Our arrival at Canouan was perfectly timed, giving us a chance to test the repaired mainsail rope. Since the distance was very short, less than 10 nautical miles, we knew that if anything went wrong, we could quickly reach our destination.
Canouan is a small island with beautiful beaches, a luxurious marina, and a resort called Sandy Lane Yacht Club & Marina, where significant investments have been made in recent years. We thought it would be interesting to see how such investment is integrated into this rural environment.
Instead of staying in the marina as planned, we decided to anchor in a beautiful bay near a small village with other sailors. The sea was unreal: turquoise water, crystal clear, a small village of about 40 houses with a stunning beach, and about 10 boats anchored offshore.
Around 2 p.m., we heard an outboard engine and someone tapping on the boat. I went outside and found a local man selling lobsters. We haggled a bit, not so much to lower the price but because I didn’t have much local currency or small US bills on hand. After some back and forth, I bought one lobster for lunch with all the cash I had. Although we had lobster fishing gear and knew they were plentiful in the mangroves, it was forbidden as this was one of the local community’s primary sources of income, so we were happy to support the local economy.
I had never cooked lobster before, so I consulted a cookbook. The lobster, of course, turned out to be larger than any of our pots, a fact I only realized after I’d bought it. It needed to be dispatched before cooking, so I had to figure out how to do that as well. The man had explained that I should stab it through the middle. As I did so, it convulsed, the shell cracked, and it made a sound almost like a scream—a rather stressful and unsettling experience for someone who doesn’t kill their own food every day, someone who’s used to buying everything pre-prepared at the store. I believed I had followed the instructions; it wasn’t moving or reacting to anything anymore. I cleaned the tail and then put it in the pot to cook according to the instructions. Everything was fine until the water started to boil; then it began jumping around and trying to escape the pot. I was a bit shocked. I grabbed it with a cloth and used a knife to dispatch it more decisively. Then it finally became still. I continued cooking.
The lunch was more than excellent, especially considering it was the first lobster I’d ever cooked. If I’d had mango and pineapple, it would have been even tastier, but it was still fantastic! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and deciding on our next destination. From what I’d read, the Tobago Cays sounded very appealing, so we decided we couldn’t miss them. We’d leave early in the morning – the decision was made, marina be damned!