THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2008
Scratch-dog here. Okay, big changes. Let’s start with this: David’s going to be a father. Yes, that’s right. You heard me right. David. Our David. My brother David. David LIVINGstone. Our David. Yes, that’s right. A FATHER. Wow. Yeah, I know. DAVID. OUR David. Yes, true story. I think they said June or July was the date. I’m thinking July 12, but that might be a wild guess. I’ll have to get back to that.

Yes, David. That’s right. I know, amazing. Something we all thought we’d never see, because he said so, and he usually sounds so damned convincing, even when he flips it around and changes his mind on something, you figure he must really know something about it, he sounds so sure. So anyway, thank the gods that things are going to work out different than he said they would. Who better to be a father? He’s going to be an AWESOME dad, and Michelle, as we all know, couldn’t be better material for someone to be a mother, or maybe a sister. I am so excited I can’t take it. It’s going to be a GIRL.
Okay, so that’s going to happen. And my Dad and Reta are getting MARRIED. Can you believe this stuff? And Steve and Becky are going to have a son, and Becky Cooper has been getting reunited with her biological family, and things couldn’t get any better. Plus a lot of other good stuff is going on too, too much to list.

I’m still having a problem with my skin, but otherwise, no complaints. Until tonight, for the last two days all I ate was two apples, an orange, some fritos, beer, conch fritters, and some other corn chips. Let me tell you: not eating is hell. Now I’m wondering if I’m allergic to chlorine in the water, because I can’t think of one thing that’s common to all these itchy scenarios. So today we bought a gallon of water, and our friend says he’ll give us some water from his boat that he makes himself. We’ll see.

So, where were we? Okay, this is how it’s all been going down. It’s been kind of hectic, or as hectic as it gets here, anyway, so I haven’t been writing. Plus, we’ve had no connection since we left the G. Georgetown, doncha know.

When my Mom and Burt left, Burt’s leg started to bother him and it ended up seeming like a good idea for me to accompany them to Nassau, so they wouldn’t have to lug bags, etc. My mom and Burt were kind enough to pay my way, which was really nice of them. While there, I decided to call a doctor, and see if I could get some relief. I did find someone, and they said they would do a battery allergy test for $245 including the visit. Desperate, I agree, go to my appointment, and on the way, the cabbie tells me she has about the same problem. She says anything artificial is her problem, especially preservatives. She hips me to natural remedies, so we stop at GNC in Nassau and $150 later, I’m on to the doc’s. The doctor says she’s positive it’s not food, but something called pressure urticaria. Basically, rash caused by pressure. Don’t apply any pressure, she says. Glad to have someone say SOMEthing, I pay and leave. Prescriptions cost another $200 plus, not including the ashthma inhaler she prescribed because I checked it on my sign-in sheet. I think that one’s another $80 or something. It’s only back in Georgetown as I relay all my travels to Ruth that it dawns on me that I never got my allergry test battery. After about $800 spent, not a bit closer. That SUCKS.

Anyway, we pulled out of Georgetown, to go to the Ragged Islands for a bit. It’s on the way to Cuba, but we decided not to go there already.
On the way out, after spending all of our money in Georgetown, or a lot anyway, we are loaded to the gills with food, including porkchops (one of the few cheap things there), and head out to sea. Shortly after we’re out there, we catch a nice big red snapper, which I ate for dinner tonight, or an 8th of, maybe, and am stuffed. We guessed at about ten pounds. We forgot we had a scale onboard till after it was well too late.

We stopped overnight at Hog Cay, and hang the head and skeleton overboard to attract more fish. We hear a loud splashing in the middle of the night, only to run out and see a shark swim away. It didn’t get the fish, and it came back some more, and we got a quick video of it at the side of the boat, us turning the light on it, and it’s hanging off a line cleated to the rail. It wasn’t big, and I grabbed the line and pulled it part of the way out of the water, and you see it for an instant on the video. Pretty cool.
In that same spot, earlier in the day, I went snorkeling, and went under a rock in about two feet of water and there was a little shark there, maybe three feet long sleeping under the rock, or half asleep anyway. I got up to it’s face, maybe about a foot away, and was just checking it out but it woke up and backed out, and darted off. It was cool though.

As I mentioned, we decided not to go to Cuba. We heard good things, talked to many people who did it, etc., and they say it’s awesome, but since that sumbitch George Bush has been in the Whitehouse, apparently he’s been in a huge grudge match with Fidel Castro, and you may be aware that he named Cuba as one of the “State Sponsors of Terrorism,” etc. Never mind that the CIA were committing terrorism THERE, trying to assassinate him, etc. etc. because he leads a communist government (which, I read some years ago has the highest literacy rate and the lowest infant mortality rate in the Western world, besides free healthcare-as seen in “Sicko”), but let’s not get into that too far. There isn’t time to go through the list of the horrible and indecent acts that have been committed under Bush, but soon we will bid good riddance to bad rubbish. Anyway, we decided not to go, because there’s too much risk for the possible payoff, but it’s a pity, there’s supposed to be good doctors there, free, and I could use one.

