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.

Ruth-Dec 1st

is the most amazing experience to look up and see literally
hundreds of bright stars in my field of vision. It is easy to get lost
in this multitude of magnificence. It is equally amazing to dive and
look down and see hundreds of fish. Beautiful, bright fish. Schools
upon schools of striped, fluorescent blue, yellow, silver and red
fish. Swimming and swirling beneath me, curious and unafraid. A very
comforting feeling. This, I experience almost on a daily basis. The
wind, the water, the sun, the life of the sea. The clouds, the stars,
the people. Everything and everyone so refreshing. So revitalizing.
The taste of salt on my lips and in my mouth has so quickly turned
from a foreign feeling to a comforting one. So many people we meet are
friendly, kind, thoughtful, GIVING.
Two days ago (hard to measure, since two days feels like a week), we
docked our boat for a few hours at the Great Harbor Marina at Great
Harbor Cay expecting to pay for water and a hardware part for our
broken grill with what little money we had. By the time we would have
typically left the marina, we had gotten a ride all afternoon from
some homeowners on the island helping us with our errands, the marina
captain told us we could stay a few nights for free and gave us free
water and showers, and traveling fisherman hooked us up with POUNDS of
freshly cut steaks of wahoo! The following day, those same homeowners
(Patty, John, and Bonnie) stopped by our boat and invited us to the
'Beach Club' for drinks. They introduced us to their friends, who were
all wonderful people. They picked up our tab before we could get
theirs. AND they invited us over for dinner. Since our grill was
broken at the time, we were able to cook some of the fish at their
house and they provided numerous side dishes and drinks. It was
incredible. It was like Thanksgiving. We had fried Wahoo marinated in
two different sauces (garlic & herb and mesquite & lime), salad, stir
fry vegetables, hardboiled eggs, and CANABA ROOT, which was made like
mashed potatoes but is seriously way WAY better and probably one of
the best things I've ever eaten IN MY LIFE.
The people of the Bahamas are so friendly and giving! On Frazer's Hog
we ran into a couple guys who had caught about six of seven large
conch. After seeing us hack away at our tiny conch (which was to be
our dinner), they called us over and showed us the best way to pull
the conch from their shell. That was nice enough, but they didn't stop
there. They proceeded to actually make us an entire conch salad…lime
juice, lemon juice, onions, green peppers, salt, hot peppers, and
all! It was the most tender conch I have had so far! They even shared
their Jamaican weed with us (which needless to say, if you're from the
States, you cannot FATHOM the awesomeness of this Jamaican grown bud!)
In ADDITION, they wanted to see if their extra BaTelCo card would fit
in Jack's phone – meaning we would have been able to have cell phone
service anywhere in the Bahamas! Unfortunately the card didn't fit
because of the phone brand. But these guys just wanted to give it to
us, free of any charge. They shared so much of what they had, in
return for NotHiNG. What badasses. Seriously, Bahamians kiiiinda rock.

