| bahamas Cruise 09/10 |
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Comments [3]
12/15/2009, Staniel Cay, Exuma
| bahamas Cruise 09/10 |
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Islands are small closed communities. Here everyone knows something, some know most things, and ONE knows all things. If you want to learn everything about the history, social makeup, and goings-on in an island community, this is who you must spend time with. And that is how Al and I found ourselves riding around with the Staniel Cay garbage man on his pickup rounds last Thursday. John Chamberlain does many more things besides run the garbage pickup. He is a pilot, and rents a group of seaside cottages as well. We learned that there are around 60 people on Staniel Cay. Children go to the local elementary school until they are twelve, and then must board in Nassau, Georgetown, or the Elutheras for their high school years. His father founded and built the Yacht Club here, and the people are a mix of Bahamians and outsiders with full or part time homes. Nearly everyone pilots their own plane to Nassau for groceries and supplies, or one can have stuff brought in by plane or the mail boat that comes on Wednesdays. The nurse handles small emergencies only, you get planed to Georgetown or Nassau for everything more than cuts or scrapes or minor infections. It was an interesting morning, as it was cleanup day on the island and we were being introduced to everyone as we made our rounds to the dump and back. This man is the one you see about those moorings there, This is the nurse, this person will open the library for you. That man is the husband to the person back at the church who was raking, etc... Yep, you can learn a lot about a community and it's people, but ya gotta hang out with the right caliber of folks to find out the best stuff.
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It was 6:45 AM, and I wasn't in the mood for this. We were at Exuma Park, going through the morning rituals to slip the mooring and get underway to Staniel Cay. Then I saw it, the bread dough that I had left rising on the cabintop the night before. It was no longer rising quietly in it's plastic bag. It had busted forth all over the top of the cabin. I looked further and saw that the dough oozed over the starboard side and down to the deck, where it mingled ever so slightly with the jib sheet and came to rest against the genoa track. One of the reasons I let my dough rise in a plastic bag is to keep from getting gooey dough all over me and my bowls. I have limited water for cleanup, and this method has been working fine. It doesn't work so well when I forget to place the zipper part of the bag up. Left in an inverted position the yeast and dough expanded against the seam and it gave way. At least it didn't harden. And so I found myself using a spatula to lift and place the mess back into the bag before breakfast. Al started helping, and as we tried to get the dough to cooperate with where we tried to put it, we got the giggles. Bread would have to wait a day longer, but the fish on the banks were in for a treat later in the day. I lowered the bucket over the side and sluiced the deck with seawater to rinse of the last bits, and we were finally able to get underway for Staniel cay.
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12/08/2009, Warderick Wells
We will be leaving Norman's Cay Sunday morning, and sailing south to our next anchorage at Hawksbill Cay. The trip will take two or three hours of lazy sailing, followed by around 45 minutes of hairy eyeball navigation where Al stands on the front of the bow and tries to determine if anything in front of us looks like shallow coral heads, while I drive and dodge left or right or turn around quick as per his instructions. We wear headphones, so it's all done quietly, but it's still a relief when we get the hook down and dug in good. Next we lower the ladder and jump in, cause well, we can. We go look at the anchor and snorkel around looking for a likely suspect for dinner, if we're lucky. Hawksbill is uninhabited so we may be all by ourselves there. We will stay a few days if we are loving the place, move on the next day if we don't. Our next stop after Hawksbill will be Warderick Wells. I may be able to get internet there, if not my next update will be from Compass Cay next week sometime. Update: Dec. 7 / We are at the Exuma Park Headquarters on Warderick Wells. Al saw a whale! We snorkled and saw a herd of spotted eagle rays. There is so much marine life here, we will go to Stancel Cay for water and fuel filters, and then work our way back to here for the rest of our Bahamas time.
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Sorry to leave everyone hanging for so long. I have had issues w/ internet connections and my "puter not wanting to connect to the internet after logging onto a network. Who knows, maybe I will accidently fix it somehow. I am on a Norman's Cay computer letting everyone know that we are fine, the comments were great the nutcrackers are in the sewing room closet in the plastic boxes. (good luck getting them out Jenn) and we are having a blast! We were at Berry Island Club (Frazier's Hog Cay) for T day. Caught our own lobsters for dinner. We crossed through Nassau on Monday last and were in Allen's Cay (iguana country) for the last 3 days. Got here this AM and are just lazily working our way down the chain. (yes, there is a little work involved here, but it's the fun kind.) Will try to get the internet back on track, until then, no worrys, and be prepared for a ton of pics and vids when it happens. (James, that was a cool vid, wasn't it?) Love you all, Al and MJ
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