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Beware of the giant squid!

My best friend’s farewell send off struck me cold…WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? In our tender teens we’d watched a horror flick about a giant squid terrorizing boaters. Ever since I’ve been fearful of the open ocean & sea monsters. So what was I doing planning to cruise the Caribbean in a 43 foot catamaran for the next 2 years? Blame it on Panama’s toxic trash. In December 2009 my husband Hans & I made our move to Playa Blanca Panama, expecting a peaceful semi-retirement. Instead we found our condo covered in carcinogenic clouds of burning garbage, Panama’s unique approach to waste management. We decided we’d like to live long enough to enjoy our years of hard work & frugal living, so we sought an alternative. Enter “Bumfuzzle”. This delightful ebook about a young couple sailing around the world in their boat named Bumfuzzle captured my attention. We’d always dreamt of cruising the Caribbean islands BUT my fear of the sea kept me landlocked. This book inspired us to cast off. Excited by their daring, one day I blurted out to Hans “If these guys can sail off into the sunset without a whole lot of experience, why not us?” Captain Hans instantly seized the moment, fearing a change of heart on my part, & soon we were in Florida checking out catamarans. To ‘cast off’ is maritime speak for ‘to let go’. I think of this adventure as a way to let go of our comfort zone & strike out into the unknown (where the giant squids lurk!). This year Hans turned 60 & I’m a mere month away from 58. An easy age to become complacent. NOT what we wanted from life. Our plan is to cruise the Caribbean for the next 2 years & hopefully make it all the way to Trinidad! In the words of Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Sorry Mark, but after toying with the idea of learning to sail, we realized that time had passed us by on that option. I’m partially deaf so obeying the captain’s orders would be a challenge to begin with. Add to that the special sailing lingo & having to jump to my husband’s commands & we’d have a scary mix of marital moments awaiting us. We opted to keep the peace with a power catamaran.
The Summer of Our Discontent
It was love at first sight, when we laid eyes on the Loretta Jean. What a beautiful boat! Her configuration fit our needs perfectly. After careful consideration & hours of research, Captain Hans knew that the only powercat that offered what he wanted most-a flybridge & walk around bed-was the Lagoon 43, built by Beneteau.
  Unfortunately the common set up was for charter boats, with 4 bedrooms & 4 bathrooms (heads), 2 on each side. Not for us! We wanted the ‘owner’s version’, with a master stateroom spread across the back stern, starboard side master head, an office, galley, & the all important PANTRY for food provisioning. Port side ‘guest’ room, head, & laundry room. Since we’d already agreed on a no guest policy what did we want 3 extra rooms for? Loretta Jean fit the bill with my pantry & Hans’ office space. Amazingly the marina where the Loretta Jean was docked was just 20 minutes down the road from our old stomping grounds in Florida. An easy drive to transport our boat STUFF from the storage unit where we’d left it when we moved. With everything falling into place so smoothly, we felt the dream becoming a reality. Little did we know that our long held dream would soon turn into a nightmare… We closed on the boat on June 17, 2011, after a successful survey which revealed few items in need of repairs besides an engine glitch. Sadly the surveyor was as smitten with LJ as we were & we’d soon learn the true meaning of the word BOAT-”Bring On Another Thousand”. Never trust the word ‘serviceable’ in a survey! It merely means working for now & while “The Power of Now” may work for Eckhart Tolle, on a boat you want more than a living in the moment approach to your systems survey! We promptly held a re-naming ceremony, christening our boat “Badjaw”. It’s pronounced Bajao & means Sea Gypsy in Indonesian. We did everything by the book to appease the sea gods. The sellers, Bob & Lore, tossed the old name into the sea with a fond farewell. Our friends Teresa & Alan wrote a lovely script for safe seas on our adventure. We provided plenty of food & drink for us & the sea gods…yet here we are 5 months later still stuck in Florida. WHAT HAPPENED?
Where to even begin with the nightmare list of boat blues we dealt with that sweltering summer? Luckily the sellers agreed to pay for the engine repairs. By July Florida was in the grip of a record heat wave, even for the Sunshine state. The daily heat index soared to a sizzling 105 degrees, along with our tempers. Hans & I have been together for 33 years & get along great most of the time BUT sharing such a small space 24/7 began to take a toll. We lived on the boat while workers came & went. At one point we had 3 guys on board, one in the engine, another tearing apart the A/C system with Hans, & a third installing the upgraded communications system. AGH!
It seemed every time we took the boat out for a test run, it failed miserably. First the repair to the engine turbo failed…due to the mechanic’s assistant not being able to fit the turbo back on properly. His solution was to simply slice the screws to fit, so of course they shook loose as we drove. Piglet (as we nicknamed him, due to the trail of grease he left on the boat) got himself fired for his next blunder…on a routine maintenance of the fuel injectors he neglected to shut off the fuel lines. The bilge filled with diesel & would have overflowed into the marina (think MONSTER fines) if our electrician had not noticed it when he went into the engine to install our new alarm system. At least Piglet’s boss figured out that the turbo was the problem. The previous mechanic took the turbo (& the sellers) for a ride. He drove it to his shop, declared it working fine, & drove it back, charging a fortune for his misdiagnosis. Outfitting the boat for such a grand expedition turned out far more complicated than we’d imagined. We’ve met so many people telling us how they’d always dreamed of an adventure like ours & now we know why they stayed in dreamville. A harsh dose of reality nearly doused our dream before we even cast off. At times I wondered if there was a special Heimlich maneuver, for people who had bitten off more than they can chew? Cough, choke, splutter, gasp! The first communications system we chose never worked. After 3 months of being jerked around with lame excuses by the company we demanded a refund & miraculously got it-WHOOHOO! If you’re reading this in preparation for a similar voyage I highly recommend Chad Grady at High Seas Technology! Great guy & super competent. At one point Chad opened the electric panel for a hook up & FLASH BOOM! A minor explosion-EEK! Investigation revealed that none of our electric wires were grounded! How did the surveyor miss THAT? Could that even remotely fall into the ‘serviceable’ zone? Seems like more a danger zone item…
The marine electrician we called in pointed out that our original batteries were now 6 years old & would soon need to be replaced (though deemed ‘serviceable’ by our surveyor). This led to an entire upgrade of our electrical system, to allow us to hang out on the hook in anchorages rather than have to plug into marinas all the time. In the long run this will prove a money saver but at the time we felt we helped fund his son’s college education-LOL!
Our best decision was to add on a full enclosure, surrounding the back deck & flybridge in Strataglass. This extends our living space below & up top gives us a protected place to pilot the boat in bad weather & a drying space for laundry! In between all these repairs, upgrades & add ons to the boat, we managed to take it out for a few trial runs, to get ourselves used to handling the boat, docking, anchoring, etc. The first overnighter we blew a fuse, unknown to us, & the freezer defrosted. Hence the upgrade of the electrical system. The next time out we ran out of fuel due to faulty gauges & had to be towed back to our dock! We’ve belonged to Boat US for 15 years now & that was a first! The 3rd overnighter our propane system popped a hose so I couldn’t cook. This ‘serviceable’ part took us an entire day of driving to marine stores & camping supply centers to replace. If one more person tells me “good thing that happened here” I swear I’ll choke them until their eyes pop out. The final straw came last month when we hauled the boat out for a routine bottom painting & ended up having to replace the entire “serviceable” shaft. Instead of 2-3 days in the boatyard, Badjaw ended up on the hard for 3 weeks. Today as I write this is Thanksgiving day & despite all the nonsense we have much to be grateful for. The sellers, Bob & Lore, have become fun friends & our sanity savers this miserable summer. We’ve shared many laughs at the expense of the “incompetent idiots posing as professionals & giving us grief.” Our motto is if you can’t beat them, make fun of them! Bob & Lore kindly invited us to share this feast day with them & their friends & we’re so very thankful for that! The 3 weeks the boat sat in the nasty yard, Lore & Bob generously let us stay at their house, while they went back north for awhile. Lucky us! Craftsmen like Carlos, our all around handy guy, Ryan the electrician & Chad the communications guru renewed our faith in people who truly care about the quality of their work.
Happily we managed to re-connect with our dear friends Alan & Teresa for some fun times before they too moved on with their lives. We even made it to Panama to sell our car there. Thanks to our neighbor Len, that was a piece of cake! Most miraculously our visa renewals came thru too-will wonders never cease?
In late August, when Hurricane Irene blasted through the Bahamas, we felt grateful to still be stuck in Florida. Maybe there was a reason behind the delays? Even though Captain Hans had oodles of hurricane prep stuff-miles of lines, extra anchors, even augers (ground anchors) to tie the boat down with-we were just as glad not to have to put it all to the test. We experienced 3 direct hits when we lived in Florida- Frances, Jeanne, & Wilma-enough hurricane fun to last a lifetime! I’ve come to think of our boat experience so far as a metaphor for marriage. First the smitten stage. The beloved is perfect in every way. BUT as Ray, my dad, always said “Love is blind, marriage is the eye opener.” Soon we begin to notice flaws & foibles in the beloved. The fantasy smacks up against reality. Romance hits the real deal. Here you either realize that true love is a package deal & learn to love the full Monty, or go your separate ways. At this eye popping stage we found ourselves on shaky ground & more than once thought of tossing in the towel on the biggest mistake of our lives. BUT luckily we never both felt this at the same time so we managed to keep our commitment to the vision. Now that Badjaw is shipshape we’re glad we did! Just this week Chad finished the final touches to our radar system & now we wait for a good wind to cross the Gulf Stream & let the fun adventures begin.
Crossing the Gulf Stream
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin In 1981 Hans & I drove 2 five ton Mercedes dump trucks through the Sahara, to sell them in Nigeria. A lucrative enterprise in those days. We started from Switzerland & crossed the Mediterranean from Italy in a cargo boat. As drivers we got free passage on the boat, with our trucks. I recall the French captain distinctly checking me out as I drove aboard. When Hans told him about our plan to drive through the desert he looked at me & said “Beaucoup de courage”.
