ABACOS - HEADED NORTH TO WEST END SETTLEMENT, GRAND BAHAMA

TRIP FACTS AS OF:   MAY 8, 2011  HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !!

                           

Days gone from VA:            202

                      

Days in Bahamas:                140

Miles Travelled:                2,084.7

Things Overboard:          Tahiti Beach:  Captain Dave overboard getting into kayak.

                                                 Underway to Marsh Harbor:   One Appalachian Trail hat … no I didn’t let him go back and retrieve it.

                                                Great Guana Cay:  One screwdriver swapping out anchors

Trip Firsts:              David speared his FIRST fish.  It tasted GREAT

   I finally made the best batch of conch salad since we got here

NORTHBOUND:  LYNYARD CAY – MARSH HARBOR -TAHITI BEACH (ELBOW CAY)  - HOPETOWN (ELBOW CAY) TO MAN O’WAR - GREAT GUANA CAY – MARSH HARBOR

April 9^th:  I’m going to change the format this blog.  We got back to Abacos on James’ birthday, April 9^th, and anchored at Lynyard Cay for five days.   We met up with friends, Skip and Carol, on RHAPSODY, and met new friends, John and Kathi on MAKANI.   MAKANI are also friends of Bobby and Francie (B/F) and BAREFOOTIN.   It’s truly a small world here and we're really glad B/F have so many friends.  

While there the guys took on the role of “Hunter/Gatherer” for fish and conch while Kathi and I took on “Seekers of Sea Glass” roles.   Carol did a lot of snorkeling with the guys but she loves that AND shelling/sea glass gathering. 

April 15^th:  On the way to Marsh Harbor we hit 2000 miles!! Not bad for a couple of rookies!!  Anyway, we settled into our home-away-from-home marina, Harbour View Marina, to fully re-charge the batteries, take on water and go to the grocery store.  While we were there we meet Jeff and Claudia on DESSIE.  They are the captain and chef on board  a  Festiva Vacation 44’ Lagoon.  Jeff’s from the UK and Claudia is from Germany.  We shared stories about “vacationers” and how they do on their cruises.  Funny stuff.

 

April 19^th:    We moved back down south to Tahiti Beach, just off the end of Elbow Cay where David  speared his first fish!! which we promptly had for dinner that night.  It was delicious!!   

One night we all went to Rake N’ Scrape at the Abaco Inn.   Rake N ’Scrape is just what it implies:  musical instruments are a saw and either a hammer or knife, scraping the saws, however, there is no rake involved.    It’s music that gets you dancing.  Skip and Carol are such a quiet, shy couple … NOT…they love to dance and were almost the only ones out there dancing.

                                                               Carol and Skip
 While David was  snorkeling another day I was walking the beach looking for sea glass, of which there was none, but I saw piles and piles of these little shells.  Turns out they are baby conch shells.  The female conch lays egg clusters of millions of eggs at one time.  This is what’s left when they die off for whatever reason.

There were tons of these pods of shells in the rocks all around the beach.

April 21^st:  We headed back to Hopetown and grabbed a mooring ball from LUCKY STRIKE.  His real name is Truman and he comes by each night, usually with his 2 boys in tow, to collect $20/night.  It’s well worth the money especially when there’s a “blow” or storm coming through.   Lucky us,  a really bad blow came through complete with thunder/lightening and tons of rain.   Since most Bahamians collect rain water it was a welcome site…except for the lightning and thunder.  According to Truman they got around 3”.

Hopetown has some of the quaintest streets in the Abacos with beautiful flowers ..and I keep taking the same pictures of them so just need to share them with you...

 

One of the most unique plants we've discovered throughout the Bahamas are SEA GRAPES.  When Stephanie was here she really didn't get to see them in full bloom so here you go Sweetiepie:

One of my most favorite houses in Hopetown is called “Plantation House” and it’s for sale.  Imagine that…only $795,000 buys you the house, a dock on the Harbor side and a magnificent view.   On one side is a Memorial Garden so you won’t have anyone building next to you.  Take a look….

This is the front of the house..... here's their backyard...

As you walk the streets you soon discover all the power lines run down the middle of the path.  As you will see they hang down really low.....sorry Zach...you have to go to either side.




Just so everyone knows - David is 5'10" and Zach is 6'7"!!

 Since I have drug David all over town he decided he needed to take a break.......it's a rough life out here.

In most of the settlements you have to schlep your garbage ashore and deposit it in bins around town where it's picked up on certain days.  In Hopetown garbage days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM.   The truck leaves the dock and they go burn it.   After we grabbed our mooring ball, the captain of the BEAUTIFUL, custom made sailboat dinghyed over and took our garbage in for us.   What a guy!!!

One of the strangest things we’ve encountered happened during the day  when we heard what sounded like “thumping” on our hull.  We finally discovered the noise was from a school of fish boiling around the hull.  We decided some big barracuda was trying to make them a meal.  Another day David was outside and watched a big Eagle Ray jump out of the water.  Apparently this is nothing unusual for them. 

