* Rain at Lake Worth
* Drying rain gear
* No Monday, 20' tied to us on banks,French couple.
3/11/09 – Water is today’s priority and is tomorrow’s gold. The macerator works, food is ample, the weather is perfect, but our Nassau water is not. Nassau water is hauled by ship from Andros and, I think, has salt in it. Coffee tastes terrible when made with it. Tea or lots of sugary lemonade or even chlorine tablets help its taste a little. It doesn’t make us sick. Most marinas and towns now have RO water (reverse osmosis) for drinking and cistern water for regular use though I know many Bahamians have nothing but cistern water. Flo’s depends on rain in April to fill their tanks for the year! Water is too valuable for locals to use on plants in most places. So, today our priority is a source of good-tasting water at 20 cents a gallon. I’m so happy to be able to pay it! Jim put 38 gallons in our 50 gallon tank. That is what we’ve used since leaving Nassau 2weeks ago.
Information is as vital as water, but getting it can be a challenge. Weather information is the priority and boaters take care of each other in that regard. Running aground is a possibility without local knowledge. “Knowing the questions to ask is the hardest part,” per Jim. We can get two Bahamian radio stations and they are the lifeblood for the family islands information. TV is only by cable or satellite and bigger islands have it. Nassau has 1 antennae channel (public service) and it’s the same as the radio for many shows. Generally, I can pick up a FTL radio station and get news early am from around the globe. Otherwise, we may only get the two Bahamian stations unless I want to practice my Spanish. So, I learn a little about Bahamian life. The government is trying to encourage self-sufficiency and gardening. There is much talk about the importance of tourists and to have a welcoming atmosphere for tourist. I’ve heard it in practice.
Newspapers are obsolete except in Nassau. Years ago when living in S. A., I could always find a TIME magazine to get much coveted US news. I haven’t seen a TIME magazine in the Bahamas. Now, back in the states, I found one in the Publix and its size is about that of a Weekly Reader it is so thin. Of course, times are changing and no pun intended. Internet is just not news-satisfying for me. I got back to the states to discover that newspapers are going to be obsolete here, too. Darn.
3-19-09 - I have mixed feelings about being back. Sounds are so important to us-gurgling, crashing, rushing sounds. We are both quite deaf! A hundred times a day I ask Jim, “Is that a boat?” He’ll say, ‘No, it’s a plane.’ I’ll argue, “You’re wrong, I’m sure it’s at least a small skiff.” And so, the conversation goes until one of us pops out and announces, “NO, it’s a tugboat!” as it was this morning. We are back in the states and many new sounds have been added to our repertoire. Last night’s “sound argument” I won. It was a train. Jim had forgotten that we are now moored next to the railroad bridge. So, we’ve a car drawbridge that has a clanging warning bell and car noise, a train bridge that has a beluga horn and train noise, a dock being built within 150 feet with a crane and tugboat, various wind generators whirling on boats, several small gas generators occasionally running, many dinks, wind in the shrouds, and, of all things, the delightful sound of three children in lifejackets playing on the bow of their 40 foot Beneteau on the next mooring ball. I can sleep through trains, bells, horns, generators, children, and even motors, but I can’t sleep through wind in the shrouds. Wind sound no matter how minor pulls me from our cave aft bed to the settee in the cabin for the night.
You combine all the noises with my awesome sense of smell (cigarette smoke, diesel, gasoline, wood smoke, steak, fish, etc.) and our present Stuart mooring ball lifestyle is like living in a crowded New York City apartment. The children next door had popcorn last night for their bedtime snack. Even Jim picked up the smell and made me promise to make him popcorn for tonight’s “Battlestar Galactica”. Of course, there we’ll be no Battlestar unless the sun soon shines. Our first real rain has been happening.
Mopping up loose ends:
• We arrived home with an ample six-week supply of food.
• My dunking happened during a 15-20 knot wind with 3-5 knots of current. I couldn’t chase down my visor because I would have had to disrobe to be able to swim back to the boat in the current. Jim was really preoccupied, I later learned, just keeping steerage so that we wouldn’t hit another boat on a mooring ball… thus the speed. And, it all took a hell of a lot longer than five minutes!
• The Bahamas are small enough that we could go back without charts if keel depth were not an issue. Jim has taught me about island clouds, and we really got to put the theory into practice on some of our sailing legs. Clouds generally hang over islands. It’s cool to be totally out of sight of land and able to see the clouds over the Abacos, Eleuthera, Providence, Andros, and Bimini all at the same time. What a map!
• We met a cute, young couple who sailed to Cuba and the Bahamas in a 20 foot boat. I wish they’d write a blog because their stories are really fun!
I’m preparing you all for Jim’s blogging decommissionment because his technical part of this journey will come to an end on the hard in Indiantown and my blogging job will resume to get us safely back to our land-home in Colorado. I’m hoping there’s something new and exciting for us as we make our 20 or 30 somethingth trip across the states!
So, just get used to it. I’m back!
Ah, the sailor’s life….
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