Great Tobago

I can find very little info about Great Tobago. I've seen it has maybe 1 daytime mooring and lots of birds. We will be in BVI at the end of May for 15 nights on a Moorings 4800. As of right now I am thinking of sailing from White Bay or Great Harbour on Jost, around Great Tobago and maybe stopping for a snorkel depending on mooring availability, then continuing on to Soper's Hole for the night.

Would it be better to sail from Machineel Bay, around the north side of Jost to Tobago and finish the day in White Bay?

How long is the sail between Tobago and Jost and is it worth it? Yes, I know that is a subjective question but I am just surprised by the lack of info about it.

Thanks for any info you might have!

Have not been to Tobago so cannot comment on conditions, but distance from Western tip of JVD to Eastern tip of Tobago is 2.2 nm. Thanks - Mark

There's a Frigate bird colony on Great Tobago.

with the nesting you should not go ashore, but I have found great fishing in the area.

There are two Mooring balls on the western side. It's not traditional reef snorkeling. More underwater rocks and cliffs. I find it interesting but not everyone's favorite. It's not usable with any N Swell but fine even with higher east winds.
G

Thanks everyone. It sounds like it's worth a sail and we will see what happens. If for no other reason it will be nice to have a good sail with no other boats around for a little bit.

George, do you recall how deep the snorkeling is around the moorings? 7 of the 8 of us are divers. We won't have dive gear with us (doing rendezvous diving in other locations) but are familiar with, and like, different terrain underwater.

Thanks!
Suzanne

We anchored there once on our first BVI trip and had a bit of a scare with the current snorkeling from the boat.

The Northern ball is deep. Probably 60 feet under the boat. Shallower under the southern ball. It's not beginner snorkeling. Lots of other better places to go if you have nervous swimmers. No real beach either.

Thank you for the info! Everyone on board are very confident swimmers and snorkelers. Having said that, maybe we will just do the sail for the sake of a nice sail and seeing what birds we can see. When we went last time we had a sail from the Caves on Norman around the south end of Norman and Peter and up to Cooper. It was beautiful and fun. Everyone also enjoyed the sail to Anegada.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback!

I look forward to hearing about your visit to great Tobago. I also wonder if you can go ashore there?

I have some maps the natural resources ministry put out several years ago showing the Tobagos as restricted sea bird nesting areas. Susan Zaluski at Foxy's should be able to advise.

Thanks Glenn, without local knowledge , confidence we are not breaking any restrictions and most importantly not adversely impacting the population, I would not go.

Just to clarify, I'm not even sure we would go ashore even if we were allowed, just trying to figure out our options. I was mainly looking for something that was off the beaten path and a big chunk of rock that nobody ever talks about stirred my interest.

Do research for this trip is really making me want to to come quickly.

Suzanne

If you do go, be sure to avoid King Rock about a mile to the south. It's a nasty surprise in otherwise deep water.

Thanks for the heads up!