The Bulldog and the Beagle

May 21: Paris is really a bunch of small towns rolled into one name. Each arrondissement has its own flavor. Since we first started coming here, we have oriented to the 7th and that is where we are now, on rue St. Dominique.

That means we know the streets, restaurants and even people from years past. Things don’t change much. Just this morning, we walked down rue Cler on our way to coffee,

we passed the fruit and vegetable markets setting up,

passed the shop keepers and their families

and past a café where we ran into old friends.

But the funniest thing this morning was this, unfortunately I don’t have a good photo but maybe you can use your imagination or click on the photo I do have to enlarge it.

Workers were loading furniture and household goods onto one of these lifts that I have only seen in Paris. I imagine a similar method is used in NY City or Chicago and anywhere in the US with old apartment buildings. In central Paris, most of the buildings originally didn’t have elevators and when added, are small claustrophobic places that barely hold two people (or one person and luggage) let alone a sofa or bed. Staircases are usually cramped circular affairs so that doesn’t work well either for moving furniture in and out. So, household goods are loaded onto platforms and hauled up the outside of the building and through big opening windows on the higher floors. Quite a process to watch and something to avoid walking under. I’m sure this is where the superstition about not walking under ladders started.

OK, back to the story. One of the objects being moved into an apartment was a larger-than-life-size bulldog statue.

A resident was walking her normal size beagle which obviously thought this bulldog was real. There was a noisy confrontation spurred on by the worker who kept sliding the bulldog toward the beagle whose owner was trying her best to keep the beagle under control, while she was being dragged on his leash. The antics stopped all the pedestrians for a few good-morning laughs and definitely slowed down the movers and the dog owner. Does this say something about the intellect of Beagles or recreational opportunities in Paris?
And this was all before 9:00 am!

Jan and Ed

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To…

… Daytona., but this blog is about trains, boats and books.

4/21/13. We stopped for the night in Savannah at a hotel  next to the Georgia Roundhouse Railroad Museum. When we opened the car door, we heard the distinct sound of a steam locomotive. A sound you don’t forget, particularly if you love steam locomotives like Ed does. We’ve visited this museum before when we’ve stayed here. It’s built around one of the few existing roundhouses and contains several old railroad cars and some of the buildings where the cars and locomotives were repaired and are now used for restoration. This was our lucky day.

This little steam engine pulled one of the cars out and was relocating it to another bay.

Once on the turn table, the table is moved into position. An assistant engineer has to line up the tracks by sighting down them. No high-tech here. Then the engine backs the car into the bay. We watched until the engine itself backed into a bay and shut down. The engineer happily blew the whistle to keep us all smiling.

Our goal was Daytona. When we finally put Sable to bed a week ago, we (make that Ed) discovered the bilge pump wasn’t working. It was the switch, not the pump. Now for you non-boater types, this means the boat can fill with water and sink. Not a good thing. So once the switch arrived, we headed back for Ed to rewire and install a new switch.

This is what rain looks like from inside the boat. It’s been raining on and off most of the day, really hard with wind some of the time, but it doesn’t matter since Ed has spent most of the day in the bilge and I’ve been the gofer. Here is Ed feet in the bilge. Note the blood on this left pant leg. Not from his leg, but from his arm and hand. A bloody, wet job. But doesn’t he look happy? A one day job took two, but end the end success.

I have been doing one other thing. I’ve found George Jung, Carlos Lehder‘s partner in crime. Like Carlos, he’s still in prison, but due to get out in 2014. I have an address. Now the question is, do I contact him and see if he is interested in commenting on those chapters of Night Watch which describe the drug trafficking on Normans Cay? Can’t decide.

Jan and Ed

Stewball in Africa

March 23, 2013
   In 2011 we drove Stewball around the world, in 2012 from N.Y. to Alaska, and in 2014, if I am reading the route correctly, we will drive through nine countries in the south of Africa, including, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and Botswana.    

