Sunday, January 28, 2018
Docked - Slip C-17 port side to, bow in Old Bahama Bay Marina, West End, Grand Bahama Island
Today we met Gary. Gary dives for lobsters. When we first saw Gary he was swimming towards the ocean pulling a huge igloo cooler behind him attached to his foot with a rope. There was another guy, Platinum is what he goes by, headed out of the inlet in a small boat. I figured he was going around the jetty to get the guy swimming and get his cooler and catch aboard. I was wrong he just went on by Gary in the water. So, we watch for a while and this guy is a really strong swimmer pulling the cooler. Is he going to get washed out into the raging ocean we wonder? (Hey, no one in the marina left this morning. Still too windy) He finally comes ashore on the rock jetty and got his banged up cooler with no top on it onto the rocks. We walk down and he has lobsters. We buy 6 of them from him on the spot. He says, wait a minute and I’ll get a bag. He starts bouncing from rock to rock barefoot on the jetty and I finally figure out he’s looking for any bag that has washed onto the jetty!. He finally finds an old ice bag or something, cuts part of it off and rinses it out in the ocean water to put our lobsters in. ( How sanitary is that? ) So, he charges $5.00 each. Gary cuts the tails off for us and gets the intestine (locals call this the poop line ) out of the lobster tail. Susan and I notice this guy is NOT YOUNG. We ask him his age. And he says he is 60! He says he does whatever it takes to make money and he would be diving for conch later. After taking a few pictures and still kind of in disbelieve of how this guy is in real danger every day he works, I take a few more pictures. I then rush the lobsters back to the boat to get them out of the “recycled” bag and wash them off. They are still wiggling. Two go in the refrigerator for tonight and the other 4 go into the freezer.
Before we saw Gary, we found his bicycle. It had only the pegs left on the pedals and the baldest tires I’ve ever seen. We thought it was junk someone had left there. But it was Gary’s transportation from home to work and back.
Gary told us everyone coming here wants seafood and he just craves a McDonalds hamburger. No McDonalds around here.
Humm, next trip maybe we will bring lots of frozen McDonalds burgers and fries. Not sure if I could get them past the customs officer.
Today’s picture is Gary, with his “whole operation” as he told us several times. No boat, Just a strong swimming 60 year old guy, his cooler, spears, snorkel and mask. Check out how fit he is for 60 years old.
Today we met Gary. Gary dives for lobsters. When we first saw Gary he was swimming towards the ocean pulling a huge igloo cooler behind him attached to his foot with a rope. There was another guy, Platinum is what he goes by, headed out of the inlet in a small boat. I figured he was going around the jetty to get the guy swimming and get his cooler and catch aboard. I was wrong he just went on by Gary in the water. So, we watch for a while and this guy is a really strong swimmer pulling the cooler. Is he going to get washed out into the raging ocean we wonder? (Hey, no one in the marina left this morning. Still too windy) He finally comes ashore on the rock jetty and got his banged up cooler with no top on it onto the rocks. We walk down and he has lobsters. We buy 6 of them from him on the spot. He says, wait a minute and I’ll get a bag. He starts bouncing from rock to rock barefoot on the jetty and I finally figure out he’s looking for any bag that has washed onto the jetty!. He finally finds an old ice bag or something, cuts part of it off and rinses it out in the ocean water to put our lobsters in. ( How sanitary is that? ) So, he charges $5.00 each. Gary cuts the tails off for us and gets the intestine (locals call this the poop line ) out of the lobster tail. Susan and I notice this guy is NOT YOUNG. We ask him his age. And he says he is 60! He says he does whatever it takes to make money and he would be diving for conch later. After taking a few pictures and still kind of in disbelieve of how this guy is in real danger every day he works, I take a few more pictures. I then rush the lobsters back to the boat to get them out of the “recycled” bag and wash them off. They are still wiggling. Two go in the refrigerator for tonight and the other 4 go into the freezer.
Before we saw Gary, we found his bicycle. It had only the pegs left on the pedals and the baldest tires I’ve ever seen. We thought it was junk someone had left there. But it was Gary’s transportation from home to work and back.
Gary told us everyone coming here wants seafood and he just craves a McDonalds hamburger. No McDonalds around here.
Humm, next trip maybe we will bring lots of frozen McDonalds burgers and fries. Not sure if I could get them past the customs officer.
Today’s picture is Gary, with his “whole operation” as he told us several times. No boat, Just a strong swimming 60 year old guy, his cooler, spears, snorkel and mask. Check out how fit he is for 60 years old.
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