Wednesday February 16, 2011

At 3:30 the sky opened up and it started pouring down rain. Instantly I know it was raining because the rain was landing on my face and woke me up. I jumped out of my sleeping bag, hit my head on the cabin roof and put in the washboard and closed the hatch. The boat was dry. I crawled back into my sleeping bag and fell asleep. The wind had increased to about 20 knots. The anchor was holding and the waves rocked me back to sleep.

Just after sunrise, I was up again and headed into Mango’s. I needed a shower and a cup of coffee. I still have a key to the shower at the Moorings located at the Conch Inn. My skin was covered with salt from the dive the day before and I could smell myself. It was time to pirate another shower. When pirating a shower, I always show up before the office opens so that I do not have to explain why I am using the shower without docking a boat at their marina.

After taking a long hot shower, I returned to my table at Mango’s. Izzie had the coffee ready and asked if I had talked with Sandy yet this morining. I told here that I would give Sandy a few more minutes of sleep and then try and call. Sandy answered on the first ring. It was nice to talk with here. The connection was good and we talked for almost a half hour.

The wind was blowing at over 20 knots today, the sky was cloudy and I got soaked on the way into Mango’s. The wind was coming out of the NNE and there were white caps on the harbor. Every time the bow of the dingy would hit a wave, the salt spray would splash me in the face and the run down the side of the dingy causing what sailors call ‘wet butt’.

This morning I was prepared as I wore my foul weather gear, both top and bottoms. I avoided the ‘wet butt’, I still got a wet face.

I stayed at Mango for an hour and then headed back to the Water Mark. It was a dry ride since I was going in the same direction as the wind. I had hoped to go lobster and conch hunting with Dirk again but the weather prevented us taking a small dingy the 8 miles out to the reef.

I cracked open a Lee Childs book titled The Hard Way and started reading. I fell asleep about 11AM and sleep until 2PM. The first nap I have had on this trip. I made a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and then decided to clean the conch that I got the previous day.

To keep the conch fresh, I put it in a bucket of salt water. I had seen several locals get the meat out of the conch while at West End and felt confident that I could duplicate their efforts. I was given verbal instructions from Jim and Ellie. They told me to count three rings back from the point and make a small hole that is large enough to get a knife in and then cut the animal from the shell by wiggling the knife. I used a hatchet that I have on board to make the hole. When I first hit the shell of the conch, small pieces of shell flew everywhere. They landed on my shirt, face, arms and legs. I kept at it. Pieces of shell flew again. Finally the hole was large enough to insert the knife. I inserted the knife and started to separate the meat from the shell. I then pulled on the foot of the conch trying to get it out of the shell it would not budge. I got a pair of pliers from my tool bag and grabbed the foot of the conch and pulled. The animal yielded to my maneuver and came out of its shell. I had conquered my first conch. I then cleaned the ‘nasty parts’ from the white meat. Conch is very tough white meat. I then put the cleaned meat into a plastic bag got the cutting board from the alcohol stove and set the plastic bag on the board. I then used the blunt hammer end of the hatchet and tenderized the conch by hitting it about 25 times and smashing it flat. I rolled up the plastic bag with the fresh conch and put it on ice in my small green cooler. I reviewed the conch recipes and tried to decide how to prepare it. I decided on conch salad. The receipt calls for limes, onion, fresh pepper and tomatoes. I had the limes and onion. I did not have tomatoes and I don’t like peppers. I had to make a trip to Maxwell’s food store for tomatoes. I jumped in the dingy and headed for the dingy dock.

It is a short one half mile walk from the dingy dock to the grocery store. I made the trip. Purchased the tomatoes and several other impulse items and headed back to the boat to make the conch salad.

I cut up the conch. I diced the onions and tomatoes. I then cut up two limes and squished the juice out of the skin and onto the ingredients. I then popped open a beer and waited for the lime to cook the conch. There was a lot of salad! I was hungry so after a half an hour, I started eating the salad. I thought that I would only get about half of it eater and thought I would save the other half for the next day. The conch salad was so good, I ended up eating it all.

It was just past dark and I started reading. The wind was strong, but it was not very cold again I decided to keep the hatches open. I the last thing I remember is looking at the moon before the waves rocked me to sleep.