Little Ragged Cut, Ragged Islands, Bahamas

 The three boats, Sojourn, Bluejacket and Bedouin went to shore in the morning to walk into Duncan Town.

Walking towards the runway.

 

At the new airport terminal building, we met a Bahamas Defense Force policeman.  Very friendly.

 

He offered to give us a lift into Duncan Town in the fuel truck.  Literally a lift, because the tailgate lifts us up!

 

Chris and Mandy

 

And Duane & I rode in the back.  Donna rode in the front.

 

The view on the ride

 

Jerry had walked a different path to take some garbage to the dump, so the truck stopped and gave him a lift as well!

 

Approaching Duncan Town.  Nice not to have to walk up that steep hill!

 

The truck dropped us off and we bid them a cheery goodbye.  We saw Myron out near his house and stopped to say hello.  We last saw him last winter when he gave us a tour of his pigeons.

 

And Donna got to visit with Myron's wife Charlene.  Nice folks.  They told us that the construction workers are all off-island for the holidays so it's very quiet in town.

Then we walked on towards the new school/hurricane shelter.  I thought I'd show some of my photos in order over the past 4 years -

The school building as we first saw it in winter 2018/19 after Hurricane Irma demolished many of the structures & houses on the island in2017.

Following are photos of the progress over then next few years.  It takes a long time to build things in the out islands as all materials have to be brought over on the mailboat.  A crew of over 50 construction workers are brought in from other islands to do the work.  As there are no hotels on the island - they first build a "dormitory" type building for housing that you see on the left.

And construction of the main buildings began. 

This is progress winter of 21/22.

And this is now.  Getting very close!

The view from the school over the salt pond.

 

 Walking back towards town - another before/after - the clinic building was badly damaged in the storm as well.

This is the new & improved structure being built to replace it.

 

Hopefully once all this construction is complete some of the former residents will return to the island (the population now is about 50 without the construction workers).

 

No offer of a ride for the trip back, so we hoofed it!

 

The new terminal building was open and gloriously chilled with air conditioning!  We took a nice long break and enjoyed it.

 

In the evening, Meshugga arrived!!  Yay!  The evening sundown gathering was cut short by the no-see-um bugs....we had a very nice visit on Meshugga, catching up a bit from summer activities.  Will visit much more in the coming weeks I'm sure.