I don't think this blog now technically qualifies as a blog since there was no logging done during the two-week vacation. Even when I had access to the Internet on occasion, I simply did not bother to crack open the laptop other than to download photos once or twice. Now we are in the airport at Ft. Lauderdale awaiting our next flight on our way back to Sacramento, and I have a couple hours to catch up. (That wasn't enough time, so I am finishing on Sunday evening, right before I leave--tomorrow morning--for a few days in Palm Springs!)
The celebration of Paula and Andrew's 60th birthdays on Grand Bahama was fantastic. Over two dozen people came from throughout the United States and Canada to be part of the days-long party.
The day we arrived, Wednesday, Feb. 25, we accompanied Paula and Andrew and their other guests who had arrived by then to the Wednesday night fish fry by the beach. A row of establishments served locals and tourists, each restaurant having its own style of loud music but all having the unvarying menu of fish, conch, macaroni and cheese, fried plantains, peas and beans, coleslaw and potato salad. The lure is the scene, not the quality of the food or the speed of service, which epitomizes island time.
No activities were scheduled for the day of Thursday, Feb. 26, so we enjoyed the area within easy walking of the spacious and ideally located house Paula and Andrew had rented for guests (not being able to accommodate everyone at their four-bedroom condo and the condo adjacent to theirs, which they also rented). The house had a lovely pool as well as a tennis court, shuffleboard and access to the beach through the yard. I was up before everyone else, so I took a long, solitary walk on the beach and then a quick dip in the ocean with Peter after I returned. We enjoyed getting to know our housemates, Greg and Karen, a couple from Kingston, Ontario. We all had lunch on the veranda at Zorba's, a small Greek restaurant in Port Lucaya's marketplace. That evening, the birthday celebration continued with dinner in Port Lucaya.
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| Dinner at Luciano's |
The staff at Sabor's had messed up the reservation for seating on the floating dock, so ten of us ended up having a nice dinner at Luciano's, an elegant restaurant on the second story of one of the buildings in the complex.
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| Live music at Paula and Andrew's |
Shortly after we all returned to Paula and Andrew's place, one of their local friends arrived--Nat Cambridge, leader of the Grand Bahama Entertainers, Musicians and Artists Association. He and Paula and Andrew's son Ian, an equally accomplished musician, entertained us with brilliant singing accompanied by virtuoso guitar playing. Interspersed with their numbers were a cappella renditions of folk songs by Paula and two of her sisters, whose strong and lovely voices blended in resonant harmonies. Sometimes, we all joined in with the musicians. Halfway through his first bottle of Bahamian beer, Nat indicated that the next song would be his last that evening, and he would set aside the guitar. After many more statements of imminent departure and many more songs, Nat was working on his second bottle as Greg, Karen, Peter and I left after a relaxing but full day of activities.
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| Erika leading a tour of Garden of the Groves |
After the great day-trip to beaches and caves of Grand Lucayan National Park on Friday, Feb. 27, already mentioned in the previous post, most of the birthday party guests joined Andrew on a trip to the Garden of the Groves, a lush botanical garden near Lucaya, on Saturday, Feb. 28. We were fortunate to be given a guided tour but Erika, the director.
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| Zebra Longwinged Butterfly |
Among ponds and streams, not only were there beautiful plants, including endemic species, but turtles, butterflies and native and exotic birds.
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| Muscovy Duck |
For most of them, the garden serves as a refuge. Particularly striking are the large white and black Muscovy ducks with intricately textured scarlet wattles surrounding their black eyes and pink-red beaks. Included on our tour was a replica of a chapel used by the early loggers in Freeport, a labyrinth modeled after the one in the cathedral in Chartres and a small shopping area. Erika, an avid birder, pointed out various species in the trees. After our rambles among the paths, we all enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Garden Cafe by the ponds and waterfalls.
Saturday night was the big party at Paula and Andrew's, with a catered dinner by the pool, live music and a campfire under the stars. Paula and Andrew reveled in the camaraderie of family and friends and immensely enjoyed each other's company as they danced, ate, and mingled with the crowd of far-flung and local friends. Paula's sister Andrea as well as two other dancers entertained the gathering with belly dancing. We all enjoyed meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends on that balmy evening.
The next day took us to the second stage of our Bahamian vacation, a week of sailing in the Abacos, east of Grand Bahama. With the gang continuing the celebration at Taino Beach, Peter and I went back to Zorba's for lunch and then got a taxi, driven by Shaky (whose name did not fill us with confidence), to the Freeport airport for a short flight on Flamingo Air to Marsh Harbour on the island of Great Abaco. The co-pilot helped passengers ascend the narrow steps from the tarmac to the small plane. When everyone was on board, he quickly joined us, pulled up the stairs and walked briskly to the cockpit, which was undivided from the paying customers' seats, and we got underway without fanfare--or even a request to fasten our seat belts, let alone a safety briefing.
