4/11/2011 11:04 PM

Been up all day and I did not take a nap. We have been on the hunt for some things we think will add some “civilization” to Why Knot on our next phase. One is a portable ice maker. I know, I know the purists amongst you will raise an eyebrow or two, not you MJ because you have only one and it goes all the way from ear to ear. So you’ll be rasin’ a brow. I have weaned myself from ice but frankly, these past few days ashore has caused some back slidin’. Bear feels ice is the next best thing to a double dip of chocolate chip ice cream and that is muy importante to this chubby captain. What the Bear wants is, if possible, my highest priority.
Now the thing that is of the greatest challenge is the infestation of ear worms. Nawh, it is not really a critter in the ears but rather the name given to those tunes that one keeps humming all day- the ones that don’t leave you alone. Those of my age remember “M-I-C,-see you real soon, K-E-Y- why because we love you” or “Plop, plop,fiz, fiz”. If you have to ask, it cannot be explained. Both the Bear and I (mostly I) have a few ear worms that seem to keep bugging us. They came from the Barefoot Man, a Jimmy Buffett type of singer in the Bahamas. One is “I want to dance with a big panty woman”, and the other is “When they throw you out of Nippers, man you’re really drunk”. I cannot get those out of my feeble mind. I have tried, but it is not happening. They speak to life in those wonderful islands.
We visited family up north this weekend. Up north means North Texas? We managed to show the family vacation slides of the beaches and lighthouses of the Abaco. Viewing the pictures is like trying to eat a dozen hot donuts at one time. After the first two shots of perfect beaches, they all look the same. Cameras simply do not capture the grandeur of walking over a dune and seeing the Crystal Sea beyond. Those images will be with us until our return next year (if it be in the cards). That storm on the final fifteen miles of our passage back to the States is already taking on the dimensions of the Perfect Storm. Those nights at anchor are now without flaw of any kind. I saw a tee shirt today of a cruise liner in the Bahamas with the caption of “been there, done that”. Everything is relative since we are not sure waking up every morning to a scheduled 10 course breakfast and the day’s activities is “being there and doing that”.
I used the last onion from the islands today. We bought them in Marsh Harbor and they stayed sort of non-sticky until today. I don’t think they would have been “serviceable” much longer. Those were really expensive onions at about $1 each. No way I would toss them early. OK, so we are now getting the “to go” boxes set up. We remembered the dinghy motor handle, the charts to take back aboard, the computer stuff left behind last time and some burnt orange paint for the signs we will leave along the way that say “Texas- 1200 miles”. Those signs are nailed everywhere on posts in the islands. Not the Texas signs but those signs that give the distances to Skagway, Nome, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Calgary, London, Fiji and Miami as we had no burnt orange. Aggies will have to take their own “mud red” paint.
We got home with most of the baseballs and gimmie caps that I intended to leave in the island on ball diamonds. Fact is that we saw only one diamond there. Could it be that bocce ball and cricket are more dominate there?
The “keep left” thing whilst driving has now been removed from my pilotage skills, but I did find it fun to drive the other way around roundabouts on the left. The Abaco is a place of smiling faces and helpful hosts. Even the out islands are very welcoming. If you ever get a chance to visit the Abaco, don’t miss it. As for the crew of S/V Why Knot, we look forward to the return late fall. If you see us, ask us and we will bore you with the photos, all 1,057 of them--- or not.