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Geek Cruise - Linux Lunacy 2 - Day 7 - Half Moon Cay, Bahamas Saturday was our last day. The Maasdam had stopped off Little San Salvador Island. The island is uninhabited, and a part of it has been exclusively leased from the Bahamas by Holland America Line. The area that is leased by HAL is a lovely little half-moon shaped beach, and they call the area Half Moon Cay. We took the tender ashore, and when we got shore we were too tired to fend off the ship's photographer, so we posed for the camera. After we got off the tender we walked to the little resort area. I don't think any of this has historical significance. I think it was all built by the cruise line. Inside the walls are a few shops, bathrooms, and a bar. This island is uninhabited, so the shops and the bar are staffed and stocked from the ship. We had a quick look around inside the resort area, checked out the shops but found nothing because we'd seen it all on board ship. There wasn't a great deal to do. You could go down to the beach and sit in the sun or swim, or you could walk around the island and check out the birds and the plants. There was this little Bahamian Church just outside the resort area. We headed for the beach. I sat in the shade and got mildly burnt while Anne swam. I chatted to several of the people around me, and everyone was really nice. A few people had noticed that there was a Geek Conference on board ship, and were curious about what we were doing. The conversation shifted to tricky ground when they barely knew what Windows was, or what Microsoft was (except as a good investment), and no-one had even heard of Linux. From what I heard, you could put a Linux box in front of most people and show them how to do email and surf and write the occasional letter and they wouldn't know if it was Windows or CP/M. No wonder Microsoft forces the hardware vendors to put Windows on every computer. If you put Linux on instead and gave some printed notes, most home operations would be using Linux and not Windows. Anyway, I had a comfortable drowsy time and watched Anne swimming around. Anne came back and we sat in the shade and drowsed for a bit. I kept watching, and I noticed the ship's photographer heading for the beach with a companion dressed strangely. His companion had beach shorts and was barefoot, but had a tuxedo jacket on. And he was carrying a tray and glasses and some champagne. Once they hit the water and the camera started going off, I went Aha. Then I wallowed around while Anne went off to go parasailing, a first for her. I was interested in going parasailing too, but I wasn't allowed to as I was over the weight limit. Bugger. I watched the boat go out, and the parasailers go up and come down. I couldn't see who was who, so I took a few photos hoping it was Anne. The boat came back in, Anne came back to the beach and told me her tale. The winch broke just before it was her turn, so she missed out on her turn. They were going to try and fix the winch and half another go at it, so Anne was scheduled to try again a little bit later. We went up and sat at the bar and had a few drinks. I tried Planters Punch and a few other rum drinks, and I started getting a bit sozzled after the sun and the heat and that overproof rum. A three piece band started up at the bar, so we moved around away from them because they were surprisingly loud. The guy on the right is playing a saw. Anne headed off to the parasailing again to see if they had fixed the winch. They had, and she headed out again. While she was out, I went for a walk (read drunken stumble) about the island. I went and had a closer look at the little Bahamian Church. On the way, I noticed some little grey doves pecking about the sand. These were moderately unafraid of me, and peck-pecked near my feet. They were pretty little birds. On the steps of the Bahamian Church, I spotted this little lizard. Not so little, he was about 6 inches long. I looked inside the church. It was small, but very pretty. Paintings on the wall, solid wood furniture. It was very open to the elements. I took this photo from inside the front door, looking across the little altar and through to the back door. Just outside the back door is a little arch and framed in the arch is the Maasdam. By now, Anne was on the parasailing boat. I got ready for photos. Here's the boat heading out for the first few parasailers, passing in front of the Maasdam. The boat headed to the right of the Maasdam and a few people parasailed. I took photos in case they were Anne. Then it headed to the left where I couldn't see the boat but could only see the parasailers. I counted the people in the air, and checked with Anne later and this is Anne parasailing. She handed her camera to the guy before her and he took closer photos of Anne in the air, but Anne hasn't got those photos developed yet. And this is Anne again. And the parasailing boat came back in with a proud and happy Anne on board. [News Flash] Anne's camera has been found and we now have good photos of Anne in the air. It was time to go. We took one of the last tenders back to the ship. As we had missed the barbecue lunch ashore, we went and had a late lunch on board ship. Then we went out on deck and watched the Maasdam leave Half Moon Cay. We got cleaned up and Anne went to see a reprise of the juggler, while I went and did email for a while then headed off to the conference wrap-up session. This turned out to be free grog as an inducement to fill in the assessment sheets, a few moments of speeches about the next Geek Cruises, voting on the location of the next Linux Lunacy Cruise, and then a lively chat session. The chat session went on for a while, and here's my tablemates talking to Neil about the next cruise. Then it was time for our final dinner on board ship. It was a formal dinner, a special Dutch dinner. This was also our opportunity to tip everyone who had come in contact with us. Then it was back to the room to pack. We had to pack our bags and have them outside our door by 2am.