Year 9 Day 161 The St. Lucia Fishermen
09 July 2016 | Anse La Vedure
Dave/Partly Cloudy
We decided to stay put for at least another day here at our anchorage in Anse La Vedure. My hip is back to normal and Mary Margaret is feeling better too. We wanted to dive on the reef here since it is supposed to be pretty nice. While I am anxious to get up to Rodney Bay so we can have good Internet, the beauty of this anchorage was just too much to leave.
This morning we were passed by a few of the small fishing skiffs on the lookout for schools of fish. As one of them came right in front of us the standing lookouts in the skiff started pointing to where there was a rippling in the water. The driver slowed the boat and the lead lookout donned his mask and snorkel and jumped into the water. Soon he surfaced and had raised two fingers. The others in the boat then started letting out the fishing net as the boat made a large circle. As it was doing this, some of the men started throwing rocks into the water ahead of the boat to scare the fish to the left side of the boat as the net was lowered. A second man jumped into the water and with his mask and snorkel he worked with the first man in the water to work the net in the water and scaring the school of fish into a tighter and tighter ball.
Soon the net had fully enclosed the school of fish and the two men still in the boat started pulling the net into the boat. As the enclosed circle of net got smaller and smaller one of the two men in the water returned to the boat to help pull the net in while the other made sure none of the fish jumped over the floats holding up the net.
The result was a good catch of six to ten inch silvery fish. I am not sure what type of fish this was. Once the fish were landed and the net stowed, the skiff took off in search of the next school.
In the afternoon, Mary Margaret and I snorkeled the reef. While it was certainly better than anything we saw in Grenada or Barbados, it was not as good as the previous reefs we have explored here in St. Lucia. Nevertheless, we had a great time and enjoyed the clear water.
Another typical wave is due to pass over us this evening and should last through the better part of tomorrow. As a tropical wave passes over, we typically get some rain and some periods of sun. If the periods of sun appear to be long enough, we will try moving on to Rodney Bay. If not, we just may decide to hunker down here one more day. Time will tell…
On a personal note, I wish to apologize to those who have sent us emails or left Facebook comments. I have not had a chance to email or return the comments. I am struggling here with the Internet just to post the blog and any pictures we may have taken. By the time that is done, I have lost patience and am frustrated with the darn connection. Thus, I keep telling myself that I will return emails and comments when we get up to Rodney Bay and have (I hope) a better connection. However, we keep extending our stay down here so some of the replies I want to make are getting a little ripe.