Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas March 13, 2011

We have been almost entirely out of contact since we left Harbour Island. My wifi hasn’t worked since we left Harbour Is., and I can’t send or receive email or get on the internet. And I haven’t had access to wifi anywhere. Our stay on the island was relaxing, and we came to be recognized by a number of people there. We became friends with our inn keeper, Rosie, and we enjoyed talking with her and her mother, Stephanie, and daughter Wongechi. Rosie’s situation is rather interesting. She is married to a Kenyan who runs a tea and coffee plantation in Kenya. Obviously, they don’t live together for much of the year. He is 20 years older than she is. Curiously, both her husband and mother are my age, 64. She was quite interested to hear of our 2006 experiences in Ethiopia and wants us to see her and her Kenyan family in Kenya. We enjoyed our dinners on the island and on Sunday went to the Anglican Church with Rosie. Her daughter had a dance performance during the service. I was asked to introduce us to the congregation, which I did standing by stating my name and that I am from NJ, and this is my wife Pinky and she is from NJ, too. For some reason, everybody laughed at that. There was a lot of hymn singing, and the service was not unlike that of a Roman Catholic Church. Father Russell gave a memorial sermon about going to the mountain and then into the valley. This service ran about 2 hours, the longest regular church service I’ve ever been to. For the remainder of our stay we ran into people who recognized us in one way or another. For instance, our waitress at Sip Sip recognized us from church. At dinner Sunday we ran into Father Russell and his wife and exchanged cordialities with them. Later, at Valentines Marina where they had a great Bahaman band that played Shout, we had the running lady, who I encouraged earlier while she was jogging along a street, speak with us, and a man from Richmond who sat behind us at the church service stopped by, too. The beach was a short ride from Rosie’s B&B. It faced the Atlantic Ocean, was flat and covered with fine white sand. The water was refreshing and relatively calm due to a reef off shore. I was in frequent contact via email with Jerry Brown. On Monday morning Jerry advised that they were docked at Spanish Wells, at the north end of Eleuthera Island, and were waiting for a mechanic to attend to their inoperative generator. On her instruction, after bidding farewell to Rosie and her family, we boarded the 3:40 ferry for Spanish Wells. The Browns met us there with a golf cart, but not without a little drama. The gang plank was raised before we got off, and we almost didn’t disembark with our luggage before the ferry left. It was a close call. Since then we have been cruising around in the 46’ trawler in beautiful Bahamian waters, brilliant sun, continuous breezes (heavier at times) and moderate temperatures that haven’t risen above 80 degrees. Their trawler is a wonderful craft with quarters aft (ours) and for (Browns). The two are separated by a living/dining area, complete with reading lamps and Sirius radio. Above is the bridge, where Capt. Andy directs our passage. The boat is equipped with a rubber dingy that we use to get to landfall when moored. We even had a pretty neat toilet that we flushed with a hand pump.