Ruth's Highlights April 4, 2008

RUTH'S ROCK SOUND HIGHLIGHTS - PART 1

WEDNESDAY 3/19

The day for me began with a 3 mile run. At lunch I grilled some of
the fish we had bought and served it with specially made garlic rice
and tomatoes. While I went to town for baking goods and produce, Jack
worked on fixing the wire connection to the radio speakers in the
cockpit. During yesterday's heavin' and hoin' the wires disconnected
themselves somehow. He also worked on making a lobster trap from a
blue plastic bin he picked up from the cruiseline's beach on Little
San Salvador. On the perimeter of the open side bin he drilled holes
close together then threaded 80 lb test line parallel to each other.
It was a really great contraption!
The previous night we discovered that Sammy's restaurant made pizza!
We didn't hesitate to order the largest they had with green peps,
onions, shrooms, pepperons, and extra sauce. The owner, Margarita,
even offered to deliver it to our boat! So at 4pm on Wednesday I
dinghied to the beach and read a mag while anxiously awaiting the
delivery of this amazing specimen of italian food. In the four and 1/2
months we've been out here we've had pizza twice – once at Domino's
in
Nassau and once we made it with Boboli on the grill at Highborne Cay
in the Exumas. By this time, our buds of taste were deprived and
drooling! We took pictures of the pizza we were so excited! It was a
beautiful thing.
The Rock Sound Homecoming Festival ("one community, one people")
started that night. It was a lot of fun! All day we had seen folks
setting up the decorations and banners. There were thatch hut stands
also, some of them with games and prizes for the kids but most serving
some sort of delicious Bahamian meal! There was a DJ spinning Bahamian
tunes and later on a three-piece band (singing guitarist, bongos,
bass) that were really good! Despite the small set up, all the songs
were upbeat and danceable. They sang Bahamian songs. Both Jack and I
have become familiar with about ten or so of the more popular songs.
Sometimes we sing them on the boat.


THURSDAY 3/20
Today we visited the Ocean Hole and on the way met Lita who called
out a hearty hello to us from her house. When discovering we were
venturing to the Ocean Hole without bread to throw out to the fish,
she made sure we had half a loaf of homemade bread to take with us!
She hipped us to a big lot of land being sold for fairly cheap in Rock
Sound near our anchorage and promised to get the inside scoop for us.
She also invited us to come out to the pier later on to fish for
shark, which was apparently one of her specialties (she's nearly in
her 70s!)
It was a gorgeous walk to the hole and we took pictures along the
way. The Ocean Hole is so deep everyone says it's bottomless. The fish
that live there will happily jump for cheese and bread thrown their
way. There were a couple of young boys at the hole already and a few
minutes later a group of girls with whom I shared the bread crumbs
with while Jack snapped shots. We bought a few large shark hooks and a
couple "donuts" for reeling in the line by hand. We caught lunch at
Sammy's, dilly-dallied for the rest of the afternoon and showed up at
the dock promptly at 8 o'clock in the evening.
Jack reeled 80 lb test line around an orange plastic "donut" and
baited the large hook on with end with a fine smellin' fish head from
the ones I had gutted the other day. Lita immediately unhooked the
fish and re-hooked it threw its eye. I guess this is a much better
way to hook a fish. Lita showed us how to go about it: first pull a
bunch of line off your donut making sure to leave plenty of slack.
Then, holding about five feet of line from the hook, wind up like
you're throwing a softball pitch and let it fly as far out as you can.
Then you are supposed to wait with the donut on the ground and the
line lying limply in your hand. Jack wore a glove to protect the line
from slicing through his hand. While we were all standing around,
waiting and chattin it up, there was a sharp jerk at the line but then
it went limp again. Jack reeled it in to find the fish head gone.
He tried again. This time, after some wait, he felt two tugs at the
line, but the shark didn't bite down. Eventually Jack pulled in the
line, fish head intact, and we headed back to the festivities of the
Rock Sound Homecoming.
That night I had A BALL. We met a number of people, but most notably
Riley and Donovan, completely and utterly down to earth and FUN! They
were dancing machines! They live in Rock Sound, so we saw them around
town and at the festival Friday and Saturday night too. They both had
a great sense of humor, were very friendly and accepting, and we all
got along very well. I danced a LOT that night!

FRIDAY 3/21
This morning Jack was out of bed at seven to meet with Daniel and
Gary who Lita had told us were selling property here. I met them both
later in the day and checked out the property myself. Thanks to Jack's
negotiation skills they offered us a lot of for a little! The property
is pretty much waterfront too – across the road from the beach which
is government property.
During the day we ran errands – checked out the ATM, the hardware,
the grocery, the fishing store. We had a lot of bags to carry back to
our anchorage but we were easily able to hitch a ride.
Later on we took a look at the affidavits that stated ownership of the
property. We would still need to look into documentation proving a
clear title and we planned on visiting a realtor while in town and
before looking into the offer further.
Walking around, we ran into Riley, Donovan, and their crew. Donovan
introduced us to his girl, Diane, who was busy cooking for the
festival. She was making potato salad, macaroni and cheese, peas n'
rice, and preparing the chicken and fish. Everyone here worked SO HARD
on the festival. It lasted for four nights and there was always plenty
of people, plenty of food, plenty of music, and plenty of dancing. The
following day when I got to shore for my run at around 9am, the street
where the festival had been held was SPOTLESS even though the previous
night it had been an absolute mess from the celebration. Turns out
those who run the festival -- those who stay up all night preparing
for the following day and cooking food all day long -- come back at 7
in the morning for a thorough clean up. I was too late to help out,
but ran into Lita who had stayed up all night to make sure she was
around to help clean up! What a great community!
That night Jack and I showed up on the dock to do some shark fishing,
but we were the only ones there. The weather was rainy and a bit
chilly. We had heard the sharks may not be near shore a) because of
the cold and b) because of the muddy water near shore. I spotted a
baby Nurse Shark twice, but it didn't bite. We didn't stay too long
before leaving to join the homecoming.
At homecoming that night we spent most of our time hanging out with
Albert, our friend whom we met our first day arriving at Rock Sound.
We each ate a bowl of grilled conch stew, mine with extra extra EXTRA
x 20 hot sauce! At some point the DJ spun a medley of 60s and 70s funk
songs in which I am ALL TOO FAMILIAR with. The jams inspired me to do
a bit of dancing and lip-syncing on top of a wooden crate, which
caused some smiles as well as some sneers to be directed my way.
Nobody's reaction mattered to me. I had a great time!