December 30, 2007

DECEMBER 30, 2007
Captain’s log, stardate as noted above. We’re in Staniel Cay. I think this is the best place we’ve been to so far. It’s bustling with sailors, cruisers, and the like, but they’re really all laid back drunks. Cool all around, generally. There’s only 83 people that live on this island, but probably fifty boats out there. We already know a few of the locals, and a lot of the boaters, since pcople are so friendly. Like everything else, this place is crazy expensive. Like $8.00 for a gallon of milk. $3.00 for a can of corn. Etc. So it’s cool that we’re floating for free, with solar power, solar shower, and that’s that. On the flipside, I saw a nurse for my skin, who put me on Histal, and gave me special shampoo, four tubes of skin cream that’s precscription, I think, all for $48.00 Including her fee. She works out of her house, and worked on me while wearing an oversize “Jamaica” t-shirt and bare feet. I went in and thought I had got her up from a nap on her day off. Super cool though. Met her, this cat Kenny that was trying (vainly) to teach me how to dance like a Bahamian, Brenda and Rhonda that cook on the beach and make awesome food, Chubby, a guy who drives a golf cart, Berky, the guy who owns the general store, and was up on a ladder painting when we got there even though he only has one arm.
We’re in the right place for the holidays, these people on the boats are super festive. Like Jim and Nancy who turned their mast and shrouds into one huge Christmas tree. There’s also a cruising regatta (race) for all the sailboats out here. We’re entering. It should be good for a laugh.
Our friends Dan and Morningglory, and Chris have all been here. Besides Jim and Nancy, Barry and Susan, Hilda and Simon, Conrad and Sally, Roger and Bonnie, Charlie and Shirley, John and Michelle, Kate and Steve, and many others whose names I can’t remember. This is great other than the fact that I can’t remember names, and I’m meeting more people every day than I ever have. Oh yeah, and today, we went lobstering (to no avail) with Sebastian and MC, who are French Canadian. Jake just walked up behind me and asked if we heard them calling us on the radio this morning. Apparently they misunderstood the name of our boat to be “Fiberglass Virgins.” So a lot of people had a good laugh at that, I suppose. Hrumph.
The community (it really is that) look out for each other, trade, share, and are super interwoven. It’s pretty cool. Most everyone is doing the same thing, going to the same “next destination,” on the same trajectory. Like most of the people we’re seeing here were at Warderick Wells with us, Alan’s Cay before that, Norman’s, all the way up to Nassau. From here to Black Point, then Georgetown eventually. I guess they play volley ball every day there, 7 days a week, starting at two everyday. I like that a lot. There’s all kinds of levels too, like retired people, competitive, non competitive, etc. Anyway, where was I?
Oh, so anyway. Dan and Morningglory were here, and they’re super cool. They jetted last night in the middle of the party, to head to Georgetown so she could fly out and get back home helping homeless people. Good people, big hearts. Dan just replaced the water tank on his boat, and so he gave us the old 35 gallon water bladder, and we spent yesterday afternoon installing it in our bilge, and running hoses up to the water pump and to the thru-hull fitting in the cockpit that we now use to fill it. We can only fill it up to 20 gallons because of the spot it’s in is only so big, but that’s more than we did have, and NO MORE JUGS. Nice.
Sure, there’s a couple people that are abrasive (okay, just one) who gets really drunk and announces how much she owns, and there was a local dude yesterday that told Ruth to come sit on his lap, and then told me to shut up when I straightened him out. We got into a bit of a pissing match, but whatever. He’s an old drunk. Good carver though. Makes really nice wood pieces. Maybe we can patch things up one day.
Staniel Cay is awesome though. Big Majors is directly to the north, maybe a quarter mile off Staniel, and there’s pigs and goats there. The pigs swim in the water, and you can feed em. It’s awesome. I guess kids here at the dark were handfeeding nurse sharks but I didn’t see that. From the dock you could see another big ol’ 6 foot stingray glide by. And today Ruth spotted a 6 foot barracuda. We split at that point because they like shiny things, and I had a spear and silver earrings on. MC (Mary Claude) got five lobster today, and a scrill, which is a delicious red fish. The rest of us got a big goose egg (read: zero), so tomorrow Ruth and I are going again and are going to learn her secrets.
Other nice things about Staniel: has everything. The Blue Store, and the Pink Store are the two groceries. Two bars, once church, one hardware, 83 residents, and one very tired hooker. They have cottages though to rent, and I think Ruth mentioned all the beautiful bouganvillea already, because she asked me how to spell it. I pretended I knew, so the joke’s on her. Ha ha ha.
She’s next to me here on the deck of the marina restaurant, we’re plugged in, and there’s free internet. But the restaurant is expensive. $12 burgers, etc. Conch $28 I think. Water is still a good deal at $.40 a gallon, and very clean, and gas is $5. Not bad, actually. We haven’t hardly used anything but water and canned food in days. But then we blow $100 at the hardware store. Beer is $4 apiece at the grocery, but liquor is more affordable. Nobody cares though, and I think in a crowd of 40 when we walked up the dock, every single one had a Kalik bottle. Kalik is the Bahamian beer, named for the sound of the cowbells everybody beats on at Junkanoo, which is on Boxing day. Don’t ask me what Boxing Day is, I forget, and don’t ask what Junkanoo means, I never knew. One day though, my friend, one day. Then I’ll forget it again. So it goes.
I sure miss you all. It feels hard to be putting more miles between us and you all, and us and the dogs. Even though it’s immaterial, really. It will be nice one day to be pointing toward you all instead of away.
On that note though, we are wondering what our next stop will be. Most people stop at Georgetown and head north again, but Chris is going to keep on, and Dan hopes to make it to Panama. I guess it’s crazy cheap there, and really nice. If we have time, we probably will think about such madness. It’s a long sail home too though. Who knows. This is pretty damned nice right here. If I would have known this existed, I would have been here 20 years ago. I will DEFINITELY be back. Maybe the best spot I’ve ever visited. No shit. Just gorgeous. Wow. The only word that works.
And of ALL the boats, the big ones, little ones, million dollar ones, fifty grand ones, all the way down to our little clunker, with the wooden solar panels, and waterjugs hanging off the side, devil on the motor, and a timeless five gallon bucket of dirty dishes, of ALL of them, we have the best anchorage in the whole place. 90% have to stay on the other side of Big Majors, in a huge mooring field of a hundred boats, and the rest are paying $1.50/a foot/a night at the dock. So for us that would be like $37.50 a night. Our whole budget, basically. Anyway, of all these people, and their million dollar yachts, we are about 30 feet from shore in two feet of water. You can’t beat it. We’re the envy of the place. And of all of these people, none of them care about how little our boat is, or anything else. Everyone is positive, everyone is equal, everyone is cool. Amazing. It’s like, if I had to describe what the one uniting factor of everyone here that is more striking than any other, it would be first: that everyone is cool. And second, the afterthought, is that everyone is on a boat.
Two updates. Martha just walked up and told us we were picked for the cruising Regatta and will race on a class C Bahamian boat (these are a big deal here, and of renown), Ruth will be on one, and me on the other, not racing OUR boat like I thought. So, hell yeah. That should be sweet.
The other update is that Jake just came up and invited us to his boat for a drink. Sooooo… gotta go!