An intrepid traveler, at 28 I felt invincible & wondered what he meant by that comment? Now at 58, my mortality meets my gaze each morning in the mirror (though I try not to look too long at those lines & saggy skin!). I’d need to summon all my courage for this crossing, but I have no intention of living a shrink wrapped life! My ‘irrational’ fear of the ocean may not seem quite so senseless when you understand the power of the seas & The Gulf Stream in particular. Let’s face it, when driving a car if you have a failure you can simply pull over & park it safely. Not an option on the open ocean. You must fix it while riding out the wild wind & waves. Crossing the Gulf Stream requires planning, preparation & patience. Captain Hans, our safety officer as Lore calls him, has the first 2 P’s handled, but the patience part proves a challenge for us both. Today is Nov. 27, the Sunday after Thanksgiving & yet we wait while north winds blow… The ocean from Florida to the Bahamas: a river runs through it! “There is a river in the ocean” wrote oceanographer Matthew Maury in 1855. “Its current is warm, the Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is the Arctic Sea. It is the Gulf Stream.” Since Maury’s writing nearly 150 years ago we now know that the Gulf Stream does not originate in the Gulf of Mexico as its name implies. Instead, it is part of a larger ocean-wide system flowing from Africa along the Equator, then up the coast of South America, past the Caribbean islands and into the Gulf of Mexico. As the water is further warmed by the sun in the shallows of the Gulf, it rushes east and north through a deep, narrow strait some 25 miles wide between Florida and the Bahamas. At this point the current typically averages three knots, although it can reach speeds up to eight knots at times. This Gulf Stream is the fastest and largest current in the Atlantic; over a billion cubic feet of water rushes past Miami every second. The current continues up the eastern seaboard to the Arctic, over to England, and finally back down to Africa like a giant wheel turned clockwise by the pull of the moon and rotation of the earth. Boaters traveling between Florida and the Bahamas pass through the Gulf Stream. In local boating circles, this passage is known as “the crossing.” Much is written about crossing the Gulf Stream in a cruising boat and many sailors make the trip daily without incident. But careful planning and proper safety precautions are essential.
Safety Considerations The foremost consideration is wind direction and velocity: any wind from the south under 15 knots is ideal; any wind from the north over 15 knots is dangerous, creating short, steep waves that can be treacherous. Such waves have been described as ‘marching elephants’ as they’re huge & herded so close together. We have no intention of getting trampled by them so here we stay safely in our boring marina. Yesterday I spent the morning polishing the Strataglass enclosure, up & down, inside & out! That’s how bored I am! Thankfully we’re now helping Bob & Lore with a dock project to keep us busy & not get on each others’ nerves. Hans & Bob work on building a raised ramp for the dock so they can step onto their new boat on the lift. Today we’re rocking! Hauling rocks for rip rap along their shoreline of the ICW to keep erosion at bay. More fun than cleaning the boat & better exercise too!
Sat. December 3, 2011
Today the wind literally howls around the boat here in the marina. We slide around in the dock, bumping the fenders into the pilings, which makes a horrid squealing noise. Fantastic for sleeping! We plan to bust a move out of here Tues. to anchor at Peanut Island, near the inlet, for an early start across the Gulf Stream Wed. morning. Looks like the only weather window for awhile, not great but hopefully a decent passage. Winds change to SSW & lessen to 10 knots…pray for us!
Thursday, December 8 West End Bahamas
We made it! We had a great crossing & left just in time on Wed. That night the wind picked up & banged us around in the dock here at the Old Bahama Bay marina. Today it’s rough out there again. We’re staying put! On Tuesday we had a happy/sad send off with our friends Bob & Lore. Happy to FINALLY leave Florida but sad to say so long (for now) to our wonderful new friends. We enjoyed a last lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant. Lore & Bob surprised us with good-bye gifts & cute cards to remind us of them while underway. A precious puppy-STUFFED! The perfect pet & we named him Snowflake. And a pretty pink plant-a Christmas cactus for a festive holiday touch on the boat. Such sweet thoughtful people, we’re so lucky to have met them & will miss them bunches.
We did not escape without one last boat bummer though…Sunday night we returned to the boat from dinner with Bob & Lore & stepped into a puddle of water in the hallway. The icemaker died! We cleaned up the mess & went to bed. Next morning over coffee Hans looked at me & said “Good thing it died while we’re still here.” I jumped up & choked him! I did stop short of his eyes popping out… We left the anchorage at Lake Worth inlet at 7AM, a beautiful morning. Once we headed out into the ocean, it took us 3 1/2 hours to cross the Gulf Stream & we arrived here at the marina at 11:30. WOW! What a relief! Just ahead of the tax man too. As non-residents of Florida we had a tax exemption for the boat IF we left the state in 6 months. That deadline was Dec. 15, so we beat it by 1 week-EEK! I was quite freaked out about the crossing but as usual my fears were a waste of energy. Who said “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”?? Smart person. We had a bit of wave action smashing into us as we left the inlet but then it settled down into rollers which the catamaran handled quite smoothly. With the 2 hulls it’s very stable, which is why we chose it. We could feel the stream pulling us northward though & knew exactly when we came out of it as the sea was flat calm for awhile at that point. Now we must decide when to leave here. It seems the winds of winter will be our nemesis from now on. The Sea of Abaco is a fairly sheltered body of water but to get there involves a rather long passage through open ocean. Predictions are for 5 foot waves for the next 2-3 days & after that 9 footers. Do we bust a move or wait? Stay tuned to find out!
Monday, Dec. 9
We stayed put today, after asking one of the locals about the weather forecast- too many conflicting reports on-line! He said tomorrow the seas will settle down & then another blow comes through-RUN GAIL & HANS RUN! This is winter windy weather here, blows for a few days, then calm a couple days, then blows again. We hope by the time we get to the central Bahamas the wind will die down more.
We walked the 2 miles into “town” yesterday, very depressing. Many ramshackle, boarded up buildings & people wandering with no work. Sad. Tourism is the main industry here & it’s been hard hit with the global recession.
Today Handyman Hans is busy with boat projects. Sun shining brightly & the wind less intense so we hope to leave early tomorrow for Spanish Cay, a 6 hour run.
Sunday Dec. 11 Powell Cay
We left West End yesterday & hauled ass across the Bahama Banks, our last expanse of open ocean for awhile. We wanted to get that passage over with so we could get used to our boat in the relative shelter of The Sea of Abaco, where we are now. The boat runs great & it’s wonderful to go at 16 knots when you need to get somewhere. We passed a sailboat that had left West End Friday morning! We left them in our ‘dust’ (salt spray?) as we headed to Spanish Cay Marina. A nice spot & delicious dinner. They were hard hit by Hurricane Irene in Aug. & still recovering. Smashed docks & flattened houses! This morning we decided not to be wind weenies! We have enough of expensive marinas & will anchor out the next few days. Imagine this is the ‘off’ season & it’s still nearly $100/night for a slip in a marina! Then they charge extra for power & water! WOW! So here we are in Powell Cay, an uninhabited island with a protected anchorage-or so the book says! We sit here with the wind whipping around the boat & hope the anchor holds! Hans set the anchor alarm & since he bought a really huge expensive anchor we feel pretty secure-at least Hans does! I’m munching my ‘nut’ pills to stay calm. We kayaked to the island for a bit of exploring-how cool to be on a deserted island! Very “Survivor-ish”-LOL! Lots of beautiful starfish & sand dollars. We’ll stay here tomorrow too & then head out Tuesday for the next safe anchorage. We like the idea of island hopping, slowly poking along after our 2 big runs. I’m getting better as the anchor ‘wench’ & of course Hans is a confident, competent captain! I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have faith in him as Captain Hans!
Mon. Dec. 12 Rock ‘N Roll
Last night was the most miserable, longest night of my life! The wind picked up, with wild waves, so it felt like trying to sleep on a bucking bronco-YEEHAW! I completely freaked out, downing ‘nut’ pills & Bach’s Rescue Remedy all night long. No sleep for me as I watched the shoreline & waited for the anchor alarm to go off. I wanted to be prepared if it did! The full moon lit the night sky like daytime so I could always see where we were. The anchor held but it was so not fun…Capt. Hans slept well & woke periodically to check his anchor. He has it on a computer screen which shows exactly where it is at all times-geek boy! Today we’re fiddling with our electric system, figuring out how to charge it using the generator. We thought we had it figured out before we left Florida but the boat has many surprises & I’m sure this won’t be the last! In West End we met a couple who had bought a brand new Lagoon like ours, except the sailing version. They came down from Canada & when they arrived in Palm Beach they had to hire an electrician to fix problems on their brand new boat! He worked on it a week BUT she told me that it took them 12 hours to cross the Gulf Stream (motoring, not sailing) & when they got to West End their batteries were drained-she was pissed! I felt for her!
Thursday Dec. 15 Bluff House Marina Green Turtle Cay
How ironic that after spending nearly 6 months stuck at The Bluffs Marina in Florida, we’re now stuck at The Bluff House Marina here in the Bahamas. Dejadoodoo. This is a dangerous place for us-the marina has a feed for fees program. Dockage is $43/night (already quite reasonable) BUT whatever you eat/ drink at their restaurant (great meals!) goes toward your dock fees-OINK! Our goal is free dockage, emphasis more on food than drink for us piggies. We arrived here Tues. with our power nearly depleted. Hans has spent many hours on the phone with Ryan, our electrician in FL & technicians at the company of the system he installed. The elusive electric gremlin lurking in our system continues to avoid detection. This morning Hans tried to perform a battery test Ryan recommended, using our searchlight as a tester. He promptly melted the bulb! OOPS! We decided to call in the professionals before we experience a total meltdown…(background music “Who ya gonna call? Ghost Busters!”).
The marina owner recommended an Island Mon named George, so we have a call in to him. Who knows when he’ll ride to the rescue though, as we’re on island time now?
Yesterday we walked the 4 miles into New Plymouth to explore the town. We had a milkshake at a local cafe & the owner regaled us with a history lesson. We’d noticed that houses here are built in the Cape Cod style of New England & the accent people have is a strange mix of Massachusetts & Southern. Turns out that after the American Revolution, people who remained loyal to the British crown were really punished & their assets taken away! Many fled to the Bahamas with their servants & slaves in tow, to start a new life. We think of Bahamians as Black but the guy we chatted with was white & 5th generation on this island. He considers himself 100% Bahamian, of course! We didn’t see much mixing of the races either, as we do in the states. People are either truly African Black or white, no browns or anything in between. The town has quite a colorful economic history: pirating, shipwreckers, pineapple/ citrus growing, bootlegging, sponging, sharking, the drug trade & now tourism! Our historian’s family was involved in every chapter too. He told us that in the old days he could catch 400 lobsters in one day…so of course they overdid it & now you’re lucky to get a few. Sad. Today we had a Panama moment…as we sat here on the boat waiting for George suddenly my eyes began to water, I choked & my throat closed up! I had a flashback & looked at Hans in horror….we both yelled “BURNING GARBAGE”!! ARGH! No matter where you go, there you are-LOL! There’s no escape! Yes they burn toxic trash here too, as in all Third World countries. Our species is such a detriment to the health of the planet, I sometimes wonder when Gaia will simply eliminate us, like the dinosaurs?
