Immediate north of that western view are some small islands, where we (Jock Wilcox and I) would routinely fish for our dinner.
The principle quarry around that island was Nassau grouper and several varieties of snapper. Here are Jock and I with a couple Nassau grouper examples.
Occasionally we would go out fishing with a young local fisherman, Vaughn Johnson, and fish his favorite holes out at sea a mile or so. There we would catch a variety of species, like the queen trigger fish displayed by Vaughn.
And many other species, including varieties of snappers, permit and even the lion fish. We would half fill his cooler and take what we needed for the week, while Vaughn would take the rest for his mother's restaurant.
Also, on occasion, while trolling back from the nearby island, Jock and I might catch a 3-4 foot shark. The first one caught was a lemon shark.
And another one was a black tip -- which are quite good eating.
The sharks are very sensitive to smell and vibrations with their many sensory receptors on their face and head. Note the sensory pits on the snout and face.
During all of these events, we frequently had osprey company -- looking for a mistake we might make by releasing a wounded or escaping fish.
Many of the predator fish were fed ultimately by pockets of minnows and 'sardines', which would hide in various outcroppings along the shore.
The Bahamian islands also produce a plethora of queen conchs, which are served locally in the restaurants, while their shells are merely thrown away back into the ocean. Below is a typical queen conch shell, which now lives in Ottawa.
Or Jock with a queen conch and a dead lion fish. Both of which are excellent eating!
But this year we were not at that Governor's Harbor location. Since we took the family last year to the Sandos eco-resort in Mexico for Nancy and my 50th anniversary (a previous posting in the archives), we lost our rental position for the Hummingbird unit, so instead we flew to north Eleuthera from Nassau heading to Spanish Wells. And because the rental unit there slept 12 people, I encouraged several of our kids and families to join us and the Wilcox's. Ultimately this included our grand-daughters, Siobhan (16) and Ceilah(13) McIntyre (Jamie and Tracey's girls), and arriving two days later, our daughter Tobi plus Peter and their son Jakob (8). On this occasion we flew very early in the morning (ugh) to Nassau on Westjet.
Then after several hours in Nassau, we flew on the scary local unit, Southern Air, to the North Eleuthera airport. This 19 seater is like climbing into a large tube, and requires a good crawling technique to get to your seat. As I took the picture below during flight, the local woman sitting across from me said "I bet you won't see anything like this is the USA" (i.e., open door to the cockpit while in flight)!!
This event required another picture behind me into the rear of the plane, as I was assigned to seat one. Here is Grandma and the girls
After getting our taxi ride from the airport to the west edge of north Eleuthera, we took the shuttle ferry to Spanish Wells, which you can see in the distance.
The trip across the isthmus to Spanish Wells was painless.
And actually quite pleasant, especially knowing where you are going. But we were all a little tired, as it had been a long day so far.
We were picked up at the dock by Jock and Karen (in our rental courtesy golf cart), who arrived the day before us, plus the host's father in his car. We reached our bright yellow rental unit at the west end of the island in about 5 min.
After a 2 min walk to the beach and locating our courtesy kayaks, we were exposed to one of the most impressive and extensive beaches I have had the pleasure of seeing, including brother David's huge beach on Dewee's Island in South Carolina.
Because of major east winds the day before, the turtle grass had piled up at the high water line at the west end of the beach, but that did not change much recreationally for us. Around the east side of a small peninsula, there was little grass accumulated there on that beach.
Siobhan and Ceilah got to play on the beach for 2 days without competition before their cousin Jakob showed up.
At this time, he and his mother Tobi (and father Peter) were experiencing the approach to the North Eleuthera airport aboard the flying tube, Southern Air.
After their arrival, the kids played endlessly on the beach for the next week.
And paddle boarding ...
Even Jock and Karen played on the paddle board. At low tide, or even at high tide, you could walk out quite a ways into the ocean on white sand.
At the west end of our beach a few hundred yard to the left of the below picture, a channel goes into town between two islands and presents a place for all of the big boats to dock when approaching Spanish Well from the south. The channel on our north end was only available to small boats during high tide. The rest of the time, it was a perfect place for the kids to swim in the deeper water.
Just to the left over the channel to the west is the old road/bridge from Spanish Wells to the adjacent Russell Island.
On weekends and holidays, the local kids jump off the bridge into the channel. Both Siobhan and Jakob did it, but I only caught Siobhan in a movie of the action. Both she and Jakob got a snoot full of water on their first effort, which reduced the fun of it somewhat.
On one of the days during the week, Tobi took the 3 kids on the gulf car across the bridge to Russell Island to explore it a bit. That island is about 3 miles long with a single road traversing its length. At the end of the island, the kids took pictures of the sea shore. There is very little beach on that island, and it is mostly the exposed dead corral that forms the base of these islands. You can see the wave action crashing into this rough shore line below.
On the way back from the west end, they did find a few small beaches, one of which harbored a quaint restaurant where they had a lovely lunch.
As the kids played on the beach, they were always looking for new and interesting creatures, like this anole.
and several starfish, who feed on the sea urchins.
Or the helmut conch, which I had never seen before. This creature seems to be quite rare compared to the ever-present queen conch. If I had room in my suitcase, this conch would have come home with me. The natives tell us they are inedible, but I still find them gorgeous.
The bird life was very representative of the islands generally. Here is a great blue heron that Siobhan photographed out at an off-shore island when she and Tobi kayaked out there to explore the structure at low tide.
And then it left, flyng over the deeper pockets of sand that dotted the turtle grass.
Other birds included an oyster catcher who was working the beach near our play area at low tide.
All throughout this area of the beach, the turtle grass came in fairly close to the water's edge at low tide. In those locations, pockets of deeper water over sand were omnipresent, which could harbor minnows and other edibles. Indeed on the incoming tide, on the only day with a south wind, dozens of bonefish arrived to hunt crabs along the sand side of the turtle grass. At low tide, however, you could walk out quite a ways into the ocean on white sand. Quite a spectacle, but a very weary quarry is that bonefish.
Perhaps my favorite though is the 'desert rose' -- a sub-saharan plant that has beautiful flowers that last forever, while the leaves mostly fall off. I grew one at home for a year, but then it died.
Many people on Spanish Wells have them growing in their yards. However, a few years ago on the main island I saw one that was a 20 foot tree not a typical bush like the one below.
Indeed, in our little back yard at the rental pad we had several coconut palms and banana 'trees' with well endowed 'hands'.
Bwana Jock, under a banana tree, of course, assaulted the coconuts with the machete.
This provided us with lots of 'meat and milk', which I thoroughly enjoyed.
At the end of the day, my favorite time involves having a beer and snacks around the table, including chips and salsa, with friends and family.
So relaxing.
And if it was to rain (which it didn't), we could always sit in the washroom and look at the shower curtain.
On our last day, we took our group picture at Western View Cottage and then...
After dinner, Karen and John looked for directions to home outside of the restaurant.
Then a final sunset.
And asking the kids if they had a good time on this journey.
And were are back on a plane heading north -- yikes!
Arriving back home, winter was still here under the guise of 'spring'. Ironically, two days after getting back here, our resident pair of geese showed up --exactly on the same date as last year!!! What are the odds?
Even the tom turkey thinks its spring as he is pursuing the 4 hens at the bird feeder 30 feet away.
And the deer don't care. Although the mallard pair keep dodging the deer hooves while trying to get at the corn and some needed carbohydrates while getting a leg up on the spring plan.
However, today we are again buried under several inches of snow, and now it has changed to freezing rain. Ah -- spring in the north country.
