OK... so I'm playing catch up again. It has been a busy week and I have to share the computer with several other people after the office closes at 5:00pm. Excuses made... now for the travel journal.
Monday: Ray Darville, the ECLSP Warden, arrived back home on Monday. Tom went to Staniel Cay to get him while Blew took Larry on a fuel run (going for fuel) and I was left to find things to do for myself.
After helping Judy get the cinnamon rolls (a.k.a. sticky buns) finished for the morning crowd, I went down to the workshops and found parts to make a stopper for the ladies'room sink drain. Then into the office to straighten the books on the shelves. Harrold (retired orthopaedic surgeon) was on the front deck doing more 12-strand splices (rope) for the new mooring ball lines. So I joined him and got him to teach me how it is done. We sat and did the last 4 of his pile left to do... I learned on the one he was doing, he coached me through the next while simultaneously calling home to talk to his wife (she was out) then e-mailing his kids. While he was inside doing all that I finished off the one I was learning on and prepared another. He coached me through starting it and I did the rest of it on my own. Then we worked on the last 2 together with me starting and finishing slightly ahead of him. I am now the "master splicer" for the park. As the only one around (currently) who knows how to do them I will have to do the splicing to the mooring balls when they arrive... if they arrive while I'm still here. It was easy once I knew how it's done.
Spent the rest of the day reading, writing, chatting and puttering before the office closed. When the office closed the computer was available to do e-mail. I try to check it every day.
Tuesday: Fran (long-term volunteer on boat) and Mary (short-term volunteers on boat) and I hawled beach sand from the beach in 3-bucket loads in a wheelbarrow to the generator shed. We were dumping it in the rock base of the fuel pad on the far side of the shed. Then we (Ray and I) hosed it down to fill the gaps between the rocks so that the cement will not be lost to the gaps. The job took about 3 hours total.
The end of the day brought some unwanted excitement. When Fran and Mort returned from their diving at the south anchorage they reported to Ray that while there they noticed a 95ft long barge-like vessel anchored off Hall's Pond Cay. This Cay is the subject of a court battle between the owner (a foreign developer who has destroyed the eco-system on the island and caused a park damaging erosion problem) and the Bahamian Government. There is a cease and desist order against the owner and no one is allowed anywhere near the island. Just setting foot on it can get you arrested.
When the boat was called to by Ray they did not respond. Ray, Mort and the 2 RBDF guys headed out there to check on it. When hailed the vessel still did not respond. The RBDF guys boarded the ship, where they found a crew and captain who were removing some very expensive stuff from the island. So the captain was taken into custody and brought to the Park HQ. The captain, Michael, turned out to be a good friend of Ray's. Then Ray tried contacting the owner of the island but was having no luck. He tried to contact Michael's father, the owner of the boat, but still no luck. So Michael had to bunk in with the RBDF guys for the night.
All through the night, there were people coming and going from the HQ building. The radio was in use all night (it's usually pretty quiet after 7 or 8pm) and Ray was on the phone all night. The RBDF guys shifted watch every 2 hours and the P-43 and Warden's boat were in and out several times. The only qietish time was from midnight to 4 am. I did not sleep much with all that going on directly under my room.
The next morning Michael had to sit around with the RBDF guys watching his every move. His cellphone was not working. Mine has not had good reception for at least 5 days now. He looked very upset, after all, he was losing money every minute that his ship and crew were sitting out there at anchor. There were a bunch of RBDF guys in the P-43 at the ship keeping an eye on things. They left in the early afternoon while I was out snorkelling with Mary and Mike and their kids. They were returning Michael to his boat. His dad and the island's owner "struck a deal" and no charges were pressed. Pretty transparent plot to me and just about anyone else who understands how this stuff works in the Bahamas.
Wednesday: I repainted part (fixed the spelling error) of the Sunshine Causeway sign. Then Mary and I worked at moving 20+ wheelbarrows of sand from the sand heep near the rock pile (where they make sand from the "soft" limestone) to the sand box over by the generator shed where the concrete pad is to be poured. We finished just in time for lunch.
