Thank Goodness for Butterflies

I like Butterflies, but I am especially thankful for the kind that come in a box in your First Aid kit. Handiman John was at it again, this time installing a new water filter, which does not necessarily sound like a dangerous endeavour. He was trying not to have to dinghy in AGAIN to the hardware store, so, thirfty Yankee that he is, he tried to salvage a $.25 part from the old filter. He says he knew it was stupid, but he did it anyway. He succeeded in slicing his hand open between the thumb and index finger to the tune of about an inch and a half. After some initial first aid on the boat involving the wonderful invention of those butterfly bandages, lots of gauze, tape and lots of pressure, we ventured into town to the clinic, which, of course, was not open. It was Saturday and no doctor, no clinic, no hospital, no nothing until Monday. So, back to the boat where we just had him elevate the hand and we continued to apply peroxide, first aid antibiotic cream and squeeze the gap together with those butterfly things. When Monday finally arrived, his hand was healing sufficiently that he didn't even go to the doctor. Now I understand why the boat came with a couple of books entitled "What To Do When There is No Doctor/Dentist Around". I am sure that if it were more of an emergency, we could have gone to the doctor's house or someone would have pointed us in the direction of help, but as it was, we did pretty good on our own.

With our medical emergency behind us, and his hand healing nicely (he's going to have quite the scar, however, but it will just go with the other ones that he has, courtesy of growing up with Ken and Craig) we finally left Marsh Harbour. We had been there for over two weeks and were getting bored. In fact, after John gave a second thought to my last entry, he decided that it made it sound like our lives are pretty boring, just working on the boat, reading and running errands. So, we decided to give you all something new to read about and left for Man Of War Cay (pronounced 'Key').

It seems that everywhere we go we think, "Ooo, we'll have to bring Craig and Eleni (John's brother and our neice) here when they come (they are coming the last of March to snorkel, dive, etc.). But, then, we get to the next spot, and it is just as great, so I think we will be just as happy with the scenery as we go south. We arrived at Man Of War on Wednesday, the 12th of March, and THEY HAVE ICE CREAM!!! Just the simple pleasures for me, thank you, and ice cream fits the bill.

Man Of War is a small island with a restaurant and a snack bar, a small grocery store, and a long history of the Albury family who have been boat builders for several generations. Everyone drives around in little golf carts, and you can walk the island in probably an hour all the way around. I found it interesting that last weekend, while no one was at work, the boat builder's shop was just open. Nothing locked up. We have found several new flowers and other plants on the island, including several types of cactus, which was a surprise. We took a walk along the beach, which we had almost to ourselves, and found coral washed up on the sand, and coral reefs just feet off the shore. The sand reminds me of ~~ you know that flour (Wondra) that you use for making gravy? The sand is almost that fine. The water changes colors (or colours, as they would have it here) depending upon depth and whether there is sand, plantlife or coral reef below. Out in the gulf stream, it is deep, deep saffire blue, then closer to shore, it turns to a peacock blue, then emerald green, then light green, then at the shore is just clear. I hope our pictures can convey the colors as they are.

John has been snorkeling. I have been lying on the beach. One day last week, it was so calm (the wind has usually been blowing like crazy) that you could see way down to the bottom of the water. Could see all types of fish, the mooring for the boat, starfish, etc. just lying on the bottom. Also scared up a ray while we were in the dinghy. We estimated that in some places we could see 30 feet down and it was just as clear as your bathtub (before your bath).

Don't know when we will be able to get this up on the website, as everything here seems to be down. I am composing this on Thursday, March 13th, and everything seems to be over-taxed. This is spring break; there are probably just too many people here for the services. Whole islands temporarily have no phone service, no internet, etc. The things we take for granted in the US! (Like ice cream on every corner. Actually, in our little New England town it is a coffee shop on every corner. The ice cream in East Greenwich is across from the candy store~~awwwww).