Fine Craft

Almost daily someone asks me why I’m sailing around without a loom.  It’s surprising how many people know about the little looms you might consider for traveling.  Inkle looms, tablets, little pot holder looms, and of course(!) rigid heddle looms.  What surprises me more than their knowledge of little looms, is their conviction that anyone could be perfectly satisfied with such equipment.  I simply cannot figure out how to describe why I haven’t got a rigid heddle loom onboard.  They all seem to think I just haven’t considered my options well enough.

I mean, really… I do have two drop spindles with me, and I enjoy using them!  But I would not have a rigid heddle loom with me.  I simply cannot explain that to myself yet, much less to anyone else.

Meanwhile, I have taken up my “Mary Tudor” sweater again, and it is a very satisfying and fulfilling project.  Alice Starmore really nails it every time with her designs.  They make so much sense, knitterly, that they practically knit themselves. If I understood why I’d be a prolific designer myself!  In spite of her reputation for complicated patterns, I find that I barely have to look at the charts…. well, I do look at the beginning of each row (I wouldn’t want to lead you astray on that!)…but really, her charted designs are so artistic while also being so logical, that myopic chart reading is really not required.  I’m above the armholes now, about halfway to the shoulder shaping.  I am loving every minute of it!

On one of our recent walks on Long Island, Bob very nicely collected some Silver Queen palm spears for me.  Spears are what I am calling the new shoot of palm frond that rises out of the center of the plant.  I visited with basket maker Nancy on Trumpeter, and she very generously guided me as I started 8 baskets.  When I explained to her that beginnings and endings are the crucial bits of learning any new technique, she was all about helping me learn the beginning at least!  She had a basket ready for ending so she showed me one ending.  I have now completed my first basket by myself, and it’s nothing to write home about.  In fact, I’m not even sure it’s worth keeping!  But for the moment, it is my vessel for holding all the chaff I cut off the fronds before weaving.  Maybe I’ll throw it overboard when I throw out all the chaff…

A few shots from our palm frond foraging!

There are wild and domestic goats everywhere!

And even on these desert islands, we find a few things in bloom.

My most recent cache of shells and sea glass drying in the cockpit.  Even when I’m looking for palm fronds, shells are always part of the foraging.

We up anchored today and headed north for Cat Island.  I did weave for a while before sea sickness overtook me.  Ugh.  My second basket shows a litte more promise.  I spent most of the trip sleeping after taking a half dose of Stugeron.  It was a long day of over 60 miles. At an average of 6 miles per hour sailing, it took us 10 hours to get here!  A bit slower than travel by car!  After the beautiful aquamarine waters of the harbors, ocean sailing in the Atlantic with depths of 6,000 feet gave us deep indigo water with white foam on the wave crests.

Cat Island looks quite intriguing.  Father Jerome’s Hermitage is at the top of the highest hill here, called Mount Alvernia.  That hill of about 260 feet elevation is the highest spot in all the Bahamas!  On the summit he built a monastery called the Hermitage.  From the harbor it looks like it’s sitting atop a huge mountain.  I understand you can walk up to it in about 15 minutes, so that means something is very wrong with the perspective.  I think it’s a fairly well kept secret that it’s all smaller than it appears from the harbor.  I think no one wants to give away this little secret so the surprise isn’t spoiled.  But if you can walk up to it in 15 minutes, it can’t possibly be as imposing as it appears from here!

Father Jerome was an Englishman, born in the 2nd half of the 19th century, who was an architect, and an Anglican, before becoming a Catholic monk.  He enjoyed designing churches on many islands here in the Bahamas in the early 20th century.  In fact, the photos of the beautiful church in Clarencetown on Long Island was one of Father Jerome’s accomplishments. He built some churches along with the hermitage and his retirement home on Cat Island.  I hope to have detailed photos tomorrow when we visit.

We are anchored right near the Batelco (Bahamas Telephone Company) cell tower on Cat Island and are making good use of some unsecured internet with our wifi booster.   Life is good!

Pandora’s journey is still here!

Life has slowed down considerably today, now that the 5Fs festival is finished.  You’d never even know how much hubbub was here the last two days.  Bob and I went ashore for a walk around the island today, and all has gone back to the slow, sleepy pace of a small settlement on a remote cay.

One of the things I expected during our travels was access to local tropical fruits.  I expected to be eating mangoes and avocados everyday, as I had read about in the book An Embarrassment of Mangoes (which is about the Caribbean, not the Bahamas).  It turns out that the Bahamas chain is rather desert-like and there is no organized agriculture.  We have seen a few small gardens around people’s houses, but it is a hard existence for food crops.  We’ve seen a lone corn plant growing out of a crack in the limestone rock back at Black Point.

