Happy Valentein's Day from the Ruther

It's 4:30 on this rainy yet beautiful afternoon, and I just discovered
it's Valentine's Day!
Jack said, "Hey Sweetie?"
I respond, "Yeah?"
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
Oooooh I could just squeal with excitement! What nice surprise! I feel
like I just realized its my birthday or something. We've had such a
wonderful day so far and now we are in a resort associated with the
marina where we are docked so that we could get on the internet…over
the speakers LOVE XM is playing… otherwise I would despise this
music,
but since its V-Day….awww true love.

We have had so many adventures this past month and I have not been
writing about ANY of them! It's catch-up time!!

Before we left Staniel Cay (middle of the Exumas), Jack and I
snorkeled what is called Thunderball Grotto. It's a large cave
partially submerged under water, most easily accessible at low tide
but possible to enter at high tide if you're willing to swim under
water for about 15 feet. The cave has been used in such Hollywood
films as "Thunderball" (the James Bond movie with Sean Connery),
"Splash" (good ol' Tom Hanky Spanks with that silly Mermaid), as well
as numerous others. That said, we scooted over there at low tide,
parked the big boat, geared up, slid into the water, made sure the
anchor was set, and entered the mysterious hard grotto. We saw all
sorts of beautiful and colorful fish, but the coral and the cave
itself was the most fantastic part! I can't describe in words the
colors, shapes, and textures! The underwater part of the cave was
lined with the brightest, most fluorescent oranges, reds, yellows,
purples, and greens. The coral, sponges, fans, sea anemone, and other
plant life was just as colorful and some were shaded deep dark green
or purple. My imagination could never have produced such beautiful
colors and textures!
Afterwards we motored a few miles south to find a plane wreck that is
marked on the chart. I snorkeled the wreck by myself because Jack's
skin was irritating him. It was a small wreck but very interesting!
The control panel was intact with the exception of some exposed cables
and twisted joysticks. The pilot's chair was even still there! The
cables and wires were corroded, but were thick and twisting and
covered in algae that the fish were eating from. One very eerie thing
about it was that a thick metal shaft was protruding from the control
panel right into the pilot's chair, making it look like a fatal
disaster! I'd like to look up the history of the wreck just to know.
The fish life was fairly abundant around the wreck, and I saw a big
red snapper under the right wing (say, three feet long).
From there we sailed 6 miles south to Black Point. It was a very nice
sail – smooth, windy, fast, sunny, good times. Shortly after
anchoring at Black Point, Susan and Barry (friends from Canada that we
met at Warderick Wells and spent Christmas with) stopped by on their
dinghy and offered to take us in to Loraine's Café where there was an
internet connection. It turned out they were having dinner there with
Hilda and Simon (from Britain) and Glenn (from New Jersey), so we
joined the group and we all ate a big feast of chicken, ribs, Bahamian
peas n' rice, salad and Kalick! We didn't get on the internet until
the next day and it was so slow it took ALL DAY to do what I could
have done in about an hour and a half back in the States.
The following day Jack and I went on a hike around the island. Our
destination was the White Horses – white cliffs on the ocean side
that
supposedly resembled white horses. Although they didn't in the least,
I imagine they probably do when viewed out at sea. On the way we took
a detour down a beautiful path of palms and dunes that led to a blow
hole. When the waves crashed against the rocks water would spurt from
the hole. It was pretty neat, but you can imagine our disappointment
at the amount of plastic and trash around the perimeter of the hole.
The hike took all day. We took the beach and paused for a lunch we
packed. It was beautiful. Hot, but windy. We found some really cool
shells and I picked up a few sea fans for my mom and sisters that I
thought were the most outstanding that I've come across. We climbed a
lot of coral rock and took many pictures. We took a dirt road back
that ran on the other side of the island (the side where we were
anchored). We stopped to check out a couple abandoned houses on the
water. We've seen at LEAST a hundred abandoned or unfinished houses
so far on this trip. Two reasons for this is that 1) It seems a lot of
people start building here and then don't have the money to finish and
2) When a Bahamian passes away and leaves a house to their family,
there are so many members of the family laying claim to the house that
it just sits there and nothing is done with it.

Wow, I am losing momentum. I spent most of this time online dealing
with bank accounts, bills, and emails dealing with business and the
Barrett house. Since Jack has been posting a bunch of pictures and
entries on the blog, I will pause my writing because I know you are
all well-informed on our status. I will continue the story of our
trek in my next blog. I promise.
Happy V-Day, friends and lovers.