06/03/2007, Charlie and Joyce Beede's in Salt Pond
Well, today is a sad day for us, we are preparing to sail back to North Carolina tomorrow morning. All day, we visited friends, saying goodbye, taking photos and getting email addresses. Yesterday, we saw our property for the last time in awhile, we put up our sign that said "Lagniappe", which means "something extra" in the creole language and is a word that appears in many Louisiana cookbooks. So, we liked it as a name for our property and someday the house we will build there. We planted bougainvilla, monkey fiddle, poinciana, and christmas palms yesterday too. This has been a great last couple of weeks, we watched the regatta from our friends houses. At Kris and Jeannie's, we dranks Jeannie's Killer Daquiris and watched the locally made sailboats race around the sound. At Charlie and Joyce's, we ate all the Bar-B-Cued ribs and chicken we possibly could and drank beer and ran around the races in Charlie's boat with our friends, Jay and Kim. Kim, Joyce and I even took the boat out by ourselves for a girl's ride and decided we should all buy a boat together that is just for us girls. It was a blast. We all went to the regatta site where there was a rake n scrape band playing, great food, and all kinds of people milling around. The regatta races lasted for three fun days. A couple of days after regatta, Kris took his daughter Amber (visiting from California), myself, Brian, Mark and Jill (our friends who are also cruisers) to finish my, Mark's and Jill's PADI certification. We all passed with flying colors and a couple of days later Kris and Jeannie invited us out on their dive boat to dive the Pinnacles, a really cool dive site about 15 miles from here. Our friends Charlie and Jill went and Amber and Jeannie fixed lunch for everybody to eat on the boat. It was kind of rough that day and we had a pretty wild ride on the way out, but underwater was tranquil and beautiful. We did two tank dives, each around 40 minutes in 65 ft max depth. There were these massive coral heads 50 feet high with tunnels and crevices and caves you could swim through. The colors and shapes of the different corals, sponges, and sea creatures looked like something out of a Dr. Suess book. It was amazing. The fish didn't seem very afraid at all, they pretty much went about their business as if we weren't even there. It feels so incredible to breathe underwater and feel weightless while you're taking your time observing everything. All around us the water was so blue and so clear, it felt like such a friendly place, so peaceful. And to stare at the massive walls of coral decorated with green, red, blue, purple, pink, orange and yellow living sculptures... it was like being inside a surreal underwater museum of art. I absolutely loved every minute of it, in fact, I didn't want it to end. We all had a great time, Kris was wonderful to captain the boat through rain, waves and spraying surf to get us out there and Jeannie was a great hostess with the food and drinks she brought along and a great dive buddy too. Jill, from the sailboat Wings of the Morning was really good at Scuba considering she was only just recently certified like me. Amber, Kris's daughter, is 28 and lives in Monterey, CA. She was a lot of fun to hang out with, a really interesting and very cool gal. And of course, our good friend Charlie was as entertaining as always. Anyway, we had a fab time thanks to Reeldivers and their great boat and local knowledge. So, we're leaving in the morning and we plan to island hop all the way home. A few stops in the Exumas, a couple of spots in Andros, the Berry islands, and finally Bimini before jumping off to catch a ride in the northward current of the Gulf Stream to North Florida, where we will make a stop before heading all the way back up to North Carolina. It's been an exceptionally unique and amazing trip. We have met so many wonderful people and seen so many fantastic places and things. I think Brian and I have both experienced some pretty big changes in ourselves since we began our trip in January. It's been a really special part of our life's journey and we can feel that. We've been inspired by the beauty of being a part of the ocean, the underwater world, that freediving to greater depths and Scuba diving has opened up to us, and we plan to continue to be a part of that world. We have had the chance to observe firsthand the sharp contrast in ocean life and reef life in the Eastern Caribbean and in different areas of the Bahamas and we see the cause for concern as life in the oceans is obviously suffering at the hands of man. We will do all we can to preserve this amazing other world and the life that keeps it in balance by educating ourselves and others about it. Sooooo, if you stay tuned, you'll probably hear a lot more about that. Goodbye for now Long Island, we will be back.
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Comments [1]
05/11/2007
Sooooooo,
Just wanted to write about a couple of cool things. Brian went surfing for the first time on Long Island the other day. The waves were good, not great, and the swell didn't last long, but it was great for him to finally get to surf this virgin break. He paddled out about 200 yards or so. Really far! I could barely see him without using the zoom lens on the video camera. He a caught a few really good rides. The day was beautiful, the tide was falling. While he was out there two rather large lemon sharks began circling him, when it was clear they wouldn't be leaving him alone, he caught a wave and paddled in. But that was one long and treacherous paddle. There were coral heads and bare moonrock formations appearing and disappearing in the waves, some of them towering over his head, they were so large! He said it was a very freaky scene. I was perched high above the beach on the porch of an empty house where I had a great angle for shooting video. Another really cool thing we did recently was visit this shrimp grotto. Our friends told us about this hole/cave/grotto that you can dive and it has tons of tiny bright red/orange shrimp in it. It's located in the bush behind these really pretty ruins of an old church. You're walking along a path amongst gumbo-limbo trees and cactus and suddenly there it is, this beautiful limestone formation of rock. A grotto you can step down off the path and into, the water was perfectly still, you could see the reflections of the trees hanging over it in perfect detail. Then it becomes cave and standing there you can peer into the dark cavern that the water continues to flow under. In the clear water were dozens of tiny shrimp, really bright orangy red, quite active, about an inch long and very slender. It was one of the most unique places and some of the most unique creatures we've ever seen. Sorry so short, time is wasting, there's diving to do...
