This morning, we snorkeled around our boat. There was a very cool reef not too far from us. We saw tons of starfish that lined the ocean floor - and even held one! We saw 2 spotted moray eels swimming in and out of the rocks and coral. Dad got them on his underwater video camera which was pretty cool. There were lots of other species of fish. We used to get all excited about seeing "Dori" from Finding Nemo but now they've become commonplace. We were saying the same thing about the beauty of the islands, too - we are starting to take it for granted.
We pretty much hung out, read, slept, and had a lazy afternoon. Mom and Dad went ashore and hiked to the top to see Fort Josephine which is appropriately just across the water from Fort Napoleon that we visited last week in Terre de Haut. After it was used as a fort, the French used it for some time as a women's prison. It is all in ruins now and they don't even have tours or anything. The only thing Mom and Dad saw on their hike were a bunch of goats, lizards and hermit crabs, but great views of the islands from the top.
Lindsay and Grant went ashore and met the pottery guy, Erik, the only person who lives on the island. There must be a story with him somewhere, but we don't know what it is. He was super nice. He makes masks from local clay and he lets kids make little pots on the pottery wheel. He painted Grant and Lindsay. Sounds a bit creepy, I know, but it was pretty cool.
Last night turned out to be really windy and gusty in this anchorage, so we decided to head across the bay back to Terre de Haut for the night. That will put us in good shape to hit the French bakery first thing in the morning before we head North to Guadeloupe!
On our way over, a big gust blew Mom's favorite Steamboat hat into the ocean. It is amazing how quickly it disappears in the big waves. It was like a man overboard drill - Dad turned the boat around and we all kept pointing at it until we got close enough to grab it. Grant dove in, got Mom's hat and saved the day.
When we got to Terre de Haut we realized our friends from Four Winds (the Catana boat with little Nino) were there. Everyone else went over there for a visit and enjoyed seeing the layout of their boat. It is fun to dream about what we like best in hopes that we may someday get a boat of our own (at least Mom and Dad like to dream). I stayed with our boat to let the engines run and batteries charge.
We had dinner at a great place called "Restaurant". Ha, ha - seriously, we looked everywhere for the name and that's all it said on the outside sign. It was a great local place right on the water. The waves were so choppy, we thought for sure we would get doused before our meal was over. Mom and Dad ate some kind of local fish, a fried banana thing and some kind of potatoes. We kids had ribs, salad and fries - the first time we've had fries since we hiked the Quill in Statia. They were awesome. But we also realized that we need to stop eating them so often at home! Our waiter was great and was excited to try to practice his English on us. He wants to go to the music festival in Austin, Texas (whatever that is). To him Texas / Georgia - same thing. Mom kept making us order in French and say please and thank you - but we finally convinced her that we were helping him by speaking English. You would have thought we were painted blue or something - the other people in the restaurant were so excited that we were Americans and kept telling everyone else in the place we were from "Georgie".
We got home for the night just as the waves and wind were picking up even more, so we were glad to be back to the boat for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment