OtherGoose: March 29-31

March 30-31

March 29... The Talk!! We met Cordell Thompson, a local man who got a MA at U of Chicago and came back to try to help out his home. He is another amazing source of historical knowledge and has the ability to link the historical changes to present day. His goal is to reform the island back to its original , pre-tourism state botanically so that the people here eat better and can provide local food to the tourists rather than bringing it in from other countries. They have 7000 acres of plantation that was returned to the slaves to keep and live on. There is no property title so it can’t be sold. Which means no outsiders can come in and take develop it. He has a face book site called Exumas Farmers, which explains what his goals are. This year he is planning to plant 1000 fruit trees. He is up to 400 right now.

March 30

Yesterday was Monday, right? So I polished the backsplash in the galley. You think that was easy? It’s 5 feet x four feet of stainless steel that catches all the fumes and cooking oils from the gas stove. Took almost a half hour out of my busy schedule!

We sold the water heater that we didn’t use, and replaced it with a tow-behind battery charger... like a wind generator only underwater. We looked at one of these 11 years ago when we bought the boat and hemmed and hawed and by the time we decided that it was a good idea, it was gone. So this time, we called “Matilda” right away and they needed a rivet gun to fix their sail so we helped each other out. They are from England and heading back to the States to sell their 50 foot Hanse...what a beautiful boat. It was almost as big as our house in T. Bay! They had a walk-around bed in the forward cabin; separate cabins for each of the two kids and a storage room that was a third cabin! Her galley and main cabin were open concept and immense!!! I just wouldn’t want to have that much sail, especially a deck sweeper, so you can’t see underneath it. And then there’s the heeling...leaning over on one side or the other.

So after lunch we went over to the beach to meet them and hand over the rivet gun and Rick and Bruce talked about the charger. While Rick went to the bank to get him some money, I went to the Internet access place to get some more work done. Unfortunately, I didn’t have this ready so couldn’t post. But read all you comments!

After that we went over to Sand Dollar beach to see the boaters down at that end, and have Sundowners. We met up with “Anneteak” [Alan & Marcia’s relatives] and “Free Spirit” [at the talk about iguanas] and “Blue Heavens” [the teacher organizer]. We also met and talked a long time with “Papillion” [she is a FIS Alpine ski technical delegate from Quebec]. We talked to other people too but didn’t always catch the names. For some reason there was no TV last night o we just read for a bit and went to sleep.

March 31, 2015

The wind died and was dead cam in the middle of the night but it picked up again this morning. I called Liz to tell her we were leaving and talk for a bit. We sure miss her and the kids!

We go off the anchor at about 9:45 and headed out. By the time we got out of the channel and into Exumas Sound, it was 11:30 and we were getting beaten up! The waves were 10 footers and there was a short period. The winds were up at 20 knots which would not have been a problem but it was on the nose! By the time we were headed on our course the waves were pitching us sideways and we were taking water over the cabin top! This was stupid, so we turned around and headed back to Georgetown. We are now at Eddie’s Edgewater and hooked into the ‘net so I can post this and do more research! Taking Liz’s advice to sail safe! Ttyl.