We are lucky, very lucky to be up on the hard in Nassau. It sounds crazy and looks crazy as I type, but I spent the good part of the morning scraping barnacles off the bottom of the boat with the boys -in FEBRUARY!! I worked up a sweat- in FEBRUARY!! WOO HOOO! I asked the boys what they would prefer; shovelling snow or scraping barnacles? They would rather shovel snow (imagine! Foolish children). Not this lass. I take barnacles over snow any day. This afternoon the boys grabbed hammers and safety goggles and spent the afternoon hammering spikes into discarded anodes. They were in heaven. Until Arleigh hammered the hell out of his thumb (actually it was a small maul he was using so he “mauled” the hell out of his thumb). All I could hear from up on the boat was ou,ou,ou,ou,ou,ouuuuch! He came up the ladder with his thumb the size of a plum and throbbing like it had a heart of its own. A boat yard is heaven for these guys- really. There’s so many discarded “treasures”! With the boys completely occupied, I was able to work on the teak-finally! Nassau isn’t all that bad really. It’s a city, so there’s noise and crime, but we are happy to be here. We’re at a local Marina where several folks permanently live aboard on their vessels. We’ve befriended several of these folks and have found them to be kindred spirits…well I have found them to be kindred spirits…
We had to get hauled to repair our ongoing shaft problems. It looks like we’ll be here for a while. It sure is a change of pace from the outer islands where we lived in our swimming trunks and bare feet.
The boys and I had a very (must find a choice adjective…hmmm) enriching experience being alone on the boat. I knew it was going to be “enriching” because I wept when Gary left. Yes, the Chief Officer wasn’t so tough all of a sudden! We had experienced the Derecho…Dererercheo..delamboninorecheoeoeoe…the BIG STORM the night before Gary left. Holy MOLY, holy moly! So Gary left one heck of a rattled crew…RATTLED! Having said that, our mooring did hold through the storm, but BUT scroll back to the beginning of the blog…you see that very stress photo of moi dealing with the mooring at home that “held”through a shit tonne of wind, but the tackle didn’t?! Well that has been my experience; moorings can hold sure, but can the gear handle the wear and tear of a (sorry Maewyn) heavy girl?! Maewyn is pushing 17tonnes (sorry again Maewyn…she’s so sensitive about this weight thing…I always assure her it’s my extra weight from drinking copious amounts of beer. FYI they’re going to stop brewing beer soon, so drink up!!) Anywho where was I? Did I mention I discovered Kalik GOLD?? Kalik is the beer brewed here in the Bahamas. It is a delightful refreshing beverage. Well I discovered recently that they brew Kalik Gold- a full bodied beer for ladies that don’t have a full body ha, ha, that is my personal slogan! They are wonderful, unfortunately, fortunately, they are a whopping 7% whoo hoo! I got over the captain being gone right quick like. Arleigh and Sam also kicked in big time and were a tremendous crew. Every day they helped me set and re-set the anchor according to the winds of the day. They helped me fill and lug three six gallon water jugs to keep our tanks filled. They lugged our garbage to the Garbage Lady in town. They helped me lug groceries. I had an ear infection that I made worse by diving on the mooring, I also contracted pink eye from rubbing my eyes so much, so I felt like Helen Keller; couldn’t really hear or see. I think the boys took pitty on me and were eager to help. I took pitty on me and drank Kalik Gold “a full bodied beer for the ladies that don’t have a full body”.
So I was hearing impaired (more than usual) and I had snot oozing from my eyes. And you know what? I was really happy. Seriously. We had some big winds blow through. Apparently this has been a pretty shitty season for winds here. I had several nights I had to keep watch so Arleigh could sleep, but in retrospect they were good nights. And our mooring did hold! And the boat was broken and we fixed it. And then I went and broke some more of the boat and now the Captain’s home and he fixed it! So it’s all good.
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. But it has been busy. And my thoughts have been rolling more on the spiritual/sentimental wheel- and no one wants to hear that blibber blabber. More soon.
Cheers CO (Heather)