Gregory Town, New Years Eve Day

Northern Eleuthera is edged by bluffs and lush pine-y trees. This is unlike the mostly flat Bahamas with smatterings of palm trees that we have seen so far. On New Year's Eve Day, we snorkeled near the bluffs surrounding our boat. Although we didn't see any new creatures, the sheer numbers of purple sea fans and shimmering silver-blue minnows was astounding. Both the kids are comfortable snorkeling now, although it's amazing that Mark doesn't scare away all the fish with his unorthodox swimming technique and his habit of screaming through his snorkel when he sees anything.

An honest-to-goodness hill (a very steep one).

We saw very few tourists and lots of friendly locals in Gregory Town. It seems a bit less prosperous than the areas of the Exumas and Abacos that we have visited. Near the shore, Conrad would have continued to talk the ear off the fisherman cleaning his catch if we hadn't eventually dragged him away. The boy loves fishing and fish. Unfortunately, he still doesn't like eating it much. He'd never admit it though, and gets more excited than anyone when we catch something.

We saw that the fishermen had a sizeable pile of large barracuda. We asked about ciguatera, which is the reason that we haven't sampled any of the ones we have caught. Apparently, there is a risk but clearly it's one they are willing to take. Speaking of ciguatera, a local doctor from Nassau told us that fake ciguatera poisoning is a common excuse used to get out of work (sometimes used often enough by a single worker to become suspicious).

 

Cotton

 

Since we didn't catch any fish today, we resorted to a steak that had been frozen (and repeatedly semi-thawed during several freezer snafus) since last January. Probably not quite ready for an upscale steakhouse in New York, but it was amazingly still edible.  After a dessert of some tasty pineapple tarts (with one surprise coconut one thrown) from a bakery in town, we went to bed at the normal time. We were unexpectedly roused at midnight when the local resort two small bays over set off an impressive New Year's fireworks display. I momentarily sat up but was so tired that I couldn't even make it to the grand finale. New Year's Eve on a boat with two kids is super-exciting. Yeah, it's definitely because of the kids...(yawn).