As I peruse the e-mail I've sent from the Bahamas and study the photos I notice the ideal life depicted...fresh seafood, beach walks, bonfires on the beach. I won't spoil your image of our life aboard by including pictures of fixing, taking apart, repairing, maintaining and cleaning gear on board from toilets to inverters to outboards and sails. Salt water, sun and corrosion take their toll on a daily basis. Instead, I'll continue to send pictures of beautiful places, seafood (minus the cleaning the catch then the boat scenes), parties, and beaches. It makes a much better story.
For the last month we've been in the southern Jumentos of the Bahamas. Between Buena Vista to Double Breasted to Hog Cays shown in some of the pictures I sent a few weeks ago. Only a short sail to hop from one to the other. We've been enjoying the company of many sailors but mostly our friends on Bluejacket, Jerry and Donna. Dinners together, conversation, games..... Jerry and Jerry LOVE to hop in the dinghy with their flippers, snorkel gear, wetsuits, and spears. They dinghy from the protected western side of the island to the eastern shore and the cuts between the islands. The "big water", where the seas drop off, there are many reefs, and current. Habitat for fish and lobster. Or hunting grounds for the Jerrys. The Jerrys make a good team spending hours diving on reef upon reef and coming home with smiles and buckets of seafood. Donna (who loves to pamper us "kids") and I have had chances to visit, take walks, and work on projects together when we can meet during hunting.
All the fishing necessitated a trip to Duncantown for more gasoline for the dinghy's outboards. We sailed to Southside, the southernmost anchorage in the Jumentos, and hiked up the hill about a mile with computers and gas jugs in hand. The pink building, the Bahamian government administration building for Ragged Island, is the place to go with your computer to check e-mail. Charlene, who works there, came in to check on us and cranked up the ac for us. A little later she brought us water. How's that for service!? People are friendly here and eager to help out and take you under their wing. As we walked out of town with full loads someone was yelling to us. We turned and waved back shouting hello. In a few minutes a golf cart arrived and Sam introduced himself and told us to have a seat. He kept saying, "You're my people. My people don't need to walk." So Jerry, Jerry and I took a seat with the full gas jugs and computers overloading the cart making the tires squat. It was a white-knuckle ride as Jerry Luh and I sat in the back facing aft and my Jerry sat up front talking with Sam. Every time Sam turned to look at Jerry to say something he'd veer off the hard dirt road, swerve off to the shoulder, and then back. It was a much appreciated ride nonetheless.
The big social event of the season down here at Ragged Island/Hog Cay is the Valentine's Day Party hosted by Maxine who operates Maxine's Food and Notions Store (a total of approximately 125 sq. ft. of store). She's the one who has enabled the cruisers to come and stay in the area. The boaters call or visit Maxine with their grocery and supply list. She takes the lists, calls her daughter in Nassau who goes shopping on her day off for the things on the lists. The items are loaded onto the mailboat and delivered on Thursday (or there abouts) to Ragged Island. Maxine takes all of the supplies and stores them until the boaters pick them up. Any extra supplies are added to her store inventory for the rest of us, who haven't called with a list, to purchase. She charges whatever the price was on the receipt from the store in Nassau. Hard for us Americans to fathom such a generous practice!
Maxine throws a party for the cruisers on Valentines Day. This is the third year of the event and she invited the cruisers and the locals at Ragged Island and the school (all 9 kids plus the principal/teacher and other teacher who happens to be the principal's wife). There were a total of 38 boats all anchored at Hog Cay for the party - the most boats they've ever had at one time down here. Junkanoo costumes and goat-skin drums were shipped in from Nassau for the occasion. As you'll see in the pictures, the event was a huge hit! Maxine had cooked (mostly by herself) turkey, ham, chicken, fish, peas and rice, mac & cheese, coleslaw, bought beer and soda and all the accessories to serve and eat. Wow! The party was big hit. The cruisers also conducted an impromptu auction and raised $700 for the Duncantown School.
The winds, which have been predominately northeast, were forecast to be southeast for a while. A number of sailors, including ourselves, took advantage of the wind-from-the-right-direction and ended our visit to the Jumentos by sailing northerly. One day from Hog Cay to Buena Vista, another from Buena Vista to Water Cay, and the next day from Water Cay to Thompson Bay, Long Island.
Long Island is 60 miles long and only a few miles at its widest point. The beaches on the eastern side of the island are lovely - Jerry and I spent the day walking in the soft sand and hiking up and over the sharp craggy sections. Today we're sailing north from Long Island up to Georgetown, Exuma under full sail, bright sun, and southerly breezes. Wish you were here.
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| Jerry and Jerry's catch one day. |
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| This fish came with its lunch poking out - lobster. |
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| Lobsters for dinner again?! |
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| Judy the resident Ragged Island nurse on left with Genesta at the party. |
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| Genesta dances with the Junkanoo costume and bells. |
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| The goatskin drums and costumes are entertaining. |
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| Donna holds a tired party girl. |
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| The kids get to leave school early - here they arrive by boat for the party. |
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| The kids and staff of Duncantown School, Ragged Island. |
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| From our Long Island beach walk. |
