Jeff and his Conch Horn

At Sundown the tradition here is to blow the conch horn. A lot of places we have anchored there is at least one boat that has a conch horn and someone on board knows how to play it. You think this is an easy thing, I’m sure – not so! That is unless you are a trumpet player, which neither of us is. We can barely whistle.

We have found several nice conch shells and were given a couple of exceptional shells by Ken & Kathy on ‘Coconut’. We will make sure all our visitors get to take one home with them.

Anyway – last week Jeff decided it was time to make a horn. That was the easy part, since we have a dremel tool on board. And then came the hard part – oh what a sad sick sound came out of that horn. All dogs within earshot were howling. There happened to be another cruiser close by (Sandy onboard ‘Manatee’) that is an expert conch horn player and she gave Jeff some lessons, followed by more the next day by another cruiser on ‘English Rose’. Progress has been very slow. Rick on ‘Sojourner’ asked us yesterday if there were whales in the area as he was sure he heard one bellowing.

You get the picture.

We are hopeful that at least one of us can master this instrument. We will make sure all our guests get a chance to perform as well.

Speaking of guests – our good friends Steve & Terri Brothers, from Chattanooga are to arrive here next Monday, after making a stop at the Miami Boat Show. We are excited about their visit.

Abaco - Above and Below

We have been doing some snorkeling – not a lot but enough that we have seen some pretty cool fish and coral and wanted to share some of this with you. Also – I don’t think we’ve shown you much of the color here, that is the color of the houses and businesses, paint wise. Most everything is painted in either

pastel colors or vibrant colors – pink, blue, purple, yellow, green, and variations thereof. It is ‘colorful’!!!!!!

Treasure Hunting

We are hooked on treasure hunting. Not the kind of treasure hunting that is going to make us any money though. We have been watching what washes up on the beaches to see if there is anything we can use (or want), and lo and behold we have found a few things – lots of very pretty sea glass, some nice shells, a couple of drink cartons to put bottles in and a very interesting glass bottle with oriental alphabet characters (that we have filled with sea glass), sea beans and a couple of things that we don’t know what to do with. The great thing is that everything is 100% returnable. It is amazing what washes up – like fluorescent bulbs, toothbrushes, lots of verrrrrry large rope and more trash than you can imagine. We saw a boat that was in two pieces and twice we’ve seen outboard engines and many shoes, although no matching pairs. Today I even came across a toilet seat!

I do hope everyone who is reading this blog realizes that most pictures (if not all) can be clicked on to make them larger so you can actually see what is in the picture - I should have told you this in the beginning.

We have a looking bucket!!!

I know you are wondering what in the world a looking bucket is! We used to call it a glass bottom bucket, but not over here – it is called a ‘Looking Bucket’. Jeff made it a couple of days ago so we could dinghy over our anchor primarily to see if it is set good, as well as other things. We will also use it for looking for conch and lobsters. This way you don’t have to get in the water if you don’t want to.

Here are a few terms we have picked up to add to our vocabulary since we’ve been down here. CRUISER’S MIDNIGHT – 8:30pm - cruisers don’t stay up late. DOABLE – it means something is possible. It is used in describing transiting an ocean inlet and generally means the seas are 6 feet or less and won’t kick your butt. RUM WILL MAKE YOU DUMB – that needs no explanation. And lastly YOU CAN'T BE DRUNK ALL DAY IF YOU DON'T GET STARTED - again, no explanation.

More interesting boat names we've seen – ‘Stout Wench’ and ‘Yes Dear’. But we still have not seen another Salty Dog and we are amazed at that, although there is a cottage here named Salty Dog.