Sunriser

The gate to the Bahamas from the south is the island of Great Inagua. The ‘greatness’ stops at the name as Matthewtown, the only ‘town’, is just a collection of battered buildings, though keeping the undeniable Caribbean postcard charm. Walking by the side of the only road we were immediately spotted as strangers and a lovely lady from the tourist office stopped her car to offer us a lift and answer all our questions.

From Great Inagua we sailed to the Ragged Islands, the most remote islands of the Bahama’s.

The Ragged islands is a remote string of tiny islands and islets, first named sand islands by the Spanish. They soon changed hands and belonged to Great Britain, nobody being really interested in a barren strip of sand. Property of the islands was actually awarded by king George to the brothers Archibald and Duncan Taylor for the loyalty to the crown in the American independence war. A time of prosperity ensued with the development of salt ponds and the settlement of Duncan town reaching a population of 700 people. Nowadays, only 72 people live in ragged island, mainly descendants of the first settlers.

We arrived to the Ragged islands, to Hog Cay, on the day of the yearly BBQ and fund raising organized together with the cruisers to support the local community. Unfortunately, we just missed it, but it seems to be the only occasion when there are more boat people than inhabitants in the islands.

The following day, the peace returned already as most boats departed and we were left to enjoy the beautiful and quiet scenery. There are shorts hikes marked with creative displays of trash which take you to the windward side, where you can wander for hours among the debris in seek of ‘treasures’ brought by the sea.

We slowly sailed up the island string and tried to fish but only managed to catch barracudas. We throw these back if they are heavier than two and a half kilo because of the possibility of Ciguatera poisoning. When we finally managed to get a proper fish on the hook another barracudas snapped it off in front of our eyes.

For the first time in months we have been sailing without our trusted friends and we miss them very much, but the loneliness has been mitigated by new friends, Bram and Julie on SV Winter Wheat thewinterwheaties (Dutch ancestors), and Alan and Isla on SV Stravaig sailingstravaig (from Scotland). With them we enjoyed walking, swimming and learned about the best places to visit.

We will now sail to another part of the Bahama’s, the Exumas. Here we can do some shopping which we haven’t done for some weeks.