11/3 Saturday

Another beautiful morning with just a few sprinkles overnight which had us getting up to put the hatches up and down. My mother was turning 80 on this day, and I used the satellite phone to call her in Germany. After breakfast, Kenzo came by in his dinghy. The plan was for all in the flotilla to board the catamaran and motor out to Petit Tabac - the Cay outside Horseshoe Reef. Our son only came along reluctantly, since he has noone his age to talk to in the wider group. I thought he should have more enthusiasm because he is constantly ribbing me about the superiority of catamarans and complaining about the size of our boat. The catamaran was an almost-new Sunsail 444 which had just been sold and did not even have a name applied yet. It certainly felt spacious and the galley looked amazing.
Kenzo took over as captain and we just relaxed on the way to dropping anchor in the small anchorage. Donning snorkel gear, we went to check out the reef. The inside was unremarkable and we attempted to cross to check out the dropoff on the other side, but were thwarted by waves and shallow reef. After some searching, the end of the reef nearest the anchorage provided the best snorkeling and we saw a ray and some squid, as well as a lot of sponges. We swam ashore and walked the beach of this empty island. Apparently, there was a story that a satellite had crashed near the island and some space junk had washed up there. We did see some debris and someone claimed it was part of the satellite but I was skeptical of this claim. The basic story, however, appears to be true and I found a story about it here http://i-witness-news.com/2011/12/14/russian-spaceship-wreckage-found-in-tobago-cays-identified/

Returning to our boat, the flotilla left for Canouan on a close reach. At this point I was comfortable enough with the area to take a direct route and pass between One Fathom Shoal and Baleine Rocks en route to Glossy Hill which flanks the apron of the Canouan airport. Rounding the riprap of the runway fill, it struck me that maybe with our mast we should have kept farther off, but no planes were in approach.

We entered Charleston Bay and picked up one of the buoys belonging to the Moorings base. Most of the buoys had two pendants that are intended to be picked up and directly made fast on each side of the boat. I thought it an odd system and didn't want the slimy lines encrusted with marine growth on deck, so ran our own dock lines through them.

The Moorings base in Canouan is new and quite small - basically some mooring buoys and a few buildings adjacent to the Tamarind Beach Hotel. The staff there were very friendly. We were supplied with free ice, used the showers and the wifi. Around the time we arrived, buildings were being fumigated due to an apparent rise in cases of dengue fever on the island. A member of the Moorings staff told us there had been 22 reported cases in the previous month. My wife had a Sarah Connor moment when she was getting ready to take her shower and a worker in a gas mask and hazmat suit wielding an oversized leaf blower belching thick smoke burst into the ladies' bathroom.

We walked from the base into town and bought a few grocery items (mostly beverages), and found an ATM where we were able to replenish our dwindling supply of local currency.
Moorings re-filled our dinghy tank and we could have refilled our water tanks (they have a long hose that reaches one of the moorings), but we had just switched to our second tank and didn't feel we needed it.

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