Me on the beach in a kickass jacket I found at Blackpoint-it's waterproof, to replace the crappy one I had
Crazy spider web- check out the zig-zags in the corners... what are those about?
Ruth Holding up the rock up at the White Horses
Jack's first fish- a jack
Jack and the lobsters Brian gave us
SATURDAY JANUARY 12, 2008
Jack here. I’m going to write fast because the only thing more scarce than cash these days is battery life on this Mac. Let’s see, where were we?
Okay, we were up in Staniel Cay for a few days. Fun, expensive, lots of people. A nurse with medicine for cheap, and beautiful. We wanted to get to Georgetown, which is at the tip of the Exuma chain of islands, about 40 miles south, so we could get cash (all we have is check and credit card, and most islands take neither, except Georgetown, Nassau, and a few others, out of 700) and so we could get supplies (produce, bread), and so I could get to a phone to call my pore ol’ mudder on her birthday. Oh yeah, and beat the cold front coming in.
We headed out, and went immediately to Black Point, 6 miles south. Most people go there specifically to do laundry, because it’s ONLY 7$ a load. We stopped, and immediately got flagged by Susan and Barry (Canada), who are really awesome, and invited to dinner with them, Simon and Hilda (U.K.), and Glen (U.S.). We ate at Lorraines, which took a check, and had $4 beers, so with dinner at $18 a plate, we paid $64, and decided to eat in for a while again.
Lorraines had internet, and we spent the next day blogging, online, etc. I can’t remember what of this I’ve already told y’all. Forgive me. Then that night, we were invited onto Glen’s boat, an all wooden schooner of ancient design, with the usual suspects. We met another couple Brian and Stephanie, who come into play later.
The next day, we went spearfishing, and a-lobstering, and no lobster, but I shot several fish. Here’s how it went: I shot one, and it just grazed him. I shot him again, same result. He then got away. I shot another, missed, then shot another, got him, but as I went to make sure the barb on my spear was through him so he couldn’t slide off, he slid off, and went under a rock. So I go under and down to the rock (12 feet deep maybe) and shoot in there, and get a different fish. You’ll see pics eventually. It was beautiful. Yellow and blue stripes, but a little thing. With him on my spear I shoot for the other bigger one, some more, but he’s gone. There’s blood in the water, so once I spot the shark that Ruth saw earlier, I head for the boat. It’s about 8 feet, but I didn’t want to hang out with it in the water.
The next day, we hiked the island. You’ll see many pics of that. The east side of this chain is deep, rough, windy, more fish, dark blue water, waves a couple feet most of the time, and much different than the west, which is sheltered, shallow, few fish, and very calm and serene, with turquoise water. Usually the waves on the west are nonexistent, depending on the weather. When the cold fronts come through, that all reverses. Well, the weather part anyway. We went to snorkel and conch that day, but it was getting too dark, so we gave it up. We went home and ate the fish. A jack fish, they tell me.
The next day, more determined than ever, we went up to the cut (the cut through between islands, where the current is rushing in and out with the tides, and very rough) and damn near went up the face of some practically vertical slopes of waves, where the strong east wind was fighting the current rushing from the west, making a very confused, steep, breaking sea. We decided against fishing the cut as planned, and went a-conching in calmer waters. Still a strong current, and some very large barracuda, and a sleeping shark, possibly the same one, and we were back in the boat.
The next day we went to Little Farmer’s Cay, where we had no cash, so we could get nothing, but they had internet, and it was 5$ for half an hour. I only had a dollar left, but he let me on, grudgingly. It was slow, and a bust. We split the next morning in a strong east wind, and sailed south to Rudder Cut Cay.
Rudder Cut Cay proved very nice, even though we skipped a few plane wrecks we passed over, we found a conch field (pulled our limit) and a cave with tens of thousands of tiny fish. We stalked some fish for a bit to no avail, but it was fun anyhow. Out in the conch field, I found the trunk of a palm tree, that was however old, no telling. It was just the stump, but wood doesn’t rot under salt water. It was a few hundred feet off shore in water that was 6 feet deep at low tide. Go figure. One of life’s mysteries I guess.
Next was Lee Stocking Cay. We landed there, and cracked our conch open, and I made one of those horns out of the big conch shell, like they did in Lord of the Flies. Then it was time to find Piggy.
Since Piggy was nowhere to be had, we fried up our conch, which must have been about fifteen, at least. They were okay, but still tough and too salty. We’ll figure out this conch recipe yet.
The next day, Ruth spotted a shark under the boat, so she canceled her swim she was about to have. We realized our solar panels had not been working properly due to a wire that had a nick in it. The salt had gotten in there and eaten right through the positive lead to the battery. That was really thick wire, 10 guage, I think, and it was totally gone. That salt corrosion is no joke. Anyway, I got to work on figuring out how to get our electrical system charging again, and Ruth made spaghetti which was much welcomed by me, since we’d been eating canned foods for a while, and I was expecting to turn up with a bad case of gout at any moment.
While this went on, Brian and Stephanie showed up and said hello, and were off lobstering on the ocean side of the islands. We dropped our projects and tagged along, but none of us got anything. We returned and finished our projects, and then decided to tear off out of there and head south to try to keep ahead of the cold front coming. As we were leaving, we got to talking with Brian and Stephanie, and they said they were off to Barrataria next, since they were out of liquor. Ruth and I gave them half a fifth of Bombay gin we had kicking around, and they offered us a lobster they had just gotten and their conch. I’d always heard that you should never turn down money or lobster, so we took the lobster. Brian then said that he was off looking again, and if he had any luck, he’d bring us one more. We laughed and thanked him and pulled out.
Fifteen minutes later, who’s chasing us in their dingy with a lobster for our pot? Pretty nice people. They chased us for a while, too. That night we sailed for Georgetown on the ocean side since that’s the only way to get there, since it was calmer than usual. As dark fell, we stopped on yet another uninhabited island, beached the boat, and cooked the lobster. Well, actually, we anchored after a few minutes, the current was too strong for the beachin’.
Now we’re in Georgetown, well across the harbor from it. 120 boats, they say, and we weren’t past the second one in the harbor before they’re yelling at us that there’s a party on the beach that night. We drive through and see many of our old friend’s boats, and so we decide to go to the party tonight, and hit Georgetown in the morning. Many songs were sung, dirty jokes told, and even without any alcohol, sugar, dairy, or hardly food, I still get an allergic reaction, and now have antaloons in my pantaloons. One day, I’ll get this licked. Maybe they have an allergist in G-town. Stay tuned, my non-allergic friends, stay tuned.
Livingstone out.
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