Pirate's Lady

Hello my friends, I am back from a wonderful week in the Bahamas, and passed one of the best weeks of my life. Our ship, the Pirate's Lady of Blackbeard's Ilk*, took us on 18 dives at various sites between Grand Bahama Island and Bimini. Some of the dives were spectacular, all were fun.

The Pirate's Lady was not the most luxurious boat. My berth was small, and the only thing separating me from the common room table was a curtain. There was no privacy at all. The shower consisted of all the salt water you wanted followed by a thirty second fresh water rinse. The food passed at best. Monkey Posh would not have approved to say the least. Still, the environment forced the passengers to spend time together, and as a result, I made many new friends and not even a week home, we are already planning other trips together.

The author and friends play Scrabble on the bow of the Pirate's Lady.

So, what did I learn on this trip?

Eats:

I ate the Bahamian national dish, conch (pronounced "conk") prepared in various ways. Variations on this dish include cracked conch (cracked means fried in Bahamian), conch fritters, conch gumbo, raw conch on a salad, and conch pizza! I thought it was much better than the mountain oysters and chicken fried steak so lovingly prepared in my home state.

Drinks:

I discovered Bahamian beer too: Kalik (pronounced Ka-lick, with the accent on the lick), which is a well-known brand. A new beer being brewed on Grand Bahama Island is Sands. Sands has a wheat beer taste, and is excellent. I asked for Sands at both bars in the harbor area of Alice Town, Bimini (End of the World and Big John's) and no one had heard of it. Although Kalik is the classic, I loved the rich taste of Sands.

The author does the cha cha at Big John's on New Year's Eve. Every little ting was alright 'til early da next morning.

Dos:

Although my compatriots and I drank a lot, too much, the main focus of the trip was diving. Instead of detailing each dive, I will tell you we saw spectacular and beautiful fish, including Angelfish, Trumpetfish, Grouper, Stingray, Barracudas, Moray Eels, Jacks, Lionfish and of course, Sharks! We also saw three different wrecks from the Sapona which is a shallow wreck, to the 100 foot deep Theo's Wreck which was seen in the film Halloween.

The beautiful but venomous Lionfish**


The author swims with a new friend**

While my body may be back in the States, my mind is still in the Bahamas.

* Word learned from Scrabble game which the author still finds questionable.
** Photos by VG