A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

A little before 7 AM, my daughter, Karen, woke me to see if I wanted to join her and her sister kayaking. Palm Cay has some kayaks available to residents, and the night before I had expressed interest. However, I was still too sleepy to get up; so the girls set out on their own, unaware that chaos would soon overtake them.

And so, fueled by optimism (and maybe just a bit too much confidence), my daughters set off for a peaceful morning kayak trip. But the kayak desk? Closed. Not ones to let a locked gate hold them back, they took the first two kayaks they found and paddled off anyway, embracing the early calm of the water.

About half an hour in, serenity turned to suspense. A telltale trickle signaled trouble: Jenny's kayak had sprung a leak. The decision to turn back came quickly, but the boat filled faster than they could paddle. Karen suggested they both ride back in her kayak. At first Jenny demured, but as her boat continued to become inundated, she agreed.

She tossed her phone, used to take these photos, into Karen's kayak and attempted to transfer over. Karen's vessel capsized mid-transfer, sending Jenny's phone to a watery grave! With one boat limping and the other out of commission, it was time to swim. They hauled the kayak through the shallows and made landfall on a private beach, no doubt feeling like castaways. Jenny retraced their aquatic path in search of the phone, but no luck.

By the time they made it back to the kayak desk, which was now open. "This kayak has a hole in it!" Jenny complained.

"Yeah, that one's busted," the staffer agreed. Well, they had taken it out before the guy got there.

When they got back to the condo, Jenny had to call Asurion, the phone insurance company, to put in a claim. That was interesting, because here in the Bahamas the Verizon web site wasn't fully operational. I had to run the VPN (Surfshark) and have it pretend we were in Miami in order for her to order the replacement phone.

But the sea hadn't had its last word. Or, rather, Jenny hadn't. At low tide, undeterred by earlier setbacks, Jenny ventured out on a solo mission. And in true movie-worthy fashion…she found the phone! Yes, after spending at least six hours underwater, nestled somewhere in the silt and salt, it glinted off the bottom and she was able to retrieve it!

When she returned with the phone, I told her, I was at the same time, astounded, and unsurprised. "If anyone could lose a phone in the ocean, and then actually find it…it would be you!"

Now, by this time, I was ready to go swimming myself. But first, we had a bit of a downpour…one inch of rain fell in about a half hour!

But it did stop, and Karen and I had lunch in the Pink Octopus while Jenny ate while working in her cabana. I ordered a child's portion of fried shrimp and French fries, which wound up being enough food to feed the seventh fleet.

The restaurant came with its own pet cat, which gratefully helped me finish my shrimp tails.

I still wanted to get in some swim time, but as we ate, we could see the clouds building up just offshore.

So swimming was out. So we went back to the condo; I wrote up yesterday's blog and published and posted it. Then Karen and I watched Grease 2 (we watched Grease the night before, so we kind of had to).

We never did get another hard rain. I sat out on the porch for awhile, watching the moon rise over the palm trees, and then went to bed. Tomorrow is my last full day here, and I'm planning to have fish nibble on my feet!