Artsy trash or trashy art
In the past week, we visited lovely Green Turtle Cay, hung out for a few days and also toured the island by golf cart. It felt odd to be transported at speed over pavement on four wheels after months only on foot or on water. A steep downhill had me seriously considering bailing the cart - who knows when those brakes were last serviced in the land of Hakuna Matata? Chris and Lucy stayed cool, however, and Lucy definitely had nothing to complain about; she got the front passenger seat while I was bumping along in the back - typical.
Over the weekend, we continued further north to Powell Cay and were astonished by the cool temps. For the first time in 4 months, we had long sleeved shirts and wind jackets on. It’s all relative, but 70F (21C) with a north head wind feels outright chilly after so long in a warm climate.
Powell Cay offered up a cross island hike like so many we’ve enjoyed in the Bahamas: We anchor on the western lee side of the island, dinghy to the beach, search the shore line for a trail and then hike the trail to the ocean side where there is another spectacular beach awaiting us with Atlantic waves rolling in.
But as is also often the case, the ocean beach will have trash washed up from afar. Sometimes little, other times a lot - probably depending on currents and wind patterns. Most of the trash is from the fishing industry; nets, ropes, buoys, etc., but there is also assorted other trash, including a crazy number of flip-flops. We have learned that you see this on the ocean beaches all over the world, equator to the poles. I’ve never been much of an activist - in fact not at all - but this can be the cause I finally rally around.
And it makes me both happy and sad to see how the trash is sometimes put to use. We frequently come across impromptu art installations made up of ocean trash and some of them are quite wonderful. And almost all of those cross island paths we’ve enjoyed have markers made by trash to help guide hikers along - often with an artsy twist.
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