Day 190!

For an uneventful day last night sure was eventful! At 1am Grama and I discovered that a big gallon jug of outboard motor oil had somehow got a hole punctured in its bottom when Papa was putting everything back in the locker after checking the batteries. There was oil all through that locker. It is very rolly at the dock and being out of bed in the cold at one in the morning with flashlights trying to clean up the mess was a pain! But by the time we were finished we were sure we had cleaned it all up.

This morning when I got up I really wanted pancakes! When I opened the cupboard to get out the mix I could smell the oil...and that meant it had run through to the bilge =/...which really meant it was a HUGE mess and everything would have to be removed from the aft cabin (Grama and Papa’s room) and the boards would have to be unscrewed to get at part of where the oil had run. This big cleanup would have to wait because we were getting ready to drive south with Brenda and Walter.

Heading south was fun. We explored an old loyalist plantation ruin. The house looked like it had been modernized...somewhat... before being destroyed by a fire. We took a little path back to see if we could find the tomb that was supposed to be on the property. We found it but there was no plaque or writing, which was disappointing. We were hoping it was the Cameron’s and Juan Cadiz ;] (the book Wind from the Carolinas is a story of the old Bahamas and a GREAT book and Marg and Brenda got all of us to read it). From there we took another little path and found two long buildings, what we think are the field slave quarters. The building was still standing tall, minus the roof, with extremely thick walls that look like they will stand for another 100years.

On our way to find the Tropic of Cancer beach we stopped at a restaurant and met the owner Dee. We decided to wait for her sisters restaurant across the street (she urged us to) to try the best conch fritters in the Bahamas. We were waiting and we saw Dee bring out an order of cracked lobster and we all ordered cracked lobster right then lol. While waiting Dee passed around a little photo album. Inside were pictures of her hugging Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Goldie Hans and Kurt Russell! She told us that Goldie Hans and Kurt Russell have property on the island and live not very far away. The food was amazing! And there was soo much food (the lobsters here are 4-5x the size of lobsters back home and she gave you two tails + ALOT of other food) and not all of us could finish the meal. When we were leaving we still got an order of the fritters from her sister. Even though we were all stuffed we tried them and so far they are my favourite fritters.

We finally made it to the tropic of cancer beach. We didn’t stay long (the car needed to go back) but now Brenda and Walter can say they have been to the tropic of cancer (we anchored on the line in Long Island) We looked out at the islands that made a little cove just off the beach and it was funny because you knew exactly why the island was called Turtle Island.

When we left we headed back to the boat and that means oil clean up time. Grama and Papa’s berth was gutted and the boards under their bed unscrewed and removed. We cleaned and dumped at least 9 gallons of water through the pipes leading to the bilge hoping to clear them of the oil. Even when we finally gave up we knew there was still a little bit more oil in them. We cleaned and hung upside down on our heads in the bilge from 2:30-5:30pm.

We were still determined to go to the music fest tonight so we quickly ran up to the showers and tried to get the smell of oil off =/. I left before Grama and Papa to go to the fest and met Brenda and Walter as well as some cruisers we met when we first came to Georgetown on ‘Carly’. It wasn’t long before Grama and Papa got there and the bands started. It was a great night and soo much happened lol. The White Folks on Boats played...and they were interesting lol umm I met some girls who are down here for March break and they’re from London ON. Some really shy 45yr old guy with a bald spot asked me to dance =/. I was on Bahamian TV... And then the Junkanoo started and my batteries in the camera died! Junkanoo is a crazy parade with several girls dancing in the front followed by the brass section of a marching band followed by the drummers and horn players and all are dressed in big bright colourful costumes. The grandparents and I didn’t leave until 1:30 and I was disappointed because the second Junkanoo was at 2.

When we got back onboard we all just crawled in bed and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

Niki