STAYING PUT IN THE LEE OF TILLOO

Walked across the island this morning to see the "OCEANSIDE". ... WOW.... powerful waves, big enough to make you want to give up sailing and while 20 knots plus is easily doable, after three days of it, those waves looked mighty menacing. Our planned trip to NASSAU would have been in this weather. Smart call not to go. Double-click on the photo if you don't believe me. Double-click anyway. Staying in the lee (the sheltered side) of the island has been excellent. It allowed us to do an extensive dinghy ride to the very end of the island. There were times when the breaking waves were higher than the island and we heard the roar.



This week on the local radio 'cruisers net', there was a call for everyone to get busy on the weekend and do your part for the "KEEP ABACO BEAUTIFUL" cleanup campaign. While on the windward side of TILLOO CAY, we noticed there was a little unwanted trash on the beach. The Queen and I looked at each other with the notion of "Where do we begin?" and the answer was "Let's go back to the other side..." More than 99 percent of the trash is plastic. Everything from flip-flops, to water-bottles, oil containers, milk crates, buckets, drums, plastic chairs, plastic safety helmets, even a Toyota fender, in pretty good shape, too. There were some timber posts, but it is hard to realise how plastic fencing could end up on the beach, until I remembered Tom Hanks in "CASTAWAY" finding that portable toilet that would have made even "KENNY" proud. Do a double-click and get an eye-full. It was the same in both directions.... real depressing.......



Back on the other side, the dinghy ride was much nicer. Blue water and bits of reef everywhere. Starfishes were out in full. I picked this one up for only a few seconds, and when I put it back under water I got the distinct impression he actually stuck one finger up at me.



Went to sit-in on a sea-snail Conference. Didn't learn a lot. "Slugged" through it, excused ourselved and quietly left. They didn't even notice our departure. This variety is called "NERITE" and clearly this meeting was a gathering of the "Bleeding Tooth" group. Other groups of "NERITES" are "Olives" and a good group to attend are the ones called "Virgins". Notice there's a "Chiton" half-way up the wall trying to eavesdrop.

Spent some time with this lonely sea worm. All jelly and attached to the sea bottom at one end. The rest of his body gets a hammering in the shallows. This one also took no notice of us. Then on the beach and in the shallows we found this monstrous deadly snake. Amazing that it can live in and out of water. Never did find its head or its tail, though we trailed it ashore for quite some distance. It is obviously in hibernation. Amazingly, we found one end of it going into a very large electrical transformer box while the other end simply went out to sea. Very evenly sized too. It would appear to have a three-core insulated intestine that goes for miles. We wondered what it eats?



The wave action seriously undercuts the uplifted seabed that forms the island. The calciferous rock is as sharp as a razor and almost impossible to walk on even with sandals on.

Ever so slowly I crawled out from under the overhanging lip. The sand on the other hand is as soft as butter. This front-opening barge, the MV "TILLOO" is also anchored in the lee of the island, just like us. You can see where his lines are attached ashore. He really didn't need to do that. He is anchored pretty good.



There were lots of conch in the shallows and all very much alive and feeding. The moment you pick them up the foot shoots back inside and after a little while one or both eyes come out to stare you down. It worked. We put them all back in...... right side down...............................