Monday 10 October 2011

Columbus' China was Grand Turk

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Full moon, leap tide, steady offshore breeze, good swell, black flag. I found time to go out again this afternoon at Muizies. Two sharks had been spotted earlier in the day and the spotters had had a field day: white flag (with black shark) - the most dangerous; red flag with white shark (shark spotted recently) and black flag with white shark (visibility too poor to tell). The latter was up when I arrived late in the day and there were about 50 surfers. The tide was near the high water mark and the paddle out back was short. I caught stacks of waves, some holding up quite well. I have to admit that I kept my feet in the footstraps and when I fell off got back on pretty fast! Usually I keep clear of the other surfers but today I stuck with them. Not sure what the theory of this really is - safety in numbers, or just makes you feel better. The local surf shops are complaining bitterly about the loss of business since the Clovelly attack. The press is constantly schmoozing around looking for a story - 'lead with the bleed' - it's sick. Columbus Day in the US and markets are taking a breather there, while Europe rallied some more on the Merkel-Sarkozy 'deal' to capitalise banks. Ho-hum. There's a big dispute about Columbus' first landfall. He thought he was in China, silly man, but he was really just on the other side of the Atlantic. One of the islands in the frame is Grand Turk. Here's a QSL from Caribbean Christian Radio on Grand Turk heard on AM at Sheigra in Scotland in 1996.

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