On day three we woke up in a fog. There was no rush to get out in the boats. And good thing… Laurel set out to make pancakes for 6, one cake at a time on Bob’s MSR Dragon Fly stove. The dragonfly can be reduced to simmer or, in this case, low enough not to burn the pancakes. My MSR Whisperlite is much quieter but is basically one temperature. Great for boiling water, did fine with bacon and sausage, but sure to burn anything delicate. Anyhow, Laurel cooked pancakes for what seemed like hours. It was almost like eating Blue Shell Crabs. You can’t eat them fast enough to fill up on them. The pancakes had fruit added both inside and on top. They were absolutely delicious.
Still foggy. Now what? A tour boat of sorts wandered in from the fog. Apparently it was attached to a kid’s camp or something. The pulled a pot to see what was in it. Then they started fishing for a while. Rick jumped in his kayak to see what it was all about. What Rick was really looking for was lobster. He came back, grabbed some money and headed back out to the nearest lobster boat. For a while, we could hear them but not see them. One came close and Rick was off.
We could see the deck hand dropping fresh lobsters into his day hatch. And I swear we could see Rick’s smile beaming like a lighthouse through the fog.
We all paddled a little around the island in the fog. Rick and Becca did some rolling practice. Then Carole and I did a slow lap. Carole continued to loop around for exercise while Becca and I were a bit more mischievous. Laurel did some laps specifically to work on her forward stroke. Meanwhile, Rick and Bob began to cook the lobsters. We had one pot and could cook three at a time. By the time I pulled ashore they were all cooked and we sat down for the feast. They really were the best lobsters I have ever had. They were soft shelled and cooked in seawater. Salty and tasty. There was no reason for butter. Rick, quite skilled in the art of eating the carapace, ate everything. I’m not a big fan of the roe and didn’t lick the tomalley quite as clean. I’m not so sure that I looked up to see what the others were doing.
Still foggy. Rick and Bob disappeared in their boats. I assumed they were playing around the rocks and when they didn’t return in what I thought was a reasonable time the curiosity got to me. I jumped in my boat to go find them. As I went around the island I didn’t recognize where I was. On the south tip where Becca and I had surfed earlier there was now an entirely new rock. It was a couple of hundred feet long and revealed by the dropping tide. Bob and Rick were playing around a small rock a bit further out. The fog was such that the Island was barely visible from the rock. The waves were not big but they were running up the rock. Bob was of course stuck on the top and had to push himself to slide off. Ten minutes later he was stuck again. This time he was pinched in on four corners. It was a more difficult escape. After another 15 minutes we decided one more loop and we’d head back. Bob, you guessed it, was swept up onto the rock one more time.
We headed back around the east side of the island. At the same time the girls were coming around the west side by foot to try and find us. We didn’t cross paths. They were beginning to worry.
Back on the north side of the island there was some excitement. Blair and Theresa had found some giant spiders, probably wolf spiders. Then, out of the fog, Nancy and Ben appeared. They were a mother and son. I don’t think they should have crossed in the fog but they seemed OK with it.
Carole was beginning to think about dinner and I was thinking about burning the huge burl Becca had found. C started cooking, I started the fire. We ate Knackwurst and vegetables. Special for Bob was a side dish of worms. Gummy worms. We cleaned up, sat down around the fire with Nancy and Ben, and ceremoniously applied the burl to the hot fire. It was a slow burn that was still flaming the following morning!
Very little time in the boat, no sign of the sun, great food, another wonderful day!
8/4/2009
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