TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2008
JL the bloggist here. Greetings, blogees. Just trying to pop in for a wee bit o’ cockney chit chat with me ol’ mates, the blogees. It’s right on that you point out that I haven’t been the most responsible of pen-mates, having not written now since a few whiffens past. Oh dear. It’s been some time now, hasn’t it?
Man, you can tell I’ve been on a boat for a while. I can’t, I mean, I STILL can’t speak properly. Oh well, you’ve never held that against me. Ruth and I are still in Long Island, which is actually about 90 miles long or something. We just got back to anchor by the shore, having gone a few miles south to check out a “blue hole.” A blue hole is basically a deep patch in what is otherwise uniformly shallow water. Generally, where we are, it’s about 2-10 feet, but in this particular spot, there’s a circle a few hundred feet in diameter, where it just drops to maybe forty feet. So, we finally broke out the scuba gear, I don’t know what we’ve been saving it for. I guess because we’ve had fun snorkeling, we didn’t want to use it up on just nothing, but we’re near a refilling station, so we said “what the heck!” Or something like that.
I saw a fish I tried to shoot, but he went in a hole, evading me. I lost my scuba bag, but Ruth found it, and Ruth lost her hair thingy, and so now she’s dolling it all up 80s style. Pretty hot. Wowee! That there’s one fine lookin’ woman. Yeah, I know, I’m living out some prolonged adolescence. Like you had to tell me I was stuck in the 80s.
We’re anchored where we are, because we are going to try once again to go get online and send a blog, because even though we’re just sitting here, eating our lobster in 3 feet of water off the dock of a grocery/furniture store, you all think we’re flopping about in a watery grave. Well, probably not if you read the blog before the Ragged Islands, and took me at my word. But I know you’re all a bunch of worrywarts. Especially that David. He’s the worst. And that Tom Deater. He’s the worst too. I mean, the best.
Anyway, so the idea is to hit up the real estate office, sit on their wall, and usurp their free internet, that wafts out of the crevices of the building. I went the other day, but as soon as I got set up, it shut off, so I don’t know if the secretaries shut me down, or what. We’re just dying to get a word out to all of you guys and say hello, ask how David and Michelle and the new baby to be are, and find out what happened in the primaries. I’m rooting for Barack Obama, as you may know. There’s been disgusting spam going around of the “send this to everyone you know” variety, saying that he’s a fundamentalist Muslim, Black Panther, etc. etc. Probably from the same people trying to get us all worried that the Mexicans are taking over the world, and that we should all be afraid of socialized healthcare, because it will somehow turn us all into slave robots. Anyway, that’s a good man, and I’m excited to see some possibility for a change.
Where was I? Oh yes. Off the soapbox. That’s right.
So let me tell you about Ruth and my anniversary. It started when we were waxing Chris’s boat for a little extra cash, we told him Sunday was our anniversary of our engagement, so we wanted to make sure we were done by then. He ended up giving us a free night in a hotel here he won at a raffle. Pretty awesome. So we left there, went to the dock where we land, and it was dying to rain. So we were headed to the grocery, and thumbed it, and the first truck picked us up, and drove us there. The guy’s name was Craig. We got there, then we went looking for this guy Charlie to find bud. So, we get to his house, and meet his wife Joyce there. She gives us an awesome tour of her gardens, and then drives us to go find Charlie. Charlie is cool, and we hang out with him for a bit, see the house they’re working on, we smoke, and then he says he wants to hit the hardware. We go along, and since we’re looking for an inverter, he drives us to about five different stores till we find one. Once we get back, he gives us some nice bud, then loans us his truck, and just asks that we leave it at his house. We head back with all of our groceries (including $14 in potato chips), inverter, bud, and all of the interesting plant clippings Joyce gave us (including a Corkscrew Croton, which is on our boat in a vase), and decide to drop it at the dingy dock, and then return the truck. We see Roger there, who is Walter’s brother (the guy that drove us ALL around the night we got here) and he offers to drive up to Charlie and Joyce’s so we don’t have to walk back after dropping the truck. We do that, and on the way back, find out that the guy that picked us up and drove us to the grocery was his brother. That means, officially, all three brothers have picked us up and given us rides independently of each other. Out of maybe four car trips. Anyway, once back, he gives us a bag of lobster tails. Seventeen of them. There must be four pounds of tails there. We had five for breakfast and were stuffed.
