Cloud Messenger

The wind kept us another day on Rum Cay and made the need to transport Morgan and Caroline even more immediate or they would be spending another night on "Joyous" and another night not with us. Alan kindly offered to continue to entertain them but I was determined to get them to Rum Cay. With much smoozing of locals and lots of inquiry I finally located a pilot, a man named Fred, willing to bring the two travelers to us by late afternoon. Morgan and Caroline returned from a scooter tour of San Salvador to find the small plane virtually fired up and ready to roll; precision timing. David and I hitched a ride to the airport as we heard the plane circling Rum Cay. We tumbled out of the beat-up, dusty, small ,pick-up barefoot and beaming! Yeah, they had made it. We all four---five with driver, Rashta----(plus Ali) crammed back into the vehicle and headed for the marina. It was a short drive considering Rum Cay is only about 5 miles across at its widest and contains a total of 60 residents. The marina is rustic and fabulous. The docks might be a bit saggy and the water unpotable and the fuel non-existent but the atmosphere is perfect island paradise. The people are friendly, the ocean is clear and blindingly blue, the landscape is charmingly dotted with artsy sculpture and natural beauty. Even the daily arrival of sharks in the marina, timed to coincide with fishing boats returning for the evening, seems welcoming. We decided to stay another day in Rum Cay so our guests could see the island and meet the people. We had a great group dinner to introduce everyone. We planned great adventures for the next day. Jason and David would spend the morning bonefishing while Laura and I took the kids snorkeling. We agreed to meet at noon for a group explore of the island by golf cart for the oldsters (only holds four) and ATV for Morgan and Caroline, then a local lunch. We started out easy with a snorkel off the beach and a look for conch. Laura and I had scoped out this grassy area earlier and knew it was filled with conch of all ages. Literally hundreds of juvenile conch are scattered throughout the flowing sea grass, good to know the next generation is healthy and growing. Morgan found his first conch, a huge thick lipped specimen. Next we loaded up into the dinghy and motored out to the reef right outside of the entrance channel. Here the Staghorn coral comes right to the top of the water and even reaches out of the depths to the sky above. Impressively beautiful. Here Morgan found a Slipper lobster. He is a great hunter like his dad! We were weary from our long swims so we showered and arranged for the transportation fest. Our odd convoy of vehicles headed out for Ruby's Restaurant. Here we ordered up a feast of Bahamian food and then took off for an hour of exploring while Ruby whipped it up in her kitchen. We devoured a traditional Bahamian feast of Mac and Cheese, Cole Slaw, Peas and Rice and Grouper. We were glad the plans at the marina for a potluck were late in the evening and we would have time to get hungry all over again. The potluck was delicious the host and hostess, Bobbie and Chara, always contribute fabulous food but the cruisers had risen to the occasion and brought equally great stuff to the table. The excitement for the night came when one of the boaters passed out during dinner. Jason took charge since he has advanced First Aid training and eventually determined that the man was fine. A bit too much, sun, fun and drink and a bit too little water and rest. His wife was understandably upset but her erratic, crazy behavior provided quite the spectacle to the other guests and did nothing but hinder the process of helping her husband. The next day we sailed off in beautiful blue skies to San Salvador. There Morgan and Caroline showed us around since they had already been there before us! The real tour though was from Jason. This was his first time returning to San Salvador where he used to be the Dive Master for the Riding Rock Resort and Marina. Many of his old friends were excited and happy to see him. Also, Alan was still there and we were glad to meet up again and properly thank him for his hospitality toward Morgan and Caroline. The next day we rented a car. All the cars in the Bahamas drive on the left hand side of the road but this car also had the driver's seat on the right. It was a crazy experience to drive that way but surprisingly didn't take along to adjust to. Morgan had to drive at one point since the theme for this vacation seems to be, for him, to set the record for the most varied forms transportation in one single vacation, so far: jet, prop plane, ATV, golf cart, taxi, right-hand car, left-hand car, sailboat, and dinghy. We drove to French Bay on the sheltered South side of the island and spend long, blissful hours snorkeling the colorful reef. This was the most spectacular snorkeling of our trip so far. As we entered the shallow waters from the beach we were instantly engulfed in a massive school of Pilchard, literally 100,000,000 fish swirling around. You could not see an end to the cloud of silvery small fish. Even the schools of tiny little bait fish were fascinating to swim through and with. The coral was so alive and the types so colorful, plentiful and diverse. The fish were amazing. I couldn't remember all the new species I found all in one day. We were too exhausted to do more than fall into an early bed that night. The next day we repeated our snorkeling excursion slightly further north and this time we took Alan along with us. After another stellar day of awesome water time, tired and satisfied we piled back into the car and took a short drive to the ruins of an old plantation. There we wandered about and admired the view and contemplated the area's past. From there we had to head back and get Morgan and Caroline packed up and ready for their flight back home. We were so sorry to see them go. We loved spending time with Morgan and getting a chance to know Caroline better, what a lovely girl. Our last day on San Salvador the men used the rental car to get to famous bonefishing flats that Jason knew from his years on the island. On their way to find the elusive bonefish they dropped Laura and I off. We were going to spend a day in the lap of luxury at the all inclusive and exclusive Club Med. David and Jason have been fishing bonefish almost every place we stop. The possibilities are endless. Some days the fishing is better than the catching but they have not been disappointed yet . At Club Med Laura and I lolled by the pool, ate and drank continuously, tried out their inferior snorkel trip and generally had a lazy, pampered day. Two days ago we left San Salvador and moved to Conception Island a beautiful deserted Cay. On our sail we trolled our hand lines and rod from the stern of the boat, as usual. At one point David looked back and saw a very large fish which at first he thought was a Marlin. It turned out to be a huge Dorado or Mahi-Mahi which lit up and swam back and forth between the lures. He looked but never bit. We spent our first day snorkeling and seeing an impressive amount of new fish. I saw a giant Midnight Parrot fish, a billion multi-colored tropicals and many large variety food quality fish. Most impressive was the sleeping Nurse Shark which we snorkeled over the top of. It lay on the sand, tucked under a rock. It was almost 5 feet long and seemed HUGE to my untrained, slightly scaredy-cat eyes. Last night we were anchored in an area with too much open area toward the open ocean and hence spent the night swinging wildly up and down on the anchor. I was unable to sleep for even short periods of time. It was nerve wracking and exhausting. Today we moved to the other side of the island and have found a much more comfortable spot. I hope to sleep soundly tonight. Sadly Sam won't be able to visit so we are done with having guests while I am still on the boat this season. David's dad will visit but after I have returned home and possibly Morgan will return to help sail Cloud Messenger back to the states. The season is drawing to a close. We are planning our last few stops before heading North again next month.