Thursday morning- NO MIGRAINE! The moment we've been waiting for. Debbie is up and well by 9, and feeling a ton better. So it's a good start to the day. Breakfast at the cottage, and then down to the beach with snorkel equipment. In the water, mostly just to relieve the tension in her neck and hips. But we keep going about a third mile out, where there is a small but live and active reef. Fish everywhere, ray scooting along the bottom, large fish and trumpet fish near the top of the water. There's a local with a styrofoam float spearfishing near us, so we stay away and give him a better chance with the fish. Too bad the reefs by the island aren't this alive any more. Pollution and overuse of them have apparently done them in, and we're hoping that they can make a return.
About an hour for the snorkeling, and back to the beach. Quick rinse-off, and find that Cortis is back with her fruits. Big lady with three baskets, one on the head, others at her sides. She always has the best quality, so she has our business. Today has some table mangoes, as well as strings, so we get both, as well as the honey bananas and a nice papaya. She's still limping some from when a truck loading stones by the Sav market dropped one on her foot. Takes a while, but fortunately nothing broken.
Noonish- time for our pilgrimage to Red Dragon. We need great jerk, and that's the place! Warm off the fire, dark and rich and spicy, and covered with some slices of scotch bonnet and pepper-soaked onions. FIRE! Great stuff. Rains arrive while we're there, and come down hard and vertical, no wind driving them. Gives us an excuse to stay longer. Ragabones, the bartender, offers to walk us over to the car with an umbrella, but nah, we've been wet before. It's eased off to just a moderate sprinkle.
We drive over to the Swordfish Restaurant. New place, just across from Chicken Lavish. These are the original owners of the property, going back LOT of years. I remember the place from when Pirate was renting it, and trying to run a restaurant there. Now it looks virtually new, with fresh, colorful paint and good wood-work. Ice cream- Devon House. As well as some cakes and other desserts. We're there for a cup of ice cream after the fiery jerk. The usual joke, which I won't repeat here...
At Firefly we're on the beach for an hour of sun and sea, then time to head to the Canoe Bar for the boardie gathering. Rob's busy at the camera and his table, Lisa is beautiful and not as busy at the bar, with a great crowd around. Steel drum band playing. Doing some good stuff, and setting a nice mood. Had a beer and a stout, Debbie trying to cut back so she had a RS light. No flavor, just cold. Meh...
Back at the cottage we change into somewhat more formal clothes- me, a button shirt and shorts. We're going to the Sykes for dinner. They've owned and built up Firefly since it's beginnings, and we've been going there every year for 26 years, so they're like family. We've known all their kids, and grandkids as well. Nice relaxing time, with food brought back from Sweet and Spice. A decent merlot, and we only managed to break one wine glass. Not our fault this time. There have been others, however. We stayed up fairly late reminiscing about the early days of Firefly, when there were very few places on the beach to stay. Mostly bush on the way out to Cosmos and not much more on the way to town.
Finally had the good sense to say goodnight. Didn't bother with Ladie's Night at the Jungle this year.
Dave