We caught a taxi from the small airport and went directly to the Moorings office at the Conch Inn Marina, where we met up with Gay and Mike and boarded the catamaran Summer Salt. A bit later, after some delays and without one piece of luggage, John and his son Blake arrived. After choosing our cabins and settling in on the boat, we walked down the waterfront street to Snapper's, one of the few restaurants in the third largest city in the Bahamas.
The next morning (Monday, March 2) we took the dinghy closer to the main part of town and walked to the largest grocery store in the entire Bahama's, Maxwell's, to get provisions. We were supposed to be back at Moorings by 9 a.m. for a briefing and we were running late, so Peter and I rushed back to the dinghy and the marina, while the other four of us called for a taxi. (We had purchased more than we could carry the few blocks to the dinghy dock anyway.) We forgot about "island time," and it turned out we had time to spare as we had to wait on a staff member to be available to do a chart briefing. The rest of the crew arrived with the goods and we had everything stowed before our meeting began. Travis reviewed all the main anchorages and towns and points of interest, we signed all the forms and we were ready to depart. We had agreed to have a "friendly captain" go out with us for a couple hours to help us get familiar with sailing a cat. Ainsley, a Welsh gent who had relocated to the Abacos years ago, was indeed friendly in addition to being a fine captain and mentor. We easily got off the dock and motored out of the harbor, set sail and went a short distance to enjoy a quick snorkeling trip in calm water on Mermaid Reef (which turned out to be the best snorkeling of the week).
After going back to the marina to let Ainsley off, we set off for our first anchorage in Hope Town on Elbow Cay, one of the many barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sea of Abaco. Disregarding the instruction not to try to anchor or moor at night, we puttered into the entrance as the sun was setting behind the iconic lighthouse and picked up a mooring ball.
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| Hope Town Harbour and Elbow Cay Lighthouse at sunset |
Lowering the dinghy with the davit, we took off for the settlement in search of dinner, which we found at a waterside restaurant named, not surprisingly, Harbour's Edge. The atmosphere, service and food were all great.
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| Peter, Sherri, John, Blake, Mike and Gay |
Sated, we left and decided to take a short walk through town. Like most of the barrier islands, Elbow Cay is narrow, with a central low ridge running down the middle. From the harbor side, we could hear the waves on the Atlantic Beach and we soon found a path leading to the ocean, which glistened in the light of the waxing moon. We continued our evening stroll through the narrow streets (only golf carts and pedestrians allowed) of the small town of 300 residents, admiring the quaint, gingerbread cottages painted in an array of pastel colors.
Hope Town was established in 1785 by Loyalists who fled from the newly formed United States after the Revolution. The poor topsoil of the Bahamas made commercial agriculture untenable, but the new residents were successful at fishing, boatbuilding, sponging, wrecking (saving wrecked sailors while also collecting cargo from the sea for their own use and trade) and other enterprises. The salvagers actually objected to the construction of a lighthouse by the British government, since fewer shipwrecks would impinge on their main source of income. Despite the protests, the iconic lighthouse was finished and commissioned in 1864. In 1936, the iron lantern, dome, burner equipment, turning mechanism and rotating Fresnel lenticular panels were shipped from a decommissioned light on Bimini and replaced the first-order, wick lamp on the Elbow Cay light. In the 1990's, the Bahamian goverment was dissuaded from replacing the historic equipment with automated, modern light, and the horizontally striped red and white lighthouse still uses kerosene oil, and it is one of only three manually operated lighthouses left in the world.
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| Spiral staircase inside Elbow Cay Lighthouse |
On Tuesday, March 3, after a peaceful night sleeping in the gently moving boat and breakfast on board, we dinghied over to the shore to spend more time in Hope Town. Our first stop was the lighthouse above the harbor. We climbed the spiral staircase leading upward along the curved, bright shell-pink colored interior walls, stopping to admire the vistas from the arched, open windows. Peter was fascinated by the mechanisms and spent a bit of time figuring it all out while the rest of us enjoyed the refreshing breeze while looking out over the greens and blues of the island scenery.
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| South end of Elbow Cay from the lighthouse |
After our visit to the lighthouse, we dinghied across the harbor to the main part of the settlement. A primary objective in town was to get the highly recommended key lime pie from Vernon's Grocery and Bakery, which we had located, along with a promising-looking coffee shop, the previous evening. Strolling along the quiet but cheerful streets, past the lovely, well-maintained cottages and inns as well as the cholera cemetery from the 1850's, where more than 100 people were buried (about a third of the population at that time), we eventually arrived at Vernon's. We purchased a whole pie as well as bread, cookies and cereal for the boat. Gay and Mike had gone ahead to the coffee shop a block away, and we met them there for beverages, lunch and, most importantly, the scrumptious, not overrated pie.
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| Cholera Cemetery in Hope Town |
After lunch, we walked to the Wyannie Malone Museum, a converted settlement house full of historical information and artifacts where we learned more about not only the Loyalists who came to the island but the Lucayan