A Tale of Two Chemists: Every silver lining has a cloud 28 Dec 2017

28^th Dec 2017

Many things about today were quite silver-lining-ish. But now it’s time to write the blog .... We were moored in Francis Bay overnight and went to shore after a show-stopping breakfast of bacon, egg and sausage quesadillas. Narrowly avoiding the food coma, Tasha rowed us to shore with the snorkel gear, water bottles and emergency rations (granola bars). Somewhat surprisingly, there was a kind of swamp behind the beach. We saw a rail (tentatively determined to be a clapper rail) a ruddy duck (that is the actual name) and 8.5 million no-see-ums. I’m convinced that the latter were involved in a conspiracy to remove all my blood, one microliter at a time.

A leisurely stroll along the road led to views of Leinster bay. A few more birds were identified (northern parula, morning dove, Key West Quail Dove and bananaquit) before we reached a sign for the Annaberg plantation. Here appeared the first cloud—a wooden staircase to be scaled to reach the ruins. Pretty hot work for the tropics! It was worth the effort for the views and some sense of how a sugar plantation worked. The cane was grown on terraced areas of the adjacent hills using slave labor. A sign described the wattle and daub structures in which the slaves lived however no sign could be detected. The windmill was used to crush/grind the cane. The juice that was produced flowed downhill through troughs to the boiling factory where vats were heated to drive off the water. In this way sugar or molasses could be obtained. The residue from crushing the cane was fermented and distilled into rum. According to the signage none of this would have been commercially viable without the slave labor. Can I see parallels in today’s economy? Let me think...

We went back to the boat for lunch and a bit of relaxation. Taking my after lunch-time cup of tea out to the cockpit, I saw a fish swim near to the side of the boat. This fish was followed by three sharks. I called out to Tasha and Mike who came topsides to have a look. A debate broke out over what kind of sharks they might be and whether we were looking at the top or bottom side of the animal. I must say the ‘top’ of their heads looked very odd having ridges (gills?) but the other side of the animal looked way too pale to anything but the underneath. This domestic disturbance is still rumbling... without a source of information it could last for years.

Once we could mobilize ourselves, we motored Cotinga around the next headland to the east and moored in Leinster bay. Overcoming a natural tendency toward sloth, I was persuaded to go snorkeling. It was great: angel fish, sea slugs (or was that a sea cucumber?), lion fish, puffer fish, gorgeous sea fans.

Even more silver lining is coming my way in the shape of a pain-killer minus the rum...

Gloria

Leinster Bay 18 21.9 N, 64 43.7 W