OMG!!!!! Well, we might be in Nassau longer than we thought...

Well, it was an interesting and terrible afternoon. I only have a few minutes so I'll just type up a short bit and then post more info later - background first.

We launched the dinghy today, which was interesting in itself with how tight our slip is. We saw a person cleaning lobster at the marina, and Kristen has yet to catch one. We asked him where he found them, and he said the Yellow Banks. The Yellow Banks are about 10 miles from Nassau, which makes for an interesting dinghy ride, but we had to do it to catch lobster. Kristen needed lobster.

We left around 1pm and flew there, full throttle. It took about 30-40 minutes or so. Once there, we looked down and the place was teeming with lobbies! Kristen dove right in, and before we knew it she had about 5 LARGE lobsters in our net bag. We figured that was enough, and we wanted to get back before dinnertime, so we headed in.

Here's where the fun began. We got back to the marina, and I stayed at the dinghy to clean it up while Kristen went to the fish cleaning station to prep the lobsters. 20 minutes later, the marina manager came over to me and said that I needed to come up to the office RIGHT AWAY. I headed right up there, and Kristen was standing between two Nassau Police Officers in HANDCUFFS!!!

I immediately demanded to know what was going on. Apparently, lobster season came to a close yesterday, and they do sweeps the day after closing to try to catch people who break the laws so they can make an example of them before lots of people do it, thinking they can get away with it. I was livid! We're guests in the country and we're being treated like criminals! Why couldn't they let us away with a warning????!!!!!

It gets better. They then state that they have to bring her to the police station for processing. Apparently, lobster "poaching" is a big deal, and they need to do the picture thing, fingerprints, etc. I asked what would happen, and they said they would bring her to the station and when time was "available" they would do the processing. In the meantime, they suggested I find a lawyer to post a bond so she wouldn't have to stay in the jail while awaiting a preliminary hearing with the judge.

I don't have time right now to go into details. I'm still talking to the American Embassy people to figure this whole thing out. They are being pretty helpful. By the way, April Fools.

Chris :)