Fine Craft

We are awaiting the coming storm at the stunning resort at Highbourne Cay.  We had a lovely afternoon and evening here yesterday, and today promises to be equally nice in spite of the rising winds.

I am having my morning coffee now while looking out at the palm trees that are bending dramatically in the rising wind.  This is the first truly cloudy day I have seen in the three months I’ve been down here.  In that same three months we have had only one brief, 10-minute rain squall.  Later today should bring some squalls, but many times there is no precipitation, so I’m curious to see what will happen later.  We’d love a little rain to wash away some of the salt on our decks!  Right now we have ‘deck shoes’ and ‘going ashore’ shoes, and we try very hard not to wear them into the cockpit and certainly not down below!  Keeping Pandora ship shape and salt free is always the top priority!

I feel very lucky to be here right now, and when we arrived we were the only sailboat here in a snug harbor full of mega yachts.  Later in the day another sailboat arrived, so now there are two of us.  And that will be it since the docks are full.  We definitely feel like the country cousins here!

Everything on this island is meticulously groomed by the resort, so although the island is covered in native plantings, it has definite look of being beautifully maintained.  People arrive here by either helicopter or seaplane.  In fact, as we entered the harbor yesterday a seaplane was landing right beside us!  That’s the first time we’ve given way to a plane rather than another boat!  There is a little launch that goes out to meet the plane and pick up the passengers!  Wow…

The beaches are also groomed here.  Someone rakes the beach every day (must be in the middle of the night though because you’ll never see them) and there are umbrellas and Adirondack chairs every few yards, spaced just far enough apart to give everyone their privacy.

In early evening we took our cocktails, a gin and tonic for me and a Dark and Stormy for Bob, to the beach and sat in the Adirondack chairs watching a gaggle of adolescents ride their ‘skim boards’ in the surf.

We had dinner in the restaurant, Xuma, that overlooks the Bahamas Banks.  There was a film crew making a promotional video for the resort,  taking footage of the sunset from the best table on the balcony.  They set up their Go-Pro on the railing of the balcony, and then the table was ours!  It was a stunning sunset with the coming storm clouds massing in the sky.  And dinner was delicious!   Bob and I shared some conch fritters, a roasted beet and goat cheese salad, and a Bahamian risotto dinner of prawns, scallops and a spiny lobster tail.  I did get another lobster dinner!

Today is cool and very humid with coming storm.  We will walk to the ocean beach today.  It is 2 miles long and gets raked each day.  I will probably take my latest knitting project and we’ll bring a picnic lunch.  I have finished the body of my ‘Mary Tudor’ and will probably put it aside until I get home.  It is time to cut open the front and the armholes, and I haven’t got any sharp scissors on board.  Better to wait until I have the proper tools.

Knowing that whatever I work on now will probably end up on the plane with me when I fly home (in 34 days!!), I looked through my stash with an eye for something portable.  About five years ago I started a traditional circular shawl from the Orkney Islands in an online workshop led by Elizabeth Lovick (http://www.northernlace.co.uk/).  I put it down for what I thought would be a brief hiatus, and then I lost it!  I did look for it several times over the years, but I didn’t find it until we moved to Connecticut and I began unpacking my stash.  I was happy to find it and put into the bins I brought onboard last fall.  It’s time has come!  Although I am not using the traditional Shetland lace yarn for this shawl, I am using something that seems very appropriate to me!  Quite a long time ago my English friend Lesley took me to Uppinham Yarns in ….  and among the many things that tempted me was a stunning cone of fine wool and cashmere in a wonderful shade of heathered claret red.  I’m happy to be reunited with this project!

Dinner tonight won’t be Xuma, but it should still be memorable.  We bought some Strawberry Grouper filets yesterday from a fisherman cleaning his catch on the docks.  There are fresh veggies at the resort market, so we will also have a salad! …the first in about 2 weeks!  What a luxury!

We hear that the weather has been quite challenging along the East Coast of the US, but here in the Bahamas spring is hardly different than winter!  We have had some challenging winds down here this winter, and since that has not yet stopped perhaps that is our ‘lion.’

During the most recent week of strong winds, we have been in a little archipelago of islands that include Compass Cay, Pipe Cay, Little Pipe Cay, Thomas Cay, and Joe Cay. These little islands are either uninhabited or privately owned by very wealthy individuals, so there is no going ashore and no provisions. Everyday we visit at least one new beach, each with its own marvels. There are more beaches than I can count, as well as a beautiful mangrove swamp that we explored at low tide.  Pandora may have a more pronounced starboard list due to my shell collecting!

Now aren’t you just dying to see these starfish in more detail??  The local name for them is ‘cushion star,’ and they come in differing patterns of gold and deep red.  The patterns and colors strongly remind me of stitched shibori on fabric first dyed a light Brazilwood , then stitched and dipped into a deep madder bath.  They are truly stunning!

While we’ve been here I have spent my mornings knitting or weaving  baskets, then after lunch Bob and I go exploring.  We relax in the evenings and often share dinners with our friends aboard Ariel.

My basket collection is growing…. I have given away the bigger basket in this group, and I plan to continue making a number of the smaller ones.  They are just the right size for a votive candle, and the candlelight makes interesting patterns as it shines through the coiled stitches.

I am just a few rows away from the shoulder shaping on “Mary Tudor.”  Then it will be time to cut the whole thing open and try it on!…. before starting the sleeves and front bands.

It’s almost Easter, and that feels very strange.  During this time away I have missed both my sons’ birthdays as well as Easter.  It’s the first time to miss these occasions with family, and I have to say it is decidedly a drag…  Well, I guess there has to be a little rain on our parade…

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!