After cruising the Bahamas  you come to understand how important boat building is to the island.  In the Abacos the Albury Brothers, from Man O'War, have a hugh influence. 
Later, under Man O'Way, you 'll see some of the Albury's work but this is one of the small Abaco boats we found in Hopetown.

April 27^th:  We moved up the Sea of Abaco to Man O’ War (MOW) which turns out to be one of our favorite stops.  As I am writing this, we have come back, yet again.   MOW is a quiet settlement with no bars or alcohol sold.   Yep, it’s dry and they actively fight bringing in alcohol!!  

We’ve met some really neat people on this trip and Lola Sawyer is no exception.   Lola was born and raised on MOW.    We were told by other boaters to watch out for Lola and her golf cart because she will sell you the best cinnamon rolls in the Bahamas!!  They were right.

Everyone meet Lola Sawyer, Cinnamon Bun Queen:

  

We were walking up one of the streets/golf cart paths when this nice little lady stopped us.   I asked her if she was Lola and she said yes….the rest is on our hips.  We’ll look for her again when we come back.

Once we reached the end of the road this is the view that  greeted us – it’s right next to the MOW Cemetery which is to the left.   What a nice place to be put to rest:

This is the name on the house right across the street from the cemetery….and probably very true:

MOW is famous for their boat building.  The Albury Family produces some of the best boats in the Bahamas and they are VERY expensive since they are handmade and the craftsmanship is remarkable.  We went on-line and googled them….a used boat is close to $60,000 but well worth it (if you can afford one.)

It always seems ironic to me when we run across cotton plants.  Loyalist settlers brought cotton from their plantations in the Carolinas and tried to grow it here as cash crop and failed.    But here is some cotton in a one of the yards here ….. I’d like to think it’s a continuation of what the Loyalists tried to produce.  David says not, but , yeah,  it’s a nice thought.

April 28^th thru April 30th:   There was another blow coming through so we moved back over to Marsh Harbor and anchored out.  A terrible thunderstorm came through as we watched from the cockpit.  There was a lightning strike that was so close to us it made the hair on the back of our necks stand up.  But again, it brought some much needed rain.  While we were there the generator decided it was time to act up.   After troubleshooting and imagining  the worst, David was able to figure out we needed a new battery which he got and saved us from having to leave for the states ASAP.

MAY FIRST:  HELL DAY – MURPHY’S LAW DAY – What could go wrong..went wrong:   After the storm went through we had planned to move to Great Guana Cay, Home of Nippers and Grabbers – both world famous beach bars.   The wind was blowing pretty good – gust around 25 and some chop out in the Sea of Abaco but nothing to keep us from going.

As we were in the middle of the passage David and I heard a strange popping noise and we both looked around the cockpit and then up towards the top of the mast.  What we saw was our mainsail falling into the lazy jack bag….this is what shredded webbing looks like…

Unfortunately, the ring and block are still at the tippy top of the mast so David will get to go climb up there to retrieve them.

There wasn’t anything we could do except be glad we were where we were and not in the middle of the Gulf Stream.   David put his life jacket on, climbed on top of the bimini and secured the sail.  As of this writing the “O” ring is still attached to the halyard at the top of the mast.  When the wind dies down he’ll climb up and retrieve it.    We should have figured something else was going to go after we lost the clew but…….lesson learned the hard way.   We had been sailing around with one reef in the sail and were doing fine.  Now, we have no mainsail.  We still have our jib and spinnaker but no main stinks.

That’s not the end of the day.  We get to the anchorage and the holding was terrible.  There is a lot of turtle (sea) grass here which is great for conch but not good for anchoring.  The wind had picked up a bit and we tried 4 times to get the anchor to hold.  Now mind you,  we have been anchoring  a lot since we got here and this has never happened.  Poor David,  he’s getting frustrated,  I’m getting frustrated and tired and all of a sudden, we lose the starboard engine. Great!!   We have this big yacht behind us and the owner’s out on the deck watching us.  I wave at him nicely as we go around him with our one engine.    As it turned out,  when we were out getting tossed around the line that  holds the dinghy on the davit came loose and wrapped around the engine shaft.

My super Captain very calmly got us anchored, after many deep breaths, then donned his wet suit/snorkel and jumped in.   The line must have just barely been wrapped because it came up really easily.  End of that saga.     Murphy must have been smiling as he messed with us.

The next day we headed to Nippers Sunday Pig Roast with a couple of hundred other people and had a fine time.  The pig was great but the people watching was better.  There was this guy stretched out on a towel on the beach who didn’t move……not one inch…..for several hours.  I was worried he was dead but no one would let me go nudge him to see if he moved.  He eventually got up and wondered off.

The other guy we were watching was so sunburned – I mean BEET red.  We should have taken bets to see how much aloe he had to put on. 

Skip and Carol from RHAPSODY were with us and as usual, Skip was the life of the dance floor.  He’s a crazy man with a super attitude and really loves to have fun.    Jeff and Claudia off of DESSIE were also here.  

                                 People in pic:  L to R:  me, Carol, David, Claudia, Jeff and Skip.

