#2 Gas, Fishing, Church and Hurricane Nicole

The week's fun began with getting the car filled with gas for the first time. I pull in and figure out how to open the gas cap trap door when a young lady comes along and I ask her to fill it up please. She frowns at me and then says that I need to make a deposit. A deposit? I'm not trying to buy a house, I'm simply trying to fill the car with gas. She asks me how much that will be and I explain that I have no idea as I've never filled this car before. She suggests I put down a deposit of $30 and we'll see how far that goes. Well it didn't fill it so I gave her another $50 and that was too much. I can't begin to count the number of times this very helpful young woman went back and forth to the money monger in the building. When we were finished I asked if I should tip her and she said yes. I'm sure I didn't give her enough and promise to do better next time!!! Hope you get to read the blog and I will see you later this week!!! Thank you so much for your lessons and help!!!

I told Jerrisma that I really wanted to go shore fishing so she got the rigs we needed and here she is getting our bait ready. It is bits of conch. This island rotates around conch....

You bait the hook and then make this circular motion with your arm and let her rip going many feet out into the ocean. This did not work well for me. I had to get into the ocean to get the bait out there at all. I tried and tried and tried. As I brought the bait back in I could see lots of little fish around it. About the size of the bait actually so I knew there were bigger ones out there as that is the rule of the sea.

Finally I just quit and went swimming with all of my clothes on. I'll try it another day.

This is our lovely stainless steal bucket waiting for your fish. Long wait. No fish.

Within walking distance to our house is Banana Bay Restaurant. I remember being there in the past with girlfriends to have lunch. This time we returned to have supper on Friday night which is the only night they open for dinner other days it is lunch only. 

I decided to have a lobster night as it is my second favourite food. I started with a lobster bisque and it was ok. 6/10

Then came my cracked lobster. Cracked to me means broken in half. Here, on Grand Bahama Island, I was to learn that cracked anything is deep fried. Who does that to lobster??? Gross. Tough as expected. Very disappointing. The rice dish is called rice and peas but it really isn't peas as they are green and these are a kidney type of bean that are called peas. The coleslaw was good......

A nice new addition to the Freeport scene is the fish market. Lots of vendors. Lots of persuasion to buy from this guy or the next guy or the one after him. I love seafood and like fish.

Conch. These are live conch and they will take it out of the shell for you and clean it up so you can make anything you wish out of it, fritters, cakes, salads, shoe soles. It is very tough no matter what you do it. Pretty.

I decided on Red Snapper. Maybe because it is pretty. Not sure....

First it get weighed in a laundry basket. Why not!!!

Then I asked for it to be fileted as I knew if I did it it would be a mass fish massacre. Just happens that this guy knows Jerrisma and she thinks she knows him. Where ever we go people know Jerrisma. 

Great job. There was enough fish on each half for one nights dinner. The fish cost $40 which seems a tad steep but it really was very nice.

Love this sign.

This is how the sky looked the other night just before the hydro went off. Then we discovered we didn't have a candle in the house. Got dark at 6. Little early for bed....

This is Mount Zion Baptist Church of Eight Mile Rock. This where I'm teaching knitting and this is Jerrisma's church. Very warm and inviting. Great music. Wide range of ages which I love to see in a church.

The woman in the white hat is the pastor. Lovely lady. She has the best hats!!! Really nice windows. Glad they have made it through all of the hurricanes.

I announced the other day that come Monday, I was going to do nothing for the day. Too busy.... This is our beach at 7 in the morning. It is actually always this crowded. Same in the other direction.

Now we come to Hurricane Nicole. We knew this weather was coming in since Sunday so yesterday we went out to get candles and take out food that I wouldn't have to heat up as the hydro going out is an expectation. At the hardware store lots of people were carrying these odd bags so I asked the good looking guy behind me in line who had some what they were. Sand bags. Got it. We got chatting and he said he was a police officer and that four guys from his station in Freeport had gone to Canada to work last year. It is so interesting to hear how people from here are wanting to come to Canada instead of the US. I think it is great. Many young people are also coming to our universities. We welcome these people into our fold.

As we were leaving the store, an old man, probably my age, turned to me and said, "You stay safe now." That was a juicy eye moment. 

Jerrisma my hurricane guide had told me, get the car filled up with gas, get bottles of water, charge the cell phone. God Bless this woman!!!!!!! I did it all. When we got to the grocery store there was hardly any water left. We have water dispenser in our kitchen with a very large bottle of almost filled water so we will be fine.

Coke was all gone.

Today is Wednesday. The storm started rolling in yesterday afternoon with high winds. As we looked around our neighbourhood, it appears that most of our 7 neighbours have left. Chickens. All of the houses except one other look like this one. Storm shutters down. All stull off of the porch. 

When I woke this morning I could hear the wind and the waves crashing on the beach so I had to get up and have a look. Ray rolled over. I wonder how strong the wind has to be to up root these trees? They are expected to be around 150 km later today. The rain is pelting down and then letting up. It's spooky.

We are located on the south side of the island. The storm is actually passing by the north side. There is this crazy stuff going on with the waves where they actually look like they are going out instead of coming in. It is from the strong wind currents.

Coconuts are falling everywhere from the trees. Quite the day we have in store for ourselves. I'm doing laundry and Ray is napping. It is going to be interesting. Jerrisma is calling periodically to see if we are ok. Last night she offered to send over one of her son-in-laws if we were concerned about our safety. Is he cute? Here is an interesting thought.... The gate to get in and out of here is electric. How do we get out if there is no hydro? Just a thought!!!! Please share the blog. Have a good week. Keep in touch. God/Goddess Bless You!!!