Nearing the end of the season...

We did go snorkeling on the reef to the east side of Hope Town, and oh my goodness.  We just floated on the surface and watched a myriad of fish go about their business below us.  We saw purple round ones that appeared to always have one eye on us, half blue and half yellow ones, striped ones, iridescent ones of yellow or blue, two very big Tarpon were just hanging there, not moving, even one that was like a chameleon and changed from reef coloured back to silver when it realized we weren’t

Hope Town, Bahamas

going to eat it.  It was just incredible, but I’m sorry that I have no idea what the names of these fish are, except the tarpon.  There just were so many, it reminded us of swimming on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia a few years ago.  Just an exceptional day.  I wished I had an underwater camera to take pictures of what we saw.  We were able to just walk in from the beach and swim a short distance to the first of the layers of reefs that run parallel with the shore and go out for quite a ways.  A perfect day in paradise.

Treasure Cay beach

We stayed in Hope Town for a couple days before moving on to Treasure Cay, about a 15 nautical mile trip and quite different from around Hope Town.  They have a basin on the way into the marina with mooring balls, that we hooked up to.  A short dinghy ride gets you to the marina itself and the few stores and condos and cottages on the peninsula.  The beach on the east side is boasted as being one of the top 10 beaches in the world, but we beg to differ.  It is indeed beautiful, however, we were quite spoilt with Sugar Beach back on the Great Harbour Cay and feel it’s nicer.  We walked nearly the entire length of the Treasure Cay beach and got a good view of the Whale Cay that we have to get through next. 

The little town site is that, little, there’s just a little grocery store, a bakery that has really great cinnamon buns, and may just even be better than the Procter bakeries buns….(if they ever open again…) They are a bit different than Procters’, just a different flavouring mix somehow, I couldn’t quite pick out what was different.  We devoured it quite quickly just the same.   There is a meagre hardware store, a couple souvenir shops, golf/bike/boat/car rental places a tiki bar and restaurant at the marina and that’s about it.

We met another Canadian couple there from Port Moody and had a great visit with them, they are heading back to the mainland over the next week as well.  Chris Parker, the weather guru that nearly everyone listens to over here, has indicated that next week will be an ideal time for those travelling back to the States from the Bahamas.  We will be in that parade of boats with luck.

Whale Cay in the distance

So, our next challenge is the Whale Cay passage,(google Whale Cay passage) an island off Treasure Cay that has a very narrow cut on one end and nasty reefs on the other side of the cut.  It is tricky because in certain weather conditions the waves from the ocean will break right across the cut opening and if the tide is going out at the same time or a big wind against the waves, it’s called a rage.  Quite nasty, to say the least and happens more in the winter months.  The day we chose to go through the cut it is quite benign as far as the weather goes.  There is a light wind, the tide is slack and the rollers are only about 4 feet, so a good day to get through.  People have lost their lives going through here, or trying to go across the shallow area on the inside of the Whale Cay.

South of the Whale Cay is Great Guana Cay, and on its north end is an area called Bakers Bay.  There is a very private marina built, for the rich and famous.  Also, cruise ship companies had a channel dredged there several years ago, so they could come into this bay to discharge passengers onto Bakers Bays beach.  That didn’t last too long as there were too many days with the ‘rage’ happening during the winter.

Pigs of No Name Cay

We carried on to Green Turtle Cay where we caught up with folks we had met in Great Harbour marina and Marsh Harbour.  There is to be a nasty low pressure system coming through over the next couple days so lots of folks are coming into marinas and harbours to wait it out. 

We had hardly tied up to the dock when our friends were asking if we wanted to go with them in their dinghies over to No Name Cay to see some swimming pigs.  Why not??  There is a snorkeling place there too, so after we get bite of lunch we head out with them.

The pigs are spoilt, they have a fresh water self feeding tank, plus people are always bringing food for them.  Our group brought some old celery and they turned up their noses.  They were looking for something somewhat better, like apples.  We meanwhile traversed around the island to the area recommended snorkeling site.  Well the wind was blowing pretty good, and the waves building and coming right onto the coral rock beach.  We may have been able to get in… but not a hope of getting back out without getting beat up somewhat, on the rocky shore, so we passed.  When we got back to the dinghy’s we saw some of the pigs actually swimming. These aren’t the famous pigs of the Exumas, but are ones kept there just for the tourists.  One ends up on the BBQ of a local restaurant every now and then.

