Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Wow, a repeat of yesterday actually. Once again the seas and winds were such that there was no way we could dinghy 2 miles across and back to Georgetown.

Moonlight Serenade put out a call for anyone needing flat, stamped mail to be mailed in the states. Their sister Shirley is flying home to TX tomorrow and going to take mail with her. This saves us from "having to" go to Georgetown so, after breakfast, we dinghied over to Volleyball Beach where their boat was located near the Chat & Chill. We figured this would be a "drier ride" since we're both on the same leeside of Stocking Island, but nope - we both were soaking wet in our newly freshwater rinsed t-shirts and shorts. She took our mail and I asked that if something happened where it didn't get mailed to hail me on channel 68 so we could get it mailed via Bahamas Mail. She said there shouldn't be a problem, but if so, she'd let me know (I gave her our boat card). After returning to the boat, stripping down and hanging our clothes to dry on the lines, it was time to read a bit. I killed off another Patricia Cornwell book and Wayne killed of another John Grisham book. Then we dinghied over to the closest beach (right under the monument) and took a look at the rocks I'd been wanting to check out. They were kind of interesting. They're calciferous sandstone with shells imbedded in them. From a distance the rocks look igneous with a columnar jointing pattern, but as you actually get over to look at them, they have the classical mud crack patterns on top and are layered by wave action and flooding. You can peal up the top layer of thick mud cracks that have been lithified (turned into rock). There were several specimens I wanted to bring back, but the ones I wanted were to big (of course). Some of the fossilized coral was amazing - looking like pumice, gray and quite sharp.

We found a salt pond further inland that had been drying up and also forming new mudcracks. The sulfur smell indicated decaying life forms and the snail shells all around the pond were small and fairly thick layered. Some of the sandstone/limestone appeared black with white shells imbedded, but if you broke off a corner, you could see the fresh break was actually white sandstone covered by a blackish layer (due to weathering?).

Going back to the dinghy I wanted to check out a starfish that I'd seen in the water when we came ashore. It was a beauty - about 8-10 inches and bright reddish orange. I took its picture and put him back on the bottom. I hope nobody else saw him - I want him to live. Since we're right outside of a park area, he's collectable (in hindsight, maybe we should have dinghied him to the park area).

The winds are really howling, and with the wind generator spinning, it's making a ruckus that jars the teeth. I have a feeling that the blades on it are out of balance again (salt buildup?). It's as noisy as any mechanical generator now, but we are pumping out the electricity. The rains keep coming and going quite fast. Each time I grab the shampoo to go up top and fresh water clean my hair it stops. I did notice a pretty rainbow and some bomb looking clouds and waves though so gave up on the shower and grabbed my camera instead...

I made some Cole slaw, sweet & sour kielbasa and butter-fried potatoes (terrific meal for cholesterol) for dinner and we tried a bottle of a French rouge wine that sells fairly cheap here which was actually quite mellow - similar to a merlot. I think I'll start the next Kay Scarpetta book before calling it a day.