{"id":1623,"date":"2013-02-03T16:42:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-03T16:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=1623"},"modified":"2013-02-03T16:44:36","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T16:44:36","slug":"island-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=1623","title":{"rendered":"Island Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I\u2019ve most looked forward in taking this trip is getting to know island culture, Bahamian life.\u00a0 All the way down the coast of the US and now along the islands in the Exumas we have befriended many other cruisers.\u00a0 The seasoned sailors have generously taken us under their wings with expert advice and generous camaraderie in every little port.\u00a0 Without it this would be a very different sort of trip.<\/p>\n

Still, what I\u2019ve looked forward to knowing is Bahamian culture, and I\u2019ve gotten a good glimpse of it now at both Black Point settlement and at Little Farmer\u2019s Cay during their 5Fs (Farmer\u2019s First Friday in February Festival), which includes a sailing regatta of Class C Bahamas Sloops.<\/p>\n

Black Point settlement is an island community of working class families.\u00a0 If you are ashore early enough you see the school children starting their day in their crisp dark green uniforms with pale yellow shirts.\u00a0 Both boys and girls wear ties to complete their outfits.\u00a0 Women work at various entrepreneurial businesses.\u00a0 Lorraine\u2019s Internet Caf\u00e9 is the most popular eatery on the island.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Lorraine will advertise a particular night\u2019s dinner buffet on the main VHF radio channel which all cruisers listen to, and they\u2019ll either stop ashore to make their reservation or call her on the same radio channel.\u00a0 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\u2019ve now forgotten.\u00a0 About 50 people came to this dinner, so she had her hands full cooking for all of us.<\/p>\n

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At the far left of this photo you can see the addition which Lorraine added which is computer room. \u00a0There is a counter at desk height that runs around the perimeter of this room with outlets every few feet above the counter.\u00a0 This is a hot spot every day for visiting cruisers who want to check the internet.\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Her cinnamon bread and coconut bread are famous among sailors!\u00a0 Without realizing it, I met her as we were returning from our big dinner at Lorraine\u2019s.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It looked like something they did together on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 I asked Corene where I could buy her baskets that I\u2019d heard were for sale somewhere.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Then she invited me into her kitchen to get the two loaves of coconut bread, one for us and one for friends who couldn\u2019t make it to Black Point.\u00a0 I can\u2019t promise that bread will still be around by the time we see our friends on Camelot<\/em>.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Delicious!<\/p>\n

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Black Point is well known for having the best laundromat in all of the Bahamas. Can you imagine having that kind of fame?\u00a0 Well, now I\u2019ve seen it, and it is well deserved! This is also a converted house.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Water and sky in amazing shades of blue as far as you can see.\u00a0 No one ever had a better view while doing such a mundane chore.\u00a0 The laundry room is bright white and pristine, with twelve washing machines and twelve dryers.\u00a0 It\u2019s just hard to turn your back on the view in order to fold clothes on the folding tables!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Her clients sit in a plastic lawn chair on the limestone ledge while she cuts their hair.\u00a0 No need for clean up as the hair trimmings blow right out to sea!\u00a0 Now she wins my vote as the most entrepreneurial woman ever! Oh, and did I mention that laundry is only $3.50 a load? \u2026.in such a remote place she could charge 5 times that much and we\u2019d all be thankful to pay it!<\/p>\n

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There are various other small businesses on the island, run mostly by women and a few men.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We\u2019d seen a few groups of men just hanging around together outside during the days while we visited the island.\u00a0 Corene said her husband was currently out of work, along with some other men. \u00a0They had all worked as fishermen for a man who owned a big boat.\u00a0 The owner had taken sick a few months ago and quickly died.\u00a0 The fishermen do not have the resources to fish for themselves or to buy a boat to share.\u00a0 I was moved by Corene\u2019s acceptance of this hardship and her confidence that she could provide what they needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I\u2019ve most looked forward in taking this trip is getting to know island culture, Bahamian life.\u00a0 All the way down the coast of the US and now along the islands in the Exumas we have befriended many other cruisers.\u00a0 The seasoned sailors have generously taken us under their wings with expert advice and generous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1628,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions\/1628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}