With just a few days to go before the end of the lobster season, a local recommended that we head over to the ‘Fisheries’, as the main fishing community in Paget Farm is known, to get a good deal on a fresh lobster from the fishermen directly.

It was late in the afternoon when we got there and most of the fishermen had ended their work but Richard, a local 25-year old who had been fishing since he was 12 and who was an avid sailor too, taking part in many regattas, agreed to help us out.

We didn’t really know what to expect but we were certainly not expecting him to don a snorkel mask and then swim out in shorts and t-shirt to bring a large, wooden container from the sea, back to the shore so that we could choose our lobster! We let him choose and he proudly held our 6lb lobster high for us to admire. He was a beauty.

There was no way we could take a live lobster back on the bus and no way, in our small galley, that we could dispatch it but the fishermen were well accustomed to providing this service and so Richard started to prepare a fire, put a small amount of seawater into a tall metal container and then we waited for it to boil. During this time, we had a good chat to Richard about many things as his clothing slowly dried off.

Once the water was boiling, he tied the tale down just in case there was any splashing of boiling water and, as we thanked the lobster for what he was giving to us, he lowered it into the container. It was over for the lobster very quickly but we then had to boil it for a little while to allow the meat to firm up otherwise it would have been just like an uncooked prawn.

While the lobster was cooling down, we looked over the old whaling boats that were now used for regattas. When our lobster was finally ready, we put him in a bag, handed Richard EC$72 (approx. £20) and, smelling like a wood-fired oven, we got back on the bus and starting thinking about the lovely three meals that our lobster provided us with.

It was a unique experience, totally unexpected and something that we will remember forever.