Ruth - Dec. 4th

I am still wearing the yarn bracelet Caroline gave to me this summer.
I remember once I put it on, planning on keeping it on as long as I
could, and hoping, actually imagining, it would last through our trip
to the Bahamas. I literally fantasized of cruising around the ocean
and drinking and lying on the beaches wearing this bracelet. I even
packed a couple backups that she let me have so that if this one fell
off I would have more to wear during our Bahamian adventures. Every so
often I glance at it on my wrist and it makes me feel close to home
and close to her.
Yesterday we had planned on sailing to Nassau, but the skies were
looking dark, and since it is a 35 mile trek across open ocean (the
Northwest Providence Channel to be specific), we were not up for the
task. I therefore drank an enormous amount of wine, drank myself silly
in fact, and read all day and had long conversations with Jack,
including a literary discussion over the book we had both recently
finished by Hemingway called "The Sun Also Rises." Needless to say,
after hours of gulping copious amounts of red wine, I ended up
sprawled motionless on my back against the life cushions, wrapped in a
fuzzy blanket (that Jack has owned since he was 10) while the fresh
sea breeze blew refreshingly over my face as Jack drove us to the edge
of the Channel. I believe eating an entire package of warm bologna,
dripped with even more ketchup, earlier in the day when I was seized
with the munchies, didn't help the situation.
The day before that, we had anchored the night up at Great Stirrup Cay
at the tip of the Berry Islands. I woke up and paddled the dingy over
to the island and went for a very long and strange run. The island was
completely overgrown except for a trail that led to a lighthouse and
another trail that led to the other side of the island. After
literally dodging rats and rats and lizards dodging me, I made it to
the other side, which is property of the Norwegian Cruise Lines. It
was very strange and creepy to see a beach FULL of hundreds of lawn
chairs, picnic tables, hammocks, concession stand after concession
stand, kayaks, rafts, jet skis, huge beer coolers – all abandoned!
Don't worry, I checked the big coolers, but everything had been
cleaned out. I did, however, take a couple NCL party drink cups as
souvenirs.
The Bahamas are beautiful. Really, very beautiful. Most of the islands
are uninhabited but are hard to explore because they are completely
overgrown with mangroves, palms, vines, and other growth. We saw a
dead raccoon on a reef at Frazer's Hog. Sorry, just remembered that.
That was on Jack's birthday and was the night we found at least a
dozen conch but didn't eat any of them because the fisherman who we
met when we came back shared their huge mama conchs with us. So
anyway, back to how beautiful the Bahamas are: the waters really are
crystal f*ckin clear! The colors are indescribable. The deep blue of
the ocean is like no blue I've ever seen, as well as the aqua blue of
the sandy shallow waters. It's so wonderful to be able to see the
bottom at 30 and 40 feet! Today we took the big trip to Nassau from
Bonds Cay (at the bottom of the Berries). It took us about 8 hours to
cross, and when we were close to the harbor past these huge rocky
reefs, we anchored the boat and jumped in the deep, clear water. We
did this once before traveling from Chub Cay to Frazer's Hog. That
time I jumped butt naked into about 30 –40 feet of water, and the
aqua-blue salty liquid was so clear that the bottom looked like it was
2 inches away. Thrilling! True love to he ocean. True love. I'm
fortunate enough that the salt doesn't bother me either. I've been in
the water nearly everyday for a swim or a snorkel without any
irritation.
Well, we made it here and will be in Nassau for a few days doing some
shopping for provisions, checkin out a museum or two, and maybe even
Scuba Diving! This is all very exciting. I have Christmas lights as my
computer background. I love all my family and all my friends.