Dolphins herding Latitudes....

You can't believe it without the video!  As we crossed from Cat Island to Eluthera, Luke shouted that a "big fish" was ahead of us in the water.  As we watched in amazement, at least a dozen dolphins came swimming madly and frantically towards Latitudes, from hundreds of yards away.  Suddenly the bow of the boat was foaming with the dozen dolphins playing in the bow wave.  Big ones, mamas with babies, everybody.   They swam with us for 15 minutes, as we watched them dart back and forth under the bow, swarm around the sides and splash, zip back to the bow again, over and under each other.  It was the most amazing thing ever.  Here are 3 pictures, showing 8 of them.

I knelt on the bow of the boat and hung over the edge, not 4 ft from them as they played.  Occasionally one would look up at me as it swam past. Awsome!

That wasn't the only "fishy" incident!  Two more fish dinners, proving that even a broken rod will work if the fish are small enough.  We caught a Yellow Jack but something helped himself to the rear end.  There was still plenty left for a meal (that would be Luke's handy-dandy fish cleaning station!).

The next day we caught an Almaco Jack; this one looks small but the little puggy guy had enough meat for 2 meals.  The freezer is beginning to stock up on fish finally.

Crossing to Eluthera, we passed a big cruise liner, the "Grand Princess, anchored off the cruise line's private beach area on south west Eluthra.  This is what 3600 people in a box look like.

Today we are at Rock Sound (on Eluthera) doing wonderful things like laundry (yeah!!!), groceries (yeah!!!), beer store (yeah!!!!!!) and treated ourselves to lunch out at a little waterside tiki hut.  There were 3 small groups of people there, when suddenly 50 more showed up.  The cruise ship side trip.  It was amazing.  These folks were herded in from the bus, an energetic lady with a microphone shouting directions, and introducing the place as the real Bahamas experience.  In only 45 minutes they went through the buffet line (just for them) and grabbed little cups of local drinks from the bar.  Almost before they could eat, they were gathered to watch a poor tiny conch being "shucked" from it's shell , hacked to little bits, and made into conch salad.  Each person got a bathroom size Dixie cup of conch salad.  As they finished that off, the tiki hut staff and some school age kids partied out, dressed in junkanoo costumes, blowing the whistles, pounding on goatskin drums, shaking cow bells, and yelling to the beat.  (if you don't know junkanoo, check out http://www.bahamasgateway.com/junkanoo.htm).  Poor bystanders (and some willing participants) were grabbed, put in a circle to "junkanoo" with the locals for 5 minutes, and then everyone was told to do a conga line back to the bus by the lady with the big microphone.  Suddenly it went deadly quiet and the 3 tables looked at each other, breathed a sigh of relief, and said "ahhh...now this is the real Bahamas experience!"  We took a camera but left the battery at the boat.  drat!!! We talked with one Canadian tourist, who said they left Ft Lauderdale a couple days ago, tomorrow St Martin, next day St Thomas, and then back to Ft Lauderdale. 

One more picture of Latitudes and our dinghy at Orange Creek Point, Cat Island ....this is the real  Bahamas experience~