Sunday Dec. 18 Great Guana Cay GREMLIN BEGONE! PIG ROAST!
It’s all about the food so that’s our big excitement here today. YUM!
George never made it to the boat (which is why he’s called Island Mon) in the last marina, so we had another electrician come to do the ‘load test’ required for our battery check. They all tested out perfectly. By Friday, after 4 days of getting the runaround from both our electrician, Ryan, in FL, who installed this system & the technicians at the company itself, we felt fed up, frustrated & discouraged.
Friday night we attended a fun wine sampler social at the marina restaurant & discovered the camaraderie & helpful nature of the cruiser community. We explained our dilemma to Tom, a fellow boater, & he told us that Kevin, a British cruiser, was also an electrician & could help us BUT he had already left Green Turtle Cay & moved onto the next anchorage. Let me digress here & say that to get from Green Turtle down here where we are now at Guana Cay, one must make the dreaded Whale Cay passage. The Sea of Abaco becomes too shallow to remain in & take the ‘inside’ route, protected from the Atlantic by barrier islands. You must go out into the open ocean & come back in to bypass the shoaling that creates the shallow spots. Whale Cay passage is often impassable in winter due to RAGE SEAS! This had been the case the entire time we’d been at Green Turtle, due to wild winds from the NE. It looked like the next day, Sat., would be a decent passage day. When I say ‘decent’ I mean a forecast of 6-8 ft waves-YIKES! Normally we wind weenies would have stayed put but we were stalking Kevin so we bit the bullet & left. OMG! Six to eight foot waves-holy shit! They came crashing right over the bow too! The boat took a nosedive down into a wave, which broke over the bow before Badjaw came back up for air. Then came the next smasher, like a roller coaster ride, plunging down & leaping up again. I completely lost it & ran down from the flybridge to hide in the cabin. That went on for about an hour, before we changed direction to take the waves broadside, amazingly not as bad! Capt. Hans was in his element at the helm. Whenever I went up to reassure Hans that I was fine despite my meltdown, he’d yell “The boat is handling GREAT Gail just GREAT!” Ya gotta love him! FINALLY we came out of the passage into smoother waters & I could enjoy the rest of the ride to this anchorage. We no sooner arrived than Tom putted over in his dinghy to greet us, then scooted off to pick up Kevin. For the next hour these 2 wonderful men poked & probed the innards of our electric system. Kevin brought his testing equipment & pronounced the patient in perfect health. So why the hell won’t it charge? Not to bore you with electric speak-which we’re now experts at-but Kevin’s general diagnosis is that the inverter is the gremlin. The inverter charges our outlets & draws way too much power on its own & even more when charging the outlets. Kevin suggested we turn it off when at anchor…I blurted out to Hans: “But I thought we had the upgraded inverter installed so you could make coffee without turning on the generator?” A hush fell over our little group, followed by a stifled snort from Kevin. Tom was not so discreet & cracked up laughing, teasing Hans about his expensive “Starbucks” morning brew. That night we all gathered ashore at a beach bar & Tom announced that Hans would serve coffee & doughnuts next morning at his “Starbucks” cafe- too funny!
This morning Bill, another cruiser with the same system, came by to go over the specific settings with us. He advised us not to let the batteries drain down to the level Ryan suggested as then it takes too long for the generator to power them back up. We have hope that we’re hot on the trail! The pig roast will boost our brain power this afternoon for sure! HA! HA! Meantime we’re on the hook where we’re happiest, in a lovely anchorage with good people. Life is good! Mon.
Dec. 19 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Today I’m 58 & my best present is that we eradicated the evil gremlin! It’s a lively group we hang out with-all sailors-LOL! Although we have a power boat, we’re not truly power people as we conserve electric & water while hanging on the hook. Most power boaters run their generators full time to have A/C, icemaker, microwave, outlets, TV, etc. on at all times. Which is why they’re known as ‘stinkpots’ to the sailors, who mainly run on solar & wind power. We’ve been here since Sat. morning & have yet to run the generator. Now that we switched off the inverter & choked the life out of the gremlin, the batteries maintain power enough for us beautifully. We’ll probably run the generator for a couple of hours later today to charge the system. Then we can stay at anchor another day or so before we move on. WHOOHOO! We met a young couple with a small sailboat-they’ve actually been racing sailboats since their early teens! They remind us of ourselves in our vagabond days! The rest of the group is a bunch of ‘old farts’ like us-LOL! Strange that so many people wait until they’re in their 50’s to take off & do the wild thing. Guess they’re programmed to work, raise kids & THEN do as they please. We did pay the price for our youthful travel years, as it took us a long time for Hans to find his niche & make decent money. Still we’d never trade those years with all the adventures-we have tales to tell for sure! Plus when we traveled 30 years ago, tourists had not yet become “walking wallets” for the local population. Nowadays in most places, people see us as a way to make money-understandably. When we traveled people wanted more to connect as real people & show you a good time in their country.
We paddled the kayak into “town” today & discovered an amazingly well stocked grocery store for such a tiny island. Not that we needed anything but my B-day cake, as we’re ridiculously provisioned-more food than when we crossed the Sahara! Here again we’re reminded how very lucky we were not to have been here in August, when Hurricane Irene struck with such ferocity. Demolished docks & boarded up restaurants, stores, & houses stand as testimony to the power of nature. Between the hurricane & the global recession tourism here is down 30%-quite a hit for the local businesses. I’d brought a veal osso bucco frozen dinner along from our favorite store in Stuart, FL-Supreme Meats-for my B-day delight. Homemade tasties-YUM!
Tues. Dec. 20
Today we plan to take the dinghy down & head to Guana Seaside Village for lunch. It’s a small settlement (as towns are called here) in a bay further up the island. We invited ‘the kids’ along (brain drain lost their names promptly upon introduction- GRRR). Hans is right now charting our course on his hand-held GPS. Mr. High Tech/Safety Officer-I feel always safe with Capt. Hans on the case-LOL!
Friday Dec. 23 Man O’ War Cay
We never found that town! But we had an interesting excursion along the coast of Guana Cay to a posh new marina called Baker’s Bay-where you have your own boat butler! LADEEDAH! On Wed. we left Guana Cay to head over to Treasure Cay, a lovely leisurely 2 hour ride at 6 knots. We enjoy poking along & it conserves fuel & $$ too! Treasure Cay was a disappointment. The stunning beach did not make up for the lousy food & lack of WiFI as advertised at the marina where we stayed. I really wanted to catch up on emails but that will have to wait. At least we were able to power up our electric system to 100%. The generator can only charge the batteries to 90% if we run it for 2 hours or so. To get the batteries up to 100% we’d have to run the generator full time-like all the other stinkpots-LOL! So every 4-5 days we stay at a marina.
 Man O’ War Cay is ‘dry’-no alcohol! So not many cruisers here 2 days before the holiday-HO! HO! HO! They’re all being festive in Marsh Harbor-the big town nearby. We love the solitude all alone at this anchorage!
Today for the first time in over 2 weeks it’s actually warm enough to swim-barely! At 80* that’s borderline for us but since Hans had to dive the anchor I decided to join him-invigorating! This anchorage reminds us of Peck’s Lake in FL as we’re on the ‘inside’ of a barrier island in the Sea of Abaco & can kayak over & walk across the strip of land to the Atlantic for a beach walk. The ocean calmed down a lot too, no more huge smasher waves crashing into shore. Finally the wind died down BUT will pick up again next week. We enjoy the calm while we can!
Sat. Dec. 24 Man O War
Yesterday afternoon a few boats joined us here, among them ‘the kids’ better known as Ted & Maggie! They came over last night to play cards & taught us a new game. I do love the community aspect of cruising for sure! We may dinghy into ‘town’ today, depends on the weather. Right now it’s overcast & a bit threatening to rain out there. This morning it was dead calm when we woke & we looked down into the water to see every blade of sea grass & ripple in the sand- WOW! It’d be great here in the summer without the wicked winds of winter. Sustainable aquaculture is new to the Bahamas & not yet widely practiced & so sadly they’ve been ‘fished out’. Way back in the 70’s when Jacques Cousteau shows were all the rage, he did a special on Cuba & how Castro had set up sustainable aquaculture practices there. Cousteau predicted that if the rest of the Caribbean islands did not follow suit they’d suffer a collapse of their fishing industry, which is what they’re now facing. Man O War Cay is a small boat building community, famous for sail making & canvas work. We hope to be able to visit a shop when we go into town later but maybe not so close to the holiday. It’s a rather religiously strict group living here & so the ‘no alcohol’ rule on the island. After experiencing how most cruisers imbibe, I can’t even blame them-LOL! We’ve been rather ‘dry’ ourselves to try & lose some of the weight we gained in FL! Not sure what we’re up to tomorrow for Christmas…not especially into the holiday spirit, just enjoying each day on our boat & Hans not having to McGuyver a new problem daily! What a relief! Probably head to a marina next week to power up & hopefully find free WiFI to catch up on emails!
MERRY CHRISTMAS Man O’ War Cay
We launched “Kitty” (our dinghy) & toodled into town with Ted & Maggie yesterday to eat at the Dock N’ Dine restaurant-YUM! Cracked conch-we’re definitely getting ‘conched out’ here! The rain held off & we toured the harbor, surprised at how many boats were moored there with no one on board! Dangerous to leave a boat unattended like that! Quite crowded & we’re happy to hang on the hook here. This morning dawned sunny & warm-FINALLY no wind! We snorkeled on the ocean side, Ted hunting lobsters & us just enjoying the healthy reef life. Beautiful corals & lots of colorful fish. We shared a yummy holiday dinner with Ted & Maggie. They brought eggnog & cake for dessert, we made pasta carbonera-YUMMMM! It’s fun to hang out with younger people, we enjoy their exuberance & zest for life! When I whined about our electrical issues Ted laughed at me & said “Oh yeah Gail so tough to have to deal with that while living on such a great boat in such a beautiful place-rough life.” HA! HA! Good to have someone put things in perspective! I think one of the negatives of aging is that we become less flexible (not only physically!) & no longer take things in stride as we did in our youth. We met a wonderful guy in Panama-Frank-in his 60’s & as we swapped tales from our wild travel days, he said “Isn’t it funny how things that were a great adventure when you’re young become just a pain in the ass when you’re old? We just don’t deal as well with the challenges of life on the road.” OR on the water it seems! When we recall all the challenges of our Africa truck trading mission & how we handled them without a meltdown, I realize how right Frank was. So I remind myself that we have not chosen a life of comfort & complacency & mostly that’s great fun but then other times not so. I try to stay Thai-sanuk & mai pan rai. Focus on the fun-sanuk- & forget the rest-mai pan rai.

