Nothing But Blue Skies

We have been anchored off Sand Dollar Beach for a few days. On Saturday (March 25), although the harbor was still choppy, the sun was shining brightly and I could see the coral reefs near shore. It was not ideal conditions, but I just had to go. The current was flowing north, so I ferried across it to get near the beach of Stocking Island and then explored the two small reefs near Mantra. Then I swam around Rocky Point at the west end of Sand Dollar Beach and walked along the south-facing beach to Black Point, where I returned to the water to swim among the coral, sponges, algae, fish and other marine life. In addition to the usual fish, I saw a few mahogany snappers larger than what I normally observe there.

I emerged from the water again at Hamburger Beach. Having decided that I did not want to swim half a mile back to Mantra against the current and wind, I asked a man at the bar of the Peace and Plenty Beach Resort if I could use his phone to call Peter on his cell. Not unexpectedly, Peter didn't answer because he didn't recognize the number or know anyone in Wisconsin, so I left a message asking him to bring a beach cover-up, sunglasses and money so we could have lunch there. 

I rinsed off the salt at the convenient outdoor shower at the restaurant, and then sat on a lounge chair near the water to wait patiently. A man, there on vacation with his wife and friends, started chatting with me and then offered to buy me a drink on his tab. He even offered to take me back to Mantra on the boat they had rented for the day, but I did not mind hanging out on the beach. However, a Diet Coke was much appreciated. An employee came by and offered to raise an umbrella for me, so I was well taken care of. (I was reminded of Blanche's line from A Streetcar Named Desire, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.")

After a while, Peter arrived in the dinghy. However, he had just assumed that I wanted to be picked up but had not listened to my message, so he did not have sunglasses, money or other items with him. He returned, through the waves, to retreive them and then we had lunch at Peace and Plenty. I had actually been looking forward to having a veggie burger (something almost impossible to find here) because I had enjoyed the meal I had eaten a few weeks ago, but, alas, it was not on the menu that day, so, as is often case when we eat out in the Bahamas, no protein was available to me, and I just ate delicious sweet potato fries on their own.

Peter had been successful in my absence in programming the single sideband radio, so he was happy. He dinghied over to Falco to return some electronic stuff that had helped him open up the ham radio frequencies, and when he returned, he suggested that, despite the chop, we head to town at 5 p.m. for groceries. (Other than tomatoes and onions, we had no vegetables, and the milk was almost gone.) 

After we loaded the five bags of groceries in the dinghy, we walked to the nearby gas station to see a large shrub that Adam and Natasha on S/V Providence had found interesting but had failed to identify. With the PictureThis app, I was able to determine that it was not a fruit tree but Calotropis gigantea, a species native to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent commonly known as giant mulberry or crown flower. 

Giant milkweed flower and leaves

Giant milkweed fruit

Floss from an opened fruit

Along the western horizon, over Great Exuma, the sun emerged from beneath the long line of flat-bottomed cumulus clouds that normally hover above the island in the day, a result of heat rising from the land. When the sun is behind this mass of moisture, the edges of the lumpy, dove gray tops glow brilliant white. Often, the cloud formation is low and at sunset the bright orb at the center of our solar system simply sinks behind it, but on Saturday evening, the sun shone out beneath it, coloring the sky peach, lemon yellow and apricot. 

Sunset from Sand Dollar Beach

Yesterday (Sunday, March 26), after a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, avocado and tomatoes, we both got to work. Peter sawed off and replaced the base for a dorade cowl on the forward deck and did other jobs while I spent hours preparing food for this week. I made a couscous and fruit salad with mandarins, apricots, dried cranberries, dry-roasted pine nuts and cinnamon (to be served topped with feta cheese); corn chowder; chana masala (to be served over rice); and a piquant black bean, corn, tomato, onion and lime salad. The cooking was fun, but there were a lot of pots and pans, cutting boards, knives, measuring utensils and other items to be cleaned up afterwards. 

Peter and I enjoyed some of the couscous salad for lunch while we watched and were fascinated by a kite surfer skimming across the water, wake following him, making spectacular leaps and turns in the air.

Kiteboarder in front of Stocking Island

Airborn

Later in the afternoon, after Peter had finished a couple small jobs, we dinghied to Sand Dollar Beach with a hack saw and the screens I had modified. On a gayly colored picnic table, Peter cut the corners diagonally so the screens could be placed more easily in the deck hatches. 

Peter modifying screen frames

While he worked, I walked around carefully observing the plants and parasites. I noticed luxuriant burnt-orange vine growth smothering scrubs and trees and creeping along the sand. Called devil's gut (Cassytha filiformis), this parasite feeds off other plants' nutrients, eventually killing them. I took the time to notice the details of the top sides and the bottom sides of the various palms.

Silver palm

Chinese windmill palm?

Devil's gut

After the screen modification was accomplished, we took a long walk along the beach. The tide was low. I had just commented that I had not seen any sand dollars on this beach when we spotted one partially buried in the sand where the water was lapping the shore. It was brown and fuzzy, so we picked it up and dropped it in the shallow water. As we walked along, we encountered a few more, returning them to the water also. We patiently watched as one pushed sand away from its underside at a rate that was almost imperceptible. Later, back on our boat, I educated myself with my copy of Reef Creature Identification and learned that these irregular disc-shaped echinoids with their lovely five-petal sculptured design are adapted for burrowing and live under the sand, so our intervention was probably not helpful. 

Sand dollar burying itself

Since the tide was low, we could easily wade along Rocky Point on the west end of Sand Dollar Beach, slowly progressing to study the fuzzy chitons, gastropods and other marine life nestling into indentations in the sharply protruding rock and living in the tide pools. 

Underside of rock formation over the sand

Fuzzy chiton

West side of Rocky Point

Radioles of feather duster worms in a tide pool

Chiton adhered to perforated limestone

Rocky Point

On the western side of the point, the water is quite shallow, and the waves created undulating patterns in the sand just beneath the surface of the clear water. Here we found shells with turtle grass still attached and beaded sea stars (Astropecten articulatus). We watched intently as they moved themselves slowly across the sand. We could not see but heard an unidentified bird's dulcet tones creating a pleasing melody from a tree on the beach.

Beaded sand star illuminated by the setting sun

Crab hole reflecting the sunlight

The conch horns were blowing as we reached the mother ship Mantra. 

This morning, it is still bouncy in the harbor, with southeast winds blowing 5-18 knots. We just moved Mantra to Kidd's Cove near the cut to Lake Victoria so that we can spare our friends Lori and Germán, who arrive this afternoon, the soaking that my sister and brother-in-law, Beth Ann and Rich, experienced when they rode in the dinghy across the harbor!