The must do festivity of the cruising community of the Jumentos is Maxine's Valentine's Party on the beach at Hog Cay. Maxine runs the tiny grocery store in Duncan Town and she likes to thank the cruising boats for their business by putting on a luncheon beach party. She doesn't expect payment; however the cruisers all chip in twenty dollars a couple to give to Maxine. Maxine makes it possible for boats to stay here longer by ordering food from Nassau. Without her we would all be living on our staples and not enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables. There were 35 cruising boats at the party this year and lots of local folk from Duncan Town came by small boat. One of the pictures show the school children arriving with their teacher.
The luncheon included beer so the party was in full swing by 1:00 pm before everyone was fed. The cruisers brought desserts and appetizers to help out so no one went hungry. Maxine had turkey, ham, peas and rice, and several salads and she must of fed well over 100 people. Lynn and I didn't even have a drink but were soon part of the Junkanoo dance group!? The guys from town had brought their drums and shakers as well as some one size fits all Junkanoo party outfits. Junkanoo is a celebration that is held at the beginning of a new year and is something akin to Mardi Gras. It was a fun afternoon and particularly enjoyable because of the involvement of the local people. We returned to Celebrian tired and very full of good food by the time the sun set.
The trade winds have filled in and it looks like we will be stuck at Hog Cay for over a week. The trades blow primarily from the east and the northeast and that is the direction we need to go to Long Island. These winds are above normal in strength (plus 15-20 knots) so it is not like we can motor into them. The ocean seas are 9-11 feet according to Chris Parker, our weather forecaster. The good thing is that we are safe and comfortable here; however the bad thing is that we were hoping to get to Long Island this week to do laundry. In desperation we are about to wash our sheets in ammonia, a cruising tip to save water. Of course now it is so windy that we can't hang the sheets out so the admiral keeps washing the pillow cases etc. by hand and keeps her nose on the pillow while sleeping. Such is life on a sailboat with only two sets of sheets?!? Some of the larger cruising boats like First Edition have 6 pairs of sheets and don't have to worry; however they will have a lot more laundry to do than us. This could prove tricky as many of these boats are planning on heading north around the time we are and we may have some laundry wars over the two washers and two dryers available in Thompson Bay, Long Island.
We try to get to shore for a walk or get off the boat if we can each day; however today the wind has really ramped up and we may not get to shore. I baked some muffins, did some hand laundry and down loaded some pictures on the computer and soon the morning will be gone. Rob is reading in the cockpit and well entrenched in his book. I plan on joining him this afternoon with another book from First Edition's library called Empire Falls. We just finished a book called Little Bee by Chris Cleaves and would highly recommend it. We had trouble putting it down once we started to read it.
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