Ed came and picked us up around 1:30pm and was happy to take the fish we’d caught in the morning. After us he picked up Taffy, Shirley and Colin from The Road and we all went to the village ashore. The previous days catch of birds were penned up in a net surrounding. At 2pm they were all counted and Simon did the arithmetic to decide how many birds each family could take. On his call a member from each family jumped in the enclosure and started tossing the birds out into their wheelbarrows. The birds of course squawked and screeched but were so docile they just sat in a heap in their barrows.
We walked back to Simon and Eds family area and began helping with preparing the birds. Each one had it’s neck wrung – Ben even managed one – followed by plucking where we all took a bird and did our bit. Once the birds were down to fluff they lit a fire, stuck a stick down the throat of the birds and singed all the remaining fluff off the bird.
Shortly after about 6-8 scrawny chickens met their end. Ben again assisted sending one of them to it’s maker – this time with a machete. Although we weren’t expecting lunch yesterday Ed laid it one. More fish of course. Ben was a bit late as he’d been helping out plucking a couple of chickens and husking some coconuts. We were again bloated. It was nice to have the company of the crew from The Road. Being their first day on the island they were amazed by their experience already.
The afternoon wore on and before we knew it it was after 6pm. Ed took us all back to the boats. We’d all agreed to have drinks aboard Dignity to catch up. Ed joined us for a bit. The evening didn’t finish until nearly midnight whereby many beers, bottles of wine and a whole bottle of rum had been polished off.
This morning we all woke with a hangover – no surprise. Ed picked us up to go to church followed by lunch – Bosun bird, chicken and a variety of gooey side dishes. The birds tasted ok but were a little too fishy for us. Not having much room inside us we were filled fairly quickly. After lunch we laid back and chatted some more and eventually asked Ed to take us back to our boats. We are all very exhausted.
We are hoping to leave tomorrow but the winds are extremely light right now. The forward weather picture is a little complicated so we won’t be making the decision to leave until the morning.
Right now it’s time for Siesta.
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