Having resigned ourselves to moldy broccoli and canned beans, we departed the little town of James Cistern, headed for beaches and beauty.
We happened upon paradise. An extra dose of paradise in fact. South Cistern, a few miles down, revealed lines and layers of sand bars in every colour of blue and beige the mind could fathom. And then it added more. We had to go exploring.
What we found after pinching ourselves at the beauty around us, was a mystery we will carry onward. Like excited sleuths in a PG-13 adventure movie, we ran from pile to pile of rusted, melted wreckage. What could it all be from? A ship? A barge? An old dump site?! There were giant rust-orange engine parts and hunks of remnants of cans and even bottles. And then JW pulled out a fully formed little light green bottle from the ancient heaps. We gathered around as he shook off the sand to reveal the embossed cursive letters: ‘Coca Cola’. How old are these?! How could they still be sitting here on the beach? Why are we the first to find them?! I couldn’t wait to get back to the boat to do some Googling. But first – enjoy more paradise!
We kept a couple bottles each and carried on our walk, marveling at the numbers of small conch shells lining the beach. We found little piles of them in the edge of the forest, smashed. We imagined the shipwrecked crew breaking them and eating them whole for sustenance.
Back at the boat I laid out our treasure haul and started investigating. First article I came across, with a photo of our exact bottles: “OLD COKE BOTTLE SELLS FOR $110,700”. Huh?! Whaaaaa?! Two seconds of excitement. So much fun! Yippee! Woohoo!!! VHF call to Alleycat “We’re rich! Our coke bottles are worth over $100k!!!”
And then, coming back to earth, I read on
to discover the featured bottle had been a prototype… never actually released
and had perhaps been smuggled out of the factory by an employee…. Turns out the
ones we found are actually from the early 1950’s which is so cool! And they’re
selling on Ebay for $10 to $20 each. Not so cool. Those are the ones in
pristine condition, not burnt in a fire amidst ship parts, on a random beach in
the Bahamas. I don’t think any buyer would appreciate the story to explain the nicks and gashes on our specimens. We’ll just have to add them to our coffers that hold our precious stories and memories. Lads and lassies, time to raise the Jolly Roger and move on. A whole five miles south to Governor's Harbour!
We walked the town and toasted our luck over burgers at the fittingly named Buccaneers.
And then came the news. The most exciting news. The veggie place does exist! They even have a website and a Facebook page! They have farm fresh eggs and homemade hummus and fresh baked breads and free wifi as an added bonus. Apparently. We are approaching this revelation with caution. Can’t get too excited until we are standing there on terra firma, amongst the bounty.
Today is the day. Time to weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Pirates of the Eleutheran coast. More like scallywags. We’ve found our treasures, we are off to continue the plunder and pillaging!
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