While we are in the Reef Islands, we are staying on Pigeon Island. This small 5 acre island was ‘purchased’ by a British couple who sailed around the world in the 1950’s before settling down here. A small one bedroom efficiency bungalow is our home for the time here and we enjoy meals prepared by the island-owners in the evenings. 

Experiencing how Reef Islanders move around the islands has been interesting. Many people have traditional wooden canoes carved from wood and others have small fiberglass canoes. These canoes provide transportation between islands and for fishing as well.

Our transportation to and from the workshop venues is provided by a local pastor with a fiberglass boat and an outboard motor. The timing of the tides has to be taken into account for our daily commute. The tides of the day determine when we can travel as low tides provide a real challenge. With the pastor on the outboard at the back of the boat and someone in front carefully watching the water depths, we travel about 20-30 minutes to reach the workshop venues. In some places the outboard engine is pulled up and the boat is pushed through the shallow waters with with long poles until the boat reaches deeper waters again. 

On Thursday afternoon the tides were so low, we had to wade a long way through shallow water in order to reach a point where the waters were deep enough for us to climb inside. After Tim and I were in the boat, the rest of the passengers pulled the boat along to deeper waters before they climbed in and away we went. In some places we can peer over the side into the crystal clear aquamarine waters and spot reef fish and starfish. That never gets old.