10/29 Monday

Spent all day at our mooring in Tobago Cays. We tried some of the other snorkeling spots along Horseshoe reef. Occasionally, we encountered strong local currents which made us wary of venturing too far from the dinghy. Sunsail sent a technician to attempt to fix our head. He determined that some threads in a fitting were stripped and some parts would have to be ordered, and that the issue would be taken care of at our next stop. We had no choice but to be patient with the process. As on previous trips, we rigged our lightweight hammock under the boom. This is one of those ENO stretchy nylon hammocks which packs very easily. On our 36i we put the boom somewhat off to the side and rig a line to a cleat like a preventer. That gets the mainsheet tackle out of the way. Then we clip one carabiner of the hammock to the fitting for the spinnaker pole, and the other to a fitting in the track on the bottom of the boom which holds a mainsheet block. This makes of a great place to read and relax on a boat without a lot of places to stretch out abovedecks.

We sent some messages using our rented satphone. We had not expected to get cell coverage as widely as we did and in hindsight would probably have dispensed with the phone, though it was nice to know we always had a communication channel to our relatives. We partly justified the rental expense as an experiment to see if we found it useful enough to possibly own one.

The lead crew had organized a beach party and dinner on a beach on the other side of Petit Rameau. A local vendor does regular lobster cookouts and has tables set up, though you are asked to bring your own plates and tableware. When we arrived the party was well underway and Vicky's punch had made the rounds. Dinner was served and I thought it was quite good though not inexpensive at EC$100 per person.

(continued)