A Rum Cay Christmas

(Backdated to, you guessed it, Christmas)

My feet look like they have been beaten with a winch handle and I am now short a pair of flip flops, so I have to be an annoying American tourist and wear tennis shoes for a few days. I do my best to avoid this though.

We are trapped in Rum Cay due to weather, but I don’t mind as it is a beautiful place. We spend our days either exploring the island or being lazy and nights are spent either at the marina’s clubhouse or at Kaye’s bar. John, Mark, Eddie and I spend a day in John’s tiny dinghy exploring the east side of the island – basically I get advanced lessons in bailing a dinghy. That night all the boaters and marina workers (along with the locals) go into town to Kaye’s Bar, where town matriarch Dolores is making a Christmas dinner. She serves a large pot of stew containing, but not limited to fish, crab claws, beef, potatoes, etc. We drink Kaliks and Sands beers and interact with many of the locals, in particular I meet Kathy and her husband Brian. Brian has a big sport fishing boat at our marina and Kathy who takes pity on me promises to bring me a pair of shoes. The night quickly turns to Junkanoo festivities with lots of raunchy dancing and loud drums, cowbells, and whistles.

Most of the boaters have returned home (or where carried home, see John who needed to be coaxed home by Mark and I with the help of Rasta (although this ride back to the marina provided for the best drunken mumblings I have ever heard in my life)) but a few of us make it to the midnight church service at the town’s beautiful tiny church. Mark and I find a spot in the back, we had probably had one too many Kaliks and didn’t want to make any sort of Christmas-church-drunken-white-person scene. The service was very sweet, although one of the main pastors had a rowdy lisp, which actually provided a fun game for Mark and I to try and figure out what psalm we were on.

Christmas day was more of the same. Crap weather – lots of wind and rain and nothing much to speak of, except for the fact that I adore Sumner Point Marina (http://www.rumcaymarina.com/Marina/).

Sumner Point Marina: L to R - Three Amigos, Spring Song, & Depature

Yes there are no showers, the entrance is a bit sketchy with all of those coral heads, and the internet isn’t flowing; but the positives majorly outweigh the negatives. The marina itself is gorgeous, carved right out of the island. The owner and staff, Bobby and Rasta, are more than helpful and just super nice. Finally the clubhouse is great. You can always buy whatever booze is on hand, but the best service it purports is a hangout. Christmas night everyone brings a dish to pass and Cathy and Brian along with the locals from the house just over the marina all come out for a fabulous supper.

The Mad Moyers Christmas Card.

The next day is even better as Cathy brings me shoes, which is the best thing ever! We explore the town, stopping at Last Chance Grocery and eventually ending up back at Kaye’s where Mercedes makes far too many friends and we have far too many beers. Along our tour Cathy shows us where Rum Cay Marina was supposed to be – but never came to fruition. Now $27 million dollars in debt it is just a big hole, known as “The Dig”. No wonder I couldn’t find it on my hiking trip. Dolores takes a shine to me and brews up some bush tea and teaches me many things about the island – you can see my review of her book in one of the previous entries. Even better than Christmas was this night as many of the boys went out fishing on Brian’s powerboat. They came back with dolphin and one huge 40 pound tuna, which meant another potluck.

Eddie, Brian, & Bobby cooking.

Tuna tartar, freshly fried tuna, Cajun tuna, along with some of the most amazing sushi was had by all at the marina. I may not be able to find many amenities traveling through the Bahamas but the fresh made sushi of tonight made up for it!

Be jealous. It was great.

Thanks again to Mark and Bobby for the splendid cooking. Eddie and I drink rum on John’s ferro-cement boat and encounter his sailing buddy – quite a large rat. The rat was quite at home and had obviously been there for a while and was happy in its established role as crew.

After a joyous break at Rum Cay it is time for another passage – Spring Song, Three Amigos,and ourselves are all ready to get going. Each captain has a different plan and each one thinks theirs is the best – as I said before arrogance doesn’t work with sailing. Bobby provides us a map (see next entry) so navigating the coral heads out is much easier and we easily follow Spring Song out and soon we are on our way to Bluewater passage number 2, which by the way is much worse.