Scarborough, Tobago - glass bottom boat

In Scarborough we went on an organised tour which involved us going on a glass bottomed boat to a couple of snorkel sites and an area called the Nylon Pools. After getting off the ship we were driven to Pigeon Point beach which is a beautiful spot with white sandy beaches and palm trees. Unfortunately, it was also very windy which made the sea very choppy and the sand swirl around! Undeterred we walked across the sand to the glass bottomed boat, which was berthed just off the beach, which meant we had to wade through the sea to get to it !  This would have been fine if we had been prewarned about it, as it was most of us got wetter than we expected even getting into the boat. For most of us it wasn't too bad,  as we were planning to go into the water anyway so had appropriate clothing on. However, some of the people were not planning to go snorkelling and basically had normal clothes on, so slurped and sloshed their way into the boat and then had to sit in soggy heaps for the rest of the trip. Some people were not amused. 

There were about 24 of us on the boat, all sat around two small see through sections in the bottom of the boat. For some reason I thought the whole hull would be see through so I was a bit disappointed by this. There were also too many of us sat around the small "glass" areas. Me, and the woman next to me had to take turns to lean forward to see through the space or head butting would have been happening on a regular basis. 

When we reached the spot to do snorkelling, the man stopped the boat and threw a rope out which had a float on the end of it. He then told  us, that as it was very choppy he wanted us to only snorkel holding onto the rope. Now I have never snorkelled before, I have tried but I just can't do it, I don't trust the snorkel tube thing, so basically put all the gear on and then hold my breath. Today, was going to be the day I was planning to do it properly. Trust me, not good, even experienced snorkellers said it was really hard due to the choppiness of the sea. I did try but failed miserably, to the extent that after one try I removed the mouth piece and just took a deep breathe before plunging my face under the water. This ended up being a very short snorkelling session for all involved, with us all getting on the boat exhausted. 

We then headed to the Nylon Pools, this was described as a coral sandbank but I would just say sandbank. It was interesting because we were quite far out to sea and yet could get out of the boat and walk in knee high water. We had a wee wander around but it was actually quite cold due to the wind, so at times we crouched down into the sea, just to get out of the wind. David wandered a bit away from me and suddenly started hissing my name, as in a get here quickly type of fashion, as he pointed excitedly at the sea. Close by his legs I could see a black shape, so I tried to rush towards him, quickly but quietly, well that wasn't happening especially when I ran into a rope thing attached to the boat, scraping my knee. This of course attracted the attention of other people who also made their way towards David. One woman in particular was very interested and was telling David not to get too close because if it was a manta ray which it did sort of look like, it could get him with the spike in its tail. I wasn't too convinced though as the shape wasn't move away at all but seemed to be staying in the same spot, although it did look like there were wing type things on the sides that were flapping. I did mention whether it could be just a rock and that the  sea lapping over it was making it look like it was moving. At this the very interested woman looked at me incredulously then David spotted writing on the object, the woman bent down and picked it up, it was a jacket and the sleeves were the wing type bits flapping around. At that the whole crowd including us sidled away discretely, with me and David having  a wee snigger to ourselves. I tell you it will be a long time before I let him forget that !