Sailors from Haiti

While in Bimini we met a journalist and filmmaker who were sailing with 4 Haitians to Florida.  Sailing is a literal term here since their open boat has no engine.  They have oars and poles and sails. The trip, is being done in a traditional open boat to draw attention to the hardships of present day Haitian refugees.  In the Bahamas, there seems to be some animosity toward Haitians.  Bahamians do complain about the way Haitian fishermen raid Bahamian lobster traps, fish in Bahamian waters and use bleach to capture lobsters and thus ruin the reef.  Many people say that there is great prejudice against Haitians, but we did not witness that first hand.  The journalist told us stories of fights and intimidation but we did not see that.   The sailors  completed so much of their journey over open ocean crossing  passages with strong currents renowned for nasty conditions.  I cannot imagine 6 people in this boat in those waters.  There is no cabin only a tarp which they pull over the boat when sleeping or trying to escape the rain.  Bimini must have seemed like a great safe haven.   At dinner, they went conching  and wow you should have seen them get the conch out of the shell and onto the grill. They have conch acumen.  We wished them well as we headed out.  They were waiting for calmer seas and more favorable winds.  I hope they get them.    

One Particular Harbor so near and yet so far

We made it to the states the other day.  Crossing from Bimini to Fort Lauderdale was wild and wonderful and scary all at once.  We arrived in Bimini after some meandering.  From the Jumentos we sailed up the South side also referred to as  the" Sout"side by Bahamians. This shallow bank is a paradise.  Isolated, but not too far from  large harbors.  The water is opaque , milky turquoise and incredibly beautiful.  We had to anchor almost one and 1/2 miles off the shore because the water was so shallow .  However , we were surrounded by lovely islands and so wonderfully protected from howling winds.  There is a lot of exploration to be done here and we have only begun.  Tom of course was thrilled .  The depth sounder never said more than 5 and 1/2 feet  as we worked out way through rocks and islands and cuts with fast currents.  His instincts are so great, we were in shelter all the time and winds were almost 30 knots.    But, we are ready to get home and started to make our way up the Exuma chain.  We stopped at one harbor and another,  full of memories from past stops and  the joy of new experiences.  I kept thinking of Buffet and "one particular harbor".  But in the Exumas we have a few,  in fact a lot , of harbors which call us for their beauty and for the really good times we have there. If you asked us our favorite, it would change from day to day and memory to memory. From Exumas we ran to Nassau - alway s a weird combination of Bahamas and city and beach and fun and chaos. Then, the run from Nassau to Chub was a fabulous down wind sail . We left Chub at  4am to avoid a night on the banks .  Early rising has its difficulties but sailing under the dark sky with dancing stars and a half moon: that was great.  The sun rose amid clouds and rain but it was still spectacular.  It is about 80 miles from Chub to Bimini and despite the early start we were negotiating the harbor entrance at sunset.   It is an interesting harbor entrance.  You parallel the beach about 15 yards out with breakers on the other side . It would be a really scary thing at night but we made it just at sunset.  The weather had not been cooperative.  Sunset was through gloom, squalls and rain but we got into the dock in time to hoist a glass to the glowing red skies. Bimini is just under 50 miles from FLA but it is worlds away.  The gulf stream is a natural barrier between Florida and the Bahamas.  We were looking a a narrowing weather window to get across and decided,   after careful listening to weather, and assurances that squalls were compressed East of us, to make the trip.  Many people at the dock were waiting for a window about 4 or 5 days in the future.  I find weather is not too accurate that far out and it looked pretty good so we set out for Ft Lauderdale at around 9:30 am.  Wild slog out of the harbor .  The predictions were for SW at about 10 knots and 3 foot seas.  We were seeing NW winds (course is NW) and seas about 5 feet.  Yuck! We seriously entertained heading back.  After all 9 hours of this nonsense would be too much. Additionally the winds from the north tend to increase the seas in the Gulf Stream.  But  the waves settled and we altered course a bit hoping for a little help north from the Gulf Stream later on.  The seas were big but well spaced and things looked pretty good.  Hours passed  while we were motorsailing and enjoying flattening seas. Then, the Coast Guard radioed a warning for severe thunder storms with water spouts and hail and 50 knot winds headed directly on our path.  NOT what we hoped for.  We altered course but outrunning weather is an iffy thing.    Before our eyes, the clouds gathered, stacked and grew.  The grey just obliterated sunny skies.  For a little while, the margins of the bad weather were clear and ominous.  Tails of clouds reached for the ocean trying to form waterspouts.  We battened down all hatches.  As we watched,  the clouds became more spread out and indefinite.  Then, they brightened and spread out  Finally , the Coast Guard  announced that the severe  thunder storm warning was over .  Relief! I  had actually readied our lifejackets! We made Fort Lauderdale with a low dark sky full of distant but bright lightening.  It was wonderful to throw the hook out.  We'll take advantage of the shelter of the Intracostal Waterway for the next few days as the forecast is awful.  Good to be in the states!