Tues. Dec. 27 Man O War Cay

Still here! Loving the calm seas & warmth! Yesterday Hans & I kayaked to shore & walked into the small town-everything was closed for Boxer Day but it was fun to sightsee. This is so far our favorite island, very laid back. People plant lovely gardens in front of their homes so we took our own tour of them.

 The wind picked up today, so we’ll head for Marsh Harbor, on Great Abaco Island, just across the Sea of Abaco! Our cruisers guidebook has this to say under Things To Do In Marsh Harbor:  “Sort out that pesky electronic problem on board.” LOL!

Since we still struggle with a minor glitch (very grateful no more major gremlin issues), we decided to take that advice. When we run the watermaker or the davit to drop the dinghy in, the system goes into a ‘fault’ mode & a red light comes on. Sometimes the breaker flips too. Hans downloaded the owners manual for our system-which Ryan neglected to give us-GRRRR! It seems we draw too much power when that happens so we need to sort it out. Also will check out the grocery stores-not that we need anything but fresh produce would be great!

We have a minor issue with the escape hatches (at the water line). Water  slightly seeps in when we run the boat fast. A fellow Lagoon owner told us he read a solution on the Yahoo owners group (apparently a common problem!)-to put a plate of plexiglass over the inside of the hatch & seal it in! We’ll also stop by the Moorings- a charter company with Lagoon powercats like our boat. We  hope the technician there may have some suggestions..

Wed. Dec. 28

We’re staying at the Marsh Harbor Marina & rode their bikes into town! Strange to remember to ride on the left-British rules of the road! Not at all a very quaint town but certainly a place to TCB & we are indeed Taking Care of Business here for sure! Today we have on board: Andrew the marine electrician sorting out that pesky problem, an outboard engine guy working on the dinghy engine & the tech from The Moorings checking out our leaky hatches!

Andrew is quite a colorful character! He arrived wearing a vibrant African cloth wound around his waist. We figured he’s in touch with his roots, as that’s common attire in Africa. When he went to work he whipped off the cloth to reveal a postage stamp pair of short shorts accentuating his bouncy buttocks-LOL! Later other cruisers  told us he often wears high heels to work. No matter to us. “To each his own” as my mom always said. Who cares about his personal preferences when his outstanding professional expertise saved the day for us?

We both feel that all the scare tactics everyone told us about how impossible it is to get anything fixed in the Bahamas so “good thing you had that happen in the states” was complete nonsense. Andrew is a far more knowledgeable electrician than Ryan who installed our system & for a much lower price! Ryan took our owner’s manual home to read & never returned it! When Andrew heard that he was appalled & said that not only should Ryan have returned the manual, he should have done so with a full explanation of the new system we paid him so dearly for-I agree!

After 3 hours testing & troubleshooting our electrical system, Andrew told us that the inverter remained a ‘ghost gremlin’!  It draws power away from the watermaker & davit when we run them, which causes the system to either go into fault mode or trip a breaker. He showed us how to bypass that & solve the problem & also gave us a great explanation of how our system functions.

The mechanic working on the dinghy outboard charged us 1/3 of what we’d have paid in the states to have the 3 carburetors removed, soaked & put back on AND he came to our boat to do the work-WOW! So never fear, there are competent professionals here with a work ethic above & beyond what we dealt with in the states.

Sat. Dec. 31, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hans put the plexiglass plate over both hatches himself so now we wait for the caulk to cure, then run the boat & keep our fingers crossed that it works!  The marina restaurant has a decent deal for New Year’s Eve so we’ll stay here & take off tomorrow for Hopetown.

Yesterday we went into town with Maggie & Ted & ate at our favorite local restaurant-cracked conch again-YUM!  Later in the day a fisherman came by the marina with fresh caught lobsters, so we bought 4 for dinner. It’s all about the food!

Poor Ted & Maggie have a busted poop pipe on their sailboat-NASTY! These things are always buried in some difficult to reach & work on spot, to add to the horror of having to fix a hole in the shit line-YUCK! We feel lucky Hans has a break from his McGuyver role lately! It could always be worse!

So we had ‘the kids’ over for rum & cokes last night to avoid their stinky boat. They’re such fun & we crack each other up with funny stories-they also have good tales to tell! We admire their ooph to take off on this adventure & be so different for their age. We just don’t see many young folks out here

Tues. Jan. 3  Hopetown 

Today we’re holed up on the boat, hiding out from the 30mph winds howling outside. What a difference a day makes! We arrived here Sun. in gorgeously calm sunny weather, a lovely boat ride of 2 hours at our slow speed. The marina here has mooring balls so we latched onto one of those, dropped the dinghy & went into town.

Hopetown is very quaint, with charming pastel colored cottages-all for rent it seems! It must be so crowded in season, now is the low season so not very busy here. We wandered around but of course everything was closed New Year’s Day.

Mon. morning we climbed the 101 steps to the top of the lighthouse for a spectacular view of the entire area.  The clear skies gave us a view far out to sea!

Afterwards we set off to walk the 5 miles to the other end of the island to check out Tahiti Beach & see if it lived up to its name. After chugging along for 3 miles we worked up quite a sweat despite the 73* temperature. Thankfully a kind lady on a golf cart offered us a ride part of the way-whew!

The beach did not conjure up images of Tahiti for us, but we enjoyed a beach walk anyway. Lots more destruction from Hurricane Irene evident too. Beach houses with sand plowed right up into the front of their homes. The road itself totally eroded & collapsing into the ocean-EEK! We met a guy from this island who told us all about his trips thru the Panama canal & onto Louisiana aboard a merchant marine vessel. People are so very friendly here-we love that!

We decided to eat at the restaurant that offered a ride back to town-LOL! YUM! Conch salad & soup-conched out yet again! Back in town we visited the Wyannie Malone Museum, the Loyalist lady who basically founded Hopetown. A house full of history in the form of artifacts rescued from the family scrapheap. I told Hans we should have saved all my mom’s junk & opened a museum of Danbury history…

When we came out of the museum the day had turned ugly, cooler & cloudy with wind picking up. We headed back to the boat. Locals have told us that the weather has been just nasty since Hurricane Irene blew thru in August. Way windier than normal with rage seas. How lucky we were to be stuck in Florida? They also tell us that this holiday season is the best, warmest, calmest one in 3 years-WHOOHOO!

Last night the kids came by to visit with their friend Martha, who’s visiting them from Chicago. They had fun stories to tell about their giant lobster catch & the big fish that got away-maybe a cobia? A delightful evening. Looks like ‘the gang’-Ted, Maggie, Kevin & Tom will all head down to Eleuthera together. Later this week they all go to Little Harbor & wait for a window to cross. Not sure what we’ll do since we go so much faster we don’t need a 2 day window, one is fine to get to Spanish Wells on the north side of Eleuthera.

Tomorrow we return to Marsh Harbor to collect mail & handle some last details before also moving onto Little Harbor. Imagine this: the Johnston family came there in the 50’s to escape the world & create art in peace. Like a Swiss Family Robinson they lived on their sailboat & in caves while they built houses & studios! Randolph Johnston was a Smith College professor & one of the great sculptors of the 20th century.  He & his wife Margot, their daughter & 3 sons set out aboard their schooner from Northampton Mass. His son Pete still runs an art gallery & Pete’s Pub on the island!

Thursday Jan. 5  Marsh Harbor Marina

Good news & bad news….