See for yourself at www.pekingparis.com, Classic Safari Challenge.  I know this seems a long way off, and yes, you will have to wait to read about our actual experiences, but I will keep you up-to-date about our plans and preparations.

Like just how do we get ourselves and our car to Cape Town? What visas and vaccinations do we need? What special (if any) preparations will Stewball need?

We are both anxious and excited. Both Stewball and the two of us will be still another year older. I hope we are all up to the challenge.

Right now, we are eager to hear from anyone who has recently traveled this part of the world by car. What were your experiences with road conditions? fuel availability, particularly octane  levels? border crossings? phone and internet? language barriers? currency? weather conditions (we will be there in May). Food and water? Any other words of advice-other than “you must be crazy at your ages (I will be 68 and Ed, 79) to take this on.” We’ve already paid our money, so forget that!

Hoping to hear from fellow adventurers out there.

Jan, Ed and Stewball

Under the Banyan tree

March 16:

  A short post. Sable is in Melbourne Harbor Marina. We didn’t quite make the last two days. Very unusual weather coming to Florida. Very high seas-15-18  feet with swells up to 8 feet and winds 20 + knots. We decided to come home, catch up, prepare taxes (that part is from Ed) and then return in a month to finish the last two days to Halifax Harbor in Daytona Beach when the weather is better.

Just a short story here. The following paragraphs are from our second novel, Night Watch. The photos are from Staniel Cay in the Exumas where the game of dominos was on-going.

Carter stepped back out into the sunshine to the loud slapping of dominos against the table, followed by enthusiastic cheering. This was the unique way Bahamians played the game; a game that seemed to have no end, only a change in players. He watched the group gathered under the Banyan tree, its distinctive twisted trunks and low spreading branches provided the shade both for the ongoing game and Momma Daisy’s Bakery Van that smelled like heaven and sold the best pastries and bread on the island. Dr. Rolle was one of the players.

“Hey, Dr. Rolle, I just sent someone to your office. Ciguatera. They’re flying out, but they’d like to see you first.”

Rolle continued to slap his dominos. “They breathin okay?” he asked, without looking up.

“Seem to be,” Carter replied.

“Not much I can do then. But Cecilia in da office. If she need me, she know where to find me.”

Carter waited, but Rolle didn’t add anything more so Carter headed back toward the dinghy. A hand grasped his shoulder so hard it hurt.

I did have Ciguatera, but not on this trip. Ciguatera is a neurotoxin that humans get from eating fish that have eaten certain microorganisms that live on coral. It is MOST uncomfortable with swelling of the hands and feet, a burning sensation, blisters between fingers and toes, and reversal of sensation so that what should feel like a gentle touch-such as water running over your hands- feels like pins and needles. Mine lasted about 10 days, but it can be longer and can involve respiration. Not a good experience.

Jan, Ed and Sable

It’s a Bahamian T’ing

March 2: OK, I haven’t been blogging on any regular basis. Internet has been unreliable, even when the marina says they have it (free or not). But there have been some funny things that have happened as we have traveled these islands and this will spark the memories of those who have sailed here.

Story #1. We sailed from Nassau to Chub Cay in the southern Berry Islands and from there to Great Harbor in the north. This is all part of a route that will eventually return us to the U.S. I’ve not ever been into Great Harbor and years ago when Ed was there on a much smaller boat, there was a draw bridge over the man-made channel, cut through the rocky shoreline. He talked to many of the locals to find out just when the draw bridge had been taken out, but always got the answer, “Oh, that was a LONG time ago, mon.”

 

 

The opening to the cut is hard to spot and sailing friends had been in here a couple of weeks earlier and emailed us the directions they got from the helpful marina.  Now, we do have chart-plotter, but local knowledge is always good. Jane wrote, “You must enter the man-made cut that is starboard to the two red and white towers on shore.” Sounds easy but I never could find any towers with or without binoculars. The water is shallow here and it was a tense passage. We knew were staying for a couple of days since the weather wasn’t so good for the long crossing to Grand Bahama Island. That’s OK, they have Wi-Fi and a restaurant.  

