Daz Tait

Teacher, writer, ocean sailor and global adventurer.

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

Once I’d safely secured Aliena to the pontoon for the final time, Miguel and Carmen pulled out a special bottle of champagne that had completed the entire voyage too. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon or click on my bio. #aroundtheworld #circumnavigation

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

While I perched on the bow relaxing in the sun, I contemplated my future as the Pitons, Saint Lucia’s two iconic mountains, beckoning us home. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon or click on the link in my bio #aroundtheworld #circumnavigation #oysteryachts

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

The realisation of the enormity of what I was about to accomplish swept over me. In less than twenty-four hours, with one final voyage aboard Aliena, I’d arrive back in Saint Lucia having travelled all the way around the world 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

After a blissful sail I was greeted by the same striking white beaches and sparkling turquoise waters I remembered from the last time I was there as we anchored up in the marine reserve.
'The World's my Oyster' trilogy available from Amazon #caribbean #tobaga #tobagocays #turtles

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

I sat on Aliena’s foredeck, listening to the monkeys’ roar, and contemplated the future as my incredible voyage around the world drew to a close. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon or click on the link in my bio #caribbean #TrinidadandTobago #trinidad #tobaga

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

To start with there were only a handful of roosting birds but within minutes, hundreds were landing and the little island began to look like a tropical Christmas tree with red lights and the occasional white one of a heron. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

I stumbled upon a red howler monkey gliding through the canopy one afternoon. With a deep reddish-brown coat, four agile limbs and a tail capable of gripping branches, it was beautiful to watch. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

There were big ones like the gleaming blue morphs with each wing the size of my hand fluttering next to tiny little ones with wings no bigger than my thumbnail. Some had two wings and others had four in shapes galore. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

As magnificent as the lustrous hummingbirds were, they just couldn’t compete with the myriad of shimmering butterflies that flitted around me. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon or click on the link in my bio. #trinidad #tobaga #butterfiles #butterfly #forest

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

Trinidad only separated from the mainland in the last few millennia, so the flora and fauna are equatorial South American species, stunning in their variety and splendour. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon #trinidad #tobaga #butterfiles #butterfly #forest

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

With a name like the Rufous-Vented Chachalaca, who wouldn’t want to track one down?
Locally called Cocrico, they have brown plumage and a body resembling a large turkey.
'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon. #tobaga #birds #bird #nationalbird

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

Stretching out before me, way beyond the limits of the water’s visibility, was the largest shoal of bait fish I’ve ever seen. A silver mass over a 100m long and fifty wide, all the way down to the seabed twenty metres below. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

The conclusion to my adventure on Île du Diable was a heart-breaking affair. Dreyfus’s bench, named after the Jewish French Army officer who was falsely convicted of treason in 1894.
'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon #henricharriere #solitary #devilsisland

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

I enjoyed wandering through the decrepit buildings, knowing that what I was seeing few other people ever would. That was until I heard a baby’s cry that froze me dead in my tracks
'The World's my Oyster' trilogy available from Amazon
#henricharriere #solitary #solitaryconfinement

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

After walking a few hundred metres I came to a row of brick houses. Only the brick outer shell of the prisoners’ quarters was left intact, the structures gradually succumbing to the elements and the encroaching vegetation. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

Therein lay the problem though: visitors were not permitted access to Devil’s Island as it was completely out of bounds. For me ‘no access’ has always meant ‘a challenge to enter.’ 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon #devilsisland #henricharriere #solitary

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

With no hope of rehabilitation or redemption for inmates, the penal colonies were a social cleansing programme designed to wipe out an unwanted segment of society, a stain on the collective French conscience. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

As I wandered through the ruins of those damp, musty and unbearably hot cells, I didn’t even want to imagine spending one day locked in them. Never mind trying to endure ten long years of suffering. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

The rather ironically named Salvation Islands comprise of three little isles. The prisoners sent to the islands were the worst of the French underworld. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon #papillon #penalcolony #prison #torture #salvationsiland #henricharriere

[Daz Tait @daz_tait]

The worst of the prisoners were incarcerated on the Salvation’s Islands about eight nautical miles offshore. I was fascinated by the place ever since reading ‘Papillon’, a novel by Henri Charrière. 'The World's my Oyster' trilogy, available from Amazon. #papillon #penalcolony