Trying To Escape

    Last night was a typical night.  We went over to S/V Eleanor M last night for another social hour(s).  What we did not expect was the surprise that was laying in store for us this morning.  You have to get up early to catch the weather reports, and we also had laundry to do today.  I was up at 6 a.m., and Sharon was up shortly thereafter.  During my morning routine, I noticed a "new" sailboat in Black Point Harbour.  The odd thing was its location and its orientation to the wind.  The sailboat was on the north side of the harbour laying in an east west fashion.  All the rest of the boats on the hook were on the south side of the harbour facing SSE because of the breeze.  Upon further investigation with the binoculars, it appeared the vessel was on the rocks, in a state of disrepair and not a soul to be seen.   After the weather report and breakfast, we went into town and discovered the story behind the mystery vessel.  The story goes like this.  The boat was sailed from Haiti with 103 immigrants on board trying to find a better life.  Sometime during the night,  many individuals were dropped off at Bitter Guana Cay, an uninhabited island lying to the north of Black Point Harbour.  Then, the sailboat with many people still onboard was sailed south to Black Point Harbour and scuttled on the rocks so that the remaining passengers could escape to land.  As we did our morning errands in town, we witnessed the local police boat hauling (Haitian) people to Regatta Point at the edge of town.  This was the processing station for the illegal immigrants as they are going to be taken by boat up to Nassau and then returned to Haiti and the life they were trying to escape.

103 people on this boat gives you idea of how desperate they are for a better life.