Today, we left the harbor to check out two wrecks. The first was a
shipwreck 4 miles north of the harbor. We dinghy'd over to that one
and took pics. The corrosion was atrocious. We don't know the history,
though we'd like to find out. The second expedition was a plane
wreck!! It was fully sunk! It was phenomenal! The wings were still
fully attached as well as many of the other plane parts. The propeller
was stellar. It was a haven for mad amounts of fish, including these
light blue/aqua type fish that I don't know the name of but would like
to find out. Beautiful. Jack saw an angel fish! Red and white striped.
I almost ran into a small jellyfish on my way back to the boat.
Exciting! I love snorkeling sooo much It is freedom! Tomorrow we are
planning on snorkeling this reef near where we are anchored. We are on
the south side of great stirrup cay. It is supposed to be great for
lobstering.
Oh, I saw my first sharks the other day! They were Nersharks, the
harmless ones, bottom feeders, although they have been known to bite
when prodded with (of course who wouldn't bite when prodded)> But
seriously, they were BEAUTIFUL! Tanned colored, and fairly big!
Biggest fish I've ever seen so far, at least. Longest maybe seven feet
long? I saw at least twelve of them swimming around the dock at the
marina near dusk. Late afternoon and dusk is when the sharks like to
eat so we will stay away from reefs around that time. Excited for
tomorrow! Snorkeling will be the ultimate, hopefully I will run on the
island? I will have to dingy in though, so we'll see. The other half
of the day we plan on sailing south along the outside of the berry
islands, in the deep water of the ocean. Maybe we will troll…we have
P-LENTY of wahoo bait given to us as a gift specifically for bait so
that should be great for pulling up a large fish! Yay! This is the
sweetest and the best. I'm so happy and seriously Jack is the SHIT
cause he spent so much time trying to fix our propane valve that broke
because the tiller whapped it hard in strong winds. And he did it! He
never gave up , try after try, when the glue didn't work , nor the
Teflon, or the JB Weld, nor the fiberglass…then he finally sawed the
pipe and clamped it on to the propane tank tube. Man, he is the shit.
Tonight he cooked up some of our gift wahoo…I don't know how he
seasoned it but it was the tastiest, most tender, fish I've ever had!
The thickest and purest piece of meat I've ever had. He sautéed onions
and green peppers and threw them on top, and added corn on the side.
Oh man, that man can cook. And fix things! My man! I am so fortunate
to be sitting here on a beautiful cozy boat, our wonderful home, with
a belly full of pure fresh ocean fish, listening to the halyard
occasionally slap the mast in the wind and the vhf cord strike back
and forth inside the mast. It has become such a beautiful sound to me.
A lullaby to fall asleep to as the water sways the boat, rocking us to
sleep! Stars shining celestially above me, snorkel gear and wetsuits
in the cockpit waiting to be used tomorrow, towel hanging, drying.
Wonderful Jack asleep on the comfy foam cushions we made our bed.
Plenty of water, plenty of food, plenty of gas, full battery, plans to
go to Nassau soon. I feel very free!

A Plane Wreck

This was AWESOME. Tons of fish swimming inside and around a plane wreck in about 12 feet of water. Gorgeous, clear water, plane fairly intact. We took a few underwater photos. Maybe we can get them developed somewhere and up online before we return... I realize you can't see it so well from this one. Lionfish down there too. Very poisonous/dangerous but beautiful. I wish we could find out the story of this plane. I grabbed a small hunk of the wing to bring anyone who is interested. Chris Lison and Mary Lee and Vincent come to mind...

Fiberglass Vengeance, Indeed

Encasing oreos in epoxy resin. Stir crazy, with too much time on my hands. Like "The Shining," only the snow is melted, and 400 feet deep, and you're floating in it.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BAHAMAS, STAYS IN THE BAHAMAS

December 4, 2007

12-4-07
Nassau. Finally. Only 35 miles away, but a bit of a tough slog, even with the wind behind us. The boat is very difficult to steer when the waves get large, and they probably weren’t more than three feet, and far apart (swells, as they say, as opposed to steep, breaking waves) they were confused, and coming from a few directions. I get a bit nervous when out of sight of land on all sides, especially when we get storm clouds driving around in glorified lightning rod. I start imagining a lightning strike, and then what we’d do with a hole burned through the boat, and the VHF antenna fried to a paste. We almost broke down and bought a Batelco cell phone tonight, but at a dollar a minute to the states, we can’t afford it. The mooring cost $43.75 for the night, and $6.00 mandatory charge for water, even though we arrived full, and don’t even have a hose. So we just got done taking the showers of our lives. About $3 worth each. Oh, well, better than $75 next door.

Speaking of that, my skin is doing WAY better suddenly. I think having it turn totally reptilian for about a week might have helped it after all. It’s weird though, when I’m not covered in Vaseline from the waist up, I feel all my skin crinkle up when I move or twist. My skin was like that of Adrian Vandenberg, guitarist for Whitesnake- that is, the texture and color of an orange. Kind of interesting in a creepy way, but what the hell, I’m a creepy guy.

We’ll probably do all of our shopping (maybe buy a radio!) tomorrow, benadryl, Vaseline, the works, and go to Starbucks of all places, because they have free internet if you buy coffee. Works for me. I get to post about a week’s worth of blogs, and a ton of pix. Kool and the gang. Tonight we spent $16 on a smallish pizza and two cokes. Then another $8 on two blizzards at Dairy Queen. Yeah, I know. Chains suck. I hear that, but after cold canned beans for a while, you start to smell pepperoni and ice cream from a few miles at sea. Shoot, we’ve only been gone a couple weeks! I can’t imagine how we’ll be fiending for movies by the time we return, and the soft, and demure looks of Cash, and the twinkle in Mickey’s eye. Ahh, me.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Tomorrow’s the big day. We get to write to you all. Maybe even hear from some folks. Maybe if you got my message, you might have sent an email from your phones. Then I can “text” you, kinda. That would be cool to talk a bit live-ish. And I can address the lawsuit with Hammerman and Gainer (the State Farm people I worked for that screwed me out of my millions).

