Sunday, April 05, 2009

Lazy morning. I didn't sleep much. It was hot and the fan was blowing not on me but over me. Loud little thing. I tried to adjust it in the port, so that the air would blow on me but the way it was set up, it came crashing down and I had to sit it back up so that it was just barely blowing over me. Some air is better than none. I hate when it's hot with no movement of air but it could be worse. Elaine and Holly indicated that, back home, they're expecting 3-7 inches of snow after having nice spring temperatures.

I caught up on reading my emails, updating my blog, then finished Grisham's book "Playing for Pizza". Not his normal genre but entertaining. Then I watched a shark circle the sand bar and swim under the boat. It's a little nurse shark about 4 ft. All the kids in the immediate area had to check it out. Maria (the Canadian youngster that we met when we checked in) herded it towards the sandbar, next to our boat, so the other kids could look at it. She's a cute kid - one that's a born leader. Wayne and I have both noticed that there's a difference in the kids we meet in the boating community verses the kids back home. These kids are very outgoing, articulate and seem much more capable (self sufficient?) or maybe responsible is the word I'm looking... I'm not sure how to explain what I mean - it seems they're more apt to reach outside themselves to others - less self-absorbed? I can't imagine kids back home walking up to strangers and chatting and becoming quickly acquainted with everyone. It's just not done, not safe.

I was going to take some books up to the office to trade in for some other ones (at the book exchange) but forgot that they close at noon on Sundays. Even closed, Judy still mans the radio for the park. She had a busy day trying to fit the boats into the different mooring fields in the park. She's an amazing person with the patience of a saint. I was sitting down in the cabin and looked up and out a port because I heard a boat coming in next to us. A 150 ft mega-yacht was coming in looking for the swim platform (???) that they were supposed to moor next to at Emerald Rock (the next anchorage south of us). Talk about a panic! The captain drove up next to the office, churning up sand and probably coral) and radioed that they couldn't find the swim platform here... This was disturbing because there is no swim platform here. After talking to Judy on the radio, they finally figured out that they weren't at Emerald Rock, but at the North Anchorage. Wayne and I were both dumbfounded, as I'm sure everyone in the anchorage was, that they couldn't figure out where they were. These mega-yachts have got very sophisticated equipment and for them not to be able to find Emerald Rock on the charts was amazing... I couldn't believe they made it in here and were able to turn around and go back out without damaging their boat, the coral, or anyone else's boat in passing everyone in the channel/mooring field (it's very narrow). The captain should have let one of the kids have access to the maps...

3 natives came snorkeling by the boat later in the day. They were picking up conch from beneath the water, diving for them, bringing them up, then throwing them towards the rocks in piles - Some of the conch shells cracking on the rocks. I called the headquarters to see if they were doing a conch count or collecting them (for tagging?) or something, and was told no, and then asked where at? I told them near mooring 14 and was told that someone would be down. The 3 men chatted and looked towards the headquarters, then started snorkeling away from us back to the beach and then towards the headquarters as the ranger came down to the beach. Cute. It was three members of the Bahamas Defense Force (that resides here to protect the ranger and the park). Sigh...maybe they were just counting and piling them for their own amusement like the kids I'd seen do before - who can find the most little ones? Only they were playing - who can find the most big ones? We didn't see them take any, so this is good :)

I made some BLT's for dinner and we had a sundowner as the conch horns blew, heralding away the remnants of the sunset. Pretty reds, purples and orange tones streaked the sky again tonight as the anchoring lights all began winking on, one by one in the park. Time to go below and turn on our anchor light...