Sailing down South

We swam with dolphins the other day. In between our dives at St. Georges Key, we suddenly we saw some dolphins splashing in the distance. The captain headed full speed towards them and we dove in the water and chased them around. It was really cool.

We took the sailing trip down south. It was pretty fun. I fried my buns the first day and I couldn’t sit down for the following three days with out having a towel under my ass. It was a pretty bad burn. I snorkeled the following days in a long sleeved shirt and pants.

When I first saw the boat I nearly backed out. I had pictured hammocks, chairs, shady spots, and well, a large open area to rest and be comfortable. The boat was about thirty feel long and very small. There were no chairs and no hammocks. The toilet had no door, no tp and all of the luggage was in the same very small space. We managed to use mats around the top and the side and some how make ourselves quite confortable.

Highlights:
Praveen catching a big read snapper, which was quite tasty.
Getting a guided tour around the corals with a guy who as 35 years of experience on the water. I learned about sea cucumbers, I got to hold two kinds of sea urchin, which I wanted to eat but didn’t know how.
Watched the boat captain hunt for lobsters.
Sitting in the sun reading another book
Relaxing
Listening to the ocean.
Cuddling up with praveen.



The first night we slept on Rendezvous Key. It is a very small island. It was about 70 feet long and 30 feet wide. There is nothing on it except a handful of coconut trees and sand, oh and tons of crabs, but not the good eating kind. They are these little cockroach like creatures that you have to worry about stepping on. We snorkeled for a bit then ate the dinner that we caught earlier in the day- Snapper and Barracuda. It was delicious!!!


The Barracudas are quite scary. They have these big teeth. I didn’t like being too close when they were being pulled into the boat. I did catch one though on the second day. Harry, the captain, talked me into trying its eye ball after it was cooked. I have to say, it was gross. It felt like thick paste. It tasted fishy but not too fishy. After I sucked and chewed the nasty paste off I was left with this hard marble, which I swallowed. After I swallowed it Harry told me that most people spit it out.

We caught some Conch and pulled it out of the shell and made ceviche. I liked it best just raw right out of the shell. It was sweet and delicious.

That night it stormed pretty badly. There was a bit of lightning that was frightening because we were on this little island in the middle of the ocean. We were obviously one of the higher points in a sea of nothingness. Praveen counted the time between lighting and thunder. The closest was one mile away! I slept poorly. I was in some pretty serious pain, my sun burn was so bad. Half the night I held the tent away from me with my feet because the wind was blowing the walls right over me, smothering me.

Around 4.30 I woke up and waited for it to start getting light. I didn’t want to go outside and risk stepping on the sea cockroaches (crabs). Finally around 5.15 We got up and watched the sun come up.

We were able to have one gallon of water to wash up with. It was a little slice of heaven. I have never been so excited about a gallon of water in my life.

The next day we sailed to Tobacco Key. We stopped and snorkeled around a bit. Caught some more fish and relaxed. When we got to the island Praveen smoked his Cuban cigar and read his Bill Clinton book. The island was pretty much shut down but when we arrived the opened the bar on the beach and we started a little party with the locals. We ate lobster we caught that day. It was to die for. Harry and Charlie (the captains) turned out to be pretty good chefs.

The Island was about five times the size of Rendezvous Key and had showers and bathrooms. I was finally able to attend to that BM that needed to move through my system. The showers were not fancy, but they were wonderful, despite their simplicity.

The sleep that night was wonderful. We were very lucky our tent held up. Somehow one of the poles split in the storm the previous night and we had to pull duct tape off various objects, reuse it and tape our pole together. The wind was quite and the rain was light. My sunburn was finally subsiding!

The trip was restful, peaceful and very beautiful.

The next morning we woke up and came back to the place we can’t seem to escape. Caye Caulker.