right place, right time, but no camera

It was my fault. Sunday I awoke about 4 AM to a blackout. I hear electricity went about 3. Whether it was load shedding or a plant breakdown, I have no idea, and I don't really care. I am not being facetious, insensitive or downright ignorant, but when you get to be my age, you don't get caught up in trivia and the inevitable of all man made devices. The blackout caught me off guard because I had not yet recharged my camera batteries from Saturday evening's shooting of the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society's ham radio station setup for the Scouts Jamboree On The Air in the Circus downtown Basseterre.

So I elected to go bicycling at daybreak without my Canon DSLR, because electricity was off and the city would be asleep. Just as I figured it, the usual walking exercise crowd was conspicuously absent, and no traffic was on the streets. Even the usual night shift security guards who live in the rural areas were not at the bus terminal. The City was asleep. No Facebook, no internet, only cell phones. No electricity and rain may be the only two things that our people heed, nobody going outside to be mugged, shot at, raped, or get wet  ... unless there is a brass band jamming hard music down the road ... in which case, nothing is going to stop anyone. The pied piper rules.

As usual I take my ride from the War Memorial at sea level up to the Robert L Bradshaw Airport, which is almost 200 feet above sea level, via the C.A.Paul Southwell Industrial Park and the  Kim Collins Highway. When I reached the Basseterre Fisheries Complex I decided to take a right and go past the Boat Building operations, since I had not been in that area for a while, and I have a liking for the sea, white noise and fishing, even though I am not a certified swimmer much less diver. I was slightly surprised to see about a dozen persons, men and women, having a jolly good time on the end of the 100 meter long and 15 foot wide Old Sugar Factory pier.

Those were my images for the day ... but I did not have a camera.

I cycled around to the south side of the pier and checked the landscape making mental notes and images for a subsequent self assignment. An earlier self assignment covered the area before the old sugar structures were demolished, and sometime soon it is expected that this area will site the storage facility for oil from Venezuela. It may then be a secured area and we will not have access to the pier for fishing any longer.

A rain shower forced me to seek shelter on the pier where I got to conversing with a fishing buddy until just after 10 AM. Four hours can roll by when you have interesting things, including fishing to talk about. So I am gearing up for next Saturday and Sunday daybreak to see if I can capture an image or two of the fishing brothers and sisters on the Old Sugar Factory Pier, before it all becomes history and we can only reminisce about it.

I am now in the market for a robust waterproof photographers back pack as I do not plan to leave home without my canon DSLR again. Carrying this to the next level I am also looking for a bicycle rack for my car roof. I wonder what will be next.

[to be continued]

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