So... we've had some wonderful times since our last update. After a great visit from Ellery in early January, we made many new friends in Georgetown. We took lots of great pictures too!
In mid-January we volunteered to help paint a schoolhouse that was ten or so miles from Georgetown. The building was quite old, approximately 40x40 ft and was partitioned off inside into six classroom areas. Apparently the entire year's budget had already be used to replace the septic system so there was no money left for paint or repairs on the building. Divya spent the day painting and Chris dug holes and mixed concrete to put in a fence to keep children from running out the front door onto the road, which was only five feet away from the front steps of the school. We and about ten other cruisers were helped by some Haitian workers that were brought to the job from the work crew of a local resort. The resort was coordinating the painting and fencing effort. Only one parent from the school was helping out. We learned that many Bahamians consider manual labor as beneath them in spite of the fact that much of their economy is in a third world state and jobs are scarce. Many will hire Haitians to do yard work rather than do simple yard cleaning tasks themselves. We think this attitude may account for the large amount of roadside litter around the Georgetown area. We noticed that on other islands yards seemed to be neater and the roads cleaner. It was strange to be confronted with a different value system around the physical realities in Georgetown. If a toilet was broken, or a dock board was broken at the marina, no one seemed in any particular hurry to fix it. The main dock in Georgetown which served hundreds of boaters a day, was sinking in places and had nails sticking up that could easily trip people but noone felt it important to fix these things the entire time we were there. We heard that a common expression among cruisers was, "that if something is logical and makes sense, they don't do it here". Anyway it felt really good to contribute something for the children of this island.
Toward the end of January, our friends, Harry and Janice arrived with icicles still hanging off their ears. One night the four of us, on our way to visit a fellow cruiser sang "Ave Maria" and "Santa Lucia" as the sun set over Georgetown. Harry became very fond of Kalik Beer, the local brew down here. Janice almost ran off with a retired Croatian doctor on a 50 ft Catamaran headed back to the States after going to Europe and back via the Caribbean. However, we managed to keep her on board the Maggie M for the rest of her visit. The doctors name was Tom, his boat was called Island Princess, and we actually had some good times with him both during and after Harry and Janice's visit. We all had a great time snorkeling, swimming, and cooking for each other each night.
After Harry and Janice left we learned about Joe's Sound, a totally protected Harbor on Long Island, about a day's sail from Georgetown. Sometime in February (time is much less precise for us these days) we left Georgetown and spent about two weeks at Joe's Sound. At Joe's Sound we got to know almost everyone in the harbor through afternoon gatherings and visiting each other's boats. A couple of times we rented a car and explored the island which is about 70 miles long. We shared the car with our friends from the sailing vessel, Iona: Tai, Maureen and their two year old son, Simon. On our first car trip, we visited a blue hole, which is reportedly six hundred feet deep and has underwater tunnels to the ocean in it. Chris saw a sting ray circling the hole and then dive down and disappear into the depths beneath. As we were swimming in the blue hole we couldn't help hoping that this was not some sort of cosmic toilet that someone was going to flush at any moment.
After the blue hole we went to Clarencetown, which contained a church whose doors amazingly matched the color of Divya's shirt. (See photo). The church was built by Father Jerome, a very industrious priest, architect, builder who built several churches on Long Island and on nearby Cat Island.
Then we ate ice cream for the first time in three months. (See photo).
What we enjoyed most on Long Island were the people there, who were not as dependent on visiting cruisers as was the scene in Georgetown. The people seemed much friendlier and glad to see visitors from beyond the island. While we were in Joe's Sound, several strong fronts blew through with 20-30 kt winds but we were anchored very snugly and were happy to be in such a well-protected place. Somehow Chris adopted the role of coordinator for an impromptu cruisers net which took place every morning on everybody's VHF radios. Chris enjoyed adding a little humor to the task of relaying the weather and coordinating different announcements and thinks he might have a possible future avocation as a disc jockey. Toward the end of our stay, Divya sang a operatic aria, which the cruisers thoroughly enjoyed . We also found ourselves composing musical tributes to the various delicacies that Tai and Maureen concocted for us at dinners on their boat. Songs such as, "The Lobster Was Very Good" and "The Spiced-Rice Tango" are now in our repetoire which we have been performing repeatedly whenever conversations seem to lull. We had some great times aboard two catamarans: Sandpiper, with Winn and Bob; and Jellicle Cat, with Peggy and Ray. We also became fond of a bird on the beach near us called an oyster catcher. In addition there were also Sandpipers on the beach that Chris insisted on calling Ruddy Turnstones. Chris said, "Look. We're out here in the middle of nowhere, why can't we call them whatever we want? Divya tried to debate the point but in the end she gave in when Chris promised not to misrepresent our sitings when we returned to civilisation. When the wind finallly calmed down and we all began to go, many heart-strings were pulled as some of us went in different directions.
