3/13/09 - Black Point

We left our idyllic anchorage at Thomas Cay and anchored at Black Point on Thursday. Black Point Settlement is the second largest settlement in the Exumas, after Georgetown. No marina here (yet), just lots of friendly people - and we love it.

We ordered lunch and tried to get wi-fi at Lorraine's Cafe; we eventually got our lunch, but wi-fi was a bust. We did laundry for the first time since leaving Punta Gorda on February 5; we only did two loads, although a third was probably needed. The general consensus among Bahamas cruisers is that Black Point has the best laundry facilities in the Exumas, if not the Bahamas. The facility has many machines, all modern, and costs $7/load to wash and dry.

Just as we were heading into shore to do our laundry, we got a call from Butch and Gretchen (and their 5-year old son, Reese) on Lucidity; they were inviting us to join them and two other Island Packet couples - Michele and Steve on John Ray and Randy and Nicki on Kristinly - for happy hour. We scrambled to get our laundry done to make it over there on time.

An interesting aside here: We've been in contact with many cruisers throughout the trip, many only via VHF radio (the cruisers' equivalent of telephone with a seemingly endless party line). We had talked to Butch on Lucidity a number of times and Wayne had met him once when we were in Marathon (he is also on the Island Packet email list that Wayne is on); it was as if we already knew him. He and a bunch of other boats crossed to the Bahamas the same day we did. Well, while we were at Lorraine's Cafe there was a couple there with a young child. The dad spent quite a while in the adjacent internet room and I went in and asked him for the password to get online. When he returned to the cafe and I realized he was with the woman and child, I wondered if it was Butch and family, but assumed that Wayne would have recognized him and said something. So when we got to his boat and realized it was the same family and that we had sorta already met in person, we had a good laugh. This is not an uncommon scenario. As we were approaching the anchorage yesterday, we crossed paths with Dues Paid (Betty and Leo from Punta Gorda). They radioed us and told us there were two other boats from Punta Gorda in the anchorage. One of them radioed us later on, and although it didn't work for us to get together with them, we could have easily met them at the dinghy dock, the laundromat, Lorraine's, Scorpion's, etc., without knowing it.

A couple days ago a call went out on the radio requesting volunteers to help tutor students at the all-ages school in Black Point. Wayne and I both knew we wanted to serve, so we, along with Michele on John Ray, were there from 9:00-12:00 to help as needed. Wayne tutored a 4th grade student, Ricky, and I tutored a first-grader, Leon. It felt strange to have to be somewhere at 9:00 this morning (or anywhere at any time), but we managed it just fine. The time spent with the kids was a sweet change of pace and a real joy. There are 43 students at the school; one of the teachers only has a fourth grade education.

We also enjoyed visiting with the head volunteers, Sharon and Charles, who have been doing this for ten years. They volunteer in Black Point for about four months a year and spend the rest of the year in their RV visiting four children and nine grandchildren who live in four different states from Michigan to Florida. In addition to the work they do at the school, they lead adult Bible studies and do work at their church (their primary calling here). Sharon and Charles are an amazing couple.

The two school custodians (another Sharon and a woman whose name escapes me), were busy making jewelry and other crafts from shells in the room where I was tutoring Leon. They (along with the other Sharon) have been taking a shell-crafting class for 10-days, three hours a day. After passing the class, these women will receive a certificate that will help them get a small business loan if they decide to craft shells for a living. Sharon had made some lovely jewelry with shells and sea glass, and the other woman was crafting a lamp from a conch shell. One of their biggest obstacles in doing their craft is finding time to look for shells. Well, they don't call me Shelley for nothing! The ladies were delighted when I returned in the afternoon with shells and divided tackle boxes to sort and keep them in. They shared with me their knowledge of how to clean the shells using supplies like muriatic acid and alum, toilet bowl cleaner, and wax paper. That evening at 7:00 we returned to the school to see the works of the students on their final night of class.

We heard that Scorpio's bar and restaurant had better wi-fi service than Lorraine's, PLUS they have happy hour two-for-one rum punches with complimentary snacks. Any time I can get free wi-fi is happy hour as far as I'm concerned, so the rum punches were icing on the cake. Michele from John Ray joined me at the table with her computer while Wayne went to visit with the guys at the bar. Michele and I had a nice visit, which proved to be a far better use of my time after three rum punches than trying to focus on writing a blog update.

It was 7:30 by the time we left the school and Wayne suggested we stop by Lorraine's to see if she could squeeze us in for dinner. But of course! Lorraine had only limited options for us at that late hour and with no advance reservations, but we didn't leave hungry. Lorraine's mom bakes wonderful bread and is famous in the cruising community for her coconut bread, so of course we had to buy a loaf.