Island Life
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.
