Friday April 6, 2012
Already Friday? It’s so easy to take your watch off and set sail and not know or even care what day or month it is. That’s the beauty of it all. In Luperon, if we needed anything, we knew not to go between noon and 2. Any other island is on island time. So is Casa Mare’. I confess, I slept for 12 hours last night. My sleep cycle was so out of whack with the last few night sailings my body just shut down and took the sleep it needed to carry on. The mail boat came into Mayaguana today, first time in 3 weeks so there were provisions in town, Not to piggies about it, we did buy a few things, a few green peppers, a few softball sized onions, some port chops, some tomatoes, one red and 3 green, giving them time to ripe further on down the road which totaled about $16.00. Back to the pricey life of the Bahamas, but when you think about it, It wasn’t too bad. We were really after fresh produce and very happy to find it today. No fruits though. We still have a few bananas and several cans of fruit cocktail. Some live on less. Actually we could too. We just don’t need to ...yet.
When we came into Mayaguana, there were 4 boats here including Casa Mare’. Now there are 10. Although this not the best place to take cover in high winds or bad weather, we could swing on the hook which is much better than fighting 10 foot seas. It’s funny to examine peoples expressions when they think they need to stay here for a few days as they moan with an occasional grumble. Fred and I don’t mind at all. We have already asked around for the best beaches we can walk to and plan to go on the rising tide. I found a few treasures and a great find just at the government dock this morning on our way in. We came back to the boat and the tide was so low I saw conch shells just at the surface of the waterline. I got out of the boat and was going to walk over and pick one up, wanting the shell for a conch horn for me and let Fred pound the heck out of the conch to eat himself. As I stepped out of the dink, my foot sunk down under the sand up to my calve. Not me, no sir-eee. I could just see that shark coming as I struggled to get out of the beachy quicksand. There were no sharks insight but last evening there was...I saw it. I passed on the conch shell, climbed back into the dink and saw a stingray and lots of red starfish. It was a fun trip back to the boat. I think Fred is going to try to pull the head pipe out all the way and see if it may have some caked salt in there. I feel another mess coming on. I have become totally accustomed to the bucket. The biggest challenge is not sitting on it too hard or when I got up, the bucket was suctioned to my bum. Not very lady like trying to pull a bucket off my tush but it was funny, and made me laugh at myself. After seeing that shark that got away yesterday, Dave from S/v Wild Hair said he saw a shark circling their boat and hollered down to Heather asking her what she was doing. “Cleaning Chicken” she replied. So the shark was attracted to the blood of the chicken. She said that shark hung around for a few days before he left. Although I consider myself the “Queen of Barracuda's” because that seems the only thing I can catch so far, I decided to give it another try. Lame as it sounds I processed the entire catch from an anchored boat, with only a hand line and a pretty blue lure. ‘If I hung over the side just high enough to keep from touching the bottom, I may attract something since the swells are rocking and rolling the boat. That, I thought may create enough movement that something may see it. If I catch a shark, I promise to give it to the towns people. I do hope Fred can eat fish tonight instead of pork chops. Either way, we won’t go hungry.
10:00 pm
All is quiet and finally there is not a sound of anyone using the bucket. Fred fixed the head, for sure this time. It wasn’t too bad a mess as before although it took both of us to fish the pipe back through to the head. I really really really love flush toilets! No fish even took my lure. I know there are rays and sharks out there but still...oh well. I now wished I had brought my fishing pole with me. Next time. Dinner was pork chops and potatoes with sour Kraut. It was yummie. Tomorrow we are thinking about going to a homecoming celebration on the other side of the island. We would love to go just to see how they celebrate. I imagine everyone from the island will be there. What a collection of cultural celebration photos I could get! Reggie said he would see what he could work out, just not to worry about it. He will take care of it. I explained that Sculley took us for a tour and diesel and that cost us $75.00 just for the ride. I told Reggie we could not afford that if we went to the celebration and he understood. We will see what he comes up with. It actually started today but one day would be enough for us. It goes through Sunday. I hope to go shelling and beach combing before we leave. We heard today that Sunday there just may be a window. If so, I think we will take it. We are not in any hurry, but we have learned to take advantage of the windows when they are out there. The sunset this evening was spectacular but I couldn’t get down below to grab my camera. Shortly after the sun set, the moon rose. WOW, what a site. By then Fred was in a place he could hand me the camera. I hope I got some nice shots.
Mayaguana is certainly one of the forgotten islands around here, but as I see it, the people sure do have wonderful huge hearts and great big smiles. It’s amazing to me how one can live with so little, including food.
I want to go into the water so bad with my snorkel mask on but Dave and Heather said that there has been a shark circling their boat for the past few days and they are right next to us. Although we haven’t seen it over there, I prefer to keep it over there by not jumping into the water. So, I did the next best thing. I put my snorkel mask on and hung off the back of the dink, stuck my head underwater to see the bottom and looked for sea treasurers. Lots of small fish down there mostly grass and sand with the occasional conch, sand dollars and a huge sea biscuit. Not as colorful as I suspected although we are surrounded by coral reefs, none are near us. He water is so clear, the colors are grayish hues with an occasional patch of green sea grass and small colorful fish. Fred has tools and working stuff spread out all over the boat so I think the only clear spot is the v-berth. I hear a book calling me, with Jimmy Buffett in the background. It’s island time!
No comments:
Post a Comment