The good news is that Hans’ plexiglass plate held well & not a trickle of water seeped in thru the hatches! The bad news is that our starboard engine leaks oil quite badly…a result of the lousy job the mechanic in FL did when putting the valve cover gasket back together-GRRR!

The folks at the marina here are so helpful & got on the phone to find us a local mechanic able to seal the gasket for us & he’s due to arrive this afternoon. So I guess “It’s all good”??? Our fellow cruisers insist that this is the boating lifestyle-”It’s always something”. Not what we expected for sure! All our previous boats required quite a bit of work up front to get shipshape but then we enjoyed them for years with no further hassles. I’m not sure I signed on for such a Catholic “suffer & struggle” approach to life…we’ll see.

Once again travel, by land or sea, involves the NO EXPECTATIONS approach! Que sera sera! Such a challenge for control freak me-LOL!

Last night we anchored out in the harbor here & invited fellow cruisers Rick & Miriam on board to help us eat the huge key lime pie we brought from Hopetown. They’re very brave sailors on a Lagoon 38 catamaran sailboat. To prepare for this trip they not only took sailing classes, they took a foul weather course for 3 weeks in the South Seas, where the instructors seek out post-hurricane gale force winds to sail in-AGHHHHH! Miriam is my hero!  She mostly pilots the boat herself even!

Dinghy Doo-doo

We now have an official “poop deck”!

On our way to Hopetown, we emptied the waste holding tanks-there are no pump out stations here so everyone dumps into the ocean-nasty. ‘Feeding the crabs’ Hans calls it!

In Hopetown we tied the dinghy next to the boat, as we used it daily to toodle into town. On the windy cold morning we hopped on the dinghy & Hans yelled “I smell shit.” There were some brown flakes spattered on the seats but I figured it was bird shit-NOT! It was Gail shit-ICK! Just above the dinghy was the vent hole for my toilet, which had overflowed & spewed crap on the dinghy. So in that wild wind & bitter cold we had to swab the decks! FREEZING, wet & pissed! I started laughing & said to Hans “At least I’m not full of shit.”

When we hauled the dinghy out I scrubbed the hell out of it on the back deck, now known as ‘the poop deck’-LOL! It seems that the holding tanks obviously did not empty properly.  On the run to Marsh Harbor Hans figured out we had to go fast to suck the shit out, so we did & left a brown streak in the beautiful blue seas.

Mon. Jan. 9 Marsh Harbor

Florida Flashback! Suffering deja doo doo here as we’re still stuck in Marsh Harbor with the leaky gasket nightmare…On Friday Basil, the mechanic, worked on it for 5 hours & it still leaks-ARGH! He came highly recommended by both the marina & fellow cruisers whose boats he’s worked on successfully. To top it off he’s the official mechanic for The Moorings, the charter company with a fleet of Lagoon catamarans like ours, so he should know these engines.

He replaced the gasket ‘goop’ our mechanic in FL used. When it still leaked he insisted that there is a gasket fitting needed, not just the goop compound. I emailed our mechanic in FL & we took off for Guana Cay as the scent of Sunday pig roast called to us-OINK! OINK!

We enjoyed a lovely 2 days in Guana, calm seas & sunny skies. The full moon illuminated the water beneath our boat like a beacon, so we could look down & see every blade of grass &  ripple of sand at night-WOW!

Today we returned to anchor out in Marsh Harbor awaiting the gasket verdict-it remains a mystery. Our FL mechanic emailed back a notice from Volvo that they discontinued that gasket fitting for our engine in 2005, only sealant (goop) is to be used. Yet Basil told us he ordered  the fitting directly from Volvo this morning! It’s due to arrive by Thurs…Ya gotta love it, if it doesn’t drive ya nutso. I’m borderline.

Meantime we try to make the best of being stuck yet again in a place we’re ready to move on from. Later we’ll join Bill & Linda for cocktails aboard their boat at a nearby marina-at least people are friendly & fun here!

I must say in Basil’s favor that he never yet has asked us to pay a penny for his work! Even though he worked 5 hours (granted with no result!), & he knew we were leaving for Guana Cay for the weekend (& could easily have kept going). That’s amazingly trusting & would NEVER happen in the states for sure. There our mechanic no sooner left the boat than his secretary emailed us the bill, whether or not the repair worked! We paid 1/2 up front to boot! I find it disheartening to hear that cruisers here have taken advantage of this lovely island trust by not paying for work done on their boats & just taking off-miserable bastards! What goes around comes around-we hope! That’s the nice metaphysical way of vendetta-LOL!

We make the best use of our time stuck here with boat projects. I did several large loads of laundry that my wonderful wee washer cannot handle. Domestic drudgery but necessary. There’s a sign in the marina bar that states: “No one notices what I do until I don’t do it.” Perfect description of domestic duties. I often feel that if men had simply given women credit for what it takes to make a house a home, the women’s movement may never have happened. After all what’s so great about equal opportunity? Who wants to go to work for some crappy corporation, nose to the grindstone 60+ hours/week? Oh yea that sounds like fun to me! I never wanted to have the same opportunities as men to work my ass off. I wanted us all to be free to have more FUN & not be forced to fit a stereotype!

Friday the 13th!! Marsh Harbor

What a week! Monday Basil ordered the mystery gasket Fed Ex, normally next day delivery right? WRONG! Island time means it finally arrived Thursday BUT it was sent toTreasure Cay-a different island. By the time that mess got sorted out the day had passed so Basil promised to come by noon Friday.

At 12:30 we were both ready to go berserk. He finally came at 2:00. No gasket-SURPRISE! As I already knew, there is no gasket fitting! At least this time he had the right compound, which is what had actually been Fed Exed by the Volvo dealer in FL.

This must be our unlucky day…after yet another 3 hours of work with the new goop, Hans turned on the engine & IT STILL LEAKS…#@$%^&&^%$#@!. Words fail me. How hard can it be to slobber on the goop & stick 2 parts together? Hans feels in Basil’s favor, as the engine intricacies that loop thru that part make it tough to fit securely. I’m in bitch mode & as my mom described my dad when he flew into his rages: “Your father’s gone mad dog & fit to be shot.” I know Hans wanted to put me out of my misery for sure-LOL! He used rum & coke as his weapon of choice though.

Sat. Jan. 14 HAPPY B-DAY HANS!

Hans’ B-day wish is that Basil gets the gasket seal to work today…Third time’s the charm? Let us pray it’s not 3 strikes & we’re OUT!!!!

In an effort to focus on the positive & cultivate an attitude of gratitude, I decided to make a list of all the blessings in our lives. I remind myself of my blessings & try to ignore the boat BS-quite a feat as we live on board while Basil works under the floor of my kitchen, where the engine is.

Most days this works but today I feel like when my mom always harped on me to eat those disgusting canned ‘bullet’ peas, because of all the starving children in India. This never made the nasty peas taste any better or go down any easier.

Sunday Jan. 15

Today I’d like to introduce a guest blogger, Snowflake with his “View from the Pet Pen”, which he shares with Georgia Mermaid & Prince Charming, Hugh Manatee, Piggy & The Pinks:

Basil came yesterday & FINALLY the leak was sealed. WHOOHOO! Hans had to MacGuyver the problem & ended up crawling down into the engine to hold the valve cover while Basil threaded lines thru it-what a production. But at least it worked!

After Basil left Hans was on a roll (glutton for punishment Gail calls him) & decided to replace the leaky raw water pump-what’s the deal with all the leaking on this @@##$%^&&** boat? He’d brought a new one along & descended into the hole to remove the old one when we heard “OH SHIT!” He then rose up out of the hole like a levitator & bolted to the back of the boat yelling “FUCK! I forgot to close the sea cock.” Water gushed into the engine compartment & Gail began yelling “MAN UNDERBOARD!” & cracking herself up. Hans was not amused.

He replaced the pump successfully & then ran the engine up to 1000 RPM to test the temp….CLACK CLACK CLACK! A strange noise from the engine-not good….

Tomorrow Basil returns to Sherlock this new problem-at least it’s not another leak!

There’s no end to the entertainment these humans provide for us. We find it particularly amusing when they say “That’s what boating is all about.” What is wrong with them? What a Catholic ‘suffer & struggle’ martyr approach to life! Like they cannot have TOO much fun so they need boat BS to deal with to offset the guilt of FUN! NONSENSE! We know better-life is all about fun & food!

Speaking of, last night they went up to the marina restaurant for Hans’ B-day dinner! The Jib Room, as it’s called, serves outstanding steak-who knew that in the Bahamas meat- not fish -would be on the menu? Bill & Linda joined them to celebrate. A fun night!

BTW Basil returned & of course the engine did not make that clackity noise! Gail joked that Basil’s mere presence makes the engine perform perfectly! Maybe he needs to stowaway?

Sun. Jan. 22 Marsh Harbor

Help me I’ve fallen & can’t get up!

The bad news is that we’re still stuck here in Marsh Harbor. Last Sat. Hans broke a rib getting into the dinghy-OUCH! The official story is that a rogue wave swept thru the harbor just as he stepped on the boat & he lost his footing & fell, smashing his side against the seat. I tell you that was scary! He knocked all the air out & could barely move for quite awhile. He’s been immobilized all week, quite the invalid.

Luckily it happened while we were docked at the marina so I’ve been able to ride the bike into town every day.

Still by day 3 I began to morph into Nurse Ratched…to say I’m not the most compassionate caretaker is a gross understatement. Once a close friend announced that she’d been waiting for us to move to Florida so I could take care of her after her neck surgery! For a change I was struck dumb & as the silence thickened Hans shouted out “NO! Gail is MEAN! You only get 3 days to feel bad & then she starts yelling at you to get better.” HA! HA! Saved by the blurt! Fear is a powerful healing force so yesterday Hans had a break-thru!

