Well seeking shelter turned out to be impossible… we got
soaked running o our room. The sad part was the Club had set up all the pretty
tables with white table cloths for “White Night.” The tables got drenched and the
dinner under the stars by the pool had to be abandoned. So we all made do with
eating in the restaurant after all.
Joe’s birthday turned out good. He loved the island chocolate
stout. He tried to hide when the entire GO staff came over and sang happy
birthday after marching through the restaurant clapping and yelling. They presented
the cake, he blew out the candles and that’s another year of life.
Our buddy
Bill is here with us so he was enjoying all the female attention to our table. He’s
such a flirt! He’s got about ten girls he’s sweet-talking, but Joe got the ladies attention for his birthday pose!
The Montreal plane came in. It was fun to see all the
new guests arrive with their heavy jackets and show up on the beach an hour
later in swimsuits. Today was sunny and lovely. We took the day off of diving
and spent the day lounging on the beach instead.
It’s always a source of entertainment
to watch people on the beach. We’ve had several older couples warn us very
seriously about the “under-toe.” They clearly have never been to NorCal… I can’t
imagine the ocean being this calm back home, ever. We stared hard at the water,
thanked them for their advice, and raced each other into the surf (actually
surf is an exaggeration for the gently lapping water). Since that moment, we’ve
had a few days of mild surf to actually play in… you know the kind where you
actually take your shades off.
A school of silvery fish got very excited when we tossed the
little clumps of kelp away from us. They immediately swarmed around our legs to
see if we were going to toss them some goldfish. Not real goldfish, but the
orange fish-shaped crackers you get from the wooden bowl at the bar! I kept
them busy tossing them sea-weed, but they went crazy when Joe returned with the
crackers. That’s when I got out. Hungry fish rubbing themselves against my legs
isn’t my idea of a good time.
The first show of the
season was Tuesday night. It was mostly a Cabaret, but they always add a bit of
comedy. As soon as they put five chairs on stage with one actor we knew it was
our cue to escape. Those other four chairs are filled with four suckers from
the audience… we’ve been up on that stage enough times to last a lifetime.
The next morning was more diving. We did our first drift
dive with Club Med. You get in the water, drop to the coral wall, and let the
current take you for a ride. Each diver has a blow-up buoy, so when your dive
is done you simply fill your buoy with air and wait for the boat to come pick
you up. Unfortunately getting to the boat ladder in a current is a hellacious workout.
Then I have to hang on while taking my fins off (which seem to suddenly be
glued to my feet). Then I have to remove my BCD on the ladder as it surges back
and forth. The tank attached to my back yanks me from side-to-side. I kept my
regulator in my mouth to guarantee an oxygen source. Unfortunately the dive master
didn’t see that, so he grabbed my BCD I’d just taken off and yanked it out of
the water. Good thing I don’t have false teeth! They would’ve been bouncing
across the dive boat or sinking to the bottom of the sea.
The next dive was more reef-sharks. I asked about the tons
of shark and got this explanation. The lion-fish have been steadily destroying
the ecosystem of the Caribbean for years now. When in the Turks and Caicos we
saw this on our dives. Zero sharks and thousands of lion-fish. The Bahamas have
been proactive. About once a week they go lion-fishing. When they get into the
marina, they clean them and toss the heads into the water. Apparently fish
heads are a shark delicacy! The marina swarms with sharks during cleaning time.
So now the Bahamas have a healthy shark population.
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