What you can see on the Mount Irvine cams
One camera looks out over the bay, with fishing boats, dive boats and a few yachts at anchor and the low coast curving away to the south-west. The other looks along the beach towards the open sea, where the waves break on the reef off the point and the surfers wait for them. Together they show the two sides of the bay: calm water for the boats, and surf when the swell is up.
Boats at anchor in Mount Irvine Bay
Looking out over Mount Irvine Bay from the shore, this camera shows the fishing boats, dive boats and yachts on their moorings, the calm water inside the bay and the low, green coast on the far side of the bay.
It is the calm side of the bay: good for checking the sea before a boat trip, and for the colours of the late afternoon over the water.
The beach and the surf at Mount Irvine
This camera looks along the beach of Mount Irvine towards the open sea, with the sand and the trees of the shore on the right. When a north swell reaches Tobago in the winter months, the waves break off the beach and the surfers paddle out to them; the rest of the year the water is usually flat.
Surfers check it in the morning to see whether the swell has arrived.
Surf on a Caribbean island
Most of the Caribbean coast of Tobago is calm, but from roughly November to March, swells born in North Atlantic storms reach the north-west of the island and wrap into Mount Irvine. The wave breaks over a shallow reef and draws the local surf scene, with the beach facility and its snack bars as a meeting point. Beside the bay, the Mount Irvine Bay golf course stretches over an old sugar estate.
When to watch Mount Irvine
Tobago keeps Atlantic Standard Time all year, four hours behind UTC. Watch on winter mornings for the surf, before the trade wind picks up; the bay faces the sunset, which makes evenings the most colourful time.
Around Mount Irvine
Buccoo, with its reef and the Nylon Pool, a shallow sandbar in the middle of the sea, lies just to the south, and Store Bay and Pigeon Point, at Crown Point, about ten minutes' drive away. Grafton, to the north, has a quiet beach and a bird sanctuary.
Getting to Mount Irvine
The bay is on the main road along the west coast, about 15 minutes by car from the airport. The public beach has parking, changing rooms and food stalls.