We went on a dinghy ride into town to shop! I was freaked out about Hans getting back on the horse that threw him & he stepped very cautiously into the dinghy but made it OK. My biggest fear was how he’d manage getting off at the dinghy dock with wave action rocking the boat while I had to hold onto the dock…never fear, Buck Brown to the rescue! The local drunk happened to be hanging around the dock so I yelled up to him “Hello! My husband broke his rib & needs some help!” He ran down jabbering away about how he too had cracked a rib once & “Oh dat pain mon.”

Hilarious! He was really helpful holding onto the boat & Hans while he got off. The fact that Hans did not protest having a drunk help him off the boat should tell you the shape he’s in-LOL! Buck tied the boat up & then escorted us for awhile, demonstrating exercises for Hans to do for his ribs. He slurred his words so badly we couldn’t really make out what he said but his good intentions came thru. On our return we gave him $2 for helping Hans back onto the dinghy-happy Buck!

Now we hope that maybe he just badly bruised his ribs & nothing’s broken…his ego took the worst bruising I think! Hans is the original “Jack Be Nimble” & never falls, unlike me the clutz, always crashing to earth. Luckily I’m well padded so injuries are minimal-LOL!

HANS’ ANDREW ZIMMERN MOMENT

We went to the local fish market where a gnarly old geezer was shelling conch. He offered Hans a strange long linguini-like piece of the critter & chuckled as Hans ate it. With an evil laugh he looked at me & said “Watch out tonight. Hehe.” Of course I knew what he was referring to: the Viagra-like power of conch penis-AGH! Hans had an Andrew Zimmern moment & ate conch cock! I laughed right back at him & said “He better watch out himself if he tries anything! He just broke a rib! Hehe.”

The poor guy looked at Hans sympathetically & told us he broke 2 ribs in Dec. & punctured a lung. He had to be airlifted to Nassau for surgery-EEK! See? It can always be worse!

Today Capt. Hans wants to take the big boat out for a spin. We never did a test drive after the engine work so we have to check that out. Also the shitters need to be dumped lest we have more ‘shit happen’-LOL!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

The test drive was a success! Captain Hans, moving slowly & gingerly, managed to pilot his ship & revved it up to top speed with no mystery clackity clack noise. We’ve decided it was nothing…this may come back to bite us in the ass. When we went on our trip to the Keys in the Mainship, the steering fluid sprang a slight leak in Marathon. I wanted to launch into full crisis repair mode but Hans dismissed it & sure enough the leaking stopped! A miracle! Then when we reached Bahia Honda, steering fluid gushed out like Old Faithful-so much for the theory that engines self-repair! I just pray that clackity clack does not return on the passage to Eleuthera in 12-15 THOUSAND feet of deep open ocean-ARGH!

Today (still Sunday 1/22) is a grey rainy dreary day. We’ve been reading fellow boaters’ blogs about Eleuthera, where we’re headed if we ever get outta Dodge. Vicarious voyaging-LOL!

One guy wrote about the lobster business in Spanish Wells & how most young men go to work at age 14 & many become millionaires by their 20’s! He comments how you’d never know this from observing their lifestyles, which remain devoid of flashy conspicuous consumerism. Why is that? NO TV! They cannot compare themselves to the “good life” of First World countries.

I think of this as the consumer vs. community dilemma facing so many developing countries. Years ago I read a book by an anthropologist who studied a mountain tribe in the Himalayas for many years. When she first visited she was struck by what she perceived as their destitute poverty level, based on all the amenities they lacked. She felt sorry for them. They in turn questioned her about her life in America. While she focussed on all her STUFF, they kept asking about her family connections. She admitted she had none & promptly became an object of pity to the tribespeople. These people felt no lack in their lives & had a fierce pride in their culture & way of life.

When she returned for a follow-up study some years later she was shocked at the changes. The people expressed shame about their poverty & asked her for money. What had caused such a turn around in their attitude? TV! The introduction of TV to the village sparked a victim/entitlement perspective. Suddenly they saw themselves as the have-nots & lost all sense of ethnic pride. They wanted the lifestyle they watched daily on TV & rejected their own as primitive. Such is the effect of globalism. As TV & the Internet shrink the world & bring us closer, they also eradicate the uniqueness of different cultures as people strive to possess the “good life” they see flaunted on the screens. Indigenous people lose their sense of community in their consumeristic quest for STUFF. Beyond sad.

I find it strange that other societies don’t learn from our mistakes. Americans have become workaholics, devoted to their jobs more than fun, friends & family.

What kind of lifestyle is that to emulate? More STUFF does not equal happiness & Americans are not the Prozac nation for nothing. I admire the young men of Spanish Wells & wonder how long they will hold out now that TV threatens their community?

Not that I glorify or whitewash poverty but one must ask how much is enough? Below I share with you a wonderful article I read about poverty in Panama, where we are struck by how people enjoy life, despite not having much STUFF!

Occasionally, income does not provide a true indication of rich and poor and a quality lifestyle can be defined differently.

BY ROBERT E. BAKER

While Panama is experiencing better than 8 percent growth and our future looks brighter than ever, a foreign visitor recently lambasted Panama regarding our level of poverty and warned that we had better watch out because 47 percent of our population lives in poverty. He based this on the low dollar income of almost half of our citizens. Furthermore, while espousing his reactionary values that eluded both interpretation and prophecy, he went on to suggest that Hugo Chavez- type, leftist leaders could be the future result of our 47 percent poverty level.

Food for thought. What is poverty? Is a quality lifestyle accurately measured by each country? To different societies poverty comes in different forms. Is there a yardstick by which we can measure real poverty or should we accept it at face value based on dollars earned? Perhaps if your family cannot afford a car you are considered poor. Others might feel that one less gasoline-burning engine is good for the environment.

It seems that different people in different cultures consider poverty from various viewpoints, some that are socially relevant and others that are not so relevant. If your government can provide you with schools and medical clinics your subsequent lifestyle would be a personal choice. Do you want the big city and what goes with it such as traffic, congestion, pollution, high prices, etc., or do you want the outlying areas that are quiet and cleaner?

If we measure poor by our monthly income it is obvious that the more developed countries will be richer than those that are still Third World. Some societies make you feel inadequate and shameful if you are poor, as if you do not measure up.

Where they live it is not OK to be poor because they see only low incomes and they are blind to other qualities that sometimes abound.

Occasionally, income does not provide a true indication of rich and poor. Some cultures base everything on how much you earn, yet I have often heard it said that you are indeed wealthy if you have a loving family that is healthy. How about the family whose parents are both fast-paced executive superstars working 60 to 80 hours per week and never have time for their children? Could we say that they are good providers, but poor parents? Should the poverty index include quality of life for parents and children? Are poor people sad because they are poor or happy because they have less entrapments?

If you have to walk to school each day, as many of our parents did, does that mean you are poor? There are thousands of children in the countryside of Panama who walk to school every day and they do not consider themselves poor. In fact, they seem quite happy and also appear to be in excellent health. Typically, when they get home from school their mother or father is there waiting for them. In this case, is it good to be poor because you get more quality time with your parents? We might consider the kids of a first-world country who arrive home to an empty house to be poor because they have no mother or father to welcome them with a warm hug and a kiss.

Is it a description of poverty when many of our campesinos feed themselves from their immediate surroundings with fresh mangos, fresh bananas, or papayas or our native fishermen bring home fresh fish for their families to eat? Does that mean they are poor? Should we be ashamed that we cannot afford to buy the less- healthy processed foods at a huge supermarket? Did you know that in some first- world countries the government allows you to legally sell “Fresh Fish”, when it is as much as 22 days old? I don’t think anyone in Panama would eat a 22-day old fish. Do you?

I know several fishermen who live on the Atlantic coast and all of them are considered poor. One is named Raul and he lives with his family in a small house with no TV and no air conditioning. They don’t even have an electric can opener or a car, but they know all of their neighbors and either Raul or his wife Rumwalda are home every day when their two daughters walk home from school. Raul fishes three or four days each week and what his family does not eat, they trade or sell. While his house is quite small, it is ocean-front and they have little stress, no air pollution and almost no noise pollution, except for the lazy dog that starts barking at 6:00 AM. Most economists that measure by the dollar yardstick would definitely say Raul is poor, but I never thought of him that way because he seems to have so much. A healthy family, fresh food, low stress, beautiful oceanfront view, nice kids who have school and a nearby clinic. It’s a different lifestyle.

Could poverty ever be measured by what percent of your society can wear normal- sized clothes? One might argue that the 47 percent of our poor population are for the most part, not fat. How does that compare to a first-world country where 65 percent of the citizens are overweight? Most medical professionals agree that it is unhealthy and it is usually considered poor health to be overweight, especially when you factor in the collateral damage of diabetes and heart disease. Could we say then, that 65 percent of that specific first-world country lives in poverty because they are overweight and in poor health? Could poverty be measured that way?

Are you poor if you only have one television in your house or do you measure wealth by the number of TVs and telephones? Our poor campesinos might measure wealth by the number of hours they get to spend interacting with their children or their parents instead of watching television or being interrupted by cell phones. Is wealth fueled by a consumer driven society where you need to buy the latest fashion? Is the fact that children in more developed countries wear designer- clothes to school a good thing? Who is that good for? Are we poor because our Panama school children wear uniforms that do not include fashion statements?

Who is rich and who is poor? Sometimes I’m not sure, but perhaps we can agree that there are different measures regarding poverty that are best suited for different cultures and one assumes a host of unrelated complexities when one confuses different cultures and values.

Robert E. Baker is the president of the American Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Panama. 

