ozweaver – Page 39

Exciting Stuff

February 22, 2016 | Leave a Comment

We are leaving the safe confines of Over Yonder Cay later this morning. I’m excited and more than a little nervous about what lies ahead. The winds are still challenging, so for some of this week we will be looking for another good hiding place to stay safe. Rather soon we will be headed out in the Atlantic to Great Exuma — specifically to a large settlement called Georgetown where we can get good provisions for our last 6 – 8 weeks of sailing. From Georgetown we will either leave for Cuba or we’ll sail east to Long Island and leave from there.

This map shows a bit more than you need to know. Can you find the tiny Great Exuma and Long Island in the Bahamas chain? You can click on the map to ‘bigify.’ We’ll sail down past Crooked Island and Mayaguana and Grand Inagua without stopping, and then go through the Windward Passage between the eastern tip of Cuba and the western tip of Haiti.

We’ll sail past Guantanamo on the eastern most tip of the southern coast of Cuba–well offshore as the Coast Guard requires. Then we’ll make landfall at Santiago de Cuba. The trip from Long Island will be around 350 miles and will take us about 3 days. It’s important that we arrive at Santiago de Cuba in daylight, and I hope that we can also go through the Windward Passage during daylight. That is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. So, yes, I am very worried about that! Am I scared? Like you cannot believe! I’ve been repressing this part of our trip for months now, and now I must face the fact that it’s almost time to do it.

So, farewell to lovely Over Yonder. Here’s Bob standing on one of the greens overlooking the Atlantic. We’re not golfers, but all the greens were wonderful to visit, just for the views!

And here’s the pavilion at the ocean side beach we visited a couple of times. Can you tell how windy it is? A couple of times we brought our books to read, but the view is just so arresting it was hard to read. And with the wind howling it was hard to read through watery eyes!

And here are the wind generators–the sight that makes Over Yonder Cay so easily recognizable, with the main house in the background.

These pavilions built for meditation and yoga practice are new since we last visited here. There are several of them, all from India–just another wonderful part of the Over Yonder setting that makes it so hard to leave.

It will be sobering to return to the real life of sailing and looking for shelter!

I thought this would also be farewell to easy internet and cell coverage. I’ve spoken to both kids now– to our older son who is in Amsterdam on business and who will spend this week in Paris and Geneva as well. And to our younger son in San Francisco. I’ve written a lot of emails. But now Bob has pointed out to me that as long as there is a cell tower on a nearby island (and they are on almost all the islands now), we’ll be able to use the not-so-smart phone we got for the Bahamas as a hot spot. Whew! I’m not off the grid yet! Whew!

This morning I got an email from the friend who is weaving a lunch bag to coordinate with my sheep mug. This was a guild project that started a couple of years ago. In case you don’t remember my mug, I’ll remind you! My younger son gave it to me a fews years ago.

And here is the warp that my friend Susan has created to go with my sheep mug! The stripe colors she has chosen are all the colors that the mugs come in–isn’t that a great idea? It’s fabulous, and yes!!!! I’m excited! Susan has promised to send more photos as the weaving progresses, so I’m also excited about being able to watch this fabric grow and turn into a lunch bag!

Gales on Gales with Gales…

February 20, 2016 | 1 Comment

Can someone PLEASE turn off the wind?? I’m not sure what is worse: the buffeting about or the noise. Have you ever lived with howling wind for a full month, nonstop?? It sounds like the hounds of hell riding straight through me. Sometimes at night it sounds like horses galloping right on the deck above our heads, and that makes me think of those awful wraith things in Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogy.

On the bright side, this boat sure is sturdy. It has taken all the wind being hurled at it with a fair degree of grace. On old Pandora we would have been heeling at anchor or at dockside. New Pandora seems to take all this in stride and stays quite stable.

We had a rip roaring sail from Nassau to Over Yonder Cay on Thursday. Bob loved it, and I tolerated it. The wind was behind our beam (the mid-section of the boat) which makes for a pretty comfortable point of sail. But the consistent 28 mph winds with higher gusts did not make it an easy day for me. At least I did not get seasick, but I certainly could not do any handwork. In all that wind, which was gusting over 30 mph quite often, new Pandora only heeled about 10-12%….amazing!

The day before we motored to Nassau in flat waters, about 60 miles from Great Harbour Cay in the Berries. Bob did some quick provisioning at the American-style Fresh Market before we went out to dinner at Luciano’s, which has now become a tradition for us when we have to stop in Nassau. Neither of us likes to stop in Nassau. In my case I’d say that arriving by boat in a large city is just not as appealing as arriving in a small town, or better yet, a remote location. Cities just have too much hubbub for the cruising life style….but maybe that’s just me. Nassau also has seen more crime in the past couple of years, which puts me on my guard.

