Last Full Day!

    I cant believe it is our last full day on Eleuthera.  After 3 weeks this feels like our life now.   We feel like we belong, and are destined to be here.  The thought of going back to dreary spring in Montana is utterly depressing.  I know we live in a spectacularly beautiful place, it just kind of sucks during the shoulder seasons.  I should be looking forward to planting my garden, but instead I am wishing we lived on Eleuthera and I could just plant a garden here. 
    It was a pretty grey cloudy morning so the sunrise was nothing to write home about.   We watched it anyway, and did our usual morning routine, then went about making the most of our day.  We started off with a beach walk toward Airport Beach.  J brought his pole with him, hoping to get in a little more fishing in, but had no luck.  

      After our long walk the weather cleared a little bit so we figured we better jump on the chance to get one last snorkel in.   We decided to head to the southern end of DaVilla's little beach this time.  There are remains of an old sea wall there and out from it is a nice reef that starts at the shoreline and extends out about 400 yards.   It is not the easiest spot to get in and out of but it was well worth it.  Despite the water being churned up a little, it was great snorkeling.  The farther out we went the more fish we saw and the bigger they got.   It is hard to tell from the photos but there were some really big fish out there.  The grouper is one of the biggest we have seen.  If you look at the yellowtail snapper, they were large, maybe 18" or so, so you can imagine the size of the grouper in front of them.  
      We got so caught up in our snorkeling and watching all the beautiful fish, that none of us looked up to check to see what the weather was doing till we started to hear distant rumbling and noticed it was getting darker out.   Finally when we popped our heads out of the water we realized there were ominous black clouds all around us.  It was an immediate consensus among the four of us that we need to get to shore ASAP.  We quickly worked our way back in and by the time we mad it to shore it was just starting to rain.   We quickly headed back up to the house as the rain started picking up, getting a nice freshwater shower along the way. 

The one that got away

Giant Grey Triggerfish??

Glasseye Snapper??

      It was still raining pretty steadily after we got home and dried off so we decide we might as well head to Ronnies, rather than sit around the house.  It was really dumping by the time we got to Ronnie's and we made a mad dash from the car, but even in that short distance we were completely drenched, again.   We ordered up some 2 for $5 beers and parked ourselves for a while.  The rain never did let up while we were there but we figured we better get out of there before we got in too much trouble, so we headed back home. 

      By the time we got back the rain had finally stopped, so the guys grabbed their sopping wet gear and headed out for another snorkel.    S and I said it was a bad idea as it seemed like the storm was not quite over and we could still hear thunder and see lightning off in the distance.  They insisted it quite a ways off and we were being overly cautious so we lost that one, at first... 

      Less than 5 minutes in the thunder really started booming, so they came running back up to DaVilla and decided to continue on with cocktail hour instead.   

      We still did not want to sit around so we took our drinks "to go" and headed out for another beach walk.  This time we headed south toward the old sea wall.  On the top of the cliff above it is an old abandoned house.  It looks like it was a really nice place back in the day, but now it pretty dilapidated, with broken or boarded up windows and pieces of the roof missing.    D and J decided to climb up the rotten old stairs to the top of the bluff and check it out.   It was in compete disrepair, but the front door was open so they went in to check it out.  They saw clothes strewn about and a pile of trash as if someone had recently been squatting there.  As they were getting that uneasy feeling that maybe they should not be there since someone could possibly be living there one of them accidentally kicked a can.  The sound echoed just like a horror film and they both came running out of the house and tore back down to the beach full speed.   It was hilarious, especially watching J, who is afraid of nothing run away like a scared child.   S and I just sat on the beach laughing and watched them run back down the stairs.  Once they caught their breath we continued on our long beach walk.  On the way back the front door was closed, and it was not by D or J on their mad dash out of the house. 

      Well we stayed up as late as we could, making sure to finish off the last of our food and drink, before we finally had to call it a night.   Sometime around 2am we all woke up to a massive thunderstorm.  It must have been centered right over DaVilla.   The thunder and lighting were simultaneous and so forceful that I was afraid to get to close to the windows to watch it.   The windows would shake from the thunder and the entire house would light up from the lightning.   It was amazing, and frightening all at the same time.  You could see streaks of lighting hitting the water right in front of the house.   I have never experienced a storm quite like that.  I definitely would not have wanted to be out on a sailboat that night.  It kept up for quite some time, but eventually passed far enough away that we were able to get a few hours of sleep.  We took it as a sign that Eleuthera really did not want us to leave, or maybe it was just trying to scare us away. 

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