myTobago – your questions, review and comment about Tobago

Hi All,
Does anyone know if it's just wonky here in Canada or the usual of websites sometimes not working in T&T. For the last two days either I get an error message when I try to log into the Met weather site( I have used it for over a year) OR I'm asked for a user name and password (no idea how to get one..website does not explain?!@#) if I try to get into the website from a search on Goggle. Any thoughts...going down soon... hurrah!!.http://www.mytobago.info/forum/posting. ... 10&p=35263# Wanted to know if the seas are still rough. Will I be sitting on the beach looking at the sea, instead of swimming?http://www.mytobago.info/forum/posting. ... 10&p=35263#

Hi Carol

It looks like their website is broken. Hopefully they will realise and fix it soon.

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply! Not too surprised by your answer. Can hope someone notices. Hope the weather is improving in the UK. After talking (well, the email kind) with a friend in the UK still having a hard time imagining no salt for the local sidewalks/streets, gritting only on the main routes, schools asking parents to come and clean the walkways. People here just totally loses it when people don't clean their sidewalks (everyone has a stash of salt by their door). Bravo, you've had a LOT more winter than we've had and are copping!!
PS sorry about the smiles...I guess I had turned off.

Hi Carol

Sorry for my slow response.

The seas can be quite heavy at this time of year but there are plenty of safe places to swim at these times, such as Pigeon Point when the tide is low, Mount Irvine (near the Hotel).

In most places the waves crash right on the beach so if you can get past them the swimming is very safe beyond the surf.

But it is normally calm.

Regards

Thanks Paul for the reply!

Hi Carol

I´ve been i Tobago sometimes during Dec - Jan, and the sea can sometimes be very dangerous, rough and high sea.
Pidgeon Point is very safe compared with for exampe Store Bay, but many use to go to Storebay even if there are warning flags.

How ever, Paul is right, when you get past the high waves, the sea is better and calmer, simply because you are on deep water and the waves go on below your feets. Many like to be into the sea when big waves are crashing onto the beach.
I´ve seen bad things during that time, so I write down something here. If you already know such things, good, but maybe somebody else doesn´t know.

There are some important things to think about when the sea is rough:
DO NOT go out into the water if you aren´t a good swimmer and know what and how to do

1- you can NOT jump up across and over the big waves as peoples do in Spain or Greece, these waves is far to long and heavy
2- you have to dive under the wave and come up on the other side when going out
3- when big waves come closer to the beach, they suck out the water nearby the beach, sometimes you doesn´t have water deep enough to be able dive under the wave
4- than the wave will take you backward to the beach, it will dig you up and throw you up and than down again, you will hit the wet, hard sand
5- you might break bones, arms, ribs or something else, you can also die if the wave is big and you hit the sand in the wrong way

You have to know and be able to pass the big waves crashing on the beach, and if you choose the wrong wave, you will have problems. Next problem is, how to leave the sea, how to reach the beach again? If you choose wrong moment, the wave can dig you up...
I was on the beach some years ago when a man from Canada did choose wrong moment to get up, he did die on the hospital.
Enjoy the sea but take care..

Thanks for that Ronald.

You have just given me fond memories of body surfing the waves on Castara Beach and going home to the UK after 2 weeks with no nipples left

Regards

Hi Ronald,
What a great reply. Even though I have been spending time in Tobago for over 20 years and use to do a lot of scuba diving (we learned to count the waves when diving)...it was a good reminder about safety in the water!!
I hope everyone new or old to Tobago takes to heart Ronald's comments. It's too easy to think I'll just take a chance this time; I'm on vacation. Hey, Paul that was not a comment on your last reply. My husband and sons also think body surfing in Tobago is great fun. I have just never enjoyed that feeling of riding the waves or enjoyed emptying all that sand out of my bathing suit again and again!

Sorry if I created confusion on asking about the rough seas. I know it can get rough at this time of year but it just seemed the MET office was issuing more than the usual number of rough sea warnings. Trying to plan out that first day at the beach (oh sunshine again!). Not a big fan of Pigeon Pt, but true, it is shallow and usually calm. May have to reconsider.
Thanks again for the replies.

PS the website is still broken.

Wonders never cease...I guess the computer guys in the black hole of the internet heard my complaint. The T&T Met website is finally fixed!! Hopefully for a while.

Carol,

What is the web address for the T & T MET site?

Thanks, Hugh

Might be a good idea for Steve to provide us with a link to the page

Hi Roger

Not I site I know anything about I'm afraid. We provide our own weather forecast taken from live data from the the Crown Point weather station plus Paul's excellent forecasting from various sources.

The web address is as follows:

http://www.metoffice.gov.tt

On another note, i want to confirm what Ronald elaborated about high swells this time of the year.

Even when outside the immediate swells at the beach, caution is required by both swimmers and small craft operators.
Landing small boats / pirogues at beaches can be challenging at times and dangerous for both the operators as well as bystanders at the beach. A small boat with an outboard engine still running and getting out of control can be a serious danger to bystanders.

Taking boat trips in small crafts will quite often be uncomfortable, also caused by excessive speed in rough waters.
Some of the "captains" stand comfortably at their centre steering consoles, disregarding the movements their vessels make at the bow, where some of the passengers are forced to sit.

Even fishing trips in larger vessels like sports fisherman cabin cruisers are quite "rolly" this time of the year and
extreme caution is required by crew and anglers. Celebrating the catch with large quantities of alcohol should be
postponed until the vessel returns to shore.

Visitors should understand and appreciate if a boat operator tells them he can't get them to the desired destination
on a particular day because of the sea conditions. Believe me, it is worth the wait for more suitable weather.

Greetings from Trinidad,

Andy

Thanks for the link Andy,

Good advice.

Hugh

Here is the link for anyone that wants to know ... http://www.metoffice.gov.tt/

It's an OK site with reasonable radar images but the forecast is only daily ... there is nothing long range or even a day or 2 ahead. I will be interested to see their 'warnings page' if there are any threats to T&T in the 2010 hurricane season.

Perhaps it will develop but, to be honest, if you want quality weather forecasting and monitoring you are best off with the Caribstorm site or the NOAA site for now.

'Liquid Sunshine' is, to my knowledge, the only place where I hope everyone will get an idea of the weather situation in Tobago every week for the next week, with mid-week updates should the situation suddenly change as it does from time to time.

I do have holidays and sickness though ... er Steve?

Regards

Here is the link for anyone that wants to know ... http://www.metoffice.gov.tt/

I love it, got to the satellite image bit and went round in circles - no images !!

This is why I do my own weather sat decoding. Unfortunately Tobago is over the horizon from here.

Frank

(Only 9 more nights to go before take off from EGKK and 10 nights before swimming in the warm sea at Mt Irvine )

Hi Hugh and other weather watchers,
Sorry about the delay in replying; first chance I've had to be online. Thanks to Andy and Paul for providing the website. I agree with Paul...it is rather lacking. I use it just to add another piece of information to the weather picture. Sometimes they even provide tide times. I use it, and NOAA (for the satellite images) and Paul's weather report. What is the best one (drum roll) Liquid Sunshine!! Paul may be annoyed periodically about some of my complaints on his weather report when I'm in Tobago; but its awesome...he's in the UK and his weather report is by far the best accurate prediction for each week.
Cheers, Carol



BTW Hugh, we may have a mutual friend in Bethel...Lisa D.

Carol,

Please say hello to Lisa. We won't be out until summer this year. (Unless I get real lucky!)

Hugh

Carry on complaining Carol ... I can only get better with the invaluable feedback I receive.

Regards