End of March

THURSDAY March 31

This is the end of the 4th month in the Bahamas...one more to go. It has been very different from last year. I have done much more than last year and much less.

Much more community stuff: Art in the schools had been fun and rewarding. Working with the kids was great, and while I can't remember their names, I do remember their faces and art skills!  Being able to talk to all the teachers on the island was also a great treat. I certainly admire their stamina and persistence.

We got to know more members of the community this year and had the opportunity to interact with them.  Spending more time with Cordell was great. We got to see more of the island and learn about its people. We learned how things work, from so many different perspectives.

We also had much more interaction with the boating community and met more boaters this year. This was partly due to Quentin, who interacted with all of the "kid" boats.

Getting involved with the Cruiser's regatta meant being involved with more boaters as well. And apparently OtherGoose is quite the stand up, or should I say, sailing comedian now. No matter how many times we try to play down our racing, people erupt into laughter remembering our "antics".

Seeing all the friends from last year was a treat too, like going back to the cottage and seeing all the neighbours.  You might not spend time with all of them but you know that they are there. This is very much a community, and it's sad to hear everyone saying goodbye and heading out for the summer.

What I am NOT doing is swimming and generally exercising enough. It has been too cold to swim or a long time. It has been too windy to snorkel on the reefs because the wave action beats you up! We've gone snorkelling a few times but not to places where we used to go. We can do that on our way home. When I am running back and forth between the schools I am walking a lot but it has been 2 weeks since I was at school.  I keep thinking that I have put back the weight I lost last year but my clothes still fit the same. I just don't feel as energized. Every morning there is water aerobics or yoga but I have to monitor Quentin's progress, so I can't go to the beach and leave him on his own.

Tuesday morning I spent a couple of hours with Jim and Cheryl. She felt much better and is still in pain and anxious about hurting her arm, but thinks she'll live now. We checked on Jasmine City; Rick opened some hatches to cool down the boat. Later, we closed them up and went to the other side for the afternoon, trying to get some groceries and download some weather information. We keep hearing rumours of a low system that will push through here bringing dangerous winds. It was a quiet night for all of us, because Singing Frog kids were very tired and so was Quentin. They had been watching movies again, very late.

Wednesday we opened up Jasmine City again to air it out. Unfortunately, I spent most of the day on the computer. ..well, not really. I got a lot of writing done. 

Jim [Amazing Grace] brought us a huge bag of Mahi-mahi because his refrigeration quit and it thawed out. So we cooked it all on the BBQ [which works with the small propane bottles!!] We gave some to Stephane and Angelica when they got back so they wouldn't have to cook much. We ate the rest. It was delicious even without spices, because I never know what to put on fish, and I like it naked when it tastes good.

So today, Thursday, I will do some small laundry jobs. Or maybe just go to the Laundromat.  When Quentin gets his essay cleaned up, we will go to the other side to top up our data and he can download all the information he needs to complete the next section of English.

We have a few more thins we want to get done before we leave at the end of April. We still have to check out the spinnaker...if we EVER get low winds! We need to check the boat over for any small items that need to be fixed or altered before we head out.   But today we are going over to town so Quentin can get the next section of English done. He is supposed to listen to the radio, watch TV and read a newspaper for three days and track the same story in all three media. What part of TRAVELLING did ILC not understand???? So he will look up three different streaming media on the internet and try it that way.

So ttyl