After putsing around the boat for a while we went ashore and called a taxi. Elson, the taxi driver, dropped Rolf and Kevin off at Port Elizabeth and JoAnne and I continued on to the local turtle sanctuary. It was started by a retired fisherman who didn't know what to do with his time and by accident came across some recently hatched turtles he decided to take care of. JoAnne and I talked to him and he was inspiring! He loves animals and feels that, after fishing and killing hundreds of those turtles during his life, he can now give back to nature. This he is doing literally, having hatched, cared for and freed well over 800 turtles so far.
At the sanctuary, we had a fun and funny encounter with an albino turtle, which really seemed to enjoy being scratched on his back shell - it made him wriggle ecstatically :-), really! It was also funny to see one of the six month old puppies respectfully and skeptically approach a land turtle about 1/3 of his size. On the way to and from the sanctuary, Elson commented on the scenery, pointing out all the houses owned by the British and Canadians, apparently a must-know.
Back in town, Elson dropped us off to join Kevin and Rolf in a restaurant for lunch. When we told him that we would have lunch first and then do some grocery shopping (again) he left us with his phone number without having been paid yet. We should call him when we need him again - wow, how trustful! We shopped for groceries in a very weird place: some kind of abandoned store that used to sell boat paint but was now partially used to sell groceries. An elderly lady with graying hair and bad teeth served us. Now, you should know that we already had quite a laugh out of Rolf answering to Kevin when Kevin pointed out (to JoAnne) "Beautiful mountains, Love!" and Rolf answered with "yes". In the store, when Kevin addressed JoAnne with "Love" again, the elderly lady answered him and that was just priceless! Since then, JoAnne has requested a change of Kevin's terms of endearments.
More laughs erupted back on the boat during our Happy Hour when Rolf had "spread some love"* or this evening over dinner when we had "bulgur burgers" (try to pronounce that!) which "could also be put on a bun"... Actually, we are laughing so much, it is hard to keep track (and hard to explain to others what's so funny...).
*referring to an encounter with a boat boy when we didn't want his help with a buoy (for payment) which led the boat boy to instruct Kevin to "Spread the love, mon!"
Some more things I have noticed:
Every night, the tree frogs on shore start making a very loud and strange noise. It almost sounds metallic and it is hard to believe it's coming from frogs.
I never thought I would be grateful for clouds, but in the sun, it is so scorchingly hot, you immediately try to escape. Even with all the wind here, and there is a lot!, I feel most comfortable with my shorts and bikini top. And rain showers are always welcome, you just need to close the hatches in time...
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| Rainbow over the Tobago Cays |
Nov 20
Today is the first day it's raining buckets. The others are having a snooze. We are anchored at Petit St. Vincent Island after having replenished our supplies in Ashton on Union Island. Ashton was a rather disappointing little town with an open sewer (plus smell) right by the market stalls, but we did get the best fruit so far. Sweet pineapple, fragrant mango, amazing bananas, fresh coconut, and a huge papaya - what a fruit salad!
The two nights before we stayed in the Tobago Cays, a Marine Park, slightly North East of Union Island. Caribbean pure! - turquoise water, small islands with sandy beaches, snorkeling with fish and turtles. The first evening, we took Romeo (one of the boat boys) up on his offer to have grilled lobster, rice, fried banana, garlic potato, vegetables and fruit on the beach, all prepared by him and his family. I liked it, this having been my first lobster, but the others said it was overdone. Anyway, it was a nice setting - until the mosquitos came out and we fled back to the boat after having been eaten alive.
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| Romeo's Lobster BBQ |
We did some more snorkeling the next day, but otherwise were just lazy, having a snooze - except for JoAnne, who prepared a marvelous lunch of mushroom in pancakes baked with cheese. All day, we watched big, dark rain clouds pop up at the horizon, but the Tobago Cays (not part of Tobago Island further South!) seem to be part of the "Banana Belt", where the weather stays really nice. So we watched the dark clouds pass us to the left and right, with the places around us getting all the rain.
In the evening, JoAnne prepared the leftover fresh, frozen and defrosted tuna for dinner, throwing the unedible pieces off the boat, which made the little fish around our boat really happy! About seven minutes into the procedure, a shark showed up, lurking just above the sand! We believe, it was a nurse shark, something we hadn't expected. And then a sting ray, majestically "flying" through the water. Well, that will keep me out of the water for some time... We watched the fishes some more when it was dark (around 7pm) by shining a bright light into the water. The sting ray was still there, but the shark had left. After some rounds of Rummicub, the first ones we played on this trip (being too tired most of the time), we watched the amazing, clear night sky, including shooting stars. I was hoping to see something like this on our trip to Alaska, but back then, it always got dark so late, it was mostly overcast, and it was simply too cold to hang around watching stars for long. So last night was a real treat, being far away from any settlement with only the anchor lights around.
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