Vacation Report - Day 3 Photos Part 1

Saturday morning was overcast and windy with an occasional sprinkle of rain. We'd done almost all the sightseeing we wanted the day before, so I spent the early part of the day bottling tomatoes with the neighbor.

I grew up growing our own tomatoes and watching my mom can them, plus I started canning them myself a few years ago. It was too chilly to do anything else, so figured it would be a nice way to spend a morning.

I was incredibly impressed with the resourcefulness of the island residents. They spend the year collecting beer bottles, and that's what they use to put up tomatoes. The family I spent time with puts up between two and three thousand bottles, which are shipped over to Nassau to be sold in the market. It's apparently a common way to earn money in the winter, which is when tomatoes are in season on Eleuthera.

Bright and early Saturday morning, washing and slicing tomatoes with Flo (Cindy's MIL) and Cindy (neighbor, car rental service, taxi service and caretaker for the house we stayed in).

I was intensely curious about how strict they were regarding sterilization... the question was answered when Cindy gave me a stick to help unclog the funnel.

Cindy's husband Richard grinds while Cindy and I fill bottles.

Filled bottles ready for caps.

Filled drum, ready for the boil.

The start of a two hour burn.

Stacks of previously finished tomatoes, ready for shipment. Our efforts this morning added about 500 more bottles to the pile.


After we finished up with the tomatoes (and WH finished fixing Richard's computer, which he did in exchange for airport taxi service) the sun was peeking out and it was in the low 70s. We didn't want to miss our only change at hitting the beach and this was the best it was going to get, so we headed out.

Ocean Hole was very close to the beach we planned to swim at, so we popped by for a quick look on the way.
Obligatory park sign.


Ocean Hole, looking dark and ominous on this overcast day. I've heard it looks beautiful and blue when the sun is shining, and lots of people will jump right in.


Wonderful Husband is much braver than I am and got closer to the edge than I would. It wasn't just that the water looked dark and creepy, it was low tide and the water level was low enough it would have been very difficult to get out.


We gave Ocean Hole maybe 10 minutes, then we set off for the beach we'd been told about by our friend's husband. Apparently it's common for him to spend up to 8 hours swimming, snorkeling and spear fishing for lobster. It's called Broken Boat Beach, but so few people besides him ever go there his friends just call it K's beach.