Here on Farmer’s Cay we have seen the first actual lawns around people’s houses, and small ornamental gardens that look well tended.  We have not seen any vegetable plots.  At all the island markets we’ve seen vegetables and fruit that have had a long journey to their destination and are much the worse for wear…  badly bruised fruits, tomatoes that look like they will never turn red, and most things looking rather dehydrated from travel.  The crates have stamps with US locations on them.  So I have not yet even had a mango or an avocado…

We have also seen quite a bit of cotton plants on this island, which is maybe the origin of its name Farmer’s Cay.  Maybe this is on of those locations where colonists tried to start cotton farming.  I was tempted to take a few bolls, but I restrained myself.  I’ve already got some lovely cotton, already handpainted, that I can spin…

We saw a bit of song bird life today….the same little yellow breasted bird we saw in Warderick Wells, that we now know is called a ‘yellow quit.’ And we saw a humming bird!  Imagine that!

Off the rocky shore near the center of town we watched a man removing conchs from their shells and then skinning them on a rock.  He had his sharpening stone with him on the rock and continually sharpened his knife in order to continue cleaning the conchs, which involves cutting off the thick skin and removing the claw.  He worked quickly, like a pro, which undoubtedly he is.

Just a bit further out in this same small harbor we saw three sea turtles surfacing repeatedly, and a giant ray.  Such common sights for the folks who live here, and such an exotic treat for Bob and me!

We saw the little island school at the highest point on the island.  It is a ‘school for all ages.’  I like that!

So far we have only seen Baptist churches on these islands, and I wonder if we will ever see any other denominations.  People here take Sunday very seriously, and all businesses (except restaurants) are closed.  Therefore I did not get to meet the owner of Brenda’s Kitchen.

This evening is the Super Bowl back home, and here in the Bahamas they know about it!  The yacht club where we are moored is hoping to lure all the visiting Americans ashore for happy hour starting at 4pm and dinner during the game.  I only saw a small old fashioned tv (meaning not flat screen) that looked about 10″ square in the billiards room off the bar.  Surely, they don’t plan to use that??

I also heard Lorraine all the way from Black Point on the VHF  this morning announcing her Super Bowl party with non stop happy hour throughout the game and a pig roast buffet.  Now that’s one sharp business woman!  I know our friends on Sea Schell and Kalunamoo will all be attending!

What I’ve most looked forward in taking this trip is getting to know island culture, Bahamian life.  All the way down the coast of the US and now along the islands in the Exumas we have befriended many other cruisers.  The seasoned sailors have generously taken us under their wings with expert advice and generous camaraderie in every little port.  Without it this would be a very different sort of trip.

Still, what I’ve looked forward to knowing is Bahamian culture, and I’ve gotten a good glimpse of it now at both Black Point settlement and at Little Farmer’s Cay during their 5Fs (Farmer’s First Friday in February Festival), which includes a sailing regatta of Class C Bahamas Sloops.

Black Point settlement is an island community of working class families.  If you are ashore early enough you see the school children starting their day in their crisp dark green uniforms with pale yellow shirts.  Both boys and girls wear ties to complete their outfits.  Women work at various entrepreneurial businesses.  Lorraine’s Internet Café is the most popular eatery on the island.  Lorraine asks for reservations a day or so ahead of time so she can be sure to have the food on hand (this is very typical in the Bahamas where food has to be brought in by boat).  Lorraine will advertise a particular night’s dinner buffet on the main VHF radio channel which all cruisers listen to, and they’ll either stop ashore to make their reservation or call her on the same radio channel.  We went to a Wednesday evening buffet that included jerk chicken, ribs, sliced grilled steak, Bahamas macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, peas and rice, fried fish, and probably a few more things I’ve now forgotten.  About 50 people came to this dinner, so she had her hands full cooking for all of us.

At the far left of this photo you can see the addition which Lorraine added which is computer room.  There is a counter at desk height that runs around the perimeter of this room with outlets every few feet above the counter.  This is a hot spot every day for visiting cruisers who want to check the internet.  She offers this for free with the suggestion of a donation. You can also have lunch or a snack there while surfing the net. I spent about 4 hours there one day!

I learned that whoever hears that you are going to Black Point will ask if you to get them a loaf a bread from Corene.  Her cinnamon bread and coconut bread are famous among sailors!  Without realizing it, I met her as we were returning from our big dinner at Lorraine’s.  We were walking back to our dinghy about 8pm when we saw a group of women sitting on the porch of a house plaiting palm fronds into long woven strips.  At this time of night in January, it is completely dark, and the women were working by the lights on the porch, sitting in lawn chairs, chatting.  It looked like something they did together on a regular basis.

When I came to get my bread the next morning, I realized that the bakery house was also the house with the front porch where the women were making baskets.  I asked Corene where I could buy her baskets that I’d heard were for sale somewhere.  She took me to the cute cottage next door, a smaller version of her house, where the one main room was filled with the baskets of all the women who sit and weave with her in the evenings.  I chose a large market basket that she had made by hand-sewing the long strips of plaited palm fronds together to form a tote bag.  Then she invited me into her kitchen to get the two loaves of coconut bread, one for us and one for friends who couldn’t make it to Black Point.  I can’t promise that bread will still be around by the time we see our friends on Camelot.  It would be such a shame for it to go stale! I highly recommend coconut bread, which I believe is a typical sweet, white bread dough that is rolled out and spread with mixture of butter, sweetened coconut, sugar and cinnamon, then rolled up and put into a standard loaf pan to rise and bake.  Delicious!

