Saturday, August 04, 2007

Pittstown Landing, Bahamas

0 nm
E 15-20 knots

We had fairly amazing news today. Karl was called ashore this morning by Nappy, one of the local guys we met at Poky’s Den yesterday afternoon. He thought at first it was David, who had offered to let us use the internet down at Pittstown today. Instead, Nappy, who’s built houses on the island since he was a teenager, showed Karl around a gigantic million-dollar house he’s building. It looks like one of the big houses on the water in Marion, except island style, and in fact is--it’s the winter house for a woman who spends the summers in Baton Rouge. Nappy needs someone to help him with wire rigging for the staircases and decks in the house, and he’s been looking for a sailor who could help him.

It’s really an answer to prayer. In return, Nappy said we could get water and ice from the house, and use its laundry and outdoor shower. He’ll also help us get our propane tank filled, and hopefully help us figure out how to clean out our fuel tank and fix our roller furler. Working with stainless-steel rigging, even having access to Nappy’s tools, is going to be a great help. I’m looking forward to just staying in one place for a while and really getting to know it.

I, stupidly, spent the whole day on the boat, doing the dishes, making squash curry for dinner, and baking bread, getting progressively more annoyed at Karl for taking so long on land. Silly me. I should know by now that the boy knows what he’s doing. And I really had a wonderful afternoon.

So we’ll move closer to the big green house that looks like a hotel yesterday--Nappy says the architect wants it to look like a sailboat--and begin a new kind of life. If only the anchorage out here wasn’t so rolly, I’d be a lot more pleased, I guess. I want to use this time to work on some articles, which is supposed to me my profession these days, the way I justify my lazy existence. It just doesn’t feel very stable anchored out here, sheltered only from the east, with a vast current pulling us every which way with every tide.

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