Who knows? Sky’s the limit. We went to a video store in the same strip mall tonight, and they had bootlegged every single movie they had. Rentals, $5. Sales, $6. All of the Faces of Death series, other horror/super morbid shit, and tons of Kung Fu, and then the video library of Sidney Poitier. That was pretty much the extent of it. There were a couple of oddballs, two documentaries- one of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, and one about the rush into the war in Iraq. It had a pic of Noam Chomsky, so we got that in the hope that the most intelligent man alive might be featured. We also noted to the clerk that all of their movies were stolen, and asked if they wanted to burn what we had, and maybe work out a trade. The guy suddenly got very hush hush, and asked that we return tomorrow and discuss it. Like everyone doesn’t know what’s up. That was kind of hilarious.

I guess the crime here is supposed to be really bad, which explains why we had to get buzzed into Radio Shack, and there’s a guard on the sidewalk, and watching the door of Domino’s. What I couldn’t understand was why there were 7 people working in this tiny Domino’s, and we were the only customers. No wonder their pizza is overpriced.


The place here has a pool too, so we plan on soaking up about $6 of its water tomorrow too. Big day planned, that.

Maybe we’ll try to get the fridge looked at, or at least call someone. We have it running off of shore power now, to see if it will cool down at all. Keep your fingers crossed, eh?

Okay, gotta run and drink some water. I have water on the brain right now, in the best of all possible ways.

Talk to you all tomorrow, I hope.

JL

DECEMBER 3, 2007 and some more pictures from Great Harbour

December 3? 2007
Sitting here in the inside of Bond’s Key, Ruth just woke up. There’s some sweet tune (for the first time today) on the radio. We were trying to get am 1540 to get a weather forecast, but all we can get is right wing bullshit, trying to convince everyone that the emperor is dressed to the nines, and we need to protect against people stealing his clothes. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. Even here, in the Bahamas, where no one lives. We’re five islands away from any life. Maybe 8 miles. 2 and a half feet of water between all of them, no fish even. Maybe a conch? No. Round where it’s deeper, possibly. It’s barren in here. We heard it might get windy, so we aren’t leaving for Nassau, even though it’s only 40 miles. You never know, especially in the dark. We snuck out into the Northwest Providence Channel to see what it was like. It was cool, three foot waves, very far apart, which you hardly know are there, but we decided to stay around just in case. On the way back in, we anchored, and here a LOUD sound off to our larboard. That’s port, or left, or whatever. I guess there’s a reef real nearby, and the waves breaking over it. Not on the chart. Whew, that was close without knowing. Okay, we wait.

We had about six pounds of fish and bunch of turkey when we cleaned the fridge, plus cheese, a bit of celery and oranges and sauces. The oranges and sauces will keep. We have a shitload of fish and some turkey and a few celery stalks. We think we can do it.

We’re running out of Vaseline to put on the keel winch and other vital parts of the boat, since we’re putting it all on me to keep my skin from falling off. All at once anyway.

Every 3rd, or maybe 2nd song on the radio is actually a thinly disguised advertisement for Bahamanian tourism. Right now it’s “Bonefish Paulie, like U.S. president Nixon, he’s legendr-ee.” True story.

Someone's been using the bow of the boat to go to the bathroom. We won’t discuss that further.

DECEMBER 2, 2007 and five more pix

December 2, 2007

So far, have seen: flying fish, a ray, 1 tiny lobster, 1 tiny squid, brain coral, sea fans, sea cucumber, jellyfish, nurse sharks, crabs, a sailfish, dolphins (not mahi-mahi, but porpoises) swimming with our boat, and many, many conch and more conch shells than I could ever imagine existed thusfar on the planet.


