ISLAND STYLE

We found out the other day that kids born in the Abacos are called "CONIANS". When my niece Corina left a few weeks ago, and she was eight months pregnant, it was touch and go whether she would have a 'Conian". Conians appear to be very happy and healthy and definitely not shy, like these three dancing in the street at one of the functions. There are some other things that are definitely also "ISLAND STYLE". Take this bank sign for instance. You need to get your act together if you are going to get to the bank on time in the dinghy and get some money out. Let me explain. The Bank staff travel between islands. Ever see a bank employee with two fishing rods and a tackle box? Then when they get to the bank, there are phone calls to be made, " Nellie, how are you...... yes, I'll be here till at least 3pm,......Let Charlotte know I'm in town......OK, see you then" and if you think that's different, you should see the one-man SWAT team (Badge No. 001) guarding the bank. He has to start a fight and break it up every once in a while, to keep in practice.................
The yacht racing continues as the fleet travels down islands, and they take it very seriously. Some sail right into the harbour. Perhaps they had engine troubles................... Getting a sponsor like "Hospice" never hurts when it comes to the race committee. Meantime Captain Bligh, on ARITA, has his crew working on hands and knees varnishing the deck. This is a wonderful remedy we have found to stop the micro-leaks from the wooden plugs in the teak, compliments of a Harley-Davidson biker from Alabama.............................. Who knew.



All you need to make good music is a microphone and two wood saws to do some 'rake & scrape" This is "BROWN TIP's Band. Personally I would go for a name like "BAND-SAW". The parties continue, as the fleet travels down-island. While the yachts race from island to island, someone else has to bring the dinghies to the other end. A strange sight in the middle of the Abaco Sea, if you didn't know what it was all about.



Meet the "collector" just above water and just outside of Fisher's Bay on Guana Cay. Many wished they hadn't. The fleet is at anchor in the bay while the occupants are partying big-time at the famous "NIPPERS" Beachbar. Everything that arrives in the Abacos has to be transhipped in Marsh Harbour to smaller flat bottomed freighters and barges that can get into places often only six feet deep. The tanker below squeezed through the channel markers where the depth is 6 ft 6 inches at high tide to deliver a load of gasoline and diesel. The other barge delivers containers for the local stores, like the department store below where Young Miss Lorian Russell came up to Laurie and said " Can I help you Madam?".......... We were shopping for Bahamian colors for the 10th July, Independance Day Celebration.



Double click on the photo to the right and you will see that life begins a foot above the waterline..............



But here is one thing that most definitely is not ISLAND STYLE. Things do not move fast. Thus it is all the more amazing, how fast some people can be, when they want to be, even in the islands. As one local person put it so beautifully.......... "It took forty-eight hours to have these Micheal Jackson memorial T-shirts (Tears included) made available out of Miami, for sale in the islands, and about forty-eight years to fill the potholes in the street.