More Black Pointe
Ambler Isle
V and S
Sun 15 Mar 2009 16:54
Our friend Bertram Brown agreed to drive us two miles to the other side of
the island in his old pickup truck. The island has a few miles of roads,
but there are
a number of pickup trucks here. We went to the end of the road, onto a dirt
path til it ended. Packing a picnic lunch and some water, we began hiking
over brush, iron shore, and sand. Iron shore is hard rocky formations with
pointy tops, looks like it may have been coral some millennia ago. We
wore walking shoes, and I wore jeans to protect my legs. After another 2
miles of climbing, we reached our destination: an ocean beach. Four years
ago we came to this beach by dinghy and in a short time found a handful of
rare
sea beans. Sea beans hitchhike in with the Sargasso sea grasses, some say
as far away as Africa. We find them, polish them to a high gloss and thread
them onto a cord to wear as a necklace. Very islandy. Valt started at one
end of the beach, and I at the other. Some of the dried sea grass looked as
though someone had already searched it, so I looked closer to the water
where the new grasses were. I found some sea glass. Sea glass starts out
as bottles tossed overboard. They break and mother nature goes to work
polishing the shards to a dull finish with smooth edges. Then she spits
them out on shore as precious gems for collectors to find. Some people, who
are more artistic than I, make jewelry out of the pieces. Most are green,
some amber, others blue or violet.
Valt found a couple of the prized sea beans, including a rare sea purse and
a hamburger bean.
bean. He also found a few float buoys. Much sea debris is tossed ashore
from the ocean. Valt weaves these little plastic floats into our dinghy
line for buoyancy.
When the winds calmed a bit, the lure of fresh mahi called us back out to
the sea. Loading the dinghy, we headed for the cut. It was in a rage
condition. This means the tide was going out against an incoming wind,
causing the water to collide and raise a 6" wave. Valt maneuvered the
little boat thru the waves and we were almost through when a big rogue wave
broke over our bow, wetting everything in the boat. Including us. We
continued on and soon got our reward, a nice big mahi. It was plenty for
us, but we hoped to take one to Bertram and Verneice. So we trolled until
we got a second mahi. Back at the anchorage, we showed off our trophies.
We stopped at "Nina" to invite Ted and Linda for fish dinner. While I
filleted our fish, Valt delivered the other one to Bertram. He was
delighted. But he had no idea how to filet it! What kind of Bahamian is
he? He had to call a friend to do it for him.
The next day we spent the morning at chores. We'd hoped to go fishing, but
the day was slipping away. And we still needed to send some faxes out at
the local telephone company. But the best fishing times were right now, so
we loaded the dinghy and headed back out. Since it was later that the day
before, the tide was in a different phase, so there was no rage. We passed
an incoming boat, "Summer of 42", in the cut returning from fishing. We'd
visited them several times this trip. Out in the Exuma Sound we caught yet
another Mahi, our 6th this season. We delivered enough fish for a dinner to
"Summer...." and they were happy.