Docktails

We have ‘docktails’ with the rest of the folks from the boats that have since come in to the marina after we get back.  There is a bit of a blow to come through, so many more boats have come into the harbour too. Docktails are cocktails and appies on the dock. A couple of the sailors have guitars and bring them out too so we have good stories, great music and just an all round magical evening.  I waited all this trip for a night like this, its warm, the people are great, the music lovely, the stars bright and we’re in the Bahamas mon!!

Green Turtle Cay

We spent a couple days here waiting for a weather window to head back to the States.  Every morning the group of us would huddle around a computer over by the Pineaples tiki bar where the internet is best and listen to Chris Parker (weather guru). This is at 6:30 in the morning so it’s still dark, so we have either headlamps or flashlights so we can take notes.  The SSB radios are working this early in the morning for some reason, however as the sun comes up the transmission comes in better.

One morning we all traipsed into town for a breakfast of Chicken Sous, I think I mentioned this in an earlier post when we were still in Great Harbour Cay.  It’s a breakfast staple here and when served with johnny cake,…. Yum.  It was so good that we went downtown another day to a local fundraiser that was offering Chicken Sous, Conch Stew or Tuna and grits for breakfast.  Another evening we joined a bunch of other sailors down at the local wine shop/restaurant for happy hour before heading back to Pineapples tiki bar for supper.  Another night Jeff called for a potluck dinner with all the sailboats on the dock

Potluck 

.  The wind is howling pretty good by now, so he is off looking for an alternative to eating on the dock and getting blown off.  He finds… a big garbage can that he puts some rocks in then puts a ¼ sheet of plywood that he found, on top.  He then tied this to the deck railing just outside the restrooms we use…Great dinner, lots of choices, no complaints and none left over. We love potlucks.

Kevin, Dockmaster and musician at Pineapples

Finally we got a weather window and off everyone went.  We headed slightly north before turning west to Great Sale Cay which is a big sheltered bay and that’s it, nothing but mangroves here.  We and many other boats stopped here as it’s a half way point between the east side of the Abacos and the West side of the Little Bahama Bank.  Al had a fishing line out and caught some seaweed first, then something else just bit off the line and took the lure.  Another time he had something large on, but it got off.  

Great Sale Cay

On the west edge of the Bahama Bank

 That night was relatively quiet, but when we got to the very western edge of the Little Bahama Bank, it was somewhat different.  The gulf stream was running north, the wind from the northeast and waves from the east.  

We basically didn’t move from over top of our anchor with all the contradicting forces.  Man it was bumpy, and our boat creaked so loudly… the gulf stream kept our nose pointed south so the waves were coming at us at the back corner not exactly how a sailboat is supposed to take waves.  Lumpy bumpy.  We were anchored there with 3 other sailboats and 2 trawlers.  None of us slept well, and most of us were on our way to Fort Pierce in Florida by 5 am.

Sunset on the Little Bahama Bank

In the Bahamas

We arrived to the inlet of Fort Pierce around 4 pm, and right into a raging inlet - the current coming out the tide going in, and the rollers heading straight on in as well and some wind just to add interest.  It was amazing to see waves pyramid shaped as we were coming in, getting rocked around.  Thankfully it was for only a short period of time and Captain Al got us safely into the ICW..  Sally and Jeff from one of the trawlers we traveled with, came out in their dinghy to meet us after we got in through the worst part.  

Made it back to the USA

So we are back in the States, we had to stay an extra night in Fort Pierce as we had to get to the airport to check into the country.  We celebrated a great journey with our trawler friends at a local restaurant before we all - quite early- crashed for the night. 

A green heron catching breakfast

Al and I moved on towards Titusville, where we are going to be leaving the boat for the summer and hurricane season.  We got to Melbourne, Florida harbour and had a bit of excitement... we lost propulsion right in the middle of the harbour.  Al dropped the anchor and we slowed to a stop in a mud bank about 4 feet from the front of two big trawlers that were tied up in their slips.  There was a nasty wind blowing right onto our broad side and after calling Tow Boat US we waited hoping that the mud bank and anchor would hold us from moving any closer to the trawlers.  It did, thankfully and Willy came to our  rescue and towed us onto the dock of the marina we had planned on staying at.  Al discovered that the propeller had disengaged from the transmission (a V drive?? for those who know what that means). After much consternation and phone calls we ended up having Towboat US tow us to Titusville, about 35 miles away.  As it was friday we wouldn't have been able to get hauled until next week locally, and longer still til a mechanic could look at it.  If we hadn't been in a bit of a rush to get home, due to the passing of my mom, we would have waited.  

