Swimming with lobsters: April 21, 2014

Da Capo
Arne and Leonie
Mon 21 Apr 2014 21:21

This anchorage, French Harbor is a marine park. The disturbance to anything is strictly prohibited. Thus the sea life is quite tame. The most fascinating is the lobsters. They don’t seem to mind that we are there. In fact they are curious, they hide under ledges with their long antennae sticking out, we hold out a hand and they feel it and after a while they poke their head out and on some occasions they come out of their hole.  They are huge. Some of them standing are about 60cm tall and they are about 18cm wide.  We see them walking along the bottom. The way they walk it is more like dancing. It is absolutely fascinating to see. There are dozens of them. One of the locals got caught catching them; he is serving three and a half years in prison.

There is quite an active social scene here amongst the cruisers. The Cruisers net on the VHF radio six days a week, volley ball every day at 1500 hrs. Pot luck (dinner) at two different locations every Saturday evening, Fish night every Friday evening, Lion fish is the preferred selection, there were 40 of us at the last one. Swap meet every Thursday, Nibble night every Monday, Angus beef burger night on Wednesday, a bus twice a week to the supermarket which includes coffee and croissant beforehand. They are going to have a ‘dingy drag’ next Sunday which is they all tie their dingies together and float along with the current all the while handing around nibbles and drink and have fun. Eventually they will steer to a local waterfront restaurant for the evening meal.    We say ‘they’ as we think that we will be gone from here by then.  We will be going around the corner to what is called West End to spend a day or two before sailing on to the next island, Utilla, a day or so there, and then on to Livingston and into the Rio Dulce Guatemala.