Day 154, Year 10: Friday the 13th at Black Point
Date: Friday, March 13, 2015
Weather: Sunny and Windy, Winds ESE 20
Location: Anchored at Black Point, Great Guana Cay, Exumas
On this Friday the 13th, we have no disasters to report. Whew! We arrived in the Bahamas last Friday and it seems just like yesterday. But already we are beginning to think about the return trip. We still have two and a half weeks before we start making our way north and west back to Florida, so we just have to make the best of the time we have. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. It was windy today, but this anchorage is protected from the E and S, so we were fine. And we are anchored very close to shore and to town, so we didn’t have any long dinghy rides. Mark and I started out our day at 6:30 am listening to the weather and then at 7:30 we met Lynne and Ed on the Government Dock. As you walk up the dock, the little trailer where you can deposit trash bags is on your right and the little post office is right in front of you. But as we found out later in the day, the lady that runs the PO is in Nassau and it might be open again on Monday. Or maybe not. Things here definitely run on island time. We then headed south out of town on a brisk walk. Anytime you walk with Lynne, you know you are in for a fast-paced challenge. I don’t know how far we walked, but we walked south down the fat part of this island until we reached an area where the island narrows. We walked to the Exuma Bank side where we could see a home called the Sand Castle (and it does look like a sand castle) and a secluded anchorage. Then we walked across to the Exuma Sound side of the island and watched the waves crashing onto the rocks. Between this area and back to the little settlement of Black Point, there was really nothing but a few rolling hills and scrub land. This area has been laid out for future development and here and there were half finished houses, but at this point, the only homes are in the Black Point settlement. In town we passed by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) office. This is where you go if you want to buy a local SIM card. Lee and Lynda walked there later in the day and found that it is only open on Wednesday mornings. Not very helpful. Across from the BTC tower and office is the local school. And from there, as we walked down the only road in town, we passed by three restaurants (DeShamon’s, Scorpio’s, and Lorraine’s), Adderley’s Town Market, the Gethsemane Baptist Church, the Rockside Laundry, the town’s reverse osmosis water supply, and back to the Government Dock. I have no idea what time we got back to the boat, but whenever it was, Mark rewired the bilge switch that burned itself out during our fiasco day before yesterday. Then we both headed to back to shore to the Rockside Laundry. I went to do laundry and Mark went to sit at one of the picnic tables and take advantage of the free internet. While I waited . . . and waited for a dryer, I was able to upload photos from the past week to the website. So it was time well spent. Mark left at some point and took the dinghy down to the dock near the water supply to fill up our two five gallon water jugs. By the time he returned, I was ready to go, but it was almost 2 pm and we were starved. We ate lunch and then we both crashed. I almost never take an afternoon nap, but I did today. I guess that morning walk really tired me out. Mark woke me up around 4:30 pm to tell me the weekly supply boat had arrived at the Government Dock. We had bought post cards for each of the grandkids at the market in the morning and wanted to send them. Mark walked there from the laundry earlier in the day and the door was locked. But we figured that since the supply boat is referred to as the mail boat that maybe the post office would be open to receive mail. But as I said earlier, we found out that it won’t be open again until Monday. Anyway, we went ashore at the laundry and found Ed and Lynne sitting in the shade of the gazebo taking advantage of the wifi. We all walked down to the dock to check out the action and then back to the little market to see what fresh produce had come in on the boat—romaine and iceberg lettuce, red and green peppers, oranges, tomatoes, garlic, eggs, milk, and bread. I think that was about it. We called Lee and Lynda on using our hand-held VHF radio to tell them that the supplies were going fast, so they came in to buy milk and a few other items. Ed and Lynne headed back to Constance, but Lee and Lynda joined us at Scorpio’s to have a Happy Hour drink before returning to our boats. It was a good day and we got a glimpse of life in one of the two settlements here in the northern Exumas. On Sunday we will sail back to the Staniel Cay area and visit the other settlement in these parts.
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| 150313 Day 154 Bahamas–Exploring Black Point |
