Gringos in the TCI Photo Blog

[Gringo]

Capt John,
Here's some photos from last year, inside a sloop still in pretty good condition. The planks are basically logs run through a saw, and they are about 3/4 inch thick.

I am thinking of using those for seats and backs, with a driftwood frame. I love the look of the crossgrain slabs on that bench you posted, but wonder about long term weathering. The sun down here is pretty brutal, and I think it will take some care to keep that from checking and splitting.

The beams are roughly ( no pun intended) 3x4", and solid. I kept a couple pieces from this boat just to mess around with, and I am pretty impressed.


Interesting you think there might be a market for custom stuff. every piece would sure be unique, and it all would have a story to tell.....furniture from Haitian sloop wrecks and driftwood. I like it.

[Gringo]

I didn't mean for this to become woodworking 101.....So I will move it back to ocean related stuff.

I know some of you guys are familiar with the TCI from years ago. The changes going on here are tremendous over the past three years. As one example that particularly makes me sad...what's happening to Leeward-Going-Through.

Here is a shot of the fuel dock and some of the buildings in 2006:


To the right of the fuel dock was Gilley's restaurant and bar. Primarily bar. But the food was good and the ambience was wonderful. We spent many an hour sitting in the shade watching the local boats come and go.

Yesterday we boated over to Pine Cay and snapped some photos. This is what Leeward looks like now:

Building slips for "yachts 65-200 feet". The entire area behind this thing is new canals and condos. They dredged up the sand for their new beach. Nothing is left of the buildings in the previous photo. This is the same site, essentially.

I know progress is inevitable. I realize this is THEIR country and theirs to do with as they please. I understand that us bulldozing a hilltop and building a house here makes us part of the problem.

And I know taste is an individual thing, but damned if this place doesn't look to me like Disney hired Manuel Noreiga to design whorehouses for them.

Just my personal opinion as an observer, of course.

[Mike Boehler]

Man that almost looks fake!

Too bad that the charm of the place is these little joints like Gilleys and the fuel dock. No charm in that new building that's for sure, but I'm sure they are gonna line up to buy them....

So I'm in a bar on Salt Cay and one of the locals is tying one on pretty good and getting loud. The girl who owns the bar hands him a plate of peas and rice to try and dilute his booze just a bit. He takes one bite, looks at her, and says "Deez is good, almost as good as Jim and Sharons"

I thought you'd get a kick out of that since you know them. Even the locals like their cooking!


Mike

[randall r]

you have better winter weather.....but we have a 30 foot height restriction on all construction.

are you all moved in yet?

[Gringo]

Oh yeah, we know them. Jim and Sharon just closed on the condo La Gringa's family owned, where we lived the first two years we were here. It's musical residential chairs around here these days. They also have decided to sell Windmills on Salt Cay. I don't know what they have planned to do next, in the email confirming their decision to leave Salt Cay Jim said "It's time to go sailing.."

I know they owned a sailing catamaran years ago. Maybe it's time again.

In one of this weeks "news"papers, there is an article quoting the TCI head honcho, The Premier and Minister for Development, Mike Misick, reassuring the people of Salt Cay that the new five star resort, 18 hole golf course, and "other amenities" ( read marina, shops, restaurants, bigger airstrip, beach development, dredging channels, etc) will not impact the ecology or history of the island. say what? I can't believe some of the stuff that gets printed. A development that size on an island that is 2.5 square miles total area...and it's NOT going to affect it?????

Last week, it was another minister assuring people that all the dredging going on in Leeward and Dellis cuts was being closely monitored to be sure that it doesnt impact the reef. Well, I have seen what its doing to the reef. I don't know what to say about it, other than it's all horseshit. Saying they are "monitoring" the dredging to protect the reef is like saying they are watching carefully as their daughter gets raped to be sure her makeup doesnt get smudged nor her hair mussed up. And that's basically so that she's still attractive enough for the next rapist. I know there are clouds of milky colored water that we have to go around when trolling, and that this suspended sediment is coating portions of the reef with a fine silt. Monitoring or no monitoring....that's whats happening.

I wish they would just stop new development for a while, and wait until existing developments in the works are completed, and then take a new look at it. I will also say that Misick has done a lot for the people of this country, and that their standard of living has gone up enormously. Its a delicate balance.

And what's going to happen to all these condos and hotel rooms when Cuba opens up to American investment and development again in ten years?

I am thinking we need to buy a small island somewhere and build a totally self sufficient house on it. We built this one to easily be converted to that if desired.

And in the meantime, whatever the good people of the TCI decide to do with their little islands....we got a pretty good ringside seat;


I am going to have to stop taking these sunset photos. But we still take a moment every day to catch the sunset...

[La Gringa]

you have better winter weather.....but we have a 30 foot height restriction on all construction.

are you all moved in yet?

hi randall....

yes we do have better winter weather than you do - especially since neither one of us is particularly good at or capable of skiing down snow-covered mountains!

and there is a height restriction here too but like anything else in this country - it depends on who you are...

everything we own is here except a few odds and ends on Pine Cay and the boat trailer over at the golf course... about a third if it is unpacked....

we had to wait for the (and I use this term loosely) cabinetmaker to get some shelves into the kitchen cabinets which he did (in a manner of speaking) this week... we'll probably tackle unpacking all that today...

so.... while he was here. he offered to screw in the handles and pulls on all the cabinets and drawers... he took his measurements.... made his marks.... drilled all the upper cabinets full of holes only to discover that he'd made a miscalculation... we're really not that fond of the cabinetmaker...

[Gringo]

are you all moved in yet?

Imagine, for a moment, a sound inside your head. Not voices, exactly, but something that starts out similar to a low chuckle. It could even be mistaken for a chuckle, with possibly a hint of humor in it. Its a sound that might cause some smiles. But then long after an actual humorous chuckle would have ended, this noise continues. And it increases in volume and undulating frequency. As you realize it's actually not a laugh at all, it starts to sound like a banshee/hyena hybrid that has just realized his leg is caught in a trap and that he does not have the means of ever freeing himself. This is a cry of pure fear and absolute desperation at the sudden realization of the gravity of the situation. Survival itself is at question.. The realization is unfortunately just shy of mind numbing. This maniacal noise continues up past the threshold of auditory pain, with some components of it so high that dogs several miles away began to howl in sympathy...until even they fall silent in absolute awe at the enormity of it all. They managed to follow it up far above the imagined vocal range of rabid wolves...but after that it became something outside their realm of evolutionary experiences. They have no frame of reference upon which to judge the extent of what could produce such an unholy anguish.

This continues for a while,, until one wonders how even an imagined human throat could sustain such force. How could normal vocal chords produce such an ungodly shriek of indescrible pain and frustration...and then just when it seems it must go on forever, it begans to ebb. It slowly backs off and descends back down through a range of choking, gasping exhalations before tapering off back to isolated sobbing and mumbling sounds just at the threshold of hearing through still-ringing ears.

This repeats itself with some slight variations for most of the daylight hours, abating only at sunset when cocktail hour seems to at least ameliorate it for the hours of darkness when it is easier to ignore the things that hover just out of sight.

Nah, we aint moved in yet.

[La Gringa]

but we DID see a flock of flamingos this morning - Gringo counted 64!!! No time for a camera - just enjoyed the moment...

[randall r]

man......you sure have a way with words!! as our former pres would say "i feel your pain".....however ,this too shall pass...then you be high on the hog

[duff1]

Great thread, nice pics. I've been reading this from the start. Very enjoyable.
Thanks