Okey doke, here we are on our way down to the bottom of the Berry Islands, (another place in the Bahamas where the license plates are numbered, all less than about 500), and we anchored for the night, since it’s low tide, and dark. That after one of the most incredible sunsets ever. Except for the last 6 or so. They are amazing here, I guess because it’s the sunset over the sea, but the clouds do these weird things at that time, like light up fluorescent pink and orange, and even the vapor trails behind planes turn into a scorching, luminescent pink color for the length of them. It’s a trip and a half.

We were, and are, on our way to Nassau, to do a few things. Buy groceries, of course, buy water, of course, but probably bump up on some propane, since it’s $125 a cylinder to refill, and takes some considerable time, buy a Batelco phone, (Bahamas Telephone Company, of course), buy some chain for the anchor line to add to what we have, and other sundries and supplies. But while we’re there, we have something else to add to the list: the fridge took a shit. It was cooling everything to 60 degrees, while running nonstop. Not encouraging. It was destroying our batteries, so we pulled out what we had, threw it in a big bin tote thing, and will eat what we can in the next 12 hours, and then try to get the fridge fixed in Nassau. It was a red sky tonight (sailor’s delight), so we’re hoping for good weather, and we got a secondhand report from another dude on VHF, but other than that we have no firsthand weather info, so we are going to leave with a bit of caution. It’s 35 miles to Nassau. That’s the crime capital too (as many murders this year as Detroit, I think, and only four miles across). We have to lock the place up tight. I spose I’ll tote our huge filet knife, just to be sure.

I found out something about my skin. For the last week or so, it improved rash-wise, but got really dry. So I put moisturizer on it. Then it was still dry, so I slathered on more. By the handful, all over, several times a day for several days. And my skin just got drier, and scalier, until it got puffier than Sean Combs, and very, very reptilian. It was also kind of painful, and it would sting like hell, especially where my skin had started splitting, like where my joints were, like under my armpits. Super gross. So I kept adding more and more moisturizer. Good plan, right? Wrong. Turns out I was putting some kind of body wash WITH lotion on it, not lotion. Yeah, SOAP. I was putting soap all over myself and letting it sit, over, and over and over, without washing it off. “Hey honey, will you do my back again?” So that happened. Yeah, I know, I’m a genius. I grabbed this stuff in the supermarket, and it looks like a lotion bottle, and says “with moisturizers,” etc. Hey, I was thinking about more important things. Funny, once I had decided that’s what it was while walking quickly through the supermarket, my brain just wouldn’t consider anything else till I was reading the label one day out of boredom.

The bugs here are not nearly as bad as people said (cross my fingers). But they are tiny, barely visible, and bite HARD. When you got ‘em, you got ‘em.

I really dig this ukelele. They are easy to play and fun and sound great. Whatever you play sounds awesome. My kind of instrument. I’m digging the clarinet, but I don’t know much about how to maintain it (where and how to grease, etc.) and I’m afraid this saltwater environment is hard on it. It’s squeaking like a bastard half the time, and it’s only partly because I suck at playing it.

Something cool that happened in Great Harbour. The people there are the nicest in the world, or rather, are supposed to be, and I think I believe it. It started with us going in for water at the marina. Upon arrival, I asked this cat, who I now know to be named Shaggy, how much the water was. He said $.30 a gallon, and I should just let him know how much we used, on the honor system. I asked how much for a well for the night, and he said a buck a foot (so for our boat, $25) and I said we probably wouldn’t be staying. He said “aw, what the hell, no charge.” We could stay for FREE. Then he tells me where the free, unmetered water is. Then that night, this guy Ray we met caught all these wahoo at 400 feet deep, and gave us a steak. Then another. Then another. Till we had several bags of fresh fish. The most tender you’ve ever had. Several pounds of it. We’ve had it almost every meal since, including huge hunks of it as sushi. Wowee.

We heard there was a hardware in town, so we started to walk. A block along, we get picked up by these two ladies, Patty and Bonnie. They offer a ride to the hardware. We took it, and then we realized the part we needed to fix the grill (tap and die) was not to be had on this tiny island, so we decided we’d just stop at the nearest grocery. They insisted on waiting for us to return us after. But the stores wouldn’t take credit cards. So we had to get money. We made about three trips to places to try to get a check cashed, AFTER they had to take us back to the boat for our passports. Finally, the Post Office would, but there was an hour delay. They took us home, fed us chips, and then took us back. And THEN grocery shopping. We spent our $80 getting the smallest amount of food you can imagine, but hey, we were glad to have it. AND we had our water.

