Wednesday March 27, 2024 Conception Island

Hannah and Erick know this island pretty well having been here a couple times. So a dinghy ride into the extensive mangroves and then a hike to the ruins were in order.

Erick made breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon and fruit then off in the dinghy to the mangroves. This dinghy is the second one they bought for surprise with a  15 hp motor so it gets 4 of us where we want to go pretty quickly compared to the first dinghy which had a 6 hp motor. They plan on buying a bigger dinghy and a bigger 23 hp engine since Bonnie Lynn takes more people and they’ll need to ferry more people back and forth.

Milo got pretty burned so today he upgraded to SPF 50 and no more burns. There is only one entrance to the mangroves and you have to go in when the tide is up since there are breakers at the entrance. You get to ride a wave in if you time it right, which Erick did.

Once in the mangroves there are a lot of turtles. We saw a lot of turtles swimming around plus a ray. A couple kinds of birds were hanging out under the mangrove trees. The mangrove trees are 3-4’ high with roots that are exposed since the tide goes up and down. We saw what looked like an old dam or maybe a walkway across a section of it. Someone spent some time on this island stacking rocks.

We had to get out before the tide got any lower so we found a hole in the breakers and shot out of the mangroves into the ocean and then back to the boat for lunch. Eric whipped up a pasta salad and then back to the beach to hike.

We hiked down the beach, about 0.7 miles according to two men we met on the beach, which is very clean and very white, and then climbed up the rocks and hiked along the top of the rocks. The trail was hard to find but Erick macheted his way trough the underbrush until we found the first rock wall which was stacked rocks with no “concrete”. Then we hiked along a rock bench on the bluff until we found the building ruins. These are made with alternating layers of rocks and some kind of concrete. It looks like a small group of buildings. Someone was doing something here. More research required.

Then over to the other side of the point and down to the beach. The hike back was all on the rock bench which was quicker than through the brush, and then back down the beach where we met a couple from Canada and a couple from Germany trying to open a coconut with a hacksaw and a hammer which they’d carried with them on their swim over to the beach. Who swims with a hacksaw and a hammer and two coconuts? Erick did his machete magic on the coconuts to help them out.

Back to the boat for rum drinks and a supper just after dusk of grilled chicken, bok choi and potatoes. In bed by 9pm.