Anyway, we were towed to Titusville, where we will be having the boat hauled in a couple days anyway.  Can you believe this all happened one day before we got to our final destination...go figure.  I guess it's better than in the middle of the Florida Strait or in the middle of our last transit across the Little Bahama Bank.

Being towed

Guess they can't read...

Good year blimp

So Willy the tow captain came along the next day and put a line to our bow and away we went.  The wind was on our back quarter so travel was easy and we managed to get 6 knots at least, the whole of the 6 hour trip.  It was the easiest trip we have made to date.... sitting in the cockpit and watching the world go by.  Saw dolphins, a lovely show by the US Thunderbirds performing at the town we had just left, the Goodyear blimp....passed a derelict trawler that had dragged its anchor right out into the channel of the ICW, and had a special opening at a restricted bascule bridge.  The cars that piled up waiting for us to pass this bridge probably weren't too happy.

US Thunderbirds

Willy the towboat captain maneuvered us into the landing dock at the marina we will be leaving the boat at without a bruise, considering how windy it had been the whole trip.  Found out after that Willys real job is as a tugboat captain pushing huge freighters around Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

So we have had our cute little boat hauled and prepped for her summer hiatus.  Hopefully no hurricanes to push her around.  She will be getting stylish hurricane anchors added when they get the attachments put into the ground to hold her down.  The boat beside her was knocked over during Matthew last year...they didn't have tie downs..... 

As you read this we will likely be on our way home from this amazing journey.  Our little boat will wait where she is until we return to continue our exploration of this part of the world.  We have met incredible people, some we will remain connected with for the rest of our lives and hopefully we will meet up with in the next season.

So we will wrap this blog up for now, and will continue when we return to Florida next winter.  Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed coming along on our journey.

Laurie and Al

Into the Abacos

By the Cave on Great Harbour Cay

Trying to look like a scorpion

The end of the winds is supposed to be coming, though by the pictures....ya gotta wonder.  We hope to move in the next few days, either to the Abacos or to Lucaya by Freefort, just depends on which way the wind will blow that day.  

Sunset in Sugar Beach

As it turns out, we had been planning for crossing to the Abacos, then kind of a spur of the moment, we decided, then went.  We have to do this crossing in two stages.  We took the boat out and around the north end of Stirrup Cays and back down the east side of Great Harbour Cay to anchor for the night then cross over to Little Harbour in the Abacos the next day.  It is a 70 nautical mile crossing and will take us at least 12 hours to make the passage.

It was neat seeing our favourite bay and the Beach Club from the water side in Sugar Beach, instead of from the beach.  The wind has slowed down quite a bit, but the rollers haven't completely laid down, so we had a bit of a rolly night.

 We had to awaken at 3 am to get going and of course, we didn't sleep that great.  So in the dark, with the nearly full moon to help, we followed our chart plotter track out of the bay and onto our plotted course east towards Abacos.

It was amazing, the stars were all quite different than we are used to seeing in the evenings, and seemed to be millions more.  The bioluminescence was sparkling in the waves as we went by, making it magical, just beautiful. I fell asleep for awhile and woke up when the sun was just rising.  Thank goodness Al was driving...

We had a cruise ship heading to Nassau, and two freighters that went behind us to who knows where.  It doesn't take long for them to catch up and blow by us.

Hole in the Wall, Abacos

The ocean didn't really settle down that much, we were up and down over huge rollers, some coming from a few different directions.  At times, the ocean seemed to be seething, nothing dangerous, just roiling under and around us. Some times it felt like we needed to drop our boat down to second gear to get over the next wave then we'd race down the back side. It was quite the experience, I thought I'd be nervous but that didn't happen.

Little Harbour anchorage, Abacos

The bottom point of Abacos finally came into view and after following the west and southern coast we rounded the tip, called Hole in the Wall, and turned our noses north toward Little Harbour. The Hole in the Wall used to be just that, a hole in a rock wall, but Hurricane Sandy changed that with breaking off the top of the circle, so now its just another rock off shore. Here the travelling was a bit more of a challenge as we had most of the rollers on our beam.  After a few hours of zigging and zagging to reduce the rocky ride, the water settled and let us run a more straight course to our destination.  The wind again, was mostly on our nose, so the sails weren't much help until the lasts couple hours when its direction changed to the west and gave us a bit of a push to the Little Harbour cut.

