Saturday at Great Harbour Key Marina
Categories :
Saturday at Great Harbour Key Marina
April 6, 2013
Early morning led the manatee family to our marina. Everyone gathered around to see the slow moving creatures. Paula and Norman from Bath NC aboard Madam, came over to see our fishing equipment. Paula is an expert at catching grouper–she can’t weigh more than one hundred pounds or be taller than 5 feet, but she can fish for the big boys! Several other boaters came by to photograph our lesson with Paula. Norman gave me some words of wisdom about fishing and again invited us to go to Hoffman’s Cay with them-we had to agree to meet them next year for some hands on fishing instruction.
We gathered up the snorkels, fins, and masks for another beach walk so that Steve could swim/walk across a bay area to discover the fish at an offshore island. I chose to read my book while he tried to walk the mile across the water. He turned around and settled for snorkeling in an area closer to the beach where he found a shark. He yelled for me to look as he held up a 4-5 foot shark. I was trying to process how he was holding a shark when it occurred to me that the shark was no longer alive. He brought it to me on the beach to enjoy its aroma.
Steve played in the water for about 30 minutes when he decided to gather up our shoes and walk back down the beach. About the time we were about the cross over to the road, he realized he had dropped one of my shoes and had to walk almost all the way back to retrieve it. Luckily the tide did not wash it away.
A sweet couple with a jeep and four children offered us a ride back to the marina. They are from California on sabbatical. He is a doctor who is working online reading MRI’s so that they can spend a year here.
In an effort to save water, we were taking advantage of the marina showers. (Water at this marina is seventy five cents a gallon) I took a cold shower because evidently the faucet is backwards here–toweled off–wrapped my hair up in a turban–got dressed and headed back to the boat. Funny how I didn’t mind walking around the marina with my hair wrapped up in a towel. It felt like being at camp–cool breeze blowing on clean skin.
Back to water conservation–our water tank holds 300 gallons of water. We left on Sunday morning, March 31 with a close to full tank. We use water to wash dishes, shower, flush the toilet, and wash clothes. We have come accustomed to easy access to inexpensive or free water in the states, but here water is very expensive. We are trying to wait until we arrive at Marsh Harbour, Abacos to buy water where it is much less expensive.
Tonight, we were joined by Pat & Gale of S/V Cynthia Gale and Dwight & Karen for appetizers. I opened up a bag of frozen shrimp, mixed up some cocktail sauce, added carrot slices with ranch dressing and some fresh grapes. Gale brought my favorite–brie cheese. Karen brought Hot Artichoke Dip. We enjoyed our appetizers on the fly bridge with the cool breeze. We made guesses as to who owned the mega yacht beside us named StoneFace. We saw the captain grilling steaks with his date for the evening. A little while into the evening a fast flying fishing boat came into the marina with its speakers blaring. They had returned from Flo’s Conch Bar and Restaurant that Steve and I had suggested for an outing.
Clearly they had imbibed of the special drinks at Flo’s. The woman on board proceeded to step up to the bow of their boat once tied up and started to dance with her 2 inch wedge heels on the rocking boat. Pat commented that all she needed was a pole– Dwight ran down to put a dollar into her swimsuit–yes, the men were definitely entertained. The captain of StoneFace quickly forgot that his steaks were on the grill. Steve grabbed his phone to video this event and sent it to all of his friends. After about 30 minutes, they wobbled off the boat and into a golf cart and headed off.
We wrapped up our evening pretty early as everyone is planning on heading out on Sunday morning since the weather is predicted to be better.
