CONCH SALAD AND SEAWEED
03 May 2017 | GEORGETOWN EXUMA BAHAMAS
Kris / Relentlessly Beautiful
We woke up to the calmest morning I have seen since we arrived in the Bahamas. The water was glassy smooth and we could see to the bottom. For the first time today I saw a barracuda swimming around the boat and quite a few little fish swimming beneath. Phyllis called and suggested we go to shore and find a conch salad. Since there are so few cruisers left, we thought there would be only a short wait. We agreed to go about noon. Jack and I made our first trip to shore to see if our parts were finally delivered to Forbes Company. What a surprise, they were not in yet, but the Forbes Guy (maybe I should learn his name) said come back in an hour or so. We agreed to come after lunch and he promised to be there.
Back on Caprice we had an hour before lunch time so we decided to work on cleaning our hull. It has acquired a layer of green sealife that looks like thick moss in circular blobs with more moss growing over the top and grass growing out of that. All in 3 weeks. This is an amazingly fertile harbor. Jack donned a BC with dive tank and I just grabbed a spatula and my mask and fins. This way he could do the keel and lower parts of the hull and I worked along the water line. The stuff comes off easily, but every inch needs to be scraped, all 37 feet long by four feet under water. A big job. We got a good start, used up a tank of air, then quit for lunch.
By the time we got to shore , tied up the dinghies and walked to the conch shack it was 12:30. Seems like a good time for lunch. The conch shack lady was very pleasant but informed that she could not make them for at least 30 minutes. There was an order ahead of us. Not wanting a conch salad, Jack and Charlie strolled off in search of some BBQ chicken and 3 Kaliks. They are a bargain at the liquor store, 3 for $5.00. The best price in the Bahamas. By the time they got back the conch shack lady told Charlie our salads were ready. Almost. About 10 minutes later they were marinated to perfection but she had no spoons. “The best part is the juice” says she, and continued to search for a spoon. Finally we agreed we could eat it with a fork and slurp the juice right out of the bowl. No one cares. While we waited for our lunch, we got into a bit of a political chat with some Bahamian guys who I guess had nothing else to do. They were interested in our recent election and were looking forward to theirs the next week. No voices were raised thank goodness. Changing the subject, he told us in great detail how to catch a sea turtle. I believe they are protected, but sometimes they get eaten. Shhh. The conch salad was worth the wait, and the guys enjoyed their chicken.
One more trip to Forbes after lunch produced no results after about a 20 minute phone call. Apparently the parts, ours and Charlies’ are still at the airport in Customs. Though patience is a virtue, we weren’t feeling the love.
Back at Caprice we continued to work on the bottom as before. We finished most of it and tonight are two tired senior citizens. Swimming sideways with a snorkel or standing on the tips of your fins wearing a scuba tank and scraping the boat is darn hard work.
We rewarded ourselves with sundowners with Wyvern and will seek acquisition of repair parts again tomorrow.