We couldn’t use the hotel because they don’t have any reservations till the 20th, so we passed it on to Roger, to say thanks for the lobster tails.
Anyway, can these people get any nicer? It’s crazy. It’s like anything you could want just falls out of the sky whenever you want it, or else someone runs out to find it for you, or loans you their car for your search. Reminds me of… nowhere on earth. Except around our families and friends.
From here, we plan to head north, along Long Island, then Northeast to Conception Island, which is supposed to be beautiful, and then up to Cat Island, and then to Eleuthra, Nassau, and homeward. Just so you know. I think I just wrote this recently to you. Déjà vu.
I guess that’s it for now, except to say that my skin has improved somewhat. “Somewhat” meaning probably something that you’d find hideous on your own body, but on my rotten carcass, it’s like the prettiest it’s been in a while. So, maybe it’s all of these so called “chipped potatoes.” Clean living, that’s what it is. No just kidding. I haven’t eaten wheat, preservatives, or alcohol, or anything that didn’t walk or grow in… three days wheat, seven days alcohol, preservatives seven days. Seems like years.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
FEB 7 08
? FEBRUARY 7, 2008
Jack here. On Long Island. There’s a house here that’s totally run down, with an ocean view, that needs a ton of work, and it’s small. We’re going to stay here for a bit to see if it’s cheap, and if so, consider buying it once we sell our place down south. Like, if it’s $20,000 or something. We’re hoping it’ll be that price or below, and if we did get it, what we’d like to do would be to fix up both buildings (there’s two foundations, one water cistern, a well (hot commodities here), with a beach, in a sheltered harbor we could put the boat. They’re cement walls and floors, so good hurricane-wise, and there’s an airstrip aand all the stores you could want on the island, so what we’d like to do would be to buy this stuff, fix it up, and all of our families and friends could use it all whenever they wanted. They’d just have to get airfare. And we’d use it too. Sounds like paradise, cheap, and even better than what we’re doing now, if we did that, we could share it with all of you guys, bccuase this is great and all, but all that’s missing is you. Our families, our friends. (Editor’s note: the price came back on the piece we looked at… $500,000. Ha ha ha ha ha, said I. We’ve seen ocean front lots for $40k, and I bet you could get them for 20 if you look. Oh well…)
Moving on. Chris says there’s a place in town where you can sit on a wall next to the real estate office and use the wifi, so if you’re reading this, that means we dingyed into shore, walked down to the place and sent this in the middle of the night. Just for YOU. Aren’t you flattered? Because we love you all.
Moving on again. We’ve decided to stop moving south, as we mentioned, so this kind of marks the halfway point here, and from now on, we will sail north, northeast, then northwest, then west. Basically, Long Island, Conception Cay, Cat Cay, Eleuthra, Nassau, Andros, Bimini or Gun Cay, Florida. So ya know. Should have internet periodically while we’re gone, so we hope to stay in touch.
About 15 minutes ago I had a really weird experience. I’ve been torn up from this itching, and my skin has been dry, so I’ve been oiling myself up with lotion, etc. I finally felt like I was healed up enough to get back in the salt water to soak for a bit, before I scrubbed under the solar shower. I called to Ruth while I was in to throw me a scrub brush to scrub the hull while I was out there, because stuff grows on it, and impedes our racing performance (haw haw). While I’m waiting, I reach for the dingy line to hold on while I tread water. I feel something against my leg. Whenever you’re in the water, you always have bathing suit strings, mask straps, etc. bumping you, but you always check to make sure you’re not sharing the water around your body with an unwelcome fish of some kind. Just a paranoia, practically (or maybe not, read on…) from watching Jaws, etc. So I feel this against my leg a few times, and I reach down, and start to look down to see if my bathing suit string is doing it or what, and sure enough, right in front of me, half between my kicking legs, is a small shark nibbling at my leg, on the inside, halfway up my thigh. Probably bumping into my leg repeatedly with his nose, because if he bit me, I think I’d know it. Anyway, man did I go freaking out. That thing was only a few feet long, but man, I think I actually walked on water getting into the boat again. Screw the ladder, I was in over the side in about half a second. That sucker scared the hell out of me. I don’t know if it was blood (I don’t think I’m bleeding, hardly, if at all) oil (olive oil is tasty stuff, especially when you dip your bread in it and add a little pepper. MMmm MMM!), or what. In any event, it was a trip.
Hey, who wants to visit? We have an extra snorkel!
