Monday April 9, 2012
Easter morning, while I was sleeping, I felt Fred grab my hand and put something in it and said, look what the Easter Bunny brought you. I opened my eyes and there it was a wrapped piece of Munne’, chocolate from the Dominican Republic. Yes, we brought a box back with us but I cannot guarantee it will still be there by the time we get back to the states. Glad the Easter Bunnie found it. It was a day of reflection and grace for me, recalling the story of Easter. It humbled me, as it always does through out the year as I think about it. It will be a glorious day when I get to meet Jesus and thank him in person for all he did for me.
Dinner was chicken, stuffing and cranberry sauce. I thought we ran out of propane in the oven so Fred tried to cook it on the frill. It was delish once the burnt part was separated off the bottom of the chicken and stuffing. I started making it in a foil lined pan in the oven and found out the grill just doesn’t do as well as the oven with that type of cooking. As dinner was cooking we noticed a huge ship approaching Mayaguana. We knew it couldn’t make it in here because we are surrounded by reefs from one end to the other in Abrahams Bay except for two small entrances, one being rather dangerous coming in and the other being very dangerous coming in. We took the dangerous one and luckly did not hit any reefs. We could see a gun on the bow of the ship which stirred up some serenity I possessed just before I saw it. Getting out the binoculars and the telephoto lense on my camera trying to get a name or see a flag off that monster. It was about 3/4 mile from us. It did cross my mind that it may be a good will ship delivering chocolate and the good books to sailboats rocking in the sea swells on Easter Sunday. They dropped anchor and released their orange lifeboat. After about 15 minutes, as the sun was setting I thought I saw numbers on the side of this light gray vessel so I shot a few pictures, scurried down ot the cabin and put them on my computer and took no time in blowing that picture up on my computer screen. Brilliant, (I thought) and there it was. P-61 WWB3NASSAU. Fred said they were from the Bahamian Defense Force. ‘Oh good’ I thought “Protection just in case’. ‘In case of what?’. The sun was setting and as I looked over the stern of Casa Mare’ I saw two more what looked to be ships at the other entrance, which was pretty far away. I love adventures! Then it dawned on me… ‘why would there be 3 Bahamian Defense Force ships at the entrances of Mayaguana?’ Fred mumbled “well, we could be at war and don’t even know it. Now that’s something that interested me so I went below, looking for some kind of news on Sirus Radio and discovered you need a pilots license to work that thing too, all the while, Fred comfortably positioned in his place in the cockpit, watching the whole thing unwind, taking the binoculars occasionally just to see if there were any changes. As the sun set in the West and the moon rose in the East, all was black except the moon light on the waters and the yellow lights glowing from the mystery ship. Later on I resumed my readings by Jimmy Buffett, “Tales from the Margaritaville” and decided Jimmy and I had imaginations what ran down the same paths at times. Later, Fred and I watched a movie “Fireproof” and fell asleep to the rather hard rolls of the sea swells.
I think we may try to get on the island today. I can’t say it is any smoother out there than the past few days but we are going to give it a try anyway. It is really shallow coming into the dinghy dock. Once we had to get out and pull the dink across the 6” deep water. And that wasn’t even at low tide I have seen many others do the same since. They don’t make it east to come to Mayaguana. One thing is certain, dropping anchor in this bay certainly lends to reflection time and serenity. That too, I have learned, is hard to find in the US! It is easy to understand why so many come to these small, nearly uninhabited islands in the middle of no where. Pause...and inhale the peace!
10:30 am
So, I am sitting in the cockpit enjoying life and happened to look to my left and right there, coming straight towards Casa Mare’ is a huge orange dinghy coming straight for us. Still in my night shirt I said “OMG! We are about to be boarded and I am not dressed yet”. I hurried below and threw my best beach attire I could find...my bathing suit And threw a t-shirt over that. Grabbed my camera, in case I needed a weapon of proof in my possession and rushed back topside, just in time got get a hearty wave out of a few of those passengers as they came within 10 feet of our bow, never slowing down a bit. Looked friendly enough to me and I certainly didn’t want to give them any reason to board if it wasn’t necessary. They didn’t. They went straight to the Government dock, got off and walked into town. I know...I watched them with the binos. Someone was there to meet them. Not much happens on these small islands so anything like that is fun to watch. It comes rather close to a commercial on TV during the “super bowl”, “Casa Mare” being the “super bowl”. Looks like the “blow” has another day or so before it clears out enough to depart Myaguana. Fred and I are planning to go beach combing. We have seen the interior, missed the celebrations because of the high winds and weather so today is beach day. Fred has changed his plans about our route home, but I am not writing them down because things frequently change on a sail boat.
By the time you have started reading this part, we have left Mayaguana. The last time I posted was from Reggie’s and we lost internet and had to get back to Casa Mare’ anyway, the sun was beginning to set. Our neighbor boat s/v “Wild Hair” have a sick captain and crew so we offered to pick up some provisions for them since we were going to shore anyway. All they wanted was a loaf of bread. They got the last one…$6.50! I put my potatoes and hamburger buns back and bought a 5” bag of flour for $5.00. Time to get creative with our funds. We planned to refill our water jugs before we left but after looking at the windows and talking to Dave and Heather, we knew it had to be done tonight. Fred took them in and walked back to Reggie’s, who has water also, and they took care of business there. It was dark by the time he got back to the boat. I got a lot done though. All the dirty rags were in a bleach bucket, my sea treasurers were rinsed and soaking in bleach water for the evening and the cockpit was spick and span. I cleaned up the cabin and did what few dishes we had and started to secure things because as of this evening, we are heading out in the morning. I can’t believe we have been here for 5 days but I guess we have. Now that’s a bit too relaxing if it seems like 3 days and it was really 5.
The late afternoon was fun. I combed the beach looking for treasurers and found one of my favorite most intricate coral all over the place. I passed on all the conch shells as well as most of the sea fans. I lost all the other sea fans overboard I had collected so I will start again. Fred groans every time I pick one up. I have never seen so ,many conch shells on one beach and they were everywhere. Big ones, huge! There is only enough room on a boat for so many of those beauties and all I want is one for a horn. Still haven’t found that perfect one though. Most on these shores have holes in them. Maybe I will find a good one while snorkeling. Fred found a good place to take a nap on top of a wrecked wooden boat as I went on my own adventure. We did find out that the military boats just offshore were there patrolling for Haitians. Guess they are not welcomed here either. The soldiers also went to the celebration on the other side of the island and we saw them going in by the boat loads. As we left the government dock we had quite a time getting out as the tide was dead low. Just ahead of us was one of the military boats, stuck in the mud. We could barely get around it but managed to crawl along into deeper water. I offered them a tow but they declined. It was a joke, knowing we couldn’t budge it with our little dinghy but it’s always nice to let them know help is near if they need us. HA! They finally got out and came by Casa Mare’, all smiling, with a thumbs up! They probably know more about Casa Mare and what she is stowing away than we do. I truly say Mayaguana is to me, the most uninhabited island we have been on. It’s quiet here and I get the feeling they want to keep it that way. I don’t blame them. I would too. Most would not come here because it is difficult to enter and exit but it is an interesting island. They do have an airport but I highly recommend a fly by before landing, just in case Scully is using it as a freeway with his car from one point to another. Mayaguana...the forgotten Island. I am glad I had the opportunity to visit for 5 days.
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