They dropped us off, and then Shaggy says to us we can stay a couple more nights if we like. Free water. Showers. Toilets. Hurrah!

Did our good fortune end there? No. The following day, Patty and John and Bonnie stop by to invite us to happy hour. We go, and they end up picking up our check, and we all go to their house and cook up wahoo, eat a salad, deviled eggs, cassava, vegetables, and vodka tonics. Then they sent us home with all the food in their fridge, because they were leaving in a day to fly back to Florida.

Oh yeah. And John gave me JB Weld to fix our broken grill part. COULD THESE PEOPLE BE ANY NICER?

Oh yeah. The lady in the post office cashed our check by depositing it into her bank account and giving us cash.

Amazing. Amazingly nice people. Big karmic debts we’re incurring here.

The JB Weld worked fine where the two brass threaded pieces were loose, but then there was a gas valve where plastic met brass that kept leaking. So for that, I made up some fiberglass resin compound, and coated the whole thing. And it still leaked. So I coated it again. And it still leaked. So I coated it two more times. And it stopped, but now would not let any gas pass by because the valve had to be able to open and close. So I sawed it in half, cut the gas hose, jammed the cut tube inside the hose and put a pipe clamp around it. Now it works fine, but practically takes flight from the flames shooting out if it’s up all the way. We’ll have to watch that.

Anyway, before we had a fridge and no stove, and now we have a stove and no fridge. Maybe we’ll get it fixed in Nassau. We’ll see.

Okay, Ruth has been crashed about an hour, and we have to get up and sail to Nassau in uncertain weather, to uncertain anchorages, and navigate through a lot tomorrow. I’m sayin’ GOODNIGHT.

NOVEMBER 28, 2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
It’s been some good long time since I gave a damn what day of the week it was, really. Exceptin’ to note whether some store was open or not. Leastways, it don’t never hardly matter what day it is, cuz if the store closed it just figure to set a bit n wait. Whatever it is that you’re seekin’, you’ll get by and by.

Now I’ve been following it a bit more closely, so I can look up tide tables and find out whether or not the water under the boat will turn to sand or not in 6 hours. It’s good stuff to be on top of. That and the weather, but you can’t get the weather here. Ironic, since it’s pretty much the principal thing to preoccupy yourself with on a boat, and is endlessly stressed in every guide, manual, and conversation. So we get here, and there’s no forecast. This place is incredibly isolated. To give an example, we’re on the beaten path, so to speak. There’s no boat within 10 miles on the side we can see, anyway, and haven’t run past but three today who were anchored in a sheltered area, pretty much where we left from. We’re headed north from Little Harbour Cay to Great Harbour Cay. Supposedly there’s groceries, fresh water, and bread to be had. God’s fresh water that our friend at Flo’s Conch Bar shared with us turned out to be not just God’s fresh water, but God’s fresh water that tasted STRONGLY of rubber cement. We used some to bathe after a prolonged snorkel, which yielded 17 large conch in the early stage, but which I abandonded after they were too heavy. Plus, we have no way to cook, which is the other main reason we’re trying to get to Great Harbour. They say there’s a hardware there.

We need one, because the other night the movement of the rudder snagged the line for our propane grill, and I woke up to a funny smell in the cabin and hissing sound of gas. I think I reacted quickly, because the cylinder is still pretty heavy, but I’m not sure. So anyway, the brass fitting is messed up, and I’m hoping to retool it with a tap and die to make it serviceable once again. Besides being dangerous, the other drag of that event was that gas is more of a commodity than I had realized. I checked into it this summer, and heard that propane was easy to come by in the Bahamas. What they don’t tell you is that to refill a propane cylinder it costs $125 and they have to send it to Nassau to fill. They were $15 to fill at Home Depot. Damn. So that is our quest.