We had a great sail back to Georgetown just in time to meet our friend Gary who flew in from California. Gary went into a state of Rileyhood (see previous description of Ellery's visit for a definition of Rileyhood) immediately upon arrival and only left it for brief periods during which he gave us lessons from the latest weight watchers techniques which he has taken up and is determined to share with other fellow humans. While he was with us, however, he seemed to find many excuses for not exactly following the weight watchers scripture and seemed to be a master at interpreting it in various different ways that would make a person feel like they were on a diet even though they were drinking wine, eating pasta, and having a rich key lime pie for dessert. Divya and I actually have been feeling much healthier and to each other's eyes have apparently lost some weight during this trip. We have not actually weighed ourselves since we left the US, but are hoping for good news in this regard when we get back.
After Gary left, the Georgetown regatta occurred including two exciting sailboat races and other events for cruisers lasting a week. At the end of the week there was a variety show where we performed "The Lobster Was Very Good" to the delight of many of the cruisers. We also got to be good friends with Nancy and Mike who live on a Westsail 32 called "Illusion". Their dinghy is naturallly called "Reality". They are a younger couple that have been living on and fixing up their boat for the past three years. We also got to know Joel and Lillian from "Maurauder" a 61 ft beautiful older sailboat. Joel and Lillian are from Long Island, NY, and have wonderful, endearing Long Island accents. They taught us that even people on much bigger boats than ours can be nice folks (we usually sneer at any boat over 40 ft.).
We waited for another front to pass through and finally left Georgetown going north back up the Exuma Islands, finally beginning our return voyage. One night we were anchored next to our friends on "Illusion" and got a call on the VHF from them at 3:00 in the morning saying that Nancy had been having acute pains in her stomach for the last three hours and we all were up for most of the night trying to develop options for what to do in case Nancy had a ruptured appendix. It was particularly difficult because this happened on a very windy night. Fortunately Nancy's pains began diminishing in the morning. The whole experience made us realize how dependent we are on having almost instant medical attention in the States and how remote and isolated we can be at some of these islands. We also realized, however, that there was much help around us including the Coast Guard and an Army base with helicopters that have been known to evacuate people that need serious medical help. While on this topic, we should mention that there was a serious accident in Georgetown while we were there. A man fell off his dinghy while it was approaching his boat and the dinghy apparently circled around and ran over him, the propeller slicing his face and jaw open. Luckily two paramedics were on the adjacent boat and saw the accident take place and with some help from other cruisers, the man was on a flight to Nassau within a few hours where he was stitched up and wired back together. About a week later he arrived back in Georgetown and received a harbor full of toots from all the boats there. Needless to say, we find ourselves being more cautious about the simplist things we do on our boats.
We hope to be in the Abacos by early April and be back in Georgia by the end of April. We are both beginning to reflect on the different perspective we've gotten on our lives and on life in America after being away from it for this wonderful time. One of the main things we have appreciated is the amount of time we have available to experience each day. We often see the sunrise and well as the sunset each day and often lose track of what day of the week it is. The quality and amount of time we spend with other people also differs greatly from that which we experience in the States. Get togethers with other boaters are often spontaneous and open ended -- the idea of having a calendar and finding time to see someone would seem ludicrous down here. From a life in the States perpective, it may seem like, "Well if you don't have to work, sure, you'd have lots more time to enjoy life and the people around you." But we are beginning to reflect on the almost unconscious trend in America to work harder and harder and try to constantly acquire more and better stuff. It's so great to be on a boat and have no choice but to accept the way it is and be happy to have some recent groceries as well as a recently emptied holding tank. This may sound silly, but it's like for the first time you actually begin enjoying the things you have and the life they bring you. It seems like life in the States is often about some imagined process toward future goals and what unique new developments might arise in each other's lives. In the cruising life, everyone is literally pretty much in the same boat and there is little talk of what's new and exciting. It's hard to say exactly what we do talk about, usually the latest things that have broken and been fixed on our boats, but it somehow leads to a sense of friendship and humor about life that there is less space for in the States. Anyway, it is truly wonderful to have this expanded sense of time and space all around us here. We hope we will be able to bring some of it back into our lives when we return.
On the other side of the coin, some of the challenges we have faced have had to do naturally with being together constantly on this small island of a boat and having to integrate our different rhythms for needing time alone and away from the boat. We've had to work a lot on including each other in the decision making process involved in sailing the boat. It is often frustrating and we discover how much we need each other's help to do certain things. For instance, only Divya seems to know where all the food is, but there are times when Divya needs Chris to hang up the sun shower before she can take a simple shower. But the longer we're out here the better we seem at handling all these things. For instance, we've finally begun to be able to drop the anchor without it being a completely bewildering experience for Divya who never has a clue as to where and why Chris is directing her to steer the boat in the process of picking some mystical spot that he seems to think would be obvious to anyone. Yesterday, however, Divya brought the boat to the exact spot Chris was thinking of without him saying a word demonstrating perhaps the fact that she may know what's going on in Chris' confused brain. Anyway, let's end this by saying our boat's in a wonderful spot today in the middle of Warderick Wells National Park and that our hearts are full and that the sea and the clouds and these beautiful islands are delicious even though we can't actually eat them.