Sunday, November 15, 2020
Temperature: 81
Humidity 64%
Precipitation – none
Tag Archives: Blacktip Island
Locals Report Mermaid Near Blacktip Island Resort
Three Blacktip Island residents claim they saw a mermaid swimming off the end of the Eagle Ray Cove Resort dock Tuesday night. (photo courtesy of W. Carter)
Three Blacktip Island locals Tuesday reported sighting a mermaid swimming in Eagle Ray Cove, setting the small Caribbean island’s population buzzing this week.
“She was down at the end of The Cove’s dock, splashing around in them underwater lights,” longtime resident Dermott Bottoms said. “Long green tail and no top, just like all the books show.
“James Conlee and Lee Helm, they saw her, too. Just ask ‘em,” Bottoms said. “Soon as she saw us, though, she swam off right quick. Couldn’t get any photos. Always thought there was mermaids here. Now we have proof. And three eyewitnesses.”
The others supported Bottoms’ claim.
“We’d wandered down from the bar for a bit of fresh air,” Helm said. “We were standing there talking. James had just lit a smoke when we heard the splashing and looked over the edge. There she was, long, scaley tail and all.”
Some on the island questioned the story.
“Dermott and James wandered down from the bar and saw a mermaid?” Herring Frye said. “These are the same yahoos who claimed they saw a platypus behind the Sand Spit a while back. The common element here is heavy drinking. If it’s those two, you know alcohol was involved.
“They probably just some drunk tourist swimming in a long dress,” Frye said. “And as for her swimming away when she saw them, well Lee Helm has that effect on most women. Even when he’s not three-sheets-to-the-wind drunk.”
Others said the claim had merit.
“All kinds of old sailors’ tales about mermaids around Blacktip, y’know,” resident Antonio Fletcher said. “Got to be based on something. And no manatees or dugongs around there. Herring’s got no call to call Dermott and James wahoos.
“Not saying whether it was or wasn’t, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt,” Fletcher said. “No solid proof there’s a mermaid out there, but there’s no proof there’s not, either. And there’s three eye witnesses.”
The men vowed to produce evidence.
“We gonna take turns watching at the end of the dock, phone cameras ready,” James Conlee said. “Got some trail cams on order, too, so we can stake out all the docks in the cove.”
Eagle Ray Cove Resort, meanwhile, has launched nightly mermaid-lookout events on the dock. “We set up chairs and loungers right out at the end, where the underwater lights are,” ERC owner Rich Skerritt said. “The bar staff runs drinks and snacks down to anyone out there. And we have ‘I Saw the Mermaid’ t-shirts for sale in the lobby.”
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Blacktip Island weather
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Temperature: 76
Humidity 68%
Precipitation – not today
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Blacktip Island Humane Society Closes After Its Dog Is Adopted
The Blacktip Island Humane Society closed its doors this week after Subwoofer, the shelter’s sole occupant, was adopted by local handyman Antonio Fletcher. (photo courtesy of Juan Manuel Gomez Ruano)
Blacktip Island’s Humane Society shuttered its doors Wednesday after a local resident adopted the shelter’s only dog, society officials said.
“Little Subwoofer’s been here for a while. It was great he finally got adopted,” shelter administrator Ledford Waite said. “But since ‘Tonio Fletcher took him home last week, there’s really not much point in keeping the place going. I mean, I can come in and sit at the desk all day, but what’s the point?
“The kennels and carriers are all clean, so that about does it unless another stray pops up on the island,” Waite said. “Probably go back to using the room for storage, short term. Or maybe rent it out as staff housing. Pet carriers included.
Island residents were surprised by the move.
“I didn’t realize we had a Humane Society on Blacktip,” Marina DeLow said. “I knew Led hung out there a lot and was always walking that goofy little dog, but it never occurred to me it was an animal shelter. It’s too bad it’s closed down. I guess.”
Fletcher said he hadn’t meant to cause the closing.
“Didn’t know Led was gonna do something drastic like that,” he said. “I just gave Subwoofer a permanent home. And he’s plain hell on the rats around my place. But now I got folks giving me the stink eye. It was Led’s decision, not mine.”
Island animal-rights activists, however, hailed the move.
“Having no unwanted animals on the island is a good problem to have,” Blacktip Island People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals president Harry Pickett said. “This is not so much a closing as it is a moving forward. Now that Subwoofer has a home, we can focus on other critters that need our help.
“We have a Protect the Iguanas campaign ramping up,” Pickett said. “We’re looking into the fighting the government’s efforts to eradicate the feral cats. And we’ll be starting a Save the Lionfish project, too.”
Waite said he is keeping open the option of reopening the shelter if necessary.
“People leave animals behind when they leave,” he said. “Dogs and cats, they just appear here, too. I’m still taking donations, though. For food and supplies. People need to know that. There’s no strays here now, but that could change overnight and we need to be ready.”
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Blacktip Island Weather
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Temperature: 82
Humidity 71%
Precipitation – soon come
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Halloween Brings Haunted Reef to Blacktip Island
Halloween enthusiasts will descend on Blacktip Island’s Wahoo Reef Saturday night for the small Caribbean island’s first-ever underwater haunted reef display. (photo courtesy of Gustavo Gerdel)
Blacktip Island Halloween aficionados Saturday will stage an interactive haunted reef display, where scuba divers can swim through an underwater landscape filled with scary effects, to raise money for the Caribbean island’s school.
