The ferry pilots didn't go on strike last night as anticipated but they told everyone on the ferry last night that they would be wildcatting today.(anything for a long weekend I'd say)
I was volunteered by my Princess to drive her and her gals from the ferry into Hamilton this morning which is kewl except that we helped a friend move house last night which meant we had to celebrate after the move and boy oh boy did we celebrate.
6AM comes early when you can't mange to stop the bed from spinning until after 1AM. We picked everyone up on the way in to town and it was going swimmingly until we hit a roadblock in the center of town, The Bermuda Regiment was on parade in the middle of Hamilton for the reopening of Parliament after the recent elections here. Total gridlock extended the 45 minute trip to a 1 hour trip and I still had to drive from town to the other end of the island to get to my hunting grounds. I anxiously watched the clock as it tick tocked towards low tide but finally got everyone dropped off and was on my way to the east end of the island, Down Country.
I wheeled into the parking area with 5 minutes to spare before low tide, grabbed my gear from the back of the jeep and started changing into my wetsuit in the front seat of the jeep. I was stripped down to underwear and Pirate Tee and about to slip on my wet suit when what pulls in right beside me in an otherwise deserted parking lot? A minibus full of preschoolers out on a day trip with there teachers and Moms. You never saw a pirate slip into a wet suit as fast as I did this morning.
The kiddies all piled off of the bus and headed towards the playground and I sorted out the rest of my gear and headed for the beach, one of the moms gave me the old up and down as I passed the playground so I can't be sure just what she saw.
Regained my composure and got into the water with a purpose as today I wanted GOLD, BIG FAT GOLD!! It's been over a week since I've seen the gleam of gold in the bottom of my scoop and I could feel the pressure starting to build in the back of my head, this bloody hobby is very addictive. I went through my normal routine and hit the Mine, no tiny, sparkly bits of gold today, I wanted the real deal. I worked the Mine for 45 minutes picking up a good chunk of clad and a silver, ball type ear ring and possibly a silver quarter. (it's still soaking in lemon juice and salt) The high percentage of quarters was a good sign as usually the gold is located just a little deeper than the band of quarters I was finding but when I went deeper it was all silence so I knew I had crossed up onto the edge of the 2nd sandbar. I started to turn back towards shore so I could work the area immediately inshore from the quarter line when I heard a Terrible sound - Excal Death Squeal! - my batteries were packing it in.
This meant I had between 5 and 15 minutes to find the gold and all I'd managed so far was some small silver, the race was on. I immediately focussed my thoughts on Gold and let my detector guide me in beyond the quarter line. My next target was a quarter so I knew I was on track and the very next tone was that mellow solid tone we surf pirates Love - Gold.
Two scoops later the Fat, Yellow, 14k Comfortfit Men's Band was staring up at me from the bottom of my scoop, BULLSEYE!! I managed two more pieces of clad and then the low farting sound of the battery packing it in came through my headphones telling me the hunt was officially over.
Cheers,
BDA
I was volunteered by my Princess to drive her and her gals from the ferry into Hamilton this morning which is kewl except that we helped a friend move house last night which meant we had to celebrate after the move and boy oh boy did we celebrate.
6AM comes early when you can't mange to stop the bed from spinning until after 1AM. We picked everyone up on the way in to town and it was going swimmingly until we hit a roadblock in the center of town, The Bermuda Regiment was on parade in the middle of Hamilton for the reopening of Parliament after the recent elections here. Total gridlock extended the 45 minute trip to a 1 hour trip and I still had to drive from town to the other end of the island to get to my hunting grounds. I anxiously watched the clock as it tick tocked towards low tide but finally got everyone dropped off and was on my way to the east end of the island, Down Country.
I wheeled into the parking area with 5 minutes to spare before low tide, grabbed my gear from the back of the jeep and started changing into my wetsuit in the front seat of the jeep. I was stripped down to underwear and Pirate Tee and about to slip on my wet suit when what pulls in right beside me in an otherwise deserted parking lot? A minibus full of preschoolers out on a day trip with there teachers and Moms. You never saw a pirate slip into a wet suit as fast as I did this morning.
The kiddies all piled off of the bus and headed towards the playground and I sorted out the rest of my gear and headed for the beach, one of the moms gave me the old up and down as I passed the playground so I can't be sure just what she saw.
Regained my composure and got into the water with a purpose as today I wanted GOLD, BIG FAT GOLD!! It's been over a week since I've seen the gleam of gold in the bottom of my scoop and I could feel the pressure starting to build in the back of my head, this bloody hobby is very addictive. I went through my normal routine and hit the Mine, no tiny, sparkly bits of gold today, I wanted the real deal. I worked the Mine for 45 minutes picking up a good chunk of clad and a silver, ball type ear ring and possibly a silver quarter. (it's still soaking in lemon juice and salt) The high percentage of quarters was a good sign as usually the gold is located just a little deeper than the band of quarters I was finding but when I went deeper it was all silence so I knew I had crossed up onto the edge of the 2nd sandbar. I started to turn back towards shore so I could work the area immediately inshore from the quarter line when I heard a Terrible sound - Excal Death Squeal! - my batteries were packing it in.
This meant I had between 5 and 15 minutes to find the gold and all I'd managed so far was some small silver, the race was on. I immediately focussed my thoughts on Gold and let my detector guide me in beyond the quarter line. My next target was a quarter so I knew I was on track and the very next tone was that mellow solid tone we surf pirates Love - Gold.
Two scoops later the Fat, Yellow, 14k Comfortfit Men's Band was staring up at me from the bottom of my scoop, BULLSEYE!! I managed two more pieces of clad and then the low farting sound of the battery packing it in came through my headphones telling me the hunt was officially over.
Cheers,
BDA
Perhaps we could free ourselves from dependency on foreign oil.