YACHTS, DOLPHINS, MANGOES & FIGS

It took all of thirty seconds to get off the boat when the rains finally stopped. It felt like it had rained for forty days and forty nights. Long walks on the beach and more trips to discover interesting things, like this "Beach Throne" for the Queen with the perfect setting, worthy of a double-click. Corina on the yacht "SVEA", sent us the photo below of "ARITA" passing the mega yacht "P2". When you have double-clicked on this photo you will then realise that "ARITA" is 52 ft long and 55 ft above the water and you are dealing with a serious comparison in size and money. Yes,"P2" is a serious yacht, the kind that you don't just take out for a quick sail in the afternoon. "P2" belongs to someone, who also bought the little island shown in the sunset in the next photo. Nice island, about 3 acres of hard coral rock, and no more than 10 ft above water at high tide, and at a staggering cost of $ US 25 million. Not that you could anchor there. All around it, the water depth is about 10 ft, but it is very close to Baker's Bay on Guana Cay, so presumably that is where "P2" could stay for a bit. Now here is the real interesting thing so we have been told. The owner of "P2" and the island, is an 80 years old gentleman in a wheelchair.....................so the moral of this NIKE story is simple. "Just do it". There is going to be no luggage on the last trip................Look who's talking.



Our fishing has been a miserable failure so far. We have blamed it on "food-chain-interruptus", though we did catch this yellow-finned snapper, which tasted soooooo good ............. Then early one morning, there was mother and "kid" dolphin, playing hide-n-seek under our keel. She would swim around and hide on one side of the keel, until the "kid" gave chase, and then she would be off again for another round. We, meantime, would run on one side of the boat to take a photo and they would be on the other. Someone must have rung a pre-school bell or something, for suddenly they were off, frolicking the whole time. Never did get any decent shots.



Getting the conch shells off the bottom is the easy part. Cleaning them, and preparing them is like skinning an eel. Lucky to end with all my knuckles intact. The Queen made a superb dish of " Conch Tortellini " with spinach, and I bet that's not in any of the recipe books. Used conch shells are found everywhere and are turned into garden walls and flower bed edges or in decorating driftwood sculptures as on this beach below. Speaking of decorations, how about this one, stencilled, on a cistern, that will be buried in the ground. 'God' must be very busy, blessing everything from whole Nations to deeply buried water cisterns.

In Green Turtle Cay, we found the island's gaol painted in 'posthumous' pink, with a stairwell going nowhere, or perhaps the landing once housed the hanging noose which has been removed. We don't want to scare anybody do we.............. They could have had pretty much the same effect if they made them climb this tree.................with bare feet and hands.



Now for the mangoes, juicy green mangoes, ripe for the picking in about a month. Nothing tastes sweeter than stolen fruit. We might get to see the inside of " Ye Olde Gaol" after all.

Oh......... and about the figs......................Well, once upon a time, there was this Spanish nobleman riding on his magnificent friskie stallion, when he spotted a bent-over old man in a stony field. He pulled in his horse and called out to the old man, who hobbled over to the stone hedge. "What are you doing out there" asked the nobleman to which the old man sedately replied " Why, I'm planting fig trees ". The nobleman nearly fell off his horse with laughter, and could only barely get the words out " Ol' man, have you any idea how long it takes for those trees to grow, and to bear figs, and look at you...........". " Well," replied the old man, " Have you ever tasted fig jam?". " Why yes, when I was young, I used to put it on bread, and even ate it straight out of the jar " replied the nobleman. The old man turned to walk away, then stopped, and slowly turned to the nobleman and said " and who, may I ask, planted those trees?" ...............................

So as we walk, and wander, and see the beauty and the splendour, we too owe heaps to those that came before us.........................




There are no two beaches the same, and with a view ever-changing, it is like a walk through paradise. A treasure to behold and a blessing to share with others, so we thank all those who are walking along on this journey, this gentle cruise, no matter where you might be.