Telling Our Stories:

    "Lexlexey'em"

 Shortly after we arrived at the dock in Nassau , we were told that the trip was going to take nine days or more instead of the six days we originally had planned. Francis and David could not extend their stay because of previous commitments back home. Stanley said that he could continue, so it would be just Stan Stump and me from the Williams Lake crew.

Stan and I walked around Nassau for the day just being tourists. We got to see how poor the people there were in the midst of so much opulence. One of the rooms at the casino we visited cost $2,500.00 US per night. Almost every car in Nassau was a taxi, I mean every car had a Taxi sign in the window. I found that you never paid what they asked, you simply made a ridiculously low offer of two dollars and it was usually accepted. That night Stan and I had to find a place to sleep that we could afford. The next morning we got up to get ready to go back to the ship. When I went into the bathroom first to wash up, I turned on the sink tap and all that came out was a gurgling sound, like “we're down here but we ain’t coming out”.  Fortunately, on the way back to the boat, we found a Burger King where we were able to wash up and shave. It was nightfall when we finally sailed out of Nassau Harbour. We were on our way to meet Christopher Columbus.

It took about six days to sail from The Bahamas to Puerto Rico where the Columbus ships were to arrive. We made a couple of interesting stops at a couple of islands on our way there. One was at Guanahani/San Salvador , where Columbus was said to have first landed in the new world. We all went ashore and enjoyed the beaches and swam in the teal blue waters. Later a bus arrived at the hotel. We were going to visit the monument commemorating the place where Columbus first touched land in North America. Even to this day, I am not comfortable telling what took place and what was done to Columbus's monument to celebrate his coming to our land.