Sat. Jan. 28  Guess Where?????
STILL STUCK IN MARSH HARBOR!
I’m considering calling this the “Constipated Cruise” since we seem to constantly get stuck along the way. The plan was to leave yesterday for Little Harbor, spend the weekend there & then head south to Eleuthera. Hans was able to work the davit to haul the dinghy out, first time since his injury-WHOOHOO!
We woke to wild wind & waves slapping at the hull. The update from our weather guru, Chris Parker, recommended we wait for a better window until Wed. So here we sit. Maybe for the best as Hans is sore today & still on the mend. We’re not in a rush & want to enjoy the voyage rather than go just for the sake of getting there.
Tonight Linda & Bill invited us to their boat for dinner. A fellow boater at their marina shows movies on Sat. night so we’ll stay & watch that. Tomorrow our marina-Marsh Harbor Marina-hosts a Sunday brunch for boaters docked here. Since Hans hasn’t been able to work the dinghy davit until now, we’ve stayed at a slip here so I can bike into town. The marina folks are helpful & friendly & have lots of fiestas: Wed. night ribs, Sat. night steak, & Thurs. Happy Hour for cruisers!
I still cannot grasp why so many boaters just hang out here in Marsh Harbor all winter! It’s more like a retirement lifestyle than cruising…they’re just retired on a boat, at anchor or in a marina. We cannot wait to get going! I am bored silly here & we’d never stay if not stuck due to Hans’ injury. There’s really not much to do here at all.  Yesterday out of desperation I scoured the mildew on the flybridge. I told Hans that of all the ways I feared my possible demise on this trip, I NEVER imagined I’d die of boredom-LOL! Oh well, whatever floats your boat I guess! To each his/her own!
The other day we rode our bikes for miles looking for a beach to walk on & found none. Before Hans hurt himself we did snorkel at Mermaid Reef BUT the water is so freaking cold it was more endurance contest than enjoyable. Even the fish snuggled up to us for warmth-that was sorta fun, having schools of colorful reef fish up close & personal.
Today & tomorrow’s weather calls for squalls & 50% chance of rain. Mon. the wind returns, blasting from the NE at 25mph. No need to battle the elements so we’ll stay cozy & bored right here. LOL!
Wed. Feb. 1
Whistling wind & wincing
Today the wind whistles at 25 knots & Hans winces with pain, so much for our departure date! Tonight is RIB night at the marina restaurant-how appropriate!
Daily life has improved though! We met another fun couple, Peter & Jane, from Massachusetts. Tomorrow we’ll rent a car with them & Bill & Linda to explore the island. At least we’ll sightsee as landlubbers, since we can’t float our boat…
Friday, Feb. 3
Soon we’ll need to get an extension on our 3 month visa for the Bahamas & we’ve barely even begun the voyage! We had a fun road trip with Bill & Linda, Peter & Jane yesterday. Of course Google Queen me researched the Internet & became Tour Guide Gail for the trip-I tried not to be TOO bossy (MOOOOO) but everyone seemed glad to have a plan.
We searched for Bahamian parrots
& found them! They’re endangered because they nest on the ground & feral cats hunt them.
We even discovered a wonderful walking beach,
but the bar was closed-boohoo!
This huge haul of conch
on the dock of Sandy Cay will earn $3-4/pound
for the guy whose face you can barely see peeking out behind us. Not bad for an hour’s worth of diving…but of course he knows the secret hiding place!
We ended up in Little Harbor where we’ve been trying to get to by boat for a month now! ARGH! This is how I feel by now:
Friday Feb. 10  Little Harbor
WE FINALLY MADE IT HERE!
On Tues. we busted a move from the dock in Marsh Harbor, despite the forbidding forecast of “unsettled weather & threat of squalls.”  Peter & Jane, also sick of marina life, launched along with us. We bid a sad good-bye to Bill & Linda who opted to play it safe & stay at their marina.
Lucky for us the weather ignored the forecast & we enjoyed a calm mostly sunny ride to Lynyard Cay, where we anchored out for 2 nights. FUN! For the first time since arriving in the Bahamas we swam without risk of hypothermia-WHOOHOO!
We discovered an amazing ring of reef as we walked along the beach. About 3 feet across it looked like a mini aquarium, loaded with marine life!
Hans & I paddled the kayak for the first time since New Year’s Day. So happy that his ribs are getting better, though he felt a bit sore the next day. We’re both feeling “In The Pink”!!
On Thursday we said adios to Lynyard Cay & headed out bright & early to catch the high tide into Little Harbor. The entry channel is just 3.5 feet at low tide & Peter & Jane’s boat draws 5.5 feet, so we needed to come in on the hight tide to avoid a grounding. We’re lucky our boat only draws 4 feet.
The original plan was to leave Little Harbor today BUT another front is moving in with wind & rain so we’ve decided to grab a mooring here & stay until it passes. Hopefully by next week Captain Hans will be 100% & ready for the big crossing to Eleuthera. The trip to Spanish Wells is about 60 nautical miles, a bit longer than the Gulf crossing as we cannot go the direct route due to shallows & coral heads. We must go around Egg Island to get to Spanish Wells.
No matter. We’re delighted to be out of Marsh Harbor & enjoy this great view from our mooring!
Little Harbor has lots to do-beach walks & snorkeling, roads to hike & explore. We can also hitch a ride down the road to visit Cherokee Sound, a small fishing village.
“Make new friends
But keep the old
One is silver
The other is gold.”
This song from my pre-school teaching days comes to mind often on this trip. As old friends seem to fade into the void of time & distance, we meet new friends in the cruising community-a fun lively group, for the most part. There are always those grouches who are so busy being jealous of others they find it impossible to appreciate all that they have themselves. We avoid them like the plague! My mom Rose always said “If you can’t get 10, take 5 & be damn glad you didn’t end up with nothing.” Her way of reminding us that there are always those with more than you & also those with less, so be happy with what you have. An attitude of gratitude!
We especially enjoy Peter & Jane’s company because they’re exuberant & always grateful for each day on the water. Today we’ll explore the caves where the Johnston family lived upon first arriving on the island. Remember WAY back on Jan. 3rd I wrote about them? When we were SUPPOSED to come here?
The sculptor, Randolph Johnston & his artist wife, Margo, with their 3 sons & a daughter escaped from the world to work in the peace of this natural environment. They lived on their sailboat & in these caves, eventually creating a foundry & art gallery.
Nowadays their son, Pete, has created Pete’s Pub, an island watering hole!
Following the tradition we left a T-shirt behind to line the “walls”.
 
