Today was a quiet day of boat jobs. Tommy started the watermaker and worked to get salt off the topsides. Paula assisted, in that she made sure the lifelines and stays were salt-free, then washed and hung the laundry that had accumulated since the last wash. Then Tommy worked to remove some of the remaining tiny mystery red spots from the deck’s gel coat that we acquired during our ICW trip. To this day we don’t know whether they are from falling pollen, tiny insects, or alien gametes, but they are as tenacious as heck. No one we’ve asked, marina staff included, has seen them before or knows what they are, but they require lots of elbow grease to remove. This has been one of Tommy’s ongoing projects. Paula made a batch of soft tortillas, enough to make lunch wraps for four days. They should stay soft in the refrigerator that long. We also decided it was time to change our Seagull water filter, which is good for 1000 gallons of water. We use it to filter water that runs to a special tap which we use for drinking water and cooking water only. It’s got a 0.4 micron filter, so it screens out everything.
In between, we watched the boat traffic, saw folks heading to shore and back, and watched young male islanders doing speed drills and bouncing their craft everywhere. Likely safer than if they had cars.
Now that Paula’s brother Richard has solved the “upside down shark” conundrum- the “sharks” we are seeing are actually large remora- Paula spent some time on forums trying to find out if they are edible. They are pelagic (sea feeders rather than reef dwellers) so no risk of ciguatera. Many forums say you can eat them “if you can get over the smell while cleaning them.” Hmm. Apparently, they eat anything, including sewage from a variety of creatures, so their stomach contents can be pungent. They are also said to have thick, knife-dulling skin. Lastly, multiple accounts detail these fish crapping copiously over one’s boat as they are hauled aboard. This sounds like a definite “pass” to Paula.
Just as Paula took in the last warm, clean-smelling pair of Tommy’s shorts, rain started. Since then, we’ve had brief showers interspersed by intervals of calm so quiet that the anchorage is flat and all the boats drift aimlessly around their anchors. We were able to see ours on the bottom, and the “sweep” marks the chain made.
Then the wind started up again and with it came another short spatter of rain. This cycle has repeated about four times. We are lucky so far, in that the main areas of dense clouds have side-swiped us, but we can see hard rain over the water in patches ahead, behind, and to the side of us. The rain is no problem, but it can be accompanied by high winds. Our anchor is dug in well, but in a small, close anchorage like this one, you worry a bit about everyone’s anchor!
Paula did not feel very creative today at dinner time, so it was Bahamian chicken leg quarters with dripping gravy, canned corn, and our last (sigh) fresh green zucchini. They are still a few brownies left in case anyone has a sweet tooth tonight.