This Time Last Year

Today is September 29th and it has been a quiet but busy couple of weeks. I was talking to my old buddy Art Shand on the phone and I mentioned that I needed to write a blog entry, but that it had been so quiet that I did not have much to tell. Art suggested I look back to where I was exactly one year ago today and write about that…good idea.

On September 29th, 2005 Bonnie and I were in the Abacos islands, a small chain at the top of the Bahamas. More specifically we were in an area called Marsh Harbor, We had finished up a project in Ireland but for tax reasons were not ready to come back to into the USA yet. (There is a funny rule that says if you spend 330 days out of 365 out of the country you get a big tax break, we needed about 4 more weeks to make our tax break).

So the good news is that we spent 4 weeks on on our sailboat, The BlackSheep; the bad news is that 2005 was a record year for tropical storms and hurricanes. As a result we spent a lot of time in our slip at Boat Harbor. During our stay there, our normal Friday night hangout Sapodillas Bar was under major reconstruction, so we were diverted across the street to Snappa’s Bar. Fridays nights were always pretty much the same, dinner from the bar menu and cold rum drinks with our friend “Uncle Bob” Scott.

At Snappa’s, the island music or classic rock and roll which plays over a better than average sound system is nearly drowned out by the sound of the locals playing dominos. Strange to think that Dominos would be a loud game until you see the locals play. The force in which the local players (mostly men) slam the tiles onto the hard plastic table tops is amazing. During the first few minutes of your time at the bar is always a bit disconcerting since the sound of the dominoes closely mimics the sound of small arms fire. After a couple of cold rum drinks and good conversation, the sound just seems to fade into the background.

Discussions of this time last year would not be complete without a mention of the new friends Layne and Grant that made that trip. Grant is an amazing artist and he and wife Layne travel the island son their boat “Blue”. We had a great time visiting sailing and getting to know them. Funny how one can make friends almost anywhere…….