So, we decided to go down the Jumentos and Ragged Islands for a wee spell. The weather when we left was only being forecast (at our source, anyway) for that day, and the following day. But we figured there would be some boat traffic once there, and we could ask fellow cruisers. WRONG. We didn’t see a boat the whole time there. But we sailed there, 17 miles, pretty much all day, rough water, strong winds. Eventually, we had to pull our jib all the way in, put two reefs in the main (make it smaller, so it gets less wind), and we still had too much sail up, so we finally pulled it and motored the end of the journey. It’s always exciting to finally see land, and so with the usual excitement, we head in. We get there and, wow, big disappointment. There’s only rock. Now plants, no shrubs. In fact, the first island in the chain is called “No Bush Cay.” Can you guess why we went there first? Can you also guess why it’s called that? Not a shrub on it, and it’s TINY. (that’s one thing that drives me crazy about these damned Explorer charts which are otherwise wonderful: there’s no scale on any of them. That’s right, not on any at all. So you have to measure by typing coordinates into the GPS, and then measuring to the next coordinate you enter. You have to manually enter every distance you want to know about, and size you want to about, because the charts are all different scales. For this too, I blame the Bush administration.

But we get there, and the sun is setting, the wind is picking up, and the waves are already at five or so feet, I kind of forget, and the thing is TINY. No protection from the waves, hardly. And deeper water than is common around the islands, where usually it tapers to no depth at all by the beach, so our little two foot draft boat can get really close to the beach, and therefore, protection. Well, we get there, and it’s 16-17 feet right up to the rocks. Which means to lay out accurate scope (how much anchor line is appropriate, usually up to 10 times the depth of the water for good holding), we’d have to put out 160 feet, which means with the tidal current we would have a 320 food diameter around the anchor we could swing on. Well, that means 160 feet from shore or else risk getting smashed on the rocks (a hole in the bottom, and buoyant or not, we’re screwed), and there, it’s even DEEPER. Nice dilemma. Not to mention the island isn’t even a couple hundred feet long. All rock, jagged lava. So we pulled in as tight as we could, cheated on the scope, and anchored for a rocky night. We heard there was good lobstering there, but we said screw it, and let’s leave in the early a.m.

We did, and as we pull out, the wind is picking up again, and with the tidal current between the cuts, the waves get strong, steep, and unpredictable. So when they got up to 10 feet or so, then the bow of our boat is going up and down with each one, which is pretty intense. At one point, the anchor popped off it’s bracket, so I ran up to the bow (crawled rather) to tie it on, and Ruth hips me to the big waves coming, and I hold on and ride ‘em, and up and down that height about twice in about 3 seconds, I’m wild guessin’. A few were so big that I held on to the rails hard because I thought that the bow was going to be submerged with me still on it. Luckily, it wasn’t. But it’s a wild ride, anyhow. Even moreso when we’re steering out of there and the tiller handle came off in my hand. Ruth had to steer with the engine tiller and hold it under control while I ran and got a new bolt to replace the old one that had inexplicably worked itself out, two crescent wrenches, and threw that sucker in there real quick. That was exciting, but not unlike when the engine tiller came off in my hand in the heat of it in the Gulf Stream crossing. I guess that’s when systems fail, right? When they’re taxed. On that one, it was a 2” pvc tube slid over the handle to give more leverage, and to make it easier to reach. It pulled off and we had to- again, quickly- slide the handle on again, drill a dozen holes through the pvc into the regular handle, and then shoot screws in all of the holes to keep it held fast. It hasn’t moved since. We’re hoping the other one will hold on tight too, but we’re keeping the spare handy.

We plowed along out of there, and decided to go straight to Long Island, 33 miles away I think, and slogged along, wind on the nose for all day. Upon getting here, we hear that the weather is supposed to be nice for a few days, and then get windy for a few days. I guess the weather man said spefically, “DON’T GO TO THE RAGGED ISLANDS” the winds there are going to be “tremendous.” Glad we skipped that.

Right before we left Georgetown, we bought two things online, and rather than wait a month in some Bahamian port or another, we decided to have stuff mailed to Puerto Rico, since it’s U.S., and would be there when we get there. This was a particularly rash and foolish move, because we had yet to measure the exact distance TO Puerto Rico. We just knew it was X miles from the Dominican Republic, which is X miles from Great Inagua. Well, after some figuring, we decided there’s no way we’re getting to that place. Instead, we’re headed from here to Rum Cay, maybe Cat Cay, Eleuthra, then Nassau again where I’ll go try to get some money back from that doctor. Or get my tests done anyway. So we decided to get the packages sent to Nassau.

Upon getting to Long Island, we tried to find a phone, and right away this guy Walter offers us a ride, and drives us all over the place (maybe dozens of mile) to find us a phone. He’s a nice guy, and we spend the rest of the night hanging out with him. And very funny. Witty dude.

Today we hung out with this guy Charlie and Jason. Jason has a pet goat named “Muttons” and Charlie is a free diver, who dives with a guy that set the world record for diving with no flippers, sleds, balloons, etc., which is called “constant weight freediving,” or something. The guy dove to 269 feet with no flippers. Incredible. Then we went for a long walk on the beach on the ocean side, and found all kinds of interesting garbage. It’s sad to see so much plastic garbage wash up on the beach- crates, tons of lightbulbs, toys, and ungodly amount of shoes. There was a half full bottle of vodka with a foreign label, butter containers from Haiti, and bug spray from China. Also a dead turtle, which about broke Ruth’s and my hearts.

On the way back, who should drive by but our old friend Chris Wells from Nassau. Great guy, so we’re getting dinner together tomorrow night. Long Island is super chill. I think we’ll be here a little while. I’ll let you all know. Plus Walter will be back Sunday with lobster tails, $15 a pound, and my skin is too messed up to be in the water, so we might wait and have a $15 lobster feast.

I guess that’s it for now.
Take care all.

Jack

P.S. Anybody know how Barack did today?