This Little Light of Mine, I’m Going to Let it Dim

Monday May 27, 2013

No motion of the ocean in this boat.

I am slowly going insane.  It started about three days after we arrived at Grand Cayman, and it’s taken me a little while to figure out why.  We had Burger King at our disposal, snorkeling right off our boat, internet.  I just felt a little off, and unhappy, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Then it dawned on me.  Our boat is never still.  Not even close.  Being at anchor is supposed to be your safe haven after passage.  Other than a very light back and forth motion that rocks you to sleep, being at anchor should almost make you forget that you live on a boat.  (Because, after a few months, living in about 200 sq ft actually becomes quite normal).  So, when you’re in your ‘safe haven’, but being thrown about like you’re still on passage, it can make one a little….irritable.  I don’t know why it even took me as long as it did, maybe because we’ve actually been off the boat most of our days running around town, but I should have been tipped off when I’d go to make dinner and I’d get seasick.  No joke.  There’s something about this spot we’re in, where even though the wind is coming out of the East and we’re situated on the West, a fairly nasty, or at least very uncomfortable swell, will roll through each evening and night, completely opposite to the direction the wind is holding us at our mooring ball.

I think I would have been much happier not knowing what was causing my misery, because once you know what’s driving you insane, it’s like nails on a chalkboard.  It’s non-ignoring.  We couldn’t make any kind of movement in the boat without my entire focus being drawn to it.  Matt has been able to remedy the situation a little bit by making a bridle.  We have two lines tied to our mooring ball, both having been tied to our front cleats at the bow for our first few days here.  To make the bridle, Matt has taken one of the lines and tied it to the cleat at the stern, now putting us beam to the mooring ball.  What this also does, is put us head on to the waves.  So instead of rocking back and forth, we now rock front to back.  Most of the time.  These swells never seem to come from the same direction and we can’t always get ourselves bow into them, but something is better than nothing.  I still want to get off the boat at any chance possible though, so when Stephanie called me on the radio today to see if I wanted to spend an afternoon with her at the library using their internet (she knows Burger King offers that, right?), I jumped at the chance to be on firm land.

Matt and I did quick stop in for lunch at BK, we’re only human after all, but then it was time for Stephanie and I to get to work.  The guys weren’t as interested in being cooped up all day and stole one of the dinghies to go snorkeling.  When they came to pick us up a few hours later, we were already famished again and ready to get more food.  Making a stop into one of the duty-free liquor stores on our way down the street, Brian and Steph wanted to do a little more beer stocking.  As they searched the coolers, Matt and I wandered to the back where the hard liquor was.  They had everything imaginable, and all of it was dirt cheap.  In the back of the store was also a counter where a woman came over to greet us and ask if we’d like to try and samples of their Tortuga rum.  There were two different flavors being offered, Pineapple and Mango, and none of us were about to turn down that offer.  Both were very sweet rums that everyone else seemed to be able to throw back without a problem while I just slowly sipped mine, savoring the taste.

Things kept getting better, and after the rum was drank the woman pulled out three sheets of Tortuga rum cake for us to sample as well.  Holy crap, these are the best things ever.  Each being a different flavor, she loaded up napkins for each of us with one slice of pineapple, chocolate, and coconut.  Pineapple was by far my favorite, but each one was moist and delicious.  She could see our constant drooling and told us to help ourselves to however much more we wanted.  Now normally with eating so many samples we’d feel obligated to buy something, even if we didn’t have the money to spend on it, but then she uttered some of the best words we could have heard that day.  All orders or purchases from this store were duty free and could not be walked out of the store, but were instead could only be delivered to the cruise ship.  Which we were not on.  Which means that we couldn’t buy anything.  Free food without the guilt to purchase.  I know I’m probably coming off very cheap by saying that, but this island is expensive!  So I smiled gladly as she loaded up napkins full of cakes for us to take on the road as we made our way to our real dinner, which was KFC.  Healthy day, I know.  But while eating we were treated to a rooster roaming around outside, eating fallen pieces of chicken, and then getting into a cockfight with a competitor that tried to move in on his turf.  In the parking lot of a Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I can’t make this stuff up.

This is the best cake I have ever tasted.

Now what would you mix honey vodka with?

Cause everyone should taste….nope.  Not gonna go there.

‘Hi!, I’m a cannibal!’