The music was oldies but goodies and really loud but I’m sure it made all the “mature” folk feel like we were back in our teenage years.  AHHHH, walks down memory lane.  Here are just a few pictures to give you an idea:

                                    Certainly can't beat the location and people watching...

After Nippers we made our way to Grabbers Beach Bar on Sunset Beach.  This was a much a much more subdued  spot with live music, bocce ball and ring toss.

Here's another nice place to sit and have a drink and enjoy the sunshine:

The next day we moved down to the south end of Great Guana next to RHAPSODY and in the process of swapping out anchors we lost a screwdriver overboard.  The turtle grass was terrible and finding a sandy spot was difficult but we finally got anchored up.     

We took our dinghy’s to a dock that belongs to the vacant house that’s for sale – interested???

The house comes with a dock on the Sea of Abaco side but the lot goes across the island to this gazebo and their own beach.  Not bad.  I'm trying to find out how much it costs, if I do I'll let you know next blog.

May 3^rd thru May 5^th:   We decided we wanted to go back to MOW so off we went.  We anchored in “our” spot and relaxed.  The last time we were here David went snorkeling and saw a nice grouper that kept hiding from him so he jumped back into the water and tried to find it again.  No luck.   In the afternoon we watched as the local kids took their swim lessons at the beach by the boat.  Once the lessons were over the kids where picked up by parents in skiffs or in golf carts.  What fun.

We went back into town and found Lola again.  This time we bought 2 packs of cinnamon rolls.  We were trying to save one of them for James with no luck.    We already ate the first batch and are working on James'.  Sorry fella.

The morning we were leaving I went out on the deck to check the anchor.  The water was so clear and calm we got a great picture...

May 5^th:   There was another blow coming through so we're headed off  to Hopetown, yet again.  David wanted to go fishing on the "outside"... i.e., the ATLANTIC OCEAN.  We went through the North MOW cut into the ATLANTIC OCEAN.  The rollers and swells were manageable to start out but not for long.  At least for “Rubber Legs” Peg….  David said I turned white.  I wouldn’t know since I took my position lying down in the salon and then I'd would bolt to action when I heard the fishing pole screaming, which happened 3 times.  The first time David thinks it was a mahi since we were in about 200’ of water and fought a little bit but got off.  The second time he pulled in a nice king mackerel, which, by the way, tasted delicious for dinner tonight.  But the highlight of the whole trip was a 6’ SAILFISH  he caught.

I tried to take a good picture of it as he brought it up to the boat but wasn’t quick enough.

He did get me to Hopetown and snug as a bug on our mooring ball but not before I took a nice long nap. 

May 6th:     200th day away from VA.  We were only going to stay in Hopetown overnight but good ole' Murphy reared his ugly head again.....this time it was the generator!  To keep the batteries charged up we run it for an hour in the morning and an hour at night.  If we need to make water we do it all at the same time.  We went to start it and it just died, dead as a doornail.    The next morning we talked to some other cruisers,  Al and Christina on MANGO GROOVE and Hyde from WILDFLOWER.  Hyde is an electrician guru and had helped Skip with his refrigeration problem so we knew he knew his stuff.  Al and Hyde came over,  David called the generator people in Florida and the problem was diagnosised.  We needed to get a small battery charger when we got back to Marsh Harbor.
 We got tied up at Harbour View  Marina in Marsh Harbor for a much anticipated HOT SHOWER,  provisioning for the trip back and to say goodbye to friends we’ve made along the way and to get the battery charger.  I am glad to report all the groceries are on board, the battery charger is installed and we're going to relax until Monday.

One treat we got while here was watching the  Marsh Harbor Sunfish Regatta.  These little boats scream around the harbor in between all the anchored boats and the kids have a BLAST.  You can hear them hollering “starboard” as they race the course.  You also hear them laughing their pants off when one of them goes in the water.

One of the nicest people we’ve met this trip is Jeff Key, “Papa Lou” , Cab No. 11.  He’s a gentleman born and raised in MOW.  He went off to Nassau to teach for twenty years but has come back here and now has a very nice cab business clientele built up.  We learned a lot about the Bahamas in general but more specifically,  Marsh Harbor and MOW.    We’ll see him again next year.  Steph:  Jeff said to tell you HELLO!!!

Today is May 8th...Mother's Day.  David took me out to breakfast at Mango's Restaurant where he ordered Crispy Coconut French Toast....words can not describe what it did to our taste buds...amazing...simply amazing.  Of course, being the theif I am,  I will TRY to duplicate it once we get back to the States.  The coconut wasn't from a package and that shredded little stuff we're used it.  It was grated and DELICIOUS.

Right now the plan is to leave here on Monday, May 9^th and make our way up the Sea of Abaco to Green Turtle Cay,  Manjack, Moraine and then to the West End Settlement on Grand Bahama where we’ll wait for the “just perfect” crossing weather.  You can bet the night before we scoot across the Gulf Stream I’ll put a seasick patch on …… just to be safe.

Look for one short blog once we get back to the  Florida.    Until then...love to everyone.

Captain Dave

Rubber Legs Peg