OtherGoose: April 30-May 1

Friday, May 1,

Wow what a stormy couple of days so far! The day times have been ok… cloudy and hot but at night the thunderstorms roll through and we have had enough rain both nights to fill a bucket in 5 minutes [running off the roof]. Luckily it hasn’t interfered with the TV signal so we may be hot, sweaty and stuck inside but we can watch TV! We get the 4 big ones: ABC NBC CBS and FOX and we get two Bahamas channels. So we know what’s going on in most of the world, except Canada, because nothing happens in Canada that’s exciting to the Americans.

Maureen, I know you used to hate ravens but if you lived here you would appreciate them a lot more because of the seagulls. They NEVER SHUT UP! They are smaller and have higher voices. They all sound like they are saying “Ow”, like little kids trying to outdo one another and they NEVER SHUT UP! As soon as one starts, they all start and get louder and louder and …I used to like seagulls.

We got all of our provisions stocked and ready to go, but the storms rolling through may slow us down a little. We haven’t seen winds anything like the ones off the coast of Florida. C-Soul still hasn’t been able to get across. Our weather window may come around Wednesday. Everyone is staying put until the Tropical Depression passes. This may be the first hurricane of the season but it will form over us and intensify as it moves NNE. So we are fine here.

Yesterday we rented a scooter and drove to the south end of the island, about 30 miles. It was a little hairy at first till Rick got the hang of it. We also had to deal with driving on the wrong side of the road and cars that just pass… no matter what is coming. It was a great day! We went back to the north end of the island and watched the christening of the new Defense Force Ship…very British Ceremony!!!! And amazingly the Bahamas national Anthem is very much like the Canadian one, so we recognize it when we hear it. We were also amazed that [and no-one will get the significance of this except Liz or anyone with military service ] when the Bahamian Flag was marched on no-one [except Rick and I ] stood up… not even the officers seated in front of us!!

It was quite the commissioning and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. We didn’t stay for the public tour and the reception because I couldn’t stop coughing and felt like I was interrupting the whole thing. Besides the sky was getting stormy again and we had 30 miles to go back to the boat. When the speed limit is max 45 it takes awhile. There are 4 little towns between the Emerald Bay Marina and George Town, so that drops the speed limit to 20mph through them. That being said, no-one actually does that, except us on the scooter! And we had to stop a few times to get the blood flowing through the legs and butt cheeks!

We got back in time to get the hatches shut and Rick got into the water with the dolphins who were cruising around the boats again. This time they came even closer. He got some good pics and got out before the lightening started.

So this morning Rick went in to help fix the water station: the Market provides FREE water to the boaters but we have to keep the line & tap working well. It had started to have a serious drip, so the market was going to turn off the water, and mentioned that o one of the boaters, who immediately got on the radio to let us all know. In about 15 minutes a crew with parts was organized and by 10:00 am it was fixed, and new signs for the bridge were being painted. While that was going on I walked up to the Clinic …

I walked in and got registered. There is a Nurse Practitioner there all day and a Doctor every morning from 9-12. Like any walk-in clinic, it’s first-come-first served. I got there at about 9:40 am. Reception took my info and my $30.00. I saw a nurse- aid who took check y urine sample and weighed [lost 15 lbs so far, even with the beer and GF chocolate bars!!!].Then the NP came and got me and took my temp and BP [NORMAL!!!] and said, “You’re diabetic.” I said, “How did you know that?” She said, “The amount of sugar cast off in your urine.” SO THEY CHECKED RIGHT THERE … never mind sending it to a lab someplace else and waiting for results!

After a brief conversation she said, “Start taking you meds and see your doctor when you get home for adjustments.” Of course I forgot that breakfast consisted of an orange, a half banana, and a glass of cranberry pomegranate juice and peanut butter toast. Point is: The VISIT WAS $30.00 and the meds she prescribed came to $36.00. As one of the other boaters said, “It’s cheaper to buy a boat in Florida and come here when you need medical care!!”

SPECIAL NOTE: There are "Salt Ponds" on these two islands that have a truly horrific history. They are shallow pits on the islands where at high tide salt water leeches in. They are truly awful... the smell is a cross between dead fish and barnyard sh*t. the 1800's some Spanish or English [whatever] explorer discovered the, and managed convince whoever was funding his trip that this was a good resource. So slaves and poor whites were brought in to "rake " the salt. The life span of a salt raker was relatively low compared to other slaves. After standing in the blistering sun, for hours at a time and ankle deep in the brine every day for weeks and months, eventually blindness set in from the brightness, and any skins sores festered and never healed. What a brutal job!