Nassau

Time to go ashore. Crocodiles restaurant has a free dingy dock. My outboard motor quit on the way in, I lifted it and noticed a few hundred yards of fishing like caught in the prop, Ahhhhh…., it’s good to be back in civilization, and not even a free lure at the end of the line. Luckily I had my Leatherman tool on me and was able to pop-off the prop, and get underway in less than 10 minutes.

Cuban cigars, duty free liquor, Rolex, Fendi, Hard Rock, Polo, BCBG, Cruise Ship people by the thousands, lots & lots of drinking. I could not find a good local place to eat and found a subway. Fast food again…, although subway isn’t bad for fast food, that’s not why I came to the Bahamas. I got a Betelco (Phone Company) phone card and made a call to the states ($1.00/min), it was good hear a familiar voice.

I grew up in Manhattan & LA…, my natural habitat is a concrete jungle. I didn’t go into Miami when I was there a few weeks ago, and it’s really been a few months since I’ve been in a real city. Everything seems to move faster.
People shouldering me, a bus turned quickly and almost hit me, cars & scooters from every direction, people trying to sell me something at every turn. The smell of exhaust & perfumes filled the air, and the sound of cruise ship horns, squealing tires, and shouting filled my ears, I felt out of place, I felt like crocodile Dundee in NYC for the first time. Besides a loaf of bread, some eggs, and 12 gallons of diesel, there is not much I need here; I only stayed a few hours. When I moved to LA after college, I had three gun incidences in fourteen months, and my best friends were shot at on the freeway, they pulled bullets out of the car. Maybe living at sea amongst weather & sharks isn’t so dangerous after all.

A spoke to a local woman at the Laundromat on Bimini. They’re building a big resort & casino on the Island, and I asked her what she thought. She said it would bring lots of money, but crime would go through the roof. She said “we not really poor, we just not like Americans, when the casino comes, all the islanders will want more things”. When I was on Bimini I saw an islander walking the streets with an earpiece in his ear attached to a cell phone, it struck me as strange, and out of place.

Even though I didn’t go out last night (Friday) the banging dance music from Club Med kept me up until 02:18, Club Med is more then half a mile away. I guess sound really travels over water, how loud would it be in the rooms there? Remind me never to go.

A sea plane landed next to Namaste early in the morning for my wakeup.