Along the Sea of Abacos

The Cut can be tricky unless the wind, waves  and tide are all going the same way and there are reefs that jut out into the cut on both sides of the channel.  We had two of the three criteria for a safe passage, but we just followed the other six sailboats that arrived when we did and got in behind the reefs to gentler water.  We had a nice anchorage that night, the wind died down and after dinner, we both slept like logs all night.

Sunset in Marsh Harbour

The next morning we had a lazy start towards Marsh Harbour, it's not far, around 20 miles so won't take long to get there.  In the distance we could see a squall coming our way and like a freight train roiled over us and several other sailboats in no time.  Another boat with a  wind meter clocked the sustained wind at 20 - 25 knots with gusts a bit higher... the rain that came with it was torrential!!  As we had seen it coming, we battened down and got the rain gear on before it hit.  Some waves were splashing over the top of our bimini, we were heeling a bit, without sails up....  Our good little boat soldiered on through it all and got us safely to our slip in Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbour.

Steve working hard with the band

We knew that the folks we had met in Great Harbour Cay were here, and also found a couple more boats that we had met before.  One couple we had met in Oriental in North Carolina and had been there to help me get out of the Harbour when I fell in.  Another couple, Steve and Lise are from Fifty Point Marina, in Ontario, the same marina that we had left from.  We went out to dinner with them the night we got there, to catch up and had a fun evening.

From our dock

Life in Marsh Harbour is very different from life at Great Harbour Cay to say the least.  We saw more cars in five minutes that we would see in a week in Great Harbour.  There are many more people, stores, boats, cars..... the good thing is that there is a regular grocery store here, what a treat, however the prices are much highter here too than Great Harbour.  This is also the base for 3 charter sailboat companies, Moorings, SunSail and Green Turtle there is an airport that takes fairly large planes too.  Its kind of in the middle of several popular Cays that are all within easy sailing distance from one another, no more than  about 12 miles for the furthest, others are much closer. There is Treasure Cay, Great Guana Cay, Man O'War Cay and Elbow Cay that are the most popular with access also by a ferry service.

Limbo at the Jib Room marina

We went over to another marina for their rib dinner night.  Good food, enough to be able to share a plate.  After dinner we watched as many participated in a limbo competition.  The fellow in the picture brought the bar down to about 14 inches and managed to limbo right under it, as it was on fire, and he lit his cigarette as he went under.  I have a video of it, as it was just so unbelievable.

Off to the Barefoot Man concert

View from Nippers decks

Green Heron with a large shrimp

There is a fellow called the Barefoot Man ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dITMYoWr5ko) who comes to Great Guana Cay each year for a weekend of music and debauchery, apparently. He is kind of a Jimmy Buffett like of music guy.  We went over for the free part on St Patricks day by ferry as no doubt there would be no place to anchor or dock as the place will be packed.  It is also spring break for a lot of colleges and universities so the place will be a bit crazy, hence the debauchery, and it became that as the day went along. The main event is Saturday so I'm sure it will be a wild place to be then. We had burgers lunch, listened for a bit then wandered off to see what the Cay was about.

Directions anyone??

It's long and narrow, has an amazing reef on the Atlantic side, its just in the picture from Nippers deck. The wind is blowing pretty good still, so it wouldn't have been very pleasant today to snorkel, cold out too.  There is one public marina, and a couple private marinas that aren't for us transient sort.  A couple hotels and several little cottages for rent and some even for sale, very expensive ones that aren't all that much to write home about.  Everyone runs around on golf carts, with the odd truck that hauls supplies about the island.  There is some construction, but like in other places the advancement is very slow, over many years at times.

When we got back to Marsh Harbour, the St Paddy's day celebrations were in full swing.  The local pub call Snappa's had sponsored the worlds shortest St Paddy parade, all of one block, past the liquor store which gave out a free green beer and then to Snappa's for free green drinks and jello shots.  We had missed out on the parade, however, not the free drinks, but that's another story - thanks to Jeff.  Snappas' were handing out the green jello shots quite freely though.

The next day we have decided to make a move as the wind has decidedly slowed down.  We wait for almost high tide to get out of our lttle marina and onto Hope Town on Elbow Cay.  Its only about a 2 hour motor away.  Guess where the wind was... on the nose most of the trip, and the last part it was too shallow to sail... have to keep an eye out for the very shallow bits.