“We wanted to do something different,” divemaster Gage Hoase said. “Everybody does underwater pumpkin carvings. It’s cliché. Haunted houses are old hat, too. So we decided to turn Wahoo Reef into a haunted dive site, an aquatic twist that’ll be something new. Sort of.
“It’s dive oriented, with most of the frights coming from fish and whatnot,” Hoase said. “Divers’ll follow a polypropylene line around coral heads and through swim-throughs. There’ll be strobe lights and colored lights, and scary stuff I can’t mention’ll jump out at the divers.”
Organizers stressed the display will not harm the underwater environment.
“We played with it last week, and it was no big deal,” Alison Diesel said. “Sure, it scared the crap out of the fish, but they recovered after a few days. Some of them actually seemed to like the lights and dry ice bubbles.
“The divers we have dressed as ghosts and zombies’re cool about not banging into coral, too,” Diesel said. “And it’s outside the marine park, so we’re all good from that angle.”
Others noted the underwater scares will come from more non-ghoulish sources.
“We made a list of everything a diver could be scared of, and stocked the route with as many of those as we could,” Payne Hanover said. “We’ll have in-character divers doing every real-life scary scuba thing there is— blown hoses, empty tanks, inflator hose jams, idiots with knives, you name it. People won’t have a clue who’s a haunted reef actor and who’s a fellow visitor.”
Some in the community questioned the safety of the production.
“This is a recipe for multiple people to get hurt. Badly,” island nurse Marissa Graysby said. “All it takes is one person panicking down there, and they’ll have multiple divers bolting for the surface. Or stabbing each other with dive knives. They really should have just had a pumpkin-carving contest. At the Sand Spit.”
Diesel said those fears were unwarranted.
“We’re not gonna have ghost divers snatching masks or regs or anything,” she said. “They’ll just act like they’re in trouble. Sure, someone may get their fin grabbed here and there, but that’s as far as it’ll go. I mean, there’s risks involved—that’s what makes it fun—but everybody signs a mondo-waiver, and a lawyer at the bar said we should be fine. And there’s no booze allowed until after you exit the water.”
Hoase stressed proceeds from the haunted reef will go to the island’s one-room school.
“There’s no kids on the island now, but there might be soon, the way folks carry on,” he said. “We’ll hold the money in a trust until there are some. Minus the expenses for the afterparty at the Sand Spit.”
Filed under best scuba diving novels, Caribbean, Scuba Diving
Filed under best scuba diving novels, Caribbean, Scuba Diving
Blacktip Island Weather
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Temperature: 81
Humidity 71%
Precipitation – soon come
Filed under best scuba diving novels, Caribbean, Scuba Diving
Blacktip Island Entrepreneur Opens First ‘Dive-Through’ Food Stand
Blacktip Island divers on their safety stops are now able to buy prepared sandwiches and other snacks from the Dive-In Snack Shack, the brainchild of local entrepreneur Piers “Doc” Plank. (photo courtesy of jeffreyw)
A Blacktip Island business startup this week introduced what the owner calls ‘dive-through dining’ on the small Caribbean island’s reefs, allowing scuba divers to purchase food underwater for consumption on dive boats later.
“We tried a food boat, but it never really took off,” Piers “Doc” Plank said. “Then we had this ‘Dive-In Snack Shack’ idea, and it sounded crazy enough to work. We set up a station in the sand on Wahoo Reef and divers can buy food to eat when they’re back on their boat later—during their surface interval or after their last dive. Instead of ‘take out,’ it’s ‘take up.’
“We catch divers at the end of the dive, when they’re feeling their hungriest,” Plank said. “They have their choice of shrink-wrapped sandwiches, pizza by the slice and tacos. We’re working on soup in little squeeze bags, too, so people can eat while they’re underwater. Novelty sells. We charge twice what we’d charge on shore, and divers line up to pay.”
Servers say the setup is simpler than it sounds.
“We lower weighted food bins mid-dive, so we’re ready when the divers start their safety stops,” Christina Mojarra said. “Then we lift-bag it back up afterwards. Divers pay by scanning their resort room key card.
“To keep staff from taking on too much nitrogen, we only have staff underwater for that 10 to 15 minutes divers are actually under the dive boats,” Mojarra said. “And we rotate staff, so no one gets too nitrogen saturated. So far it’s worked great. Diver are fed and none of us have been bent.”
The Dive-In is not without its critics.
“If they’re in the sand and not damaging coral, it’s legal, but just barely,” Tiperon Marine Parks spokesperson Val Schrader said. “They’re turning the marine park into a circus. There’s also the issue of what happens to all those plastic wrappers. Do they wind up back on the reef? There needs to be less plastic out there, not more.
“A bigger concern is what happens when some joker decides to feed some of this food to the fish,” Schrader said. “That is a violation of the law. The first time there’s any sign of fish-feeding, we’re cracking down hard on Doc and his gang. Never mind the safety implications of divers concentrating on food, not their gauges.”
Plank downplayed those concerns. “We require divers to do an air check before every purchase,” he said. “And we have signs underwater asking all our customers to eat responsibly. All the dive boat crews are good at impressing their guests with the importance of putting all food waste in onboard refuse bins. It’s a foolproof system that benefits everyone. Val needs to lighten up and come have an underwater fish taco.”
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The Blacktip Times 