Cat Island from the Inland Heights
Although we’ve touched on this before, you may be interested to know more about what one does on a boat when the wind howls, the sea surges and though not far away, dinghying into shore is sure to give a soaking with the waves stirred up – in other words, we are at anchor again waiting for the weather to clear a bit.
Now that the boat is behaving pretty well there are fewer “must fix” items on the list. That’s a good thing and it gives us some flexibility in how to spend our time at anchor. Mary Beth’s and my approaches are different so I will share how we each spend our time.
There are always things needing to be done, and we both spend time on these things. MB is much better at tackling the un-fun needs before she starts things she enjoys more than these “chores”. For example, during the last few days she has polished most of the stainless steel outside and inside the boat. I on the other hand had no idea it needed polishing, but it does look great now. We’ve both done some cleaning, although my part was pretty minor in that. We both monitor the solar charging, we check the bilge, run the watermaker, check things for signs of wear and chafe, and we look at the list of things that need to be done at some point and knock off a few here and there.
I, however, like to spend time on my hobbies and interests before doing more boat work. I usually play my guitar, study some music theory, and do other things that I enjoy before I start doing work. This usually works to my benefit since my lovely wife cannot pass by something that needs cleaning, fixing, filling, emptying, moving, etc without taking care of it. So the list gets shorter as I while away the hours on things I like.
Going ashore is always part of the plan when anchored in a place for a few days. During the peak of the blow a dinghy ride to shore is a very moist proposition, so we typically stay aboard during the worst. We are, therefore, ready to get some walking in and see the sights once it settles a bit. All of these little settlements have a grocery of some form, and that is usually the first stop we make. A very few of them are quite well stocked and have fresh fruits and vegetables while others are limited to canned and dried foods. Most of these stores also carry some basic non-grocery items including personal items like soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, baby products, etc. Many also carry hardware items such as basic plumbing fixtures, a few electrical supplies and other items that a homeowner might need. In the larger towns, the stores are more specialized since there are real non-grocery stores, but in these small settlements, there is often only one store so if they don’t carry it, people have to order it and have it sent on the supply boat. The supply boat comes in once each week and cruisers quickly find out what day is the day to hit the grocery store. In the days leading up to supply boat day, there are typically slim “pickens” for the produce and perishables. We also like to buy coconut bread if there is a bakery in the settlement (usually someone operating out of their home). It makes great French toast! If we are lucky and there is a laundromat in town we will also do laundry. No luck here so David will continue wearing his shorts that walk under their own power.
Getting ashore just to see the people and add to our perspective on life in the Bahamas is also an important part of the overall cruising experience. We continue to find the local people very friendly and fun to talk with. They are proud of their island and/or town and eager to talk about their lives. Today while we were getting a bite to eat a 4 year old boy whose mother worked at the food shack snuggled up next to me on the bench and proceeded to run his toy forklift and car around the plates and drinks while giving us a hard-to-understand commentary of the dramatic goings on between the vehicles. After 10 or 15 minutes he got up and went back into the building. Just walking is a great pleasure after being confined in the boat for several days. We do get a lot of muscle workout on the boat, especially sailing, but all the movement is over short distances, so walking really feels good. Yesterday we walked about a mile to the grocery store, but luckily a local person gave us and all of our bags a ride back to our dinghy in their car.
One nice thing about the Bahamas is that there is little or no theft or other crime on these islands. Boaters and residents do not worry much about leaving stuff sitting around. We don’t lock our boat up when we go ashore, and we routinely leave things in our dinghy while we are running other errands as do most other cruisers. We’ve yet to hear of anyone having something stolen. Petty crime is just not common in the Bahamas (outside of Nassau which is a big city with all the same issues of most big cities).
After 2 days at anchor we are usually ready to get moving again, but we will have to wait for winds in the right direction and at tolerable strength.
Church ruins:
Everything is painted in pastel colors, even the trees!
Restaurant "shacks" on the beach. Had a delicious lobster dinner at the light blue one.:
Many of the settlements have infrastructure to support the annual regattas. The Bahamians take a lot of pride in their sailing prowess.