Hope Town, Elbow Cay

What a quaint little town; the harbour is tiny and full of mooring balls, all of which are occupied, so we ended up in Hope Town marina.  Nice spot with two pools, one warm and one not, including a swim up to the bar part, a hot tub (empty today) and lots of lovely areas to just sit and well just sit and soak in the fact that this is where we are.  They also have a free shuttle to cross the harbour, as that's where most of the town is.  The streets are wide enough for a golf cart and walkers. There are beautiful gardens with flowering shrubs of orange, purple, yellow and red dripping over fences along the way. You could imagine that you're in some English seaside town, except for the palm trees.  The Atlantic side is stunning with its beaches and reefs just inviting us to go snorkel and explore - that's tomorrow.  We went through a little museum that tells the history of how the islands were inhabited, from the early inhabitants (Lucayans) obliterated by the spanish centuries ago through slavery, then to when the free slaves and loyalist moved over to the Bahamas from the States and how they survived and eventually thrived here.

Hope Town lighthouse

Back on this side of the harbour is a famous lighthouse that we climbed up for the most stunning view of the cays around us.  This lighthouse is still lit with kerosene and has the famous fresnal lens, one of the last ones in service.  When it was originally built, the locals sabotaged its construction; they made part of their living from the boat wrecks on the reefs and felt this light would cut into their livelihood.....

We came in from this direction today

View from the lighthouse

View from the lighthouse

 So this is our view today.  Hope your winter comes to an end soon and sunny warm days re there once again .



'

Still living the good life in the Bahamas...

Special Conch

So the verdict on cleaning the pretty conch….. is to boil it for ages, pull out the meat in one piece, then nuke it for a couple minutes to get any bits still left clinging to the shell.  When the flies go away and aren’t bothered with it anymore, you are good to go.  I went one step beyond and borrowed a pressure cooker and did ours in that for 45 minutes.  Oh man, the flies that hovered around the screen to the main hatch while it was stewing.  Despite the flies it worked well, using less power/fuel.  You can’t eat the meat in these particular shells as its poisonous, at least that’s what the locals tell us. They are beautiful shells, I hope to get mine home in one piece.

.Sand fats at low tide

Hawksnest cay (pronounced key) is just off the south end of Great Harbour Cay past the airport, and at low tide we can walk across the sand flats from Great Harbour Cay to it.  We went over there with Jeff and Sally and ended up walking around the entire Hawksnest Cay gathering some pretty shells and sand dollars.  The surf on the outside (next stop Africa) was surging so we couldn’t snorkel there, though its supposed to be an excellent spot for that. There is Haines Cay there too, another stunningly beautiful spot that I think we will try and get to before we leave, I hope.  On our way back to the beach, we came across a ray, hovering in about 6 inches of water.  It was interested in us and advanced closer and long enough for Sally to get a photo before it flew off with a puff of sand. 

Sand dollars

Of course, we had to go the Beach Club on our way back for lunch… it’s on the way.  We love going there, it overlooks Sugar Beach bay and beyond to the ocean.  The water has a multitude of colours that shift with the sun and wind, it always looks different every time we go there.  Just a gorgeous place to waste away an afternoon with new friends, which we have done more than a few times.

It actually rained and was cold here for a couple days, inconceivable as that is.  Did some inside stuff, cleaning, laundry even started the cross stitch that Deb gave me, … got the outside edge overcast.  Have to start somewhere…

This island has a very interesting newer history; (www.greatharbourcaymarina/history.html) it was going to be a secret hideaway for the rich and famous, including the Rat Pack. However, that part was just a rumour as they actually never set foot here.  There is an 18 hole golf course just up the road from us, that has the remains of a tremendous cement club house, that has fallen into great disrepair. 

The golf club house

It must have been amazing when it was built.  There is a map on the wall of the customs office of the plans that had been made for this island, nearly every inch had some part in the plan.  Approval to open a casino was never granted and the whole scheme fell apart. I have to admit that I am glad of that, because this place is a little gem that wouldn’t be, if the casino had been approved.  It’s a beautiful quiet place, no big hotels, no big bars, its lovely, as I’ve said a few times I think.  The airport is still very busy, with small jets and planes coming in regularly with passenger and cargo flights; we see most of them as the flight path is just east of the marina.  There are still a few very rich people here judging by some of the homes and boats that are here.

