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Vagrant Sea Heads
South
Part 5
Sailing the Bahamas - Conception Island
We left Long Island a few days ago. It was an
effort to tear ourselves away from the safe and familiar, to leave our Bahamian friends
ashore and get back to some real cruising. We relinquished seniority in the sound to
Snuggery (they are based in the Buffalo area, but have sailed for many years in Canada) and
picked our way carefully out through the cut at high tide. We were rewarded with a lovely
sail to Conception, a wildlife sanctuary. We feel as if we are closing some circles this
week, i.e. Conception Bay, Newfoundland to Conception Island, Bahamas; a visit to the site
of Chistopher Columbus' landing at Cape Santa Maria on October 17, 1492 -- a rather
different shore from that of Cabot's 1497 landing at Bonavista, which we commemorated last
summer. And, in a somewaht more banal vien, tomorrow we take our small feline crew to Cat
Island.
George Town, just forty miles southwest, has about 400 boats this week, awaiting the
cruisers' regatta which starts in a few days. Our brief visit in January will do for this
time. Friends who escaped the crowd for a few days brought us scraps of news from the
sailors' mecca. The folks on that 43-foot ketch are heading back to Florida to sell the
boat and buy a motorhome. One of the Turtledoves has gone home to the midwest and the
other has a new sailing companion. A couple on a 50-footer had to cancel plans to go to
Trinidad because the combination of unreliable generator and mere 300-gallon water
capacity made it hard to keep the washing machine operational. They also have decided to
give up being boat owners. He says he'll bank the money and when he wants to sail he'll
call a charter company in the Virgin Islands, get the forecast for the week, and only then
decide whether or not he wants to commit to a week on the water.
Yes, "Chicken Harbour" is living up to its reputation. Plans for cruising the
southern Caribbean or the South Pacific go by the wayside. For some, revising the script
for the trip of a lifetime is traumatic and disappointing. Others are more pragmatic,
"We didn't know what we were talking about when we said we wanted to do this forever.
" or philosophical, "Fifty years from now, who'll remember whether I got to the
Bahamas or to Barbados?" For us, the return trip north begins tomorrow. We aren't
sure how far north we will take the boat, or when we will resume cruising or what our next
destination will be - back south next fall or winter, or on to Newfoundland in the spring
of 1999... or something we haven't even considered yet.
This afternoon we were telling a couple in their 60s that we have some more years of the
working life ahead. They both said quickly, "But you have done the right thing taking
this year for cruising." The woman explained that she and her first husband quit work
and went cruising fifteen years ago. After three wonderful years, he was diagnosed with a
fatal illness. She said she will always be thankful that he fulfilled his life's dream to
sail. Jim and I walked along the sand and talked about how much this, our first great
sailing adventure, has meant to us. We watched the other couple hold hands as they
strolled the beach and felt very happy they have a second chance at this life.
Okay, enough with the sentimentality! We've got a few more months left in this trip and we
hope to make the most of them. We missed the turtle breeding ground at the other side of
this island, but we hear Cat
Island has pineapples.
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