SOUTHBOUND.................TO THE DR....

If you have ever wondered why CASHEWS are so much more expensive than peanuts...... well let us give you a clue......... Those itsy-bitsy dark pieces at the top of these bright orange fruits are the cashews.............. The rest of the fruit is quite delicious and we ate all of it, but the nutty part has to be carefully split and dried......... One whole fruit for each cashew........... The things you learn as you travel, and there are lots more wonderful exotic fruits to sample.............but the real news is that we finally landed a juicy fish......... a 20-pound WAHOO...... Yes we both yelled......"WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"....We have caught plenty of fish but they always get away, but not this time.............



After cleaning and gutting the fish, it was nicely cut up into thick steaks and bagged and into the fridge for "chillin"............. All this as we entered the Dominican Republic (DR) waters and anchored off the island of 'BEATA' for the night......... days have been grey with high humidity..........
...............Anchor up at 5 AM to head out for another day of motor-sailing against the wind to make our way south............... Finding a path between squalls that seem to come through every few hours............. Twice we have had our mainsail torn by fierce winds and slamming as the boat rolls...........and each time we have sewed it up again with needle and palm.........



Late afternoon sees us safely anchored in a caldera-like bay awaiting the Customs and Immigration officials who will clear us into the Dominican Republic, .... this to be followed by the "Guarda Frontera" who will issue us with a 'despacho' to allow us to travel to the next port...... On shore we see the piles of rock salt gathered from salt ponds that are just out of sight, and in the twilight we hear the hundreds of motor bikes that are the mainstay of transportation.................This day's run was 69 miles mostly over water 6500 ft deep..........But the anchor is down in 12 feet and life is good.................



We are gone again by 5 AM and a 70 mile run lies ahead, but by midmorning a huge line squall hits us with winds in excess of 25 knots and the coastal seas become worse than anything I have ever experienced............... Mostly due to the fact that the water drops away from 50 ft to 5000 ft, in under a mile, and the turbulence is out of control........... Once again the mainsail is torn to pieces in a new place and we are able to continue only by using the upper part of the sail now down to the second reef............... Hanging on with both hands we make the last forty miles to edge behind an island at Boca Chica and into a marina for a well-deserved rest and sleep...................... It looks like this from the air............. We are on a mooring ball just off the yachts that are docked......................And in a few days we will meet up with those wonderful people who own that magic dock in Vero Beach, FL, where we spent last summer......... The bottle of Bahamian Mango Rum is in the fridge together with the Wahoo steaks.........

Night.... you all...........

HAITI, HAITI.........GIVE ME, GIVE ME...............

There is no way to describe the poverty and hopelessness of Haiti.........The best we can do is give it to you from the eyes of temporary priviledged fringe dwellers...............But seeing it first-hand did give us some insight......... As we sailed along the coast there were thousands of dug-out canoes fishing deep waters with cane fish-traps..........Plastic coke bottles tied together to mark the trap sites......... and the fisherman would paddle over to our path, stand up in their canoes and with outstretched hands, call out "GIVE ME..GIVE ME.."..Over the side went plastic bags with rice, sugar, milk powder, UHT milk cartons, jars of peanut butter, clothes, spare fishing line, hooks, till there wasn't anything else left........... and still there were more of them........... Endless people ......The hillsides showed extensive agriculture everywhere..... and it was not until a day later when we finally anchored that we got the other side of the story............... A man-in-the-know from Port-au-Prince told us that there is a Haitian saying in French Creole, that when translated, means ... "You're a fool if you don't ask for something, and an even bigger fool if you don't take it."........ That very day the onslaught had begun..........GIVE ME,....GIVE ME....from morning to night.......not starving kids or adults,...No, but well dressed and healthy individuals with both hands outstretched and saying... "GIVE ME"...."GIVE ME"....... On the hillside in the photo above was a skin and bones cow that continued to moo for hours and it was probably calling "GIVE ME......GIVE ME...." Speaking to others, including visiting UN aid workers revealed that there is a historic mindset in the people........ We will wait for the next handout or the one after that and in the meantime we will just make more children......And despite the devastation of the earthquake, anyone else would get busy and clean it up but the UN workers told us they just sit in the chaos and are waiting for someone else to clear the mess...... (The UN workers were here near our anchorage to get away from it all for a day or two)............... End result....Many good hands that could make light work are used instead for stretching out and ....."GIVE ME..GIVE ME.." ........We sailed on, upset and angry...... A man can do so much more if he just got off his backside.........