The town proper called Bullocks Harbour is small with mostly homes, but has a few businesses if you can find them.  Most buildings and homes don’t look like much from the street, some damaged by hurricanes and only partly fixed or not at all.  The town boasts 3 very small grocery stores, a liquor store, hardware store, pub, a couple restaurants, a school, playground and sport field that needs work, a couple churches and the harbour dock where the mail/food boat comes in weekly.  The boat can be delayed because of weather or mechanical issues, like this week.  The wind is too high so the boat hasn’t arrived from Nassau yet. 

The people here are so nice, we really do feel welcome visiting their island and as we’ve been here so long, I think we are recognized and get an extra honk on the car horn and waves as people pass us.  Our favourite place though, is the Beach Club, that overlooks Sugar Bay, a small little beach bar that has been around for many years and through a few hurricanes too. It is even in the story in the history link above.  Nisha is the bar tender there and is just the cutest and the most friendliest personality you could ask for.

 

The fridge bits have arrived

So, we cleaned out the food in our fridge, as it doesn’t hold the ice too well.  A bag of ice will last us only about 24 hours before its gone.  I don’t think it gets frozen hard in their ice machine, as it’s generally dripping before we even get back to the boat with a bag. The fridge took most of two weeks before it arrived, but when it did, blare the horns let the banners fly, we have a fridge again. Al had to put himself into all kinds of weird contortions to reattach the new cold plate into the ice box, but after many deep sighs (instead of swearing) he got it all attached and operational, my hero.  We have started filling it with meat again, now that we have an operational freezer.

north end of the Cay

Another day we rode the bikes to the most northern tip of the island, an interesting ride.  The trip itself isn’t too hard, the road is paved, but one has to watch for the potholes, or where mother nature is trying hard to reclaim the road by having the shrubbery creep over the edges of the pavement, into cracks and potholes.  On this trip we stopped where there is a large rock we could climb up onto to look out over the bays and beyond.  There was a bit of surf, which made it more spectacular, with the sun, the water colours and waves.  Further along the road we found a path that led to the actual tip of the island, where we could see the cruise ships anchored off the next islands to the north.  Norwegian and another (can’t remember which one) co-own the islands that I spoke of in an earlier blog.   Behind the islands you could see the cruise ship passengers out zipping around on the jet skiis over the shallow banks.  On our way back to the marina, we saw a couple wild pigs race across the road, quite a way ahead of us thankfully.

low tide - its quite the climb up

30 knot winds...

We had discovered quite quickly that getting weather forecasts is very important, we also found out that internet/cell service is not what you might think.  There are only 3 towers on the whole Berry Island chain, and they may not always work very well.  Repairs after Hurricane Matthew are still ongoing, as we have seen workers out messing with lines etc. Anyway, we ordered a portable Single Side Band(SSB) receiver that we had delivered to us here as well.  Now we listen to Chris Parker, the weather guru, that puts out a forecast every day except Sundays, over SSB each morning.  It is imperative to have access like this to keep us safe.  It also allows us to plan our movements between the islands, when it may be safe to travel and when not… like the next 4 week.  Along with several other boats we will not be moving before next week, as there is gale force winds blowing like stink from the east.  We’re talking 30 knot winds gusting to 40 knots. (40 knots = 74 km/h).  The waves on the eastern side of the island are getting big, and are to be much bigger by Monday, as this current pattern isn’t to slow down before then. I love taking pictures of waves….there are some big ones crashing over the little cays offshore.

So, life in the marina is good, lots of great people to mingle with.  The staff go out of their way to make sure that everything is in ship shape.  We can order homemade bread 3 times a week, there is a potluck one night a week, a pizza night, and a Grill and Chill on Fridays, and Saturday nights the little café at the end of the dock puts on a small choice of meals.  They have this amazing Mac and Cheese side dish they make that is to die for.  Its baked, is spicy and generally just yummy.  I’m actually going to cook tonight, I found a Bahamian pigeon pea soup with dumplings that looks yummy.  There is a gazebo at the opposite end of the marina that looks to the west and there we enjoy the sunset and cocktails with other sailors in the evening.  We watch as fishermen come in with their catches of fish, lobster and conch to be cleaned on the dock.  There is some weird looking fish down here, but all good   hogfish, wahoo, conch, and the lobster that we can buy right off the boats. 

A big stinkpot (102ft) came in the other day and nearly took out one of the long piers trying to back into a spot.  Took out one cement post and did some damage to their boat as well.  They were gone the next day…never a dull day around here.  It’s a bit quieter here currently with no boats coming or going because of the wind.

So,… we will continue to be here, until we get a decent weather window, not looking like it will be too soon.