"Norther"
14 January 2006 | Normans Cay
The forecast was correct-strong winds expected and yes they arrived early Saturday morning with a "wake-up squall" of 40 knots! Then it blew and blew and blew alllll day long and allll day Sunday 25 to 30 knots! We were quite rolly at times when we had the wind on the beam due to the strong tidal currents. We were confined to the boat for those days, Menno did manage to take Daisy ashore in the morning and evening so she could take care of her business. We had school on Saturday morning (make-up day) and then kept busy playing Uno, Monopoly,reading Harry Potter, making puzzles and listening to any chatter on the VHF of other boaters talking to each other.This can be amusing and informative at times- eavesdroppong on others conversations! John is building a little wooden Mayflower boat which he got for his birthday. There were 12 other boats in the anchorage enjoying the Norther with us. Every time there is a wind change or good gust of wind all of the different boaters will pop their heads out to make sure their anchor is holding and the boat is not dragging. This becomes an around the clock ritual that is done by everyone. It can get rather tiring but it is necessary! The storm finally let up by Monday.yahoo! We had school in the morning then went "gunk holing" in the afternoon with our friends on Amanzi. Daisy joined us as well. Normans Cay has lots of little nooks and cranies to go exploring in by dinghy, it is great fun. We were out exploirng but also in search of lobster and conch. The water is so clear that we can see the coral heads and fish without using the looking bucket! We did find one large conch on the sand flats. A very large area comes out of the water at low tide and it is great to go walking across these sand flats and swim in the "jacuzzis" -as John called the water holes! We found some wonderful sea shells and sand dollars on the sand bars, John also found a squid that had been washed up on shore! We were in the dinghy searching for conch in the grassy areas and all of a sudden a sea plane over us and lands on the water! There were some huge caves but we did not get a chance to explore those yet. We did see a large sea turtle swimming lazily in the sound! On our way back to Eira Daniel calmy states, "Hey, there is a nurse shark!" We turn the dingy around and sure enough a nice size nurse shark is sniffing around one of the coral heads! That evening the boys put out conch guts on the fishing poles in hopes of catching something. Zing! We had a a bite in no time at all, zing, zing and zing within 30 minutes we had 3 nice size White Margates- a type of grunt, yes they grunt when you catch them! We gave one to Amanzi to enjoy and we had delicious fish for dinner the next night! Menno has become a wonderful fish chef!! The boys NEVER tire of fishing! What is it about boys and fishing? I won't complain because it is putting food on the table.