We stayed for Maxine's Valentines Day Party at Hog Cay. Maxine who lives on Ragged Island has held this event for 5 years now. This year she brought all the food over from Ragged to Hog Cay. A mile or two over the water depending on the way you come. She and her helpers provided more than enough food for all of the cruisers and the town folk who came, probably close to a 100 cruisers and maybe 30 or more locals. The food included peas and rice or crab and rice, barbecued ribs, curried mutton, barbecued chicken, baked turkey, Grouper, baked mac and cheese, coleslaw, beer, water. The food was warm and plentiful. The cruisers paid $15 each. It was a little surprising how she managed to do it all so well. She invites everyone to come again next year.
Maxine also runs the store in town and when cruisers need supplies they usually contact her and she will order food, gas, or whatever and have it delivered to Ragged Island on the mail boat where the cruisers come to pick it up. Sometimes she even brings it to Hog Cay like she did with our order. When she is not in the store we go around back to find her. On more than one occasion when we have, we find her in the back cleaning conch and then hanging them on a line to dry. They are then sold. Some go to Nassau and others are shipped to China we have heard. Her husband Daniel is a fisherman and is always around to help.
From the Ragged's we headed up north to Black Point in the Exumas. We were there for about a week and then because we only got 90 days on our Visa when entering the country needed to go to another Port of Entry to get our stay extended. We choose to go down to George Town, where we are now instead of going further north. Still a little early to head back and we are experiencing a steady stream of fronts to hide from. While at Black Point we happened upon Southern Belle. Southern Belle is a trawler of our neighbors who live only a block away in Lake St Croix Beach. Nothing planned, they just happened to be there when we arrived. We had been following their blog and hoped to see them while cruising. They were experiencing an unusual set of circumstances with their captain, Kermit, who had to go back to the states with a health problem and his two ship mates, Chris, his wife and Linda, her sister on the boat with an engine that would not start. We stayed with them for a few days trying to help but in the end may have only given moral support. They got the engine started finally and moved the boat to a safer location on a mooring ball. At this time they are still working on a plan to get the boat back to the states.