Speaking of low tide, we got more than halfway to our destination, and had to anchor due to sandbars in our path, due to the tide. It will be better in the a.m. I finished Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews (intense, sordid, and amoral, and very good) tonight, and am burning through ‘em. We have some enormous snails we got near Flo’s, a couple conch, which is plenty, but are sticking with cold canned food till we regain our cooking abilities. I’m having a glass of wine, and Ruth is making music that only she knows of… for now. Interesting how that pipeline flows, into her head, and in and out through fingers and headphones until it’s done, and then it emerges in fruition. Aye, she’s a clever lass. Me, I’ve been on that ukelele steady, and played one last night that she says was the best she’s heard on the ukelele, or best of something or other. Anyway, I was flattered, and now play it incessantly.

I hope to possibly find a nurse or doctor in Great Harbour, and will ask about my skin. It is against me, in a few ways.

We also need to buy an anchor light bulb, ours crapped out. Luckily we are a million miles from any other vessels or routes and so are without danger in that way. Last night, we ran other lights all night and it ate up our batteries. It is beautiful, and as I said, remote.

We decided against camping on the beautiful white beaches, realizing that in six hours they will be under three feet of water. That there was whatcha call FORESIGHT.

Okay, gotta move around. Getting’ too itchy.

XOX,
JL
P.S., I’ve been introducing myself as Buster, Knucklehead, and other names periodically, so if you found it odd and hard to start using Jack (I would too, I imagine, if I was you), you don’t need to fear, there are many more to pick from. You have my enthusiastic endorsement to call me whatever is most comfortable for you. Unfortunately “Captain Sensible” is already taken.

Bahamanian Graffiti, rainbow out in the ocean,the badass boss at the helm, a wreck, and the toilet from the wreck, still servicable

The Badass Boss

YOU WELCOME

TITLES: in order top to bottom
YOU WELCOME, the sign on top of Flo's Conch Bar, the only building on Little Harbour Island
A picture of the inside of the bucket of the water we got at Flo's. Believe me, it tasted WAY worse than this debris would indicate...
Ukeleles hanging on our wall, from velcro... quick access
Jellyfish
"Mackerel sky, 12 hours dry" as the saying goes
November 26, 2007
WOW, People are really cool here. Yesterday Ruth and I went walking along the beach (really lava rocks) and ended up with about 15 small to medium conchs. We hauled them back, and as we walked up the dock, we saw 6 monsterous conchs that someone else got. We were cracking ours, and then they came over, it was these two cats Stitchy and Ace. I’m not sure if those were their Christian names, but they were cool. They ended up filling a bowl full of conch meat from those conchs, maybe half of their catch, and giving it to us. They didn’t even know it was my birthday. Pretty cool. That, and the loaf of bread was pretty intense.

Later, in the bar, I tried to buy them a round, but the bartenders weren’t charging me. We got talking about needing a phone, and they said they had an extra Batelco Simms card to put in my phone to make it work here. When we tried it, it didn’t work, but that was damned cool of them. We got their numbers, and hope to see them again when we get up to Sandy Pointe, off of the Bight of Abaco in a few days.

Today, we were down on our water after leaving there, and we came to this place called Flo’s Conch Bar on Little Harbour Cay. The only building on the island, I think, except some deserted fort or something up on the bluff overlooking the Atlantic. This is a GORGEOUS place by the way. It looks like some kind of imaginary place. The harbour is small and blue, surrounded by a maze of tiny islands. The sign painted on the roof says “YOU WELCOME.” There are piles of conch shells 15 feet high by maybe 200 feet wide forming the breakwater on the shore. Incredible. Inside we ask the guy, Chester, if they have water to sell. No, he says. But he ends up telling us we can take some from the cistern for the restaurant. We offer to pay, but he refuses. Water costs money most places here, even when it runs out of pipes. And he’s giving us his water. “It’s God’s water,” he says. “I can’t charge you for God’s water.”

Oh yeah. The bad news. The rudder moved yesterday breaking a crucial brass fitting for our stove, so no more hot food till we get that fixed, or buy a new one. We’re hoping to find a tap and die in Great Harbour, our next stop, and get it taken care of. That and some more bread. The new gold standard. In college it was salsa. Now it’s bread and water.

It’s crazy how isolated, undeveloped, and remote this place is. Of the 700 plus islands in the Bahamas, most are uninhabited. The few that have people are full of very few people. Big culture shock. No radio, still broken. No TV. No phones. No credit cards at Flo’s Conch Bar, and we don’t have any cash. Water is even a scarcity. Conch though, are plentiful.