Sat. Feb. 11
A grey dreary day…good thing we decided to stay put! We woke to an early morning thunderstorm-great rinse down for the boat.
Yesterday’s cave expedition was a bit of a bust spelunking-wise BUT quite a hoot getting there & back. We all piled onto Peter & Jane’s dinghy & headed out at low tide. As we approached the caves tucked into the hillside we slowed down to beach the boat. Peter jumped out in the shallows to pull the dinghy to shore & promptly sunk to his hips in the “quick”sand-ARGH! We feared he’d be sucked under as he clung to the side of the dinghy, half buried in the muck. Hans leaped in to help & the sand sucked him in as well. Jane & I began laughing like crazy & trying to paddle the boat in with the 2 men clinging to the sides-too funny! Too bad no one You Tubed it for us! Finally between the men pulling & us paddling we made it to shore. What a mess! The caves weren’t even what I’d call a cave & I cannot imagine living in such a mass of sharp pokey rocks-ouch! Nowhere a soft sandy space to call home for me! I’d have stayed on that sailboat for sure!
Wading out to the dinghy for the return trip proved challenging. Once we climbed aboard the dinghy sank into the muck. We did the ‘dinghy dance’, all switching positions in that tiny cramped space & cracking ourselves up trying to not fall overboard. We gathered in the back for ‘ballast’ while Hans went ashore to pull the anchor & finally we launched! After Peter & Jane cleaned their trashed dinghy & themselves, we gathered on our boat for drinks & munchies-YUM!
Today we may go on a tour of the foundry. Or Hans & I may walk into Cherokee Sound, the fishing village 5 miles down the road…
The foundry is closed on weekends so we headed for town despite threatening skies. We ended up walking the 2 miles out to the road & a nice guy stopped & offered us a ride. Amazingly he’s from Stuart Florida, just up the road from our old stomping grounds in Hobe Sound-small world!
We wandered around Cherokee, enjoying the charming, colorful houses.
There was a 770 foot dock-before Hurricane Irene decimated the last section that is!
We lucked out & only had to dodge a few sprinkles all afternoon, then got 2 rides back to Little Harbor, without even hitching! People are so friendly they simply stop & ask if you’d like a lift-WOW!
On the dinghy ride back to our boat we saw a scary sight…our boat was in danger of being rammed by a sailboat dragging its anchor! Luckily Peter had hailed the harbor ‘master’ ( a stretch for the gnarly old geezer), telling him to notify the boat owners-at the bar! No surprise. He told Peter that when they’d dropped anchor he’d advised them to put out more line but they ignored him. They did the fastest resetting of an anchor I’ve ever seen & dashed back to the bar without even bothering to watch if it held fast. Some folks just shouldn’t own a boat! They’re really not supposed to  anchor in a mooring field as they’re always in danger of swinging into the moored boats. There’s an entire separate area for anchoring but no one tells them to go there…I’m tempted to, but manage to shut up. Once again the lack of personal accountability reaching global epidemic proportions. The ”Everything here is mine” attitude rules the world it seems. Later we learned that these guys ran up a big bar bill & left without paying…in such a case I wonder who’s the bigger idiot? The moochers who absconded or the bartender who let losers like that drink on credit?…
Later we watched a Lilliputian regatta from our boat.
Sun. Feb. 12
Trapped on the boat by howling winds of 30-35 knots, roaring straight out of the north & COLD! BRRRRRRR. Glad to be safe & snug here in Little Harbor.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
“A great day for Hallmark!” says Hans, my romantic hubby-LOL!
Yesterday we took a wonderful walk with fellow boaters Craig & Lisa,
along the road out to the point, where houses are on sale for over a million dollars! Hans noticed the price had dropped from over 2 mil to 1.9 mil…makes us appreciate Panama’s real estate prices!
As we strolled along we suddenly heard a harsh shrieking & a bolt of blue shot up from the ground next to us & flew right in front of us-WOW! A wild parrot sighting-indescribably exciting! Possibly protecting a nearby nest, the colorful bird perched high above us screaming down at us. We madly snapped photos as the first bird was joined by its mate! Truly a Discovery Channel moment!
I read Randolph Johnston’s book “A Study in Self-Reliance” while we’ve been here…about how he & his wife Margot & their 3 boys homesteaded Little Harbor. Their oldest daughter left soon after arriving here-smart move! I think I’d have called it “A Study in Self-Torture”-BAD GAIL!  Truly backbreaking labor with poor results in farming & land clearing, house building & scrambling to earn a living. Didn’t sound like much fun to me & Johnston himself often refers to it as “disheartening work”. In the 1970’s when he himself was pushing 70, he & Margot finally began to earn money as artists! Better late than never I guess…
He makes an interesting comment that we also have felt in our short time here:
“Bahamian Blacks often laugh & joke & seem entirely free from the brooding sense of being discriminated against which troubles so many American Blacks.”
This was written in 1952!  That surprised us most, that already then the bad-ass attitude so common now reared its ugly face. Rose always said “Most people are their own worst enemies.” In some cases it’s more obvious than others. Although I don’t defend any ‘victim’ mentality I do believe that the history of racism was far harsher in the US than it ever was here in the Bahamas…
Today we’ve been out of the marina for a full week-WHOOHOO! We managed to generate our own power, make our own water & handle our waste in the ‘holding tank’. It’s like we’re a floating mini-city with electricity, water & septic-LOL! Delighted that we’ve FINALLY got all our systems running well, we feel ready to head to Eleuthera tomorrow, weather permitting. Today we head out on the high tide at noon to anchor overnight back in Lynyard Cay so we can leave early for the crossing tomorrow morning. I am as usual terrified of the open ocean passages. The depths of 15,000 feet freak me out even more-EEK!
Thurs. Feb. 16 Spanish Wells, Eleuthera
WE MADE IT!   The 5 hour crossing went well. With waves of 3 feet & swells up to 5 feet we rolled around but not too badly.  The engines are in fine form, running perfectly-WHOOHOO! All systems are GO & we’re thrilled to do so! We feel the Abacos served as our “shakedown cruise”…this nautical term means: ’The shakedown cruise familiarizes a crew with the vessel & ensures all of the ship’s systems are functional.’ Hans jokes that Badjaw got a shakedown while I got a shakeup-LOL! I’m becoming a better first mate every day though! Practice makes perfect-or at least not as freaked out in my case. Proves that the best way to overcome a fear is to face it straight on.
We had a wonderful surprise our last day in the Abacos-Bill & Linda made it down to Lynyard Cay! What a fun gathering with Peter & Jane, Craig & Lisa, for a “last supper” cook-out & bonfire on the beach.
A fantastic send-off for us! We will miss all our fun friends so much!
Spanish Wells is a working town of fishermen, not at all touristy & we like that.
Today we’ll take the fast ferry over to Harbor Island-very la-dee-dah, to explore the town & hopefully extend our visas. We’d have to hire a pilot to take Badjaw there as the passage is known as “The Devil’s Backbone” for the treacherous coral heads ready to rip out the bottom of your boat! No thanks!
Sat. Feb. 18 Spanish Wells
We were underwhelmed with our day trip to Harbor Island. The highlight was the fast ferry ride thru the treacherous reefs & shallows of the Devil’s Backbone.
This big ship zigged & zagged constantly to avoid hitting hidden coral heads-quite a sight to watch us zoom over such shallow waters & see the reefs lurking just below the surface, ready to rip the guts from the ship!
While Spanish Wells is a fishing town with a working waterfront & well to do population, Harbor Island depends on tourism & what a contrast! Here in SW houses are tidy & well kept, with lovely gardens.
In HI we saw ramshackle shacks & many poor folks.
Astronomical prices too! Imagine a simple linguini pesto for $35! We wandered the streets, stomachs growling but stubbornly refusing to pay such ridiculous prices. Finally Hans spotted a young Black man with a styrofoam food container. He asked him where he’d gotten that & we were directed to the local eatery-Angela’s Starfish. No starfish on the menu but a good meal of fried fish, rice & peas-YUM! It’s never cheap to eat here. Even such a meal costs $14 compared to $8 in Panama-more to appreciate about the big P-HA! HA!
While walking the streets we noticed several dogs out in the shallow waters off the island. Hans thought they were just frolicking but watching them more closely we saw that they had their noses down near the water as though they were hunting! Strange! I asked an old guy & he said “Them fishin’ dogs.” Their owners train them to fish by tossing fish into the water & having the dogs retrieve them, gradually shifting them to live fish & then catching their own to bring them back to their owners-WOW! Like the fishing cormorants in China!
We’re not shoppers which is the big draw on HI so after 2-3 hours we’d seen the town.  There was no immigration office there so we took the gov’t ferry from Dunmore Town back to the mainland, then a taxi to the immigration office for our 3 month extension, which went without a hitch! The taxi cost $15 for a 15 minute ride! He told us he charges another $25 to take us up the mainland to the gov’t ferry at Jean’s Bay to return to Spanish Wells-outrageous! We decided to walk & within 5 minutes a nice lady stopped to offer us a ride. Hans had to sit next to her slobbery puppy-LOL!
Eleuthera is not a popular cruising island despite its beautiful beaches & crystal clear wonderful waters. That’s because there are no marinas along the west coast & the anchorages are exposed to wind & waves, with little protection & poor holding. The east coast is not a cruising ground at all as it’s littered with treacherous reefs. In a big blow marinas are far apart at either end of the island, so you have to weather the storm & pray the anchor holds. No fun!
We wanted a few days of calm to cruise along the coast but the weather didn’t cooperate. The forecast called for 1-2 days of calm & then the winter winds blowing in again. The last thing we needed was to get caught out in a blow. So on Friday we rented a car & did the landlubber tour-LOL! We took the ferry to the mainland where Harry picked us up in our rental & off we went!
First we drove out to Current Cut (see map).
This is a narrow slit of water that we’ll pass thru to get from SW to the west coast of the island. It earned its name due to tidal currents that run 6-10 knots thru the channel-EEK! It’s a challenging run so we wanted to scope it out by land. Capt. Hans is confident that Badjaw has plenty of power to handle the current, though we’ll time our passage for slack tide with calm winds for safety.
Onto The Glass Window, once a natural arch in the rock, smashed through by the powerful Atlantic Ocean. Named for the fact that you could ‘look thru’ the window formed by the arch. Now a bridge crosses the arch, the last in a series built across the rock gorge. This one already shows signs of storm damage with huge cracks in the structure.  No surprise when you consider that when ocean rollers surge in with 3,000 miles behind them, they throw walls of water 100-120 feet high, carrying away the bridge & anything on it. Many lives have been lost there, with people swept out to sea. We kept a cautious distance from the edge.
We continued on our drive to the Queen’s Baths, a huge area of tidal pools carved out by the Atlantic. You would NOT want to soak in heavy swells but we visited in a low tide of gently lapping waves, not the pounders often felt here.
We went all the way to Governor’s Harbor & the towns we passed along the way were not much to speak of. Since the island is quite narrow we criss crossed from the Atlantic to the inside Bight of Eleuthera several times in our journey. The water sparkles spectacularly & calm coves invite you to swim & picnic. We saw many boarded up homes & abandoned construction projects. The economic downfall has hit hard here too. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Twin Brothers restaurant, a famous eatery from Nassau just opening a branch here-maybe a good sign for folks?
Tourism as an industry can have both positive & negative effects on a country. I believe that the country’s own government owes it to its people to use tourism profits to protect the public good & the local environment. Jobs would be a great asset to panhandlers we saw on the streets of these small towns. Sustainable tourism is a positive force. BUT then you have Royal Island, near Spanish Wells.  The gov’t allowed former professional football player Roger Staubach to build an upscale development here, starting by denuding the land. After it was scraped clean he abandoned the project, leaving behind a scarred landscape with deadly run off for surrounding sea life & corals. Many locals express outrage at Staubuch but isn’t it the gov’t’s responsibility to ensure sustainable development? Why fault the developer when his goal is always to watch the bottom line? The gov’t must maintain a higher vision for its people & ecology & hold developers to that. Again this reminds us of Panama where tourists & foreign residents do more to protect the environment than the gov’t or the local population. Sort of sad really.
Preacher’s Cave was the last stop on our tour.
Here the first settlers, shipwreck survivors from their boat smashing to bits on The Devil’s Backbone, crawled to shore & discovered this cave for shelter.
In 1647 a group that called themselves the “Eleutherian Adventurers” left Bermuda to find a place where they could practice religious freedom. They encountered a storm and the ship they were sailing in ran onto rocks which was later called the Devils Back Bone north of Spanish Wells.
The Adventurers lead by William Sayles found their way to shore and took refuge in what was later called Preacher’s Cave. A religious service was held in Preacher’s cave every year for the next 100 years on the anniversary of the day that God lead the adventurers to safety in what they believed to be the promised land.
Although they had shelter they had lost all their provisions and were unable to feed themselves. One of their members, an expert sailor, took a small boat and managed to make his way to Boston, where he told of their plight and asked for help. The citizens of Boston sent all the supplies they needed. The Adventurers were able to start their new life in the place they christened Eleuthera from the Greek word meaning Freedom.
Sun. Feb. 19 
Still in Spanish Wells with winds keeping us here for the next few days. No matter! We enjoy the town & the PINK beach-great for walking! Hope the pinks don’t decide to bust & move & fly off-LOL!
 
To be continued.
Check in again soon!
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