Alright, gotta run, but thought that you might get a bang out of that one, Diary.
Later days,
JL
Jack here. On Long Island. There’s a house here that’s totally run down, with an ocean view, that needs a ton of work, and it’s small. We’re going to stay here for a bit to see if it’s cheap, and if so, consider buying it once we sell our place down south. Like, if it’s $20,000 or something. We’re hoping it’ll be that price or below, and if we did get it, what we’d like to do would be to fix up both buildings (there’s two foundations, one water cistern, a well (hot commodities here), with a beach, in a sheltered harbor we could put the boat. They’re cement walls and floors, so good hurricane-wise, and there’s an airstrip aand all the stores you could want on the island, so what we’d like to do would be to buy this stuff, fix it up, and all of our families and friends could use it all whenever they wanted. They’d just have to get airfare. And we’d use it too. Sounds like paradise, cheap, and even better than what we’re doing now, if we did that, we could share it with all of you guys, bccuase this is great and all, but all that’s missing is you. Our families, our friends. (Editor’s note: the price came back on the piece we looked at… $500,000. Ha ha ha ha ha, said I. We’ve seen ocean front lots for $40k, and I bet you could get them for 20 if you look. Oh well…)
Moving on. Chris says there’s a place in town where you can sit on a wall next to the real estate office and use the wifi, so if you’re reading this, that means we dingyed into shore, walked down to the place and sent this in the middle of the night. Just for YOU. Aren’t you flattered? Because we love you all.
Moving on again. We’ve decided to stop moving south, as we mentioned, so this kind of marks the halfway point here, and from now on, we will sail north, northeast, then northwest, then west. Basically, Long Island, Conception Cay, Cat Cay, Eleuthra, Nassau, Andros, Bimini or Gun Cay, Florida. So ya know. Should have internet periodically while we’re gone, so we hope to stay in touch.
About 15 minutes ago I had a really weird experience. I’ve been torn up from this itching, and my skin has been dry, so I’ve been oiling myself up with lotion, etc. I finally felt like I was healed up enough to get back in the salt water to soak for a bit, before I scrubbed under the solar shower. I called to Ruth while I was in to throw me a scrub brush to scrub the hull while I was out there, because stuff grows on it, and impedes our racing performance (haw haw). While I’m waiting, I reach for the dingy line to hold on while I tread water. I feel something against my leg. Whenever you’re in the water, you always have bathing suit strings, mask straps, etc. bumping you, but you always check to make sure you’re not sharing the water around your body with an unwelcome fish of some kind. Just a paranoia, practically (or maybe not, read on…) from watching Jaws, etc. So I feel this against my leg a few times, and I reach down, and start to look down to see if my bathing suit string is doing it or what, and sure enough, right in front of me, half between my kicking legs, is a small shark nibbling at my leg, on the inside, halfway up my thigh. Probably bumping into my leg repeatedly with his nose, because if he bit me, I think I’d know it. Anyway, man did I go freaking out. That thing was only a few feet long, but man, I think I actually walked on water getting into the boat again. Screw the ladder, I was in over the side in about half a second. That sucker scared the hell out of me. I don’t know if it was blood (I don’t think I’m bleeding, hardly, if at all) oil (olive oil is tasty stuff, especially when you dip your bread in it and add a little pepper. MMmm MMM!), or what. In any event, it was a trip.
Hey, who wants to visit? We have an extra snorkel!
Alright, gotta run, but thought that you might get a bang out of that one, Diary.
Later days,
JL
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?
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?
Thursday, January 31, 2008
JANUARY 31, 2008
CONCH CHOWDER
BAHAMIAN SCAFFOLDING
COOLASS SUNSET
OUTSIDE OF DOUBLE D'S
JACK AN HIS OL" LADY
THURSDAY JANUARY 31, 2008
Hey everybody. This is the JL, also known as Scratchy. (everybody here has a nickname, usually starting with S, and ending with Y. Don’t ask me. It was either that or Squeaky for me, which I liked, but Ruth said Scratchy was better. So she’ll be Spunky. Anyway, we’re about to pull out of G-town, and head south down the Ragged Islands, Jumentos, and off to the west to explore as far as Duck Cay. Not Duck Key in Florida. Different place. So don’t expect to hear anything for at least three weeks, because even though we know where we’re going, and there will be other boats going alongside us, there will be no internet all through the rest of the Bahamas, including Long Island, Great Inagua, possibly the Turks and Caicos Islands, and until after we leave the Bahamas, and get to the Dominican Republic. So don’t get y’all panties in a bunch. We’ll be there when we get there, and the only thing that would make us unsafe is if we try to sail in bad weather to get somewhere in a hurry to let you know we’re okay. So we’re going to take it on faith that you won’t worry, and that you’ll just trust us till we write again. Remember, people used to do this stuff alone, without other boats, without any idea where they were going, no charts, no GPS, and they didn’t have boats that were positively buoyant and impossible to capsize like ol’ Fiberglass Vengeance.
