Wednesday January 25, 2012
The alarm went off, just as expected, 4:30 AM on the button! I jumped up and rushed up the companionway and let out a huge sigh of relief as I stood in awe at all the stars in the sky. I would like to say they have more stars in the sky down here than home but the fact is, we have plenty of pollution in the US to prevent us from seeing God’s beautiful heavens. When on a boat, on the seas, there is no line from the sky and the water at night. You just know it is there. I wondered how many people never see this beauty from where they are, those millions of stars. I was happy to see stars and not clouds. I sat on the starboard side of Casa Mare’ which was facing directly South so my view couldn’t have been better. There it was, the two stars on the horizon pointing up to the tip of the “Southern Cross”. It was much larger than I had expected. Actually, I thought it would be hard to find since there were so many stars up there but God showed it to me right away. Thank You Rapid Roy for the directions and description! It was certainly a special treat to have see that. Another first for me. I prayed under the heavens. It was a special time between God and I. As I started to get up and come back down, a huge long shooting star went right across it and to the West. I would like to think that was God’s message to me, letting me know my prayers were heard but in fact, I already know that they were. It was a beautiful memory. My heart flutters when I think of it still.
This morning over the radio I heard Jackie make a call asking if the Trimaran was in distress on the Atlantic side of Long Island Breeze. We are on the harbor side. Nothing. Although I was concerned, I went on with my morning, knowing there was nothing we could do anyway. A bit later there was a May Day call which was made by Jack & Evie Collard from S/V “Eldridge C”, a motor cat in our harbor. They saw the Trimaran over the rocks. Rumors flew but we ran into Jack and Evie on our walk to the beach. They had just come from there and told us the Trimaran s/v “Angel” was aground over coral reefs just down the beach. They told us “Angel” had been spotted traveling South this morning off the coast then later it was North of where they were spotted, going into the reefs. We don’t know the story yet, there is no coast guard here but we did hear that the beds on one side had been slept in, the life jackets were still on the boat, the GPS was missing and the VHS radio was torn away from it’s brackets. The bow sprint was broken off the front. The main was down but not put away. No one was aboard. They said they had records on the boat saying they were in Fort Lauderdale at West Marine and several other spots and possibly from Guadeloupe. They suspect foul play. I imagine we will hear more tomorrow, hopefully the owners are just marooned somewhere and the boat got away but if what they say is true, nothing adds up to a normal accident. Fred and I decided to lengthen our beach walk a bit more and have a look since we were so close to it anyway. These beaches are not like ours on the east coast of the US. They are more like coves tucked between coral reefs and at low tide it may be possible to walk around them, otherwise there is a lot of climbing. We were lucky though. It was very low tide and we climbed a few places but mostly walked the shore/coral reef line. At one time we came across a cave which was interesting but decided to keep going just incase things got bad up ahead. The beaches were stunning, I found a heart bean, a pearl bean and a hamburger bean and a few shells. Fred found me a beauty. We did manage to shoot a few pictures also. I just haven’t reached the point of “If you see one beach, you have seen them all” The beauty is far better than that and I have not tired of this amazing ocean shore. Finally, about a half mile from the uphill destination we asked a truck who drove by if we could jump in the back. We did. Another first for me but I wanted to get Fred some orange juice or something to get his sugar back to normal. We also had 5 # of lobster tails to pick up at the dock but were too late and he had already left. But another guy from the lobster boat pointed out his house and said, just go up to that big yellow house, that’s where he lives and his wife is home. I looked at that house “waaay” up on the top of that hill and knew I was about to make a trip right back where we came from and I also knew Fred was not up to the walk. I walked back into the store where he was buying juice and asked him if he was up to it...silly me...and he said no. I took the hand held and my juice and started walking, back, up and then down to the yellow house then up a steep drive arriving, finally to the ole homestead of a lobsterman. There was one broken down car along the side of the drive but no other means of transportation in site. I was greeted by a rooster and three hens clucking away at my arrival, following me like little puppies. I had to say hi to them, after all, how may people are greeted by chickens and a rooster. They followed me to the peak of the drive and the first thing I saw was a donkey standing next to a boat on the ground, about the size of an 17’ Whaler or something. I didn’t go near it because there stood a donkey next to it, hee hawing away at me. I wasn’t sure if he was tied to the boat but he stood his ground and I didn’t take one step into his territory. I stepped onto the patio, thinking that just may be the front and knocked, calling Miah a few times, knocked and decided this was the back. As I walked around to the other side I was escorted by the rooster and three hens until we came to a bathtub on the side of the house.
I actually thought they probably took baths in there, it was certainly private enough and besides, they had a donkey standing guard just beyond the bathtub next to the boat. As I got closer I looked in, (couldn’t help it...I was curious) and there it was. A turtle in the about 2” of water. I chuckled to myself and said, now this is natural living! I wondered still if they shared that bathtub with the turtle. After calling Miah again and a few knocks on what I thought may be the front door, I decided Miah was not home. Miah is the wife of the lobster man. I took one last look at the turtle, the guard donkey, said good buy to the rooster and hens and trekked my way back down the rocky dirt driveway to the main single lane road, made a right and headed back to where Fred was waiting for me, empty handed except for the 30.00 for the 5# of lobster tails I was going to pay them with. I came back a bit richer as I found a quarter, yes, a US quarter lying in the road. Looked like it had been there for a long time but I picked it up anyway. It is easy to amuse me, even when I find a quarter lying on the road on an island far from home. We returned to the boat, complete wore out and decided not to go to dinner tonight, stayed here, I got a shower and Fred made Parmesan Pasta with 4 lobster tails we had bought the night before for dinner. I think Fred wants to see the Southern Cross so it will be another early rise which I am happy to do.
One more piece of news, I haven’t had a chance to go ashore with my computer yet but, Fred thinks the SPOT finally sent a message out tonight. I am hoping so because I was thinking I may need to replace my brother’s broken SPOT when I returned home. We even checked the batteries this morning. I am still thinking it was a glitch caused by the solar flares this week. 8:30 and I am plum wore out. Fred is too. Nite!
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