Black Point is well known for having the best laundromat in all of the Bahamas. Can you imagine having that kind of fame?  Well, now I’ve seen it, and it is well deserved! This is also a converted house.  The downstairs has one large room with windows that overlook a limestone ledge with views of Grand Bahamas Bank, with its blue waters that shade from aquamarine and emerald in the shallower spots to cobalt blue in the deeper areas.  Water and sky in amazing shades of blue as far as you can see.  No one ever had a better view while doing such a mundane chore.  The laundry room is bright white and pristine, with twelve washing machines and twelve dryers.  It’s just hard to turn your back on the view in order to fold clothes on the folding tables!  There is a small side room in the laundromat that offers a few basic provisions for sale, and the owner herself also gives haircuts while your laundry is going.  Her clients sit in a plastic lawn chair on the limestone ledge while she cuts their hair.  No need for clean up as the hair trimmings blow right out to sea!  Now she wins my vote as the most entrepreneurial woman ever! Oh, and did I mention that laundry is only $3.50 a load? ….in such a remote place she could charge 5 times that much and we’d all be thankful to pay it!

There are various other small businesses on the island, run mostly by women and a few men.  When Corene happened to tell us that she was born and raised on Black Point and that she and her husband had lived in their lovely white stucco house with bright green trim for many years now, Bob asked her what her husband does on the island.  We’d seen a few groups of men just hanging around together outside during the days while we visited the island.  Corene said her husband was currently out of work, along with some other men.  They had all worked as fishermen for a man who owned a big boat.  The owner had taken sick a few months ago and quickly died.  The fishermen do not have the resources to fish for themselves or to buy a boat to share.  I was moved by Corene’s acceptance of this hardship and her confidence that she could provide what they needed.

Last night was the very first calm winds since arriving in the Bahamas two weeks ago.  It almost felt like a protected harbor in New England, rather than a bit of water between two cays, which it really was….

We are in Little Farmer’s Cay for the “Farmer’s First Friday in February Festival, ” or 5Fs, as it is known.  Part of this festival is a sailing race of Bahamian sloops.  There are a few of these boats on the island, and on the morning of the festival the large mail boat brings in a few more with crew.  This morning around 8am, we did see the mail boat “My Captain” arrive with three Bahamian sloops on the foredeck and a crowd of passengers milling on deck listening to blaring island music.  The little cay of Farmer’s is now pulsing with excitement!

And the wind is picking up as predicted.   The race should be quite adventurous, with East winds kicking up to over 20 mph and gusting to near 30.  Bob went ashore earlier to volunteer for a crew position on one of the sloops.  He came back to tell me that he is being considered for a spot on “Thunderbird.”  He’s got the camera so I cannot document what I’m watching right now through binoculars.  I don’t know if he has been accepted, but the captain of “Thunderbird” seems to be putting Bob through some paces:  making him do quite a bit of the hard work rigging this sloop which is bouncing dramatically at the dock of Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club.  It looks like most of the Bahamians are relaxing on the dock chatting together while Bob works solo to hank on the main sail.  I’m wondering if they are waiting to see if Bob will get seasick. I think they’ll wait a long time for that, so I’m betting Bob will be accepted to crew for the race.

And I’m not sure what I think of that.  He took his inflatable life jacket with him, but I have to wonder what the procedure is if someone goes overboard.  From what I barely understand about Bahamian sloops, the biggest asset of having crew is ballast.  The crew are expected to shift sides on every tack and to hike out as far as possible to balance the huge sail.  Will they stop to pick up a crewman gone overboard?  Will there be a chase boat for this eventuality?

Right now I’m watching a golf cart motor out onto the dock to pick up other supplies that the mail boat brought for this festival:  crates food and drink.  I was on that dock last evening, so I know it doesn’t seem sturdy enough for a golf cart full of supplies.  Hmmm… this is not giving me confidence about the safety of things around here. Wish I could manage some photos of Bob, but he’s got the camera!

Now Bob is back on the dock, and the captain is on board looking at the sail, probably checking Bob’s handiwork.  I also know that Bob is at least as agile as any of the Bahamian men, so I think it’s time to start worrying about his safety during this race.

Some of the boats are sailing around the harbor now, but I can no longer see “Thunderbird.”  There are only two or three men on each boat, so I’m rather surprised that any of them would need volunteer crew members. The booms on these boats extend well beyond the stern, at least half again as long as their length on deck, and the mast is quite far forward on the deck.  The sails are huge. I can’t tell if the sails can be reefed down in the kind of wind we have today.  Should be interesting!