Black Pointe 4/16

After breakfast, Matt and Karie stopped by our dinghy to see if we wanted to go exploring on the island with them, so we hopped in and headed to town.  First stop was the post office, to FINALLY purchase some Bahamian stamps for postcards I had been carrying for weeks.  Most everyplace we have been to is either uninhabited, or just barely inhabited!

As it was, the mail freighter had just left before I got there, and will not be back again for another 10 days- oh well, at least my heart was in the right place!  I may beat those postcards home afterall J  Um yeah, we were awakened by the freighter passing just in front of our boat…it seems we dropped the hook a little close to the unmarked channel- oops.  We were just praying they wouldn’t pick up our anchor and drag us to the government dock with them.  Thankfully, they cleared us just fine, though we were holding our breath!

The view of our anchorage, which is the ‘backyard’ of their school.  

See Marquesa front and center?!

These islands take sailboat racing very seriously…with their handmade boats- no power tools used.  We would see them set up in people’s yards.  There is the ‘huge’ regatta with four classes of boats the end of April in Georgetown.  It is a week long festival of food, drinks, and racing- four classes of boats in all.  They are very proud to show you their boats- which have no ballast---only men lined up along the rail (aka ‘railmeat’) to help hold the boat down.  They have ridiculously tall masts for the length of their boats, too, in an effort to have more sail area.  A 30’ (or less) boat, with a 60’ mast!  Craziness.

 The craftsmanship was something else though…it was fun to see up close.

We met this old gal and her husband on their front porch.  She was plaiting strips of palms into a four inch wide continuous band of ‘material’  They then use it to make purses, baskets and such to be sold at the straw markets in Nassau.  Her husband was very proud of her saying that ‘they’ made a good living at her handiwork, that it bought them their home.  I wonder what his contribution was to it all?!

….and then we stumbled upon the Garden of Eden, considered to be a ‘must see’ by cruisers.  We didn’t quite get the artwork in all of the driftwood.  Of course, Donnie had his usual ornery take on some of the ‘sculptures’!  It must be one of those ‘i’land tings’.

Matt got in on the orneriness, too- something (a serpent, maybe) seems to be ready to take a bite out of his backside J

There’s very little ‘color’ on these islands, as they are made of coral and sand.  Over time, it becomes calcified to have the appearance of moon rock.  What little greenery is a low lying scrub brush that you see everywhere, and the occasional palm tree. There was a hibiscus bush in the Garden of Eden.

This is the Government Clinic, staffed by a nurse who is there a day or two a week as she rotates between islands.  The sign on the door is announcing that the Doctor will be coming on April 19^th.  He only visits the islands once a month.  A dentist only arrives twice a year, and there is no veterinarian to be found for the roaming chickens, cats, and dogs.  We have it so good in the US.

This is a Sappodilla tree, which was growing outside Adderly’s Market.  It is cross between an over ripe banana and a pear, with a hint of brown sugar- so they say.  We weren’t able to taste one, as they won’t be ripe for another month or so.  We hear the locals either love them or hate them!  At Adderly’s Karie and I lucked into finding Romaine lettuce (only $6.00 for the same size bad we can get at Aldi’s for less than half of that!), an onion for $1.50, and apple for $1.00, and some ginger snaps for $3.00 (for a sleeve of about 20 cookies).  We thought we made out pretty good!

We hiked to the other end of the island where it was still crazy windy and the waves were really kicked up.

And we found the blow hole- this was a BIG one!

It was an angry looking surf.



Snapped this shot of Matt and Karie just as a wave crashed in,

and the sun shone for the briefest minute.

Was it ever windy on top!

It’s hard to appreciate how big those waves were rolling in…

and how high the cliffs were overlooking them.

This was a good shot of the anchorage at Black Pointe.  A lot of sailboats were in the harbor.

I peeked in on the school, and was invited in by one of the teachers to his classroom.  It was 7^th and 8^th grade boys and girls, about 10 of them.  He asked if I would come back tomorrow morning, to share a little psychology with them.  Guess I better go find some ‘teacher’ clothes to wear in the morning.  G’nite’ y’all!