July 6th, 2009 | Shelley
I’m very sorry to have to tell you that this is my final blog entry. Yesterday, I boarded a plane bound for Charleston and flew home. Before I leave you all, though, there are a few (actually quite a lot) of things that I would like to say. First off, the biggest thank you goes to my dad for making this experience possible. I will never forget spending time with him. Next, a big thank you to Will Hobbs and Steve McFarlane. As naturalist and horticulturist they both taught me a tremendous amount and I’ll never forget all of the nice things that they did for me (including teaching me all of those plant names… thanks Steve). Second-to-lastly, thank you to the concierge crew, who always made me feel needed at the Welcome Hut even when I wasn’t. Lastly, a thank you to Mr. Stubbs and Mary Stubbs, who were wonderful to me and always had a kind word. It’s been my good fortune to have had this experience, and am deeply grateful to all those who made it extraordinary.
No oars in these boats, unfortunately. So you can’t really row. These boats are Hobie Cats, catamaran-type boats that you can sail down at the ELC. Today I spent the afternoon down at the ELC, helping kids of members with sailing. After Will turned the kids loose on a smaller sailboat of their own, he called me and said that we would go too. I shrugged on my lifejacket and hopped into the boat. We were in the bigger boat; out there mainly to help the kids who were constantly flipping their boat into the water (sometimes intentionally but most of the time not). One time they capsized and Will yelled “Jibe! Jibe!” (sailor talk for turning intot the wind) but I didn’t do it fast enough and we ended up in irons (more sailor talk… means to be pointing so straight into the wind that the sail can’t catch the wind either way). We had to watch the kids’ boat float onto the bank and capsize. Then we had to float onto the bank and help them right it and get sailing again (a hassle, but really fun). When all was said and done and all of us were taking off our lifejackets on shore, I was really wishing that I’d worn a bathingsuit instead of my work clothes because those Hobie Cats splash something awful.
Well, we can leave out the amnesia part. It just made the title sound catchy. The coconut part, though, is real as can be. When I was out on one of my rounds (to check that the landscape around the major buildings is in good shape) with Steve McFarlane, we found a perfect (although little) coconut to break open. For about a week it lay on the stair outside of my dorm room, untouched. I doubt that anyone would have tried to take it, because, in a moment of boredom, I scratched my name on one side of it because I thought it would look cool (in the end, not so much). Today, I finally got around to cracking it open. First, I got the machete from Will’s office (left over from when he lived in Wyoming… he was a hunter and you have to butcher the elk somehow) to crack it open with. Then, I broke it open. Oh, wait. Actually, I first cut a small hole, stuck a straw into it, and sucked out all of the milk. Did you know that the part of the coconut that you can eat is not there as soon as you crack open the outer shell? There’s another shell inside of that that you need to crack open before you can begin to eat. Anyway, I managed to finish the coconut in ten minutes ( it was pretty little), but I still hope I don’t grow a curly-cue tail anytime soon.
It truly is. I swear. Do you remember how Will and I went conching about a week ago? Well, we didn’t end up eating those conch because they died. Sad, I know, but I do get to take home a shell without a hole in it. That’s because in order to remove the conch from the shell you have to pry it out and you can’t do that without drilling a hole. Wait, I’m drifting off topic. The point off all that is that I really wanted to eat a conch that I caught, so my dad and I went back out yesterday. We took a tendem pedal kayak out across the flat (a patch of ocean that’s really shallow and, well, flat), taking turns dragging it while the other pushed from behind. When we reached open ocean where it was a clear blue almost to the bottom, it was relatively choppy but not too bad. I put the glass-bottom bucket that Will and I had made a few days before on the surface of the water and instantly saw clearly to the bottom. We drifted for a while, piking up a few conch here and there, until we had managed to get eight. Then, we began to kayak back to te ELC. Upon arrival we went to our rooms to shower and change, and then I bided my time until dinner. When dinner time came we brought our conch to the staff cafeteria and asked the chef there to cook it for us. She happily obliged (we promised to give her half for cooking them for us) and then we had a great and filling dinner of cracked conch.
No, I’m not pulling your leg. And that’s not just because I can’t reach it. Seriously, though, there is such a thing called paddleboarding (done with a paddle and a board…obviously), and it’s super fun! After kayaking early this morning with my dad (after all, today is Father’s Day), we came back into shore and I, bored again quickly as usual, searched for something else to do. I spied what looked like a surfboard on the ground. It had an odd-looking paddle on top of it. I’d heard that the ELC had a paddle board, and since I’d seen all of the ELC’s equipment except it and never seen the surfboard-ish thing, I figured that it had to be the paddleboard (whew…that was complicated!). Then I picked up the paddleboard (I asked Will, don’t worry) and dragged it out into the ocean. I clambered up onto it, trying not to tip over, and finally stood up holding the paddle. I began to paddle around, and had a blast except for the one time that I spilt and fell into the water after a strong wave. Next time you happen to be near a paddleboard, I highly suggest that you try it because, spills and all, it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a while!
Fine, thank you. While reading past posts the other day, it came to me that I hadn’t actually shown you a complete overview of the island. First, I’ll talk about the map at left in depth, and then when I’m done you can watch it all for real in the video below. All right. First, we have the landing strip, which you can see is the long gray stripe that runs at a slant down to the very bottom tip of the island. All of the little squares that lie most of the island’s perimeter are lots, about a dozen of which actually have houses on them, although almost all of the others are purchased. If you’ll look at the top of the farthest left portion, you can see a lot that looks much larger than the others. That is Ocean Rise, which is the portion still owned by the purchaser of the island in 1995: Henry Mensen. Do you see the two litle black shapes ringed by lots on the far right side? In between them lies the Colonel (pronounced “kernel” like a corn kernel) Brown ruins where you can still find pieces of pottery. Also, about halfway down the runway and a little to the right lies the ELC, just in front of the cove area. Well, now that I think you’ve heard it all, you can see the movie below!
