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Well - we're back at sea. Left Barbados yesterday afternoon - having dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's for customs, immigration, saying good-bys and packing the last fruit into baskets from around the African Diaspora.
We left many new good friends behind - Tom and Kevin at the museum, Joanne, Terry, Mike, Marci and so many others at Goddard shipping, Ron and Serena Jones, their friends Barbara and Gabriella who all crowned our last days with help and sustenance..... We left many African friends that had treated our crew to the tastes and customs of the homeland. We left with gifts: a ceramic water jug of Barbadian design and making, a beautiful wooden statue from the Barbadian Ministry of Tourism, clothe from a museum staffer's personal collection, books of Barbadian architecture and "The Barbados-Charleston Connection," and many small tokens of life handed down from the plantation legacy.
The sea, and new adventures stretch out ahead of us - bringing with us yet one more heart full of history, sadness and love - gifts we carry with us from one place to the next. We left the basket the Cape Verdi an Ministry of Agriculture had given us to give to their counter parts in Barbados. In leaving it - I think we left a small part of ourselves - hoping, perhaps beyond hope, that Barbados will look back over her shoulder and connect with their neighbors to the east. After all - is this not likely to be the last place in Africa so many of their ancestors touched? We seem to be extremely lucky to have come to know, understand and even live this connection - and yet as I look around at the faces in Barbados I wonder if we have successfully been able to communicate this to them.
Today dawned with nothing on the horizon, again. Yet only a few hours later the dusty outline of two volcanic islands come into view. To starboard, Martinique. To port, St. Lucia. In another few hours we will tack and head north again skirting the islands on their leeward side. Due to visas and other technicalities we will not be stopping at these islands - only watching them pass by in slow motion. We have been in the 13-14 degree latitude belt for almost 2 months now - feeling the sun coming closer and closer to overhead each day - reducing our shade to a pinpoint beneath our feet at noon. But now our trek north is truly underway - and it could not come soon enough. We sleep at night in pools of sweat - hide from the sun during the day - and enjoy dawn and dusk in their deep reds and purples - hoping for relief at one end of the spectrum, anticipating a changing weather pattern at the other. Brief bouts of tiny pinpricks of rain occur almost so imperceptibly we only realize they have come when they are gone.
While we are ashore - doing [public tours 6 hours a day, then sailed and dinners, ceremonies and logistics - the days fly by so fast an furious we have not time to write, or blog. But then we get to sea - all the immediacy of the experiences are lost - and looking both forward and backward - I find myself wondering how will I ever make sense of so much? Will I ever fully understand the breadth and depth of these incredible months? I know I, and everyone one aboard has learned more then they could have ever imagined - but what is that exactly? What words capture it all? What words help explain
- Barbados, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone?
We were lucky to be visited by Nina's Mom, Bev, and Dad, Ron. They came all the way down to Barbados for a break from the colds of Novas Scotia. It was such a treat to have them here, sharing their two daughters now with us - taking a watch so that all the crew could be treated to an amazing brunch at the Hilton our last day ashore. Their spirit and generosity were a gift to us all. We also had to leave Sam in Barbados for a few days - but he is scheduled to join us as soon as we reach one of the US Territories - Puerto Rico or St Croix. It is hard to leave shipmate somewhere, even when you know they will rejoin you at the next port. We all felt a tinge of sadness, knowing he would be all alone for several days - but a few also felt a tinge of jealousy - he gets a week of enjoying himself in Barbados - a hotel room and food! While we all enjoyed our late night arrivals and early morning departures from the hotels in Barbados - our schedule had not allowed fro long days lounging at the beach or by the pool. Sam, on the other hand, was going to get just that. Sam, never having flown before, however, left with a huge amount of uncertainty in his eyes.... I think he would have preferred all the hard work and watches to a lounge chair by the pool and two flights hoping around islands and countries he has never ever heard of before.
Looking forward though, I am hopeful that all the discussions we had about future programming in Barbados and other parts of the Caribbean will come to fruition. We found so much interest, so much enthusiasm and even some very real offers of support - as we sail in the spirit of Sankofa - it is truly an experience where we go forward, carrying with us the promises and possibilities the past can afford.
Farewell to Barbados and all our new friends - but as the Cape Verdians taught us - "you have to go away in order to come back!"
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