"Da" boat! by Ava

In the beginning, we were worried that the rain squalls that had been pounding us all morning would threaten our sailing, snorkeling, and spear fishing adventure. Between the rain bursts, we made our way over to "The Little Kitchen" where our guide, Roy lived and worked. We were anxious to ask him if we would go out today, By his enthusiastic response of " ya man" in his rastifarian accent with braids whipping around his face we knew we had a adventurous day ahead. We were fitted for flippers and ventured off through the trees on a rickety old bridge to the dingy that would zoom us out to the sailboat. The sailboat was a medium size craft that was painted red, yellow, green, and black. The Jib was made out of a thick piece of bamboo and the sail looked as if a bunch of thick sheets were sewn together to make one big Sail. While we were motoring out to the sea, the sun was peaking out of the clouds and eased our thoughts of rain. When we were far enough out of the bay, Roy flipped the motor off and hoisted the sail. We sailed for about 20 minutes out to an area where we were a pool length distance from the barrier reef. The barrier reef here is the second largest reef. It spans 108 miles long with a few channels for passage. Roy explained sharks can come through those passages, but it is rare. We anchored and before we knew it, Roy jumped in with his spear Eli was instructed to follow along close behind him with the "catch bag". The rule for lunch is "Ya eat what ya catch." While Roy and Eli were spear fishing, the rest of us were snorkeling. Santiago, our other guide was keeping watch on "Da" boat. My mom and I stuck together. We saw a green spotted Puffer fish and many other brightly clored fish in all shapes and sizes. By the time we hopped back onto the boat, Roy had caught 3 Yellow Snapper and 2 Conch. We had a total of 7 people on the boat, So we decided to do a little bottom fishing with lines for more grub. It is custom to just take a long piece of fishing line, attach a hook, stick a sardine body piece onto the hook and swing the line around like a ferris wheel and let it go and sink to the bottom. Our first catch was by Roy and the next by me, my fish was HUGE but luckily with my strong muscles, I was able to pull in the big "pogey" the next fish again was by me and it was a monstrous Snapper. Nobody else caught fish but Roy and I. For our late lunch Roy cooked up some white rice and steamed veggies, with no barbecue on the boat, Roy cooked the fish and conch in a big pan and with tomato juice and some water, like a Gumbo. Our lunch was delicious! Roy finished our lunch with some amazing cookies that were chocolate and lemon. After lunch, we sailed over to another snorkeling spot to finish off the day. When we made it back to the island, Immediatly upon our return to the dock, it started to dump rain on us, We quickly learned it had been all day....We found that funny because just a mile away on the Carribian sea, our day had been perfect! -Ava