Monday 26 December 2011, Boxing Day, Nassau

Early this morning Harbour Patrol arrived and requested, extremely politely, that we go for anchor closer to the shore. Apparently we had plonked ourselves bang in the middle of the ‘traffic lane’ here in Nassau Harbour, after dark last night.

Breakfast becomes more ‘fast than feast’ for every day, because we are running out of supplies. Let’s hope one supermarket is open here in Nassau on Boxing Day…

We loaded the dinghy up with rubbish and family members (yes, in that order!) and Quinn piloted us ashore. The little marina that never answers the phone has no berth for us and they do not have a dinghy pontoon either. We were redirected to ‘The Green Parrot’!

There Quinn dropped the lock for the dinghy in the water and decided to dive in to retrieve it. After a few attempts he managed (he lock had buried itself in the sand, not easy to find). And so four of us plus an extremely wet Quinn walked into town.

As it is Boxing Day, the great festival of JUNKANOO is on and we arrived just in time to watch the parade. I have always wanting to see a spectacle like the Carnival in Rio.

The origins of Junkanoo are unknown, though what has evolved is a musical tradition that is an enduring symbol for the country. Some claim that the name originated from the slaves that arrived here in the Bahamas during the 17th century. The Africans brought with them the legend of John Canoe, a fierce tribesman. Others claim that the word ‘junkanoo’ comes from “gens inconnu” (unknown or masked person in French).

Junkanoo is traditionally celebrated on Christmas because this was when the slaves were given time off. That plus New Year’s morning. (If we are lucky we might celebrate Junkanoo again in Georgetown next week!)

Junkanoo is perceived as a pagan celebration of life – which is certainly how it felt to me this morning! The revelers wear masks and facepaint, but that is only the start. They also wear elaborate costumes and whole floats are created dedicated to certain themes. This morning I saw floats with a Chinese theme, a Warrior theme, an underwater theme (sea horses and mermaids!) and many MANY other concepts.

Many dancers carry musical instruments: traditional instruments such as the goombay drum (with a goat’s or sheep’s skin), cowbells, whistles and foghorns as well as brass instruments. This morning I saw trumpets, trombones, French horns and those really huge horns, the name escapes me in English, tubas I think!

The costumes are fabulous, it must take months, if not a whole year to make them. Lots of glitter and peacock feathers! The great thing is that normally it is ‘not done’ to go around taking photographs of people, but this morning it was positively encouraged! Every float, or set, is accompanied by a ‘parade marshal’ (a supervisor keeping an eye on things) and several of those marshals noticed my camera and invited me to ‘go for it’, getting the dancers to turn their faces to me and demonstrate their best moves.

This was pagan, folklore, anthropology and photography HEAVEN!!! In my most fanciful moments I call myself an ‘amateur anthropologist… Pappa Ulric and the boys found a pizza place to hide in from the noise and fortify themselves, but there was no dragging Mum off the streets of Nassau. Mum was off with the band and her camera! Got excellent footage too… of little girls dancing and huge men banging huge drums… When things calmed down a little we even found a tiger float for Brendan to have his picture taken with!

All good things come to an end so we did make our way back to Queenie eventually.

Right now Ulric is fixing a leak. He opened one of the lockers in my cabin and I spotted daylight coming in. Not a good sign below the waterline on any ship… EEKS! He is out in the dinghy with a tube of epoxy. However, as we are still in the shipping lane, albeit more tucked out of the way, every time he squirts the epoxy in the hole, another boat passes and their wake knocks the epoxy right out again. So our captain is now contemplating doing the repairs after darkness when things calm down on the water… he is not the happiest of campers exactly right now…

This evening we are going to dine out at The Green Parrot! Plan is to bring a USB stick with all blogs written so far copied onto it, as we have not been able to post for nearly a week due to computer failure and complete lack of internet access.

My hardest task for today is going to be choosing a picture to go with this blog. Wish I could post 50 pictures instead….

I need to climb out now and keep my appointment with Father Sun. This is one of my traditions on the boat: everyday I sit on deck and observe the sunset from beginning to end and thank Father Sun for shining another day. Silly? As a shamanic practitioner I don’t think so, someone has got to do it!

By Imelda Almqvist