Samantha!
Don’t get me started on Samantha. I’ve got my own Samantha stories which I will
reveal in due course.
Meanwhile here we are in MoBay. Decided to skip Cuba. Very tricky sailing on
the approach to Santiago, as Columbus discovered 500 years previously. He was
heading west, thinking he was off the coast of China, but he had to give it up.
He got the crew to sign a piece of paper swearing that Cuba was so large it
must be part of Asia.
Just outside Santiago we spotted this thing sticking out of the water. Gun turret of the Vizcaya I think, sunk by US battleships in 1898. Nasty thing to run into in the dark. Then the headwinds got ridiculous so I thought sod it and came down to Jamaica.
Tied up in the Montego Bay Yacht Club. Pricey but nice enough. The other day me and the girls rented a Land Rover and drove out to the Cockpit Country. This is where the Maroons lived out of reach of British forces. After a series of battles they were granted land in the region in 1739. Accompong is the only Maroon village which has kept its original name. Accompong was the brother of Cudjoe, a Maroon chief and the name comes from an Ashanti word, Nyamekopong, which means ‘lone warrior’. To this day the village is ruled by a man called The Colonel who has the power of life or death over the villagers. The Jamaican coppers leave them alone.
Talking of life or death in Jamaica the murder rate here is chronic. Nearly 900 killed last year out of a population of 2.6 million. That’s high. The rum’s not bad though. Appleton still make a good one...they bloody should, they've been at it since 1749. But I find the Jamaican rums a little on the sticky side, which is why I drink Bajan whenever I can. Mountgay mostly but Cockspur will do at a pinch.
Tied up in the Montego Bay Yacht Club. Pricey but nice enough. The other day me and the girls rented a Land Rover and drove out to the Cockpit Country. This is where the Maroons lived out of reach of British forces. After a series of battles they were granted land in the region in 1739. Accompong is the only Maroon village which has kept its original name. Accompong was the brother of Cudjoe, a Maroon chief and the name comes from an Ashanti word, Nyamekopong, which means ‘lone warrior’. To this day the village is ruled by a man called The Colonel who has the power of life or death over the villagers. The Jamaican coppers leave them alone.
Talking of life or death in Jamaica the murder rate here is chronic. Nearly 900 killed last year out of a population of 2.6 million. That’s high. The rum’s not bad though. Appleton still make a good one...they bloody should, they've been at it since 1749. But I find the Jamaican rums a little on the sticky side, which is why I drink Bajan whenever I can. Mountgay mostly but Cockspur will do at a pinch.
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