The sail from Nassau to Over Yonder Cay was about 75 miles, and new Pandora raced here with speeds ranging from the high 8’s to mid 10s (mph). This is a lot faster than any of our previous boats. Bob just loved it…

Here is Pandora looking good on the dock at Over Yonder.

Yesterday in the latest gale, I stayed onboard all day and tried to be creative. I made bread and yogurt. The yogurt was my first attempt since back in the 70s when I had one of those electric yogurt makers by Salton–do you remember those? Yogurt is not something easily found in the Bahamas, and milk will get scarcer and scarcer until there is none at all in Cuba, so I thought I’d attempt making it again, this time with irradiated box milk. I was pretty convinced that it would not work, but voila! It did!

I also spent much of yesterday going over the chapters I’ve put together for the Archie Brennan book. I know I never talk about it, and everyone must assume by now that it’s a defunct project. But I’ve been lurching along, and it is starting to shape up into something. I am still quite smitten with this project, and there has actually been some very good progress–in my humble opinion!

I realize now I haven’t mentioned that I’ve worn my acid green t-shirt, newly adorned with tatting, a couple of times! No one has commented on it–surely that’s a lack of boaters’ understanding anything about handwork, and not that it’s not adorable.

This is more accurate color.

I made quite a bit of progress of my newest tapestry before I decided to UNweave all of it. I’ve started again and am almost back to where I’d been when I decided to start over. Sheesh…

There is a lot going on at Over Yonder Cay even when there are no guests staying here. Everyone works very hard to keep this place going–and to keep it being one of the most stunning spots anywhere.

Yesterday the mail boat arrived with lots of provisions…. the food must have come from the US because I’ve never seen so many beautiful vegetables and fruits in all of the Bahamas. The produce came in crates! A crate each of asparagus, mangoes, lemons and limes, cauliflower….

Then a seaplane arrived with a number of other provisions, including some kind of big pneumatic drill thingy…. It landed in the water right near us and drove up a ramp to stop right next to us onshore! Customs and Immigration arrived to make sure that everything had been properly invoiced. Hmm…

We invited the couple we met two years ago, Ethan and Jaime, to come for dinner last night. This time they brought their newborn son with them. What a thrill to hold a baby after so many years. He is a beautiful baby, and so mild mannered. He let me hold him with barely a whimper at leaving his mom’s arms. Jaime’s mother is visiting the island right now from her home in Long Island. I enjoyed talking to her, Long Island being just the tip of the iceberg of what we have in common ! I hope we will see her again sometime in our own stomping grounds. It was a very enjoyable evening for Bob and me.

This is a terrible photo, but I have to share it…. there is nothing like holding a baby!

Today we will take a walk around the island and then have dinner in the pavilion where we had a meal two years ago with Rob and Kandice. I’m looking forward to that, especially if the winds die down as they are supposed to do. And I’m hoping to see a lovely sunset (the pavilion is on the western side of the island with a lovely beach) without having my eyelashes ripped off. Ever hopeful..

I’ve been making good progress on the second little tatted trim. I had initially thought I would put it on a periwinkle, boat neck t-shirt I have with me, but I don’t think the color changes in the tatting thread work as well as I initially thought. I have a lime green linen tank top onboard that I think will better. So that’s the plan for now.

I’m a bit tempted to raid the fine cotton threads I brought with me to give to the bobbin lace maker in Cuba. I’d like to try tatting on a smaller scale. I’ll try to resist that temptation.

Manatees, Eagle Rays, and Turtles!

February 13, 2016 | Leave a Comment

It’s been positively idyllic spending time in Great Harbour Cay. Yesterday, with calm winds and sun we took our dinghy on an excursion about 2 miles south along the western coast to enter a mangrove swamp called “Shark Creek.” (hmmm) After a mile or so of motoring through very shallow waters with mangroves on either side and making a verdant canopy over our heads, we exited into a large shallow protected bay on the eastern side of the cay, into waters full of turtles and rays.

I followed a ray and various turtles around for close to an hour while Bob used the go-pro to get footage. It was exhilarating to see so many turtles!

On our way back out of the mangrove creek which is only navigable for a short time before/during/after high tide, we motored over to a well known fishing boat wreck that’s been stuck on the sand flats for many years. It got caught in a hurricane years ago and was thrown up on a sand bar. This is a great snorkeling and fishing spot for seeing lobsters and large snappers.

On the way back to the harbour we saw some striking shore birds with bright orange/red bills. I’ve never seen them in US waters, but after searching for them on the internet, we discovered that they are called American Oyster Catchers. They summer along the New England coast and then migrate as far as Chile! I have never seen one before yesterday, and now all at once I’ve seen a large flock of them. We approached slowly to get photos, and it was a thrill to see them all take flight together!

