Day 4 (cont.)
The bus continued on down the road towards the Black river, and after a few more songs, laughs and of course, Red Stripes, we arrived. We unloaded the bus and quickly boarded our next mode of transportation, two boats that would take us out to the Pelican Bar.
The first boat loaded up with Spottycatz, Booger, Sandie, Sweetness, Brasi, Guirigay and Sweetiepie and headed out. The second boat had Jon and Tizzy, me and Ninja, Clarity and Hubbyman, and Beccajean and we headed out right behind them. It was a nice ride out to the bar, probably about 20 minutes or so. I love the ride out to the bar because when you leave from Black River and get out into the ocean the bar appears only as a spec way off in the distance…it is so small you think how could I possibly be going out to that spec? But then as you get closer and closer the excitement builds. I pointed the spec out to everyone who was visiting the Pelican Bar for the first time, and then I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
We arrive to the bar and watch as the first boat disembarks.
Next it is our turn. I have been to the Pelican bar before but it doesn’t matter, this place is so cool when you first step in you can’t help but get excited. It always makes me feel like I am standing in the club house I built with my friends when I was a kid…and that we are playing “Goonies” or something….but then I realize I am actually in the middle of the ocean…in Jamaica…..AND it’s a BAR! Man this place is awesome
I looked around and tried to find where Raul and I wrote our names on the boards last time we were here. We wrote our names several places but couldn’t manage to find not one of them so I was a little sad about that. Brasi and Guirigay had brought some offerings of their Scottish heritage to hang up in the bar and Spottycatz brought a flag to hang as well. I walked around and sort of just took it all in and enjoyed watching the others experience the bar as well. Many of the turtles headed out to explore more in the water around the bar.
Here is Markus showing Becky his latest finding, a sea urchin
Speaking of sea urchins…….(sorry Daisy)
As the gang headed out to explore the ocean, there were several warnings to “shuffle your feet” to avoid stingrays and what not. So Clarity shuffled away and shuffled her foot RIGHT into a sea urchin! Ouch! It actually punctured through her water shoes and pierced her toe, poor Daisy, it’s a wonder she still gets in the ocean with all of her animal encounters and mishaps!
If you look closely at this photo you can see that I actually captured the moment RIGHT after the Sea Urchin incident occurred.
Now in pain she retreated back to the bar, while Ninja, Markus, Guirigay and Sweetiepie continued out to explore the great wide ocean. She removed her water shoe to take a better look at the damage, and with that she gained the attention of several, including our sweet Sandie. “What are you doing? What happened? Are you hurt?” Sandie said. Daisy then proceeded to explain what happened and before she could even finish, Sandie was demanding her foot. “Give me your foot, right now…prop it up here” she said. Daisy sat on the floor of the bar and Sandie took her foot and examined the damage. Sure enough there were several visible spines in Daisy’s big toe. “These HAVE to come out, right now!” Sandie exclaimed. And with that Booger walked over to his bag and came back with a knife…that’s right folks…a knife! I took one look at it and gasped. I thought back to one of my favorite lines from Crocodile Dundee…”That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife”
I saw the look on Daisy’s face and I instantly felt her pain. Sandie got to work immediately and Daisy let out a rather loud scream. I felt so bad for her and I didn’t know what to do or how to help. But it looked and sounded so painful and I hated to see my friend in pain so I did the only thing I could think of, I went to the bar and asked for a shot of rum. The bartended showed me the rum and asked “Appleton or overproof?” “woah” I said “Definitely the Appleton!” Then I looked back and saw Daisy and then heard her and I turned back to the bartender and quickly proclaimed “Make that overproof!” So he poured a cup of overproof and I took it to Daisy immediately. I handed it to her and simply said, “Drink this as fast as you can” And without question, she did just that, god bless her. Poor thing, she nearly choked after that rather large glass of gasoline I just made her drink but I like to think that maybe, at least for a short moment, it took her mind off the pain. I then handed her a Red Stripe as a much needed chaser. I am not going to lie, nothing about this minor surgery taking place in a bar made of sticks in the middle of the ocean in Jamaica, was pretty, that is for sure. But Sandie was a rockstar with that knife and serious surgeon like technique….and Daisy, was a trooper for sure! And soon, Sandie completed the serious procedure and all of the excitement died down a little, well for maybe everyone but Daisy. About that time the explorers had returned from the ocean and they got to hear all about the event they had just missed. What a day! There were some more drinks had by all and we wandered out to the deck to take in more of the fabulous views and snap some group photos.
