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| 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.
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| .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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| low tide - its quite the climb up |
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| 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.
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