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05/11/2007, Eva's Cay, Long Island, Bahamas
Thursday, May 10th 2007. Two months on Long Island and having a great time. One of the biggest problems of being here is the lack of easy/cheap internet access along with the fact that when you can get online the connection is so slow making skype phone calls is near impossible. So we truly miss talking to friends and family and we apologize for this.
This morning I tuned into the SSB radio for a weather report and learned about subtropical storm Andrea. Last I had heard a few days ago it was just a developing low pressure, but now has been upgraded and given a name - looks like it's going to be an active hurricane season. Well the good side of that is that it has been wonderful weather here with light winds and calm seas, great for getting out on the water and diving. There has also been a few days of rain which is good for the plants and filling the cisterns, but the mosquitoes have hatched and are thick. The nights are calm with all the screens in and the fans running nonstop to cool the skin after a day in the sun. Thank goodness for fans! This is the first time we have been down here this late in the season and it is a wonderful time as far as settled weather and clear water. We are pretty close to being done working on our property, undercutting the brush and planting trees. Most of the brush we've cut we've left in place with the hopes of it covering the ground to keep more from going up thru it right away and for it to eventually rot and help add to the soil for when we return to build. I know that by that time a lot of our work will look pointless, but hopefully it will give some of the larger tamarind trees some room to expand and grow into larger shade trees. We have also planted about 40 coconuts, transplanted 3 palms, 4 small mango trees, and 2 sapodilla trees. There are literally hundreds of vermilidads all over the property and where we cleared the trails we gathered these along with the orchids and tried to organize them into beds around the coco's and tamarinds. We also collected fish floats off the beach and hung these along the trail so as you walk along it has a true island feel. This is the first piece of land either of us has owned and we are having a great time just making it unique and feel like a part of us. And now with all the rain it seems to have been perfect timing for our work and planting. Well time will only tell and we shall see when we return.
Jeannette and I only have one more day of diving until she is officially certified an Open Water Padi diver and I have completed my refresher course. How cool! I have to commend Jeannette on how well she has done, not only on acing the written tests but for how comfortable and confident she has become in the water. Taking her mask off at 40' and then clearing it was like second nature to her. I have to say I am very proud of her. This experience has also helped in her overall comfort with freediving. About a week ago we took Puff southwest to the channel cays then took the inflatable out towards the nuevitas wall. We spent the day diving and spearfishing in 15-40' gin clear water over a mile offshore. I speared the boats limit of 6 fish for the day, one mutton snapper, 3 hogfish, and 2 grouper all of which were between 5-15 lbs. What a perfect day, words truly cannot even come close to describing to incredible beauty both above and below the water. Both of our freediving skills have improved dramatically since arriving here. To be able to dive on one breath of air and become one with the underwater world, drifting through huge purple sea fans, coral heads the size of a dump truck all the while being surrounded by schools a margate, grunts, angelfish, tangs . . . . simply breathtaking!
I was also fortunate enough to be invited to help my friend Charlie and Junior set some lobster condos. We loaded up Junior's dad's 45' commercial fishing boat with 116 lobster condos and towed 3 skiffs off into the sunset one evening. This was a guy's trip and Jeannette was cool enough to understand the opportunity and wave us farewell on our 2 day, 2 night voyage. The first night out we anchored out in the open banks under light winds and seas. The boat has enough bunks to sleep 12 people in two fully air-conditioned cabins, but I opted to sleep in the wheel house where the light wind and motion of the sea rocked me to sleep. At sunrise the captain and 5 crew awoke and we got underway. By 8am we were in the chosen grounds to start laying the condos. Charlie and Junior got in the whaler (skiff) and began scouting ahead of the big boat while Justin and myself got the condos ready. Every condo had to have a concrete block strapped to the top and be in position for release in the spot Junior had chosen. Once over the side he would freedive down with the condo making sure it was upright and in the spot he had seen. We shuffled, moved, and launched all 116 condos that day. That's a lot of weight including the block, and the fact that each condo was 4'x6' . We finished around 5pm and as the big boat headed toward our anchorage Charlie and I took off in the skiff to spear some dinner. After a grouper, hogfish, mutton and yellowtail snapper along with 2 conch and being chased out of the water by a shark we figured it was good enough for dinner. The shark came only after I had speared a bar jack to have it bit in half by a hungry barracuda and had waited around to recover the spear. That night we all ate good (one of the crew from the D.R. was the designated cook) and slept even better after a long hard days work. The next day was plate glass calm and it was time to play. Everyone loaded into to skiffs and went spearfishing. Charlie and I had already planned on returning home that day so we dove all day and made our way back to Long Island. His 15' whaler is an impressive boat and we covered to 50 miles while freediving and compressor diving all the way back. We had a boatload of fish by noon and ended up just enjoying natures gift the rest of the day. That was definitely a great experience and a chance to dive some truly remote areas.
I am now able to freedive to 65' and am going further each day. Jeannette is also improving and is able to go to 45' or just spend some good quality time in the 20-30' range.
Some days we dive to blue holes here in Salt Pond, one which has an impressive arch at 45' and is a great area to practice and enjoy being in the water.
Well I'm tired of typing and I'm sure I'm leaving some things out but oh-well, I'll have to do it next time. Happy mother's day Mom and Pat, we love you both and hope you have a wonderful mothers day. We miss you all a lot and look forward to catching up with you upon our return. Lots of love to all and Happy Mothers Day Mom and Mom.
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