, turquoise sea, sunshine on the blue sky, reach underwater life… So after seeing the volcanic islands for the first few days of the trip, every one of us was ready for a sandy beach. In the morning we set sail again. After a leisurely breakfast our historian Tom Heffernan gave a talk about the Rastafarian religion. For many of us it was a new approach to Rastafarianism, as not everyone knew it is a bona fide religion that was started in the mid 20th century and based on Biblical stories of a prophet emerging from Ethiopia.

In the afternoon we had two options: sailing on a catamaran and snorkeling in the Tobago Cays and horseshoe reef, or going to the beach at Union Island to enjoy the sun, great snorkeling, and rum punch in one of the two local bar shacks: Shark Attack or Boll Head. Both options were very tempting so the choice wasn’t easy. In the end 15 of us choose the catamaran option. The snorkeling was fantastic. Among many, many kinds of fish we saw green turtles, big stingrays, schools of blue tangs, and some of us even saw a nurse shark. But the beach option wasn’t worse at all! Snorkelers were very satisfied seeing large schools of fish, different kinds of filefish, juvenile angelfish, moray eels, lion fish, lobsters, arrow crabs, and much, much more.

Happy with the great afternoon we returned to Sea Cloud. After a quick shower and some cocktails at the lido bar we were ready for a delicious “Maritime Dinner” when the galley had a chance to show off their 5-star international cuisine and service. The evening was calm and beautiful so we enjoyed our glasses of wine under the stars.