During lunch I took the sign to the causeway where I renailed it to the causeway. After lunch Mary, Mike and the 2 kids (Lidia 22 months and Noel 3 1/2 years) came to get me for snorkelling. We tried a few sights just around the anchorage using their dinghy. We dove around a wreck near mooring ball #9 where we spotted a beautiful big 10 pound snapper. Mary and I both commented on what a lovely meal he'd make. He seemed to be able to read our minds because he was watching us very closely loking like he was warning us not to get too close or he'd demonstrate where he gets his name from.
The best site by far though was right near the cut on the far side of Rader Rock (a.k.a. Trash Island - guess why) just 100 feet west of the HQ building. There were dozens of varieties of exotic fish, several lobsters, one gigantic grouper (probably about 25+ pounds) a huge sea cucumber and more coral varieties than I'd ever seen in one place. The colours were great. I got to snorkel around while Mary and Mike took turns minding the kids in the boat. Mary got back in the water for a final swim and she and I let the strong current take us through the cut to the dock area in front of the warden's house. I wanted to try spotting the giant grouper (estimated at about 50-60 pounds) living under the dock but he was hiding or not there.
As I noticed we were approaching the work-beach area I wanted to get out of the water and into the dinghy before we got too close to the HQ dock. That is where the RBDF guys feed the sharks twice a day and it looked like they were there doing just that. I was taking no chances that those lemon sharks could mistake us for special mealtime treats.
Back at HQ there was an impromptu Happy Hour hosted by the captain and crew (husband and wife) of Elysium. Collin and Colleen are from Ottawa (Leslie Park) until quite recently. They sold their house and car and all their possessions and are now living on their boat year round. Ain't retirement grand. They are a very nice couple. I have worked on at least a couple of projects side-by-side with them this past couple of days.
Thursday: this will be short as I am getting tired and want to get to bed soon. Yesterday we did the concrete pour for the generator shed fuel pad. Everybody did what they could to speed up the preparation work. Building of mixing boxes, supporting them on cinder blocks, finishing the wood forms, putting rocks under the reinforcement bar, etc. Then Sherry and I shovel filled buckets with sand and gravel as needed for mixing concrete. The guys carried the filled buckets to the mixing boxes by the pad. There were about 6 1/2 or 8 1/2 mixes. Each mix used 2 bags of concrete aggrigate, 10 5-gallon buckets of sand and 10 5-gallon buckets of stone. The work crew was about 18 or 20 strong and the work went very quickly and a good rythm got going quickly. When not filling buckets with snd and stone I was at the pad spreading, packing down and levelling concrete, dumping out buckets of concrete, helping to mix concrete and washing of tools to keep concrete from hardening on them. After all the concrete work was done, I stuck around to clean the tools to make sure they got good and clean before I put them away. I was back to HQ and getting in the shower by about 3pm right after taking a quick dip in the sea to clean off the worst of the dirt and concrete dust... clothes, shoes and all.
After a shower, change of clothes and washing my work duds I went to the office to straighten books and wait for Tom. Tom got the system working with my camera. So last night I dumped the photos off the camera. But the FTP still does not seem to work well. It is a crappy freebie. When I am able to get it going I'll be able to upload more photos for this blogsite.
I tried phoning my mother but she was at her Thursday night bridge club. By 9:00pm I was in bed, lights out and nodding off to sleep.
Today: another day of hard physical labour. That is why I'm si tired. Today after breakfast it was straight out to the labour crew. My first job was clearing out the area under HQ where a cinder block wall is to be built. Tom helped for awhile with some of the heavier stuff that I couldn't easily handle alone. After finishing with that, Ray put me to work up at the house. After hauling all the shovels, axes, pick axes and a hoe up to the house, I began work joined shortly by Collin and Danny. We were to remove all dirt, stone, rock and clay down to the bedrock in troughs where the concrete walls are to be poured to support a concrete pad going all around the base of the house. Another backbreaking, filthy job. Best thing is that we finished it today. Ray, along with us, never thought it would get done this quickly. He was even able to get the forms cut and installed today. Even the shoring up around the forms got finished. Tomorrow we can pour that concrete.
Now I'm heading to bed. Beat.
Posted by gailene at January 24, 2003 09:14 PM