Boat ride with the Little Captain

Monday, July 19, 2010
Very full day today. I wish I could have dragged you along with me to see the many sights today. Missionary life is truly exciting.

My day always starts early. It’s been nice with Grandma here, because the Princesses go to her first and she makes them breakfast and gives me a little extra {beauty} sleep. Mom and I washed a couple loads of clothes and hung them out on the line. Since she’s leaving tomorrow, we all decided to go to the beach. We went to the fisherman village first and Josh found a rasta fisherman who would take us out in his boat. Mom opted out of the boat ride and decided to explore the beach with the princesses and Levi.

After dropping them off, Prince took Austin (our friend from Baton Rouge) and me back to the fisherman village. We walked between the rough little wooden shanties that serve as their homes. The little houses rested half on the Sea and half on the sand. Some were additions to little concrete buildings that that seen a better day. Several men were standing in the shallow water cleaning their morning’s catch. A little boy stood on the skinny edge of a high wall and watched us.

The Rasta man, named Friday, told us to get in the boat. So we waded into the questionable water to get into the questionable boat. From the looks of the water around my ankles, I’d say the fisherman had a very good morning. This is adventure living.

The little boy climbed in beside me. He said he was 7 and his name was “Captain”. Very fitting. I asked him where he lived. He shrugged his little shoulders, waved his hand towards the little buildings and said, “here.” He was really cute and I enjoyed talking to him. A man came to guide our boat out into the deeper water. Captain said it was his daddy. His daddy made sure he put on a life jacket and told him to be good and sit still. In our eyes....Captain may not have the best life, but he seemed very happy, his daddy obviously loved and cared for him, and he was clean and well fed. In all honestly he is living a little boy’s dream, with the Sea at his doorstep.

For a few minutes I wasn’t sure if the engine on the boat was going to start up. Friday kept jerking the thingy and every fisherman on the shore was shouting out advice about what he should do. I’m kinda glad the wind in my ears made it where I couldn’t understand all they were saying. After a few minutes of puttering sounds, I was wondering if they were shouting, “Come back in, you’ll never get back to shore once you get out!” or “Good thing that’s whities in the boat, I’d never go out in that thing!”

Finally the engine came to life. At first I had mixed emotions about this, as Friday headed the little boat out into the deep blue sea. Captain called to two tiny girls playing on the edge of the water and they waved.

The view of the crystal clear water was breathtaking! And this is an understatement. I wanted to look in all directions at the same time. The waters looked turquoise. I love looking back at the Island when I’m out in the Sea. The mountains and homes are so ....so...picturesque. {I feel so blessed} The waves (and I’m not a judge of wave size) but I would say they were around 3 feet tall....give or take. We headed straight into them so our little boat kept bouncing up and down....so much fun...with the sea spray in your face. We rode for awhile I waved at my family, on the shore as we went by, but we were so far out they didn’t notice. Once Josh asked how deep it was right here, and Friday said, “around 70 feet deep.” Austin didn’t like the sound of that...I just laughed. When Friday stopped the boat I was tingling with excitement. Prince Charming suited up to go scuba diving, he was looking for big shells, on the bottom, to send back with our guests. After he secured the anchor and took off, I put my fins on and slipped over the side of the boat. I turned around to look at Friday and asked, “how deep is it here?” He said, “50” Austin called a little louder, “50 FEET!” I smiled at Austin and said, “Chicken.” Then I kicked away from the boat. I will never stop being amazed about how you can see the bottom just like it was your bathtub. The coral wasn’t as pretty in this spot, but it was still...wow. I say several (I want to call them “flocks”) schools of parrot fish and if I would just float they would come pretty close. I was surprised to see Friday swim through the water below me. For one thing, I thought he was about 70+ years old. It’s so interesting to see people swim under the water. His dreadlocked hair floated around his face, and I couldn’t have done it without flippers, but his bare feet worked just fine for him. He only stayed in the water about 1 minute then climbed back in the boat. I wish I could have watched Austin’s face when Friday climbed back in the boat. Austin kept worrying that we were going to flip the boat! I’m not sure how long I explored around, but I saw Josh coming so I headed back to the boat. He didn’t find any shells so they decided to move to another spot. Captain was asleep in the boat on a dirty piece of styrofoam ...{so cute}.

When Prince went back in the water, I decided to just sit in the boat and enjoy the view above the water. At first I thought the bouncing little boat was fun.....then.....my belly started going in the opposite roll of the boat. Up..down...up...down. Friday was trying to carry on a conversation with me, and I hope I was answering him intelligently. Finally I could take it no more. I grabbed Austin’s shirt, but he thought I was pushing him over the side and flipped out. As I leaned over the edge of the boat, Friday was there holding me and patting my back. After “it" was over I felt much better {weak smile} and went back to enjoy the view. It didn’t put a damper on my boat trip. I still had a blast.

As we picked up mom and the kids it started to sprinkle. Even though we only life about 3 minutes away, it let loose before we made it and our laundry got drenched on the line. {shrug} It’s not the first time.

Mom wanted to go to the craft market, in Montego Bay, to get a few more last minute souvenirs. The craft market is always alot of fun. One thing she bought was a machete for my brother, Levi, and had his named carved on the sheath.

Then we went to the drug store and bought ice cream cones. They have a flavor called strawberry cheesecake.....delicious!

The day stayed dark with light rain showers, so now back to the house. We had to re-rinse the clothes and then hang them on the veranda. I’m so thankful for a washing machine.