Grand Bahama

Now aboard our ship... We survived the rush and confusion of boarding and first night...

We are aboard primarily for the music... This is the "Grammies, Women Who Rock" cruise... Or is for 550 of us... There is also a Budwiser charter group aboard, plus 1,000+ independent passengers...

Last night we saw Shawn Colvin (7th row) and Heart... (20th row center...) Both wonderful... Shawn had Steward Smith with her... Heart at 65 can still rock...  There were other acts in the public spaces later in the evening....

Now Wednesday... Grand Bahama Island... We are docked at Lucaya (the Port, sometimes called "Freeport Harbor"). We are the only ship making a port call today, but not the only cruse ship in port... A Carnival ship is in dry dock... The Bahama Celebration is at the next dock,, listing 15 degrees or so to starboard, either  careened to allow repairs to the port side at the waterline or Alternately, per rumors she hit a reef last Friday, and with the help of a couple of tugs, made  it to dock before sinking...  While the idea of careening a modern cruise ship appeals to me, she is more likely sunk at dock...  I note divers present.

So, The Port has dock space to moor three cruise ships, and while there are three ships in port, we are the only one carrying passengers...  It's a slow day in Lucaya.

Nearby is Port Lucaya, the town.  It is some distance from the dock (aka the place of cruise ship is docked... which is Lucaya, not "Port Lacaya, but now I am repeating myself), and neither is the main town, which is Freeport, the town, who's name includes the word "port" but is not the port, and which the taxis seem to avoid.

Lucaya, where we are docked has a small tourist village, with a couple of bars including a Senior Frogs, with an "Original souvenir store and other cool stuff" (it says so on the sign) (short rant... why a Mexican beach bar in a faux Bahamian port village instead of a Margaritaville or similar? Likely some other cruise line holds the copyright for "Margaritaville") scooter rentals... ("Think twice before renting... They drive on the other side of the road... (From the ship's port guide)) the regular compliment of cruise port stores including a "Del Sol" and a tiny Staw Market...

Its raining... Not exactly a beach day, but many have gone to the beach...  We too get off the ship to look about and take a taxi ( not exactly a taxi, but rather a 12 passenger van) to Port Lucaya which has a yacht harbor, but is not a port... It costs $5.00 each way for a shared ride...

Port Lucaya is not much of an improvement... It too is cheesy corporate... It too has its cruise retailers and straw market...  At least here the ladies working the market stalls are local... They Call us over to their stall... "ma'am in the Grey Pants"... "Take a look honey"... "take a look ma'am, you looking for big momma, you found her..."   This place is depressing...

We pass a Pizza Hut while looking for a bar...  Pizza Hut is clean and corporate and safe and American... and could by represent everything wrong in this faux Caribbean paradise.

We have a Couple of beers... I post an update to Facebook... Tina starts to proof read the label on the beer " Kalik Established Since 1990"...  Tina says she misses the drunk happy people aboard the ship...  Heading back we pass a group of ship's crew in search of a loose wifi signal...

It threatens to rain as we head back to the taxi, back to the ship... Avoiding town again...   We note a local theater is playing the Rocky Horror Show...

Now back aboard, sitting by the pool, beer in hand... Planing tonight's show schedule... Heart is playing again... So is EmmyLou... And we have tickets to a show in small venue with the Indigo Girls... in between we need to squeeze in dinner... We are reading... Tina a novel from the ship's library... I am reading The Footloose American... (By Brian Kevin) the author's account of his trip "following the Hunter S Thompson trail across South America"...

A quote from the book..."Goddamn,... This might not be the ugliest city I've ever seen, but its a strong contender"... I am tempted to use it to describe the port but that would be an overstatement... For the port is a working port, stinking of distant diesel exhaust with a sad little tourist trap on the cruise ship quay, and a listing busted up cruise ship tied to the dock, but not particularly ugly...

A US Coast Guard helicopter flies by... We are roughly 90 miles from Florida...   90 miles from the US... The place hardly qualifies as a foreign country...