Jazzy Lady's 2019/20 Cruising Adventure

Annie and Alistair are at school today! Not ‘Mark and Meg’s boat school of hard knocks’, a REAL school on land with four walls and a roof! Black Point All-Age school welcomed A&A yesterday morning to attend for the day. It was such a success that we sent them today as well. Our friends Paul and Laurie, on 2 Outrageous, suggested this idea to us. As things often go in small towns, most people wear many hats, on a professional and volunteer basis. Two nights ago, the man co-ordinating the buffet dinner at the bar we went to introduced us to a woman prepping food who is also a teacher at the school. So we arranged for the kids to get a taste of the Bahamas education system.
Annie is in a grade 3/4 split class with 10 other kids. Alistair is in a grade 1/2 split class with less than 10 kids. All together, from grades 1 to 12, the school has 55 students. The local kids are super friendly and welcoming, happy to have A&A in their midst for a couple of days. We met Annie and Alistair with a picnic lunch yesterday and most of the students happily crowded around to give us their observations of our children. We learned a bunch of hand-clapping songs and games, watched kids rip around on their bikes and saw that Alistair fit in quite well on the basketball court. It’s a great opportunity for the A&A to get a brief taste of this aspect of Bahamian culture. Some things are different (the students get a slap on the hand with a ruler if mis-behaving) and in many ways it’s similar to home. Of course Mark and I are more enthusiastic about it than they are (Annie keeps insisting she is on holiday so why is she going to school?)....to which we roll our eyes and repeat our favourite mantra of this trip: this experience is shaping your character whether you choose to value it now or later!
We finally booked my Mom’s flight! She’ll meet us in Georgetown on January 21st and stay for a week. So tomorrow we’ll sail the 50 miles back down to Georgetown. It’s certainly true what all the wise cruisers have cautioned us about: booking visits with friends and family is risky business! We left Georgetown on January 1st, knowing we’d want to be back for Mark’s work flight on the 21st. We’re about to complete a loop that, on paper (in terms of mileage) could easily be done in a mere few DAYS.....that is if weather is not a factor! As it has turned out, tomorrow is our FIRST opportunity, in 3 weeks, to safely and comfortably sail back to Georgetown. The Easterlies have not stopped blowing less than 30 for 20 days! So, while I thought Mark was being un-reasonable to avoid booking a flight for my mom until a few days ago, it was a prudent decision, in the end. We did not want her to show up with nobody there to greet her.
We’ve adapted a new routine onboard that has greatly improved our quality of life: Annie and Alistair wash the breakfast and lunch dishes every day! We save fresh water and us adults get a break from a portion of our mundane daily tasks. After a recommend from our pals on Rollic, we set a great pattern in motion. The kids throw all the dishes in a bucket and sit on the ‘sugar scoop’ off the stern (swim platform). They do a quick salt water rinse, then a wash cycle (with our phosphate-free soap). Then we do a quick rinse in a fraction of the fresh water we would otherwise use for a regular batch of dishes. The dinner dishes still get washed in hot fresh water so they get a ‘sterilize’ round every night. We are quite pleased with this new regimen and, what do you know, the kids are proud of their daily household contribution...that is after they’ve come to realize their moaning and groaning is futile:)
Our bread situation, lately, has been decadent as we’ve had fresh baked loaves from Ida, the local bread queen. She has a smart little business run right out of her home. You walk into her house and pick from the still-warm loaves lined up on her kitchen counter. They don’t have time to cool down before being swept up by all of her loyal customers. Thanks to Bev, from our original cruising guru team Dagny, we’ve had it in our notes, for years now, to look her up once we got here. After all the hype, we were not disappointed! Coconut bread to die for (especially when made into French toast) and cinnamon raisin bread. Ooh 😋 yum!