THERE......NOW I'VE SAID IT...........TRYING TO BE PRACTICAL BUT NOT INSENSITIVE.....



Beneath the surface there is a vibrant economy for daily hundreds of passengers go to the mainland, at a cost of $2.00 each way, in these long canoes with outboards and the mainland towns are a hive of activity..........



And here is a really good man, Rev. Raymond Bideaux from Florida, who leaves his wife for months at a time, to do pastoral work in Haiti and has been doing so for twenty six years...... sailing on his yacht both ways to work here and make a difference.........

RUNNING RAGGED .................

Anchoring off is sometimes miles from the shore.
You do this big 60 mile zig-zag when you leave George Town in the Exumas, then bounce off Long Island,..... Avoid all the shallows, and then you come to the RAGGED ISLAND CHAIN,... no kidding,.... They are called the RAGGED ISLANDS........ Hundreds of bits and pieces sticking out of the water, some with fancy names like FLAMINGO CAY, RACOON CAY, HOG CAY, WATER CAY and all of them waterless, uninhabited or unihabitable, and barren.......... This is really remote........At least until we came to BUENA VISTA CAY, where we discovered a very remarkable man living alone on his island........... A man with inspiration, vision and determination....... Mr. Edward Avery Lockhart, third generation owner of the island, and a man with a dream...........The remains of his grandfather's house are below and to the right is the present dwelling under construction by his father........ Acres have been cleared and coconut palms have been planted....... Together we walked the beach and took chisel to stone to produce blocks, that will go to make a new hurricane proof building to resurrect the former dwelling........ And we arrived not a day too soon, for Edward was totally out of water and so we refilled his container from our watermaker supplies............Water is normally delivered by the mailboat on which he is due to depart for Nassau, to get supplies...... We asked him how long he would be gone.... and his answer was........ "THREE MAILBOATS"...



One of the remarkable things we found was this embedded rectagular brick/stone in the tilted marine bedrock from which all the islands are made. This sedimentary layer of former ocean floor is very hard and this brick may well date to the Chinese who came through here in about 1421 AD.....or perhaps a civilization even earlier, for it is embedded and not a fake insert................ The strata extends all the way up the beach and into deeper water.........



By hammering away at the rock, we created the new blocks to make a model wall in no time at all, and with the addition of cement a palace could be built........ there is no shortage of sand to mix the mortar and plenty of salt water......... And Edward has a whole new idea to work with....... Oh, and he also needs an electric fence for his goats...............We talked about solar power, so for those going to the RAGGED ISLANDS and have a spare solar panel.....



Well drop it off at the home of the future BUENA VISTA YACHT CLUB.......... There was a trail on the island and it was clearly marked with flip-flops, of which hundreds are washed up on the windward side of the island..............And on the next uninhabited island in the chain we found this TV sitting on a post at the beach to give us "HOPE"............ We almost added a sign that said "INTERNET CAFE"................. The sense of remoteness is overwhelming despite the fact that there are other cruising yachts around............ Beauty in an isolated Paradise even allowed us to tie the dinghy line to a conch shell on the beach, while we raked the sands nearby with our fingers looking for "Sand dollars"...............



And then after 200 miles, we made it to the last Ragged Island and the settlement of 'DUNCAN TOWN'.......... And to get to it you anchor near the previous island and dinghy in for about four miles.............. The town has 70 residents, mostly fishermen and administrative workers and a cell-phone tower that dispenses internet that has allowed us to post this blog over the last four hours..............


That straight man-made canal is how cargo (and us) arrives in townby small boats, The salt flats that surround the town are communially owned and the stone walls define the boundaries. The income from the salt that is harvested from each area is thus shared.



Laurie took some great photos snorkelling on a nearby reef................



But we left the best till last.............. This is Ms Gibson, from the Administrative Office in Nassau, who flew in this morning on a government charter plane to do the 2010 Bahamas Census............ She spotted us walking as she arrived at the school and asked us if we were here yesterday........... and so we became the very first "residents" to be counted in this year's Census for the Ragged Island's Duncan Town statistics................. your mode of transport..... dinghy..... how many rooms in your house......?...How much space in your yard.......?.... You have a well for water...?......What appliances do you have in your kitchen......?......

TONIGHT WE WILL FINALLY LEAVE THE BAHAMAS...... WHAT A BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE..
THANK YOU........To The people of the BAHAMAS....