 Seems The Rat-Pack vacationed here and we hiked to the “ghostly remains” of the Old Sugar Loaf Lodge built with their money. There are a lot of ghostly remains in the
Bahamas. Abandoned building just remain until they fall down or a hurricane takes them down.

Well, as we registered at the marina, we were told, “no internet, no phones. Seems the old (red and white) communication tower was being replaced and after the new one was installed, while dismantling the old one, it fell on the new one taking it down as well. When will it be operational? “Maybe tomorrow.” Which in Bahamian-speak, means not today and most likely not anytime soon. Just to say, when we left on Wednesday, it was not up and the last word was “maybe Friday,” which means at least the next Monday. It’s just a Bahamian t’ing and you get used to it. Time moves at a different pace here.

Story #2. On Wednesday we arrive at Port Lucaya without prior reservations. Remember we couldn’t call from Great Harbor. We were not real worried, there are two marinas here. Once in radio range we called Port Lucaya Marina. Good thing, because we later learned Lucaya Yacht Club “is all down for now.” Seems it has been for months-years? and no one has any idea if or when it will be back in operation.

As I mentioned, this was a long, 10 hour crossing, wind and waves on the nose and under motor all the way. Meaning, our fuel was low. So I said we wanted to stop at the fuel dock before going to our slip. Answer: “Can’t pump diesel today.” No need to ask more, after all, we can get it on our way out. So when we registered at the marina office, Ed asked about the fuel problem we were told, “We all out.” Of course his next question was: “When will you have diesel?” Answer: “When da truck get here.” He have another stop before he come.”

Now it is Saturday and the truck did come and diesel is available. The weather has turned COLD. So now we wait on a weather window to first get to the West end of the island and then make the crossing to Lake Worth in Florida.

Jan and Ed on Sable

A pig steals our gasoline!

Feb. 20: First let me set the scene. We’ve found our place in the sun. Staniel Cay, Exumas. The water is every shade of blue and green. The docks at the Yacht Club and the anchorage are filled with boats, power and sail of all sizes. Staniel Cay Yacht Club is at the end of the dock and anytime of day is full of people swapping stories, telling lies. I don’t know what your image of a Yacht Club is, but this one is funky, colorful and noisy. And the food is great. 

The other thing special about Staniel Cay is, this small island has a working settlement with some of the best boat builders in the Bahamas. So, unlike Sampson Cay, it is more than a marina. We will skip Sampson next time, this is much more to our liking.

There are some interesting things to do here, not found elsewhere. First a visit to Thunderball Grotto, where parts of two James Bond movies, Thunderball and Never Say Never were filmed.

You can swim in at low tide which we did. I couldn’t figure out how to keep my camera dry, so no photos  inside. This grotto, or cave, is open to the sky and the sun filters down and lights up the fish-filled water. It is definitely worth a trip.

Then on to the beach at Big Major, another uninhabited island close by. This one is known for the swimming pigs. There are various stories how the pigs got here, but the point is, they are there and have learned that folks in dingys bring food. If you don’t go to them, they swim out to you.

They are BIG and friendly. I don’t recommend petting them though I did try!

However, we also learned these pigs support themselves by stealing. We pulled out dingy up on shore and while talking to other pig-feeders, one of the sows stuck her head in our dingy and promptly tried to take off with our red plastic gas can! Had she chomped through it, we would have no gas for the outboard and might have had to row back to the marina, and she would have had a most unpleasant taste experience. I ran and shouted and she dropped the goods-but I didn’t get a picture.

  I did get this one, when she then tried to climb into the dingy to steal our duffel, or maybe to have another go for the gas can. Ed was very afraid her hoofs would puncture our very flimsy rubber dingy but we got her off in time and saved our dingy for the next adventure.

Here we will stay for another few days. It’s hard to want to head home to the cold.

Jan and Ed on Sable

New Blog

Feb. 14. I have decided to post all our sailing blogs on a new blog called, Sailing on Sable. If I can just figure out how to repost the blogs from The Long Road to Paris, I will be all set.