The bottom line: we're going to miss out on the Groundhog's Day celebrations, which as you might know, is the best day of the year. Oh well. You have to make sacrifices.
Anyway, so the last two days we’ve been provisioning, getting gas, water, extra water jugs, sewing ripped sails, and buying everything we need so we can install electric water pumps on the boat, and automatic pilot on the tiller. That should be pretty nice. We’ll clean up the boat, probably head out tomorrow and go and catch some fish. The places we’ve been hanging out have been vacuumed clean by all the traffic, so we’re going to try these side alleys for a minute.
We’ll take pictures, don’t worry. We love you all, and we’ll talk to you soon.
XOXOXOX
Spunky and Scratchy
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
SOME PHOTOS FOR YA!!!
1-29-08
The JL here.
Well, I am rapidly trying to catch up with stuff I gotta do, but first I'm going to put up a few pictures of a few fabulous people that were here visiting. Let me just say, that this week has been spectacular fun, and we really had a good time finally sharing some of this paradise with some people that appreciate it as much as we do.
We love you Mom and Burt, and THANKS SO MUCH FOR VISITING!!!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Holy crap
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23 2008
So, here we are in
Okay. Holy shit. I just got off the phone, and I just had the best surprise ever. I found out someone close to me is going to have a baby. I won’t say who, you may know them, but let’s just say it’s the most amazing news.
So, never mind the blog a minute. Let’s talk about what’s going on in the world.
Barack Obama might actually upset the old boy network and give us all a bit of hope for world peace.
My mom and Burt are here visiting.
I’m in the Bahamas, in paradise with Ruth.
I’m in love with Ruth.
My pop and Reta are engaged. (What!!!???!! Awesome!)
Becky Cooper is getting reunited with her biological family.
Becky Wilson is going to have a new baby boy.
And now this. Could it get better?
This baby is the thing I would have wished for above all else in the world. I don’t even include my own in the future as part of that wish, because I’m here to tell you, that’s a given. There’s nothing more certain. But THIS. THIS I did not expect. Someone pregnant that just gave me the curveball of my lifetime. WOWWEEE. Holy crap. I’m amazed. Just stunned and amazed. And happy.
I’ll blog another day. I’m too happy to tap away now.
The world just got better, everybody. Believe that. I'll tell you later when it's not a secret anymore.
I love everybody. Take care.
Jack
So, here we are in
Okay. Holy shit. I just got off the phone, and I just had the best surprise ever. I found out someone close to me is going to have a baby. I won’t say who, you may know them, but let’s just say it’s the most amazing news.
So, never mind the blog a minute. Let’s talk about what’s going on in the world.
Barack Obama might actually upset the old boy network and give us all a bit of hope for world peace.
My mom and Burt are here visiting.
I’m in the Bahamas, in paradise with Ruth.
I’m in love with Ruth.
My pop and Reta are engaged. (What!!!???!! Awesome!)
Becky Cooper is getting reunited with her biological family.
Becky Wilson is going to have a new baby boy.
And now this. Could it get better?
This baby is the thing I would have wished for above all else in the world. I don’t even include my own in the future as part of that wish, because I’m here to tell you, that’s a given. There’s nothing more certain. But THIS. THIS I did not expect. Someone pregnant that just gave me the curveball of my lifetime. WOWWEEE. Holy crap. I’m amazed. Just stunned and amazed. And happy.
I’ll blog another day. I’m too happy to tap away now.
The world just got better, everybody. Believe that. I'll tell you later when it's not a secret anymore.
I love everybody. Take care.
Jack
Saturday, January 19, 2008
JANUARY 19, 2008
JL here.
Still kickin’ it in G-town. Right now, I just got done putting a little DC fan above our bed, and Ruth made tacos which ROCKED ASS. My pore ol’ mudder is coming in on the 21st, and we can’t wait. We’re anticipating that, and right now we’re playing her Ipod, a little Vince Guaraldi, RZA, Steelpole Bathtub, Ruth’s jammies, A Tribe Called Quest, Soundgarden, and now Ruth’s going to play ukelele to the RZA. Sweet. A minute ago, I was screaming Soundgarden at the top of my lungs, because you can only really imitate Chris Cornell if you’re busting it out pretty good, and so the stereo was up really loud to try to drown out my caterwaul, and then I realized we had the speakers on out in the cockpit, so the whole harbor was probably listening to that. Kinda funny.
Oh, and on the “News From Home” front, Ruth just reminded me of something Benjamin said about Cash. That when he takes the dogs to the park to run around and get wild, he has to take my truck because Cash won’t get in any vehicle but my green truck. Is that a sweet little dogman or what? Man, I miss those guys.
Speaking of ukelele, Ruth and I are going to do a song for the crew at the campfire on Tuesday. That’ll be fun, because it’s a good time, and there’s supposed to be a surprise celebrity guest flying in to hang out- I told my Mom and she said “it must be us.” She slays me.
Kind of like when I told Ruth that I had just gotten off the phone with Phyllis, and that I had news that practically had me ready to faint- good news. Ruth says “your mom’s pregnant!” I was actually talking about my dad getting married, but you never know.
Okay, movie time. On that note, I’m really stoked, my brother’s supposed to send some DVDs with my mom and Burt, which will be really sweet for those days when we’re holed up in here with bad weather. Anyway, no real news. But having a good time, and miss you all. Big love from above,
jack
Still kickin’ it in G-town. Right now, I just got done putting a little DC fan above our bed, and Ruth made tacos which ROCKED ASS. My pore ol’ mudder is coming in on the 21st, and we can’t wait. We’re anticipating that, and right now we’re playing her Ipod, a little Vince Guaraldi, RZA, Steelpole Bathtub, Ruth’s jammies, A Tribe Called Quest, Soundgarden, and now Ruth’s going to play ukelele to the RZA. Sweet. A minute ago, I was screaming Soundgarden at the top of my lungs, because you can only really imitate Chris Cornell if you’re busting it out pretty good, and so the stereo was up really loud to try to drown out my caterwaul, and then I realized we had the speakers on out in the cockpit, so the whole harbor was probably listening to that. Kinda funny.
Oh, and on the “News From Home” front, Ruth just reminded me of something Benjamin said about Cash. That when he takes the dogs to the park to run around and get wild, he has to take my truck because Cash won’t get in any vehicle but my green truck. Is that a sweet little dogman or what? Man, I miss those guys.
Speaking of ukelele, Ruth and I are going to do a song for the crew at the campfire on Tuesday. That’ll be fun, because it’s a good time, and there’s supposed to be a surprise celebrity guest flying in to hang out- I told my Mom and she said “it must be us.” She slays me.
Kind of like when I told Ruth that I had just gotten off the phone with Phyllis, and that I had news that practically had me ready to faint- good news. Ruth says “your mom’s pregnant!” I was actually talking about my dad getting married, but you never know.
Okay, movie time. On that note, I’m really stoked, my brother’s supposed to send some DVDs with my mom and Burt, which will be really sweet for those days when we’re holed up in here with bad weather. Anyway, no real news. But having a good time, and miss you all. Big love from above,
jack
Anybody? Anybody? January 19? 2008
Above;
The interestin' roots of the Mangrove tree
Rainbow on the dock
Rainbow on the boat
surf at the White horses cut
Sunset on the harbor
Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of the day that Ruth got off of a train in New Orleans to live with a strange man. She had no idea how strange though...
Anyone know where I can get ahold of a DC adpator for a Mac? I'd kill for one of those things. Or at least I'd write more...
Oh yeah. Anyone know how to post videos on this thing? they say you can, but I haven't figured it out yet...
I've searched high and low. No dice.
I saw the nurse here the other day, and got: four tubes of prescription skin cream, a shot of hydrocortisone, a prescription for prednisone, a prescription of Histal, and the visit itself, my blood tested, and crackers and tea after I passed out from getting the shot, all for... $50.
I don't think it was really the shot. I think it was that they tested my blood. I hadn't eaten anything that day, and I think they took the one drop that they shouldn't have. That was the special, consciousness giving drop. Anyway, it was pretty funny.
I won't chat long. I gotta prepare for visitors...
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