Conch Acumen

   Conch is plentiful in the Jumentos but I came up empty during my first few hunting expeditions.  I found shells inhabited by sea urchins and small fish.  I found empty shells.  I couldn’t find an edible conch at all.  Finally , we went snorkeling with Steve and Kim from Fine Lion.  Steve pointed out about a dozen conch about 10 or twelve  feet down.  I surfaced triumphantly holding the one I thought he indicated only to have him take it from my hand and toss it back.  "The big one" he said " not that one".  I found the big one and four more that were acceptable.  I was now a successful hunter.  I had conch acumen . Almost.   The bigger deal is once you have these guys what do you do with them? Making these  tropical escargot relinquish their homes is a bit of a project.    The first step is to make a hole in the shell  with the claw of a hammer.  The best place is on the back and up fairly high.    Then a sharp knife searches through the hole for the  parts that hold the conch in its rather lovely home.  Then cut and cut and cut.  It was a bit gory but cracked conch and conch fritters were a good incentive.  After the cutting, I tried to grab the conch  from the front of the shell and yank.  Easier said than done.  The Bahamians make this look really simple.  It is not.  But maybe some day it will be.  I used    pliers.  Eventually I yanked the conch from it’s home and handed it to Tom pliers and all.  He cleaned it.  The guts  and head etc. are truly disgusting and so slimy.  The rest though,  is as good as a bay scallop, if prepared correctly.  After trimming and peeling and trimming,  the conch still needs to be pounded into a tenderized  treat.  We beat it with a wooden mallet until it sounded like we were building a  house.  Finally, we had a conch feast.  Cracked conch is just breaded with cracker crumbs and pan fried.  Fritters are made with lots of conch,  onions and peppers in a batter and fried  in a fair amt of oil.  A bit of hot pepper seems to be in order for almost all these dishes.  Next Conch chowder ........

Jumentos

Jumentos Cays

A trip to the Jumentos takes a couple of days from Georgetown.  As a first stop  we headed to Long Island.  We were quite relaxed  about this sail and didn’t weigh anchor until about 10:00 AM. That may have been a mistake.  It takes about 3 miles to exit Georgetown  and there is often  a big swell at the south end channel .  The swell was a bit more than expected but ok.   Once out of the harbor we noted that there was a bit more wind than expected but still ok.  Soon we got on our heading for Long Island, SE at about 122-126 degrees.  The wind was from about  ESE at about 100 degrees blowing about 15 – 20 knots.  We just can’t sail 22 degrees off the wind so we tacked and we slogged and we motor sailed and we made about 3  knots into a stinky 4 foot chop.  How we managed to sail against the tide for 9 hours is a mystery to me but as we watched the sunset behind us we were still fighting to make more than 3 knots and the harbor was about 5 miles away.  We watched the stars dance a bit before arrived in stealth mode and set the anchor.   The weather forecast  the next morning gave us about two days before another stretch of windy, windy days. We set out , earlier this time ,for the northern Jumentos cays about 45 miles away.   The Jumentos are unpopulated.  There is one settlement to the south in Ragged Island with about 100 people.  We visited only the northern cays, Water and Flamingo, before the wind began to howl.   Our anchorage was well protected and one beautiful and happy week sped past.  There are no stores ,no marinas, no beach bars .  It is wonderful.   Our friends in Fine Lion were the  only other sailboat in the anchorage.  A few fishing boats came and went  in coves to the north and south. One morning, at about 730 we heard a knock on the hull and a small fishing boat pulled along side.  They were interested to know if we had heard a weather forecast; as in strong wind it is difficult to pull traps.  After discussing the weather a bit one fisherman asked if we had anything on board to make his mouth taste like a man.  I didn’t get it so he said , with the best of Bahamian lilts, “My mouth is just like a Bahamian dog’s I need something to make it like a man and get me going.  “  I offered coffee and he looked horrified.  Laughing he said that  when a Bahamian father gives his son a glass of rum he will say” here’s something to make your mouth taste like a man”.   We were way too low on rum for sharing but we found a bottle of wine that was acceptable and were promised fish in return.  The Bahamian defense force maintains an occasional presence in the area too.    After a couple of days stuck in weather they invited the fishermen and us  to a “grill out” on the beach.  We had fabulous steaks and chicken , great peas and rice, a Bahamian specialty similar to fried rice but better,  and stories of barracuda  stealing  fish from spears .  As the fishermen go t involved in the conversation, there were tales of hammerhead sharks and a showing of scars that was reminiscent of “Jaws” . It was almost enough to keep me out of the water but the snorkeling was amazing.  While searching for conch and fish we saw a moray eel, cow fish with their funny horns , puffy porcupine fish and rays.  I saw no sharks.  Thankfully! After a week the wind moderated and we turned our bow north, gently.  We had  water on board from our friends on Fine Lion which is equipped with a watermaker – handy item- but we were out of rum and beer.