Their bills are much brighter orange/red than this photo shows. In fact, what caught my attention from a long way off was all the bright dots of red I could see along the shore.

While it’s been quite a bit colder than ‘normal’ in this part of the world, the manatees have been looking for warmer water. They’ve been visiting in the harbor here, and yesterday a mother and cub were quite interested in hanging out behind Pandora. They enjoyed drinking fresh water right the from hose on the dock, and drinking the salt water that came out of our stern from our refrigeration unit. They particularly like having water from the hose aimed at their bellies when they roll over. The mother seemed to be showing the cub just how the ‘rolling over’ trick is done. What fun!

Here are a few close ups of the manatees. I was fascinated by their mouths….they seem to have hard gums rather than teeth.

Mom and cub sharing a drink of fresh water from the hose.

Mom looking forward to a splash of fresh water on her tummy.

A little salt water drink from Pandora’s refrigeration exhaust.

Quite an exciting couple of days! Today we plan to walk to a land based resort at the other end of the island to check out their restaurant. Then tonight I will attempt Valentine’s dinner in the smallest kitchen you can imagine (unless you are also a sailor!). The menu is pan seared filet mignon with a butter/brie sauce, roasted cauliflower with tarragon, and hopefully lobster tails if the fisherman comes in today. It should be quite a feat in this galley….

Great Harbour Cay

February 10, 2016 | Leave a Comment

Great Harbour Cay is the major island in the north Berry Islands, which lie between the Abacos to the north and the Exuma chain to the south. The Berry Islands are a stirrup shaped chain of thirty large cays and numerous small cays, totaling about thirty-two miles in length. The red bubble marks where we are located, at Great Harbor Cay Marina.

There are very few protected harbors in the Berries and the Exumas, so I am happy to be in such a spot, with 360-degree protection during these wild westerly and northwesterly winds that we’ve had for almost a week now. It’s been blowing hard in general for over a month now, and from a particularly bad direction for boats in the Bahamas.

Look how tight the cut is for entering the harbor! No matter how rough it is out side the harbor, once you enter the cut (about 40′ wide) you are in safe waters. Whew!

The folks who run the marina will do just about anything to make your stay as enjoyable as possible, and several of the locals have small businesses catering to us visiting cruisers. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a local woman bakes bread and delivers it right to your boat. She offers a choice of white, whole wheat, cinnamon, coconut, and raisin. On Wednesday evenings someone takes that same white bread dough and bakes pizzas and calzones that you can order ahead of time. These also get delivered right to your boat. Bob and I ordered a calzone last week. We were told to only order one since it would be too much for just two people. It was HUGE and fed us for three meals!

Another night of the week (Fridays?) someone comes to the marina with cold beers and meats to grill for the weekly “Grill and Chill.” There is a women’s lunch outing every Wednesday and the owners of the restaurant come to the marina to pick up the ladies. There is a similar event for the men called ROMEO (Really Old Men Eating Out). On Tuesday evenings there is a ‘drink and drift’ where all the participants get in their dinghies, tie themselves together, and drift about in the harbor getting to know each other. The weather has not cooperated for this since I’ve been here. On Sundays the local church sends a bus to the marina to pick up anyone who’d like to attend services. Again, we missed this event because it was too windy to leave Pandora unattended. There is also a Sunday brunch at a local restaurant– weather did not permit doing that either.

Monday evenings are pot luck dinners, and we participated in the one this week in spite of the high winds. Everyone was clinging to their plates and nothing stayed hot, but it was a lot of fun.

There are all kinds of little get togethers here. For example, today there was a fund raiser for the school: a craft project to make your own tropical fish from a coconut hull. So, while I wrote this blog and baked a loaf of bread, Bob was ashore (under the same pavilion where yesterday I made my warp) with at least a dozen other people, making his coconut fish!

The pristine beach on the ocean side (eastern) of the island is 3 miles long and boasts beautiful white sand. There is a beach bar there with a glorious view.

The beach is about a mile and a half walk from the marina, although on one of our trips we noticed we could take a short cut through the golf course. Yes, there is a golf course. Back in the 1960s, when this island was a hopping hot spot for glitterati there was a resort here that boasted an 18-hole course. The resort has since failed, and the course was in disrepair for years. Since the renovation of the marina the golf course has been restored to 9 holes. It makes a lovely walk…

The one market on the island is also a mile and a half walk from the marina. In whatever direction you start out walking, it is guaranteed that a number of people in various kinds of vehicles will stop and ask if you’d like a ride. You really have to want to take a stroll to actually walk all the way anywhere.

The mail boat arrives on Wednesdays, so the best day to shop at the market is on Thursday mornings. We did not get there that day last week, so the fresh pickings were slim.

The fresh producs.

The refrigerated items.

The pantry items.

There was quite a layer of dust on the some of the staple items, so I’ll be sure to check expiration dates before buying.

Before I arrived, Bob joined one of the excursions on a particularly calm day when the tides were right, for a dinghy trip down one of the mangrove swamps that cuts through the center of the island. Bob and his brother Bill saw lots of fish and turtles in the mangroves. It’s been the highlight of visiting this island for Bob, and I hope I get a day to take this trip as well.

It’s so rare that Bob and I ever stay in a marina, and this was has been such a great experience, with the friendly islanders and visiting cruisers like us, and protected waters during these violent storms, so this has become one of my favorite places. This sign at the airport pretty much sums up the camaraderie we’ve found here. I’ll definitely look forward to coming back.

Therapies

February 10, 2016 | 1 Comment

It was such a wonderful experience to arrive in Great Harbor Cay to soft warm breezes and brilliant sunshine. We had a couple of days of magnificent sunrises and sunsets—just what I needed. Since then it’s been gale force winds and ominous skies. Offshore the winds have been very high indeed, around 70 mph. Numerous friends have written to tell me about the cruise ship that got stuck in these winds and had to confine all passengers to their cabins while the ship returned to the US.

So, after getting somewhat used to this violent weather and calming down that Pandora was not going to rip herself right off the dock, I have picked up some projects again. I am about three rings and chains from finishing my little tatted lace trim. Maybe tonight I’ll be able to sew it to my t-shirt. Fingers crossed on that.

Yesterday, I took my copper pipe loom ashore to warp it (far too bouncy onboard for such a task). Bob rigged up a brilliantly technical, Rube Goldberg arrangement for clamping the edge of my loom to a picnic table. It involved two clamps, a length of webbing with a small clasp at one end such as is used for tying things to the roof of a car, and then a length of plain webbing and length of line (nauticalese for rope).

Can you see that Bob attached one clamp to the picnic table and then used the 2nd clamp to attach the corner of the loom to the first clamp. So clever…. To minimize the torquing of the loom he has the car webbing running from the long bar of the 1st clamp to the other end of the picnic table. The 2nd webbing is bracing the bottom corner of the loom to the picnic table.It was quite an engineering feat, and in the end, I was able to warp the loom all by myself while Bob walked to the market on the island. With my spool of seine twine in a bucket and tensioned by going over the brace of a picnic table nearby, I was able to use one hand to keep the tension on the warp while making wraps of warp with the other hand. I was done in less than hour!

All finished warping. Then I sat down for a bit to space the warp threads evenly and weave a header that will support the beginning of the woven tapestry. Does it look cold? It certainly was! The wind was blowing about 30 mph and the resultant wind chill was very un-tropical!

Here is the cartoon I’ll be using for this project. It’s the final line from one of my favorite Robert Frost poems, and it happens to be a favorite with our younger son as well. This tapestry is for him. In this photo I am measuring for possible border sizes.

Meanwhile, in my inbox yesterday I found a message from a friend alerting me to a post on Weavetech that she knew I’d be interested in reading. Now that internet is not a ‘given’ for us I have dropped the daily digest format, so I would never have seen this post without the ‘heads up!’ from my friend.

It turns out there is a new book out by Oxford Press about two subjects very dear to me: ancient Greece and weaving. Being a Greek student in college is what led me to weaving in the first place– 40 years ago. It was the connection between text and textile that brought me to weaving, and now 4 decades later a few people are looking at the connections between the words for various parts of early Greek ships and words used in weaving terminology. And now that I spend such a great deal of time living onboard my own little vessel (though not a ship) I am naturally curious to learn more about these findings.

The book is originally in German, and published by an English publisher (Oxbow) with a division in the US. You can find it online here. Surely it must also be available in English, especially since the title is translated –I am certainly counting being able to order an English translation.

Weben und Bewebe in der Antike: Materialitat–Reprasentation–Episteme–Metapoetick
(Texts and Textiles in the Ancient World: Materiality–Representation–Episteme–Metapoetics)
Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer (Author)

What I got to read, through the post on WeaveTech, is an article taken from the book, written by Marie-Louise Nosch and published on a website called www.academia.edu

Though I could not find the article by searching that site (maybe you will have better luck), the woman who posted on WeaveTech sent me a pdf. I’d like to post it here, but will first find out if I need permission for that. Stay tuned. It is a compelling study of the words for various parts of a sailing and rowing ship being the same as words used in both spinning and weaving. Since textile production is an older technology, it is presumed that the words used in ship building and sailing terms were borrowed from textile terms, due to textile’s prominent connection to ships, ship building, and the act of sailing or rowing.

And on a calmer day Bob and I took a walk on the pristine beach at Great Harbor Cay.

Author name: ozweaver

Exciting Stuff

Gales on Gales with Gales…

Manatees, Eagle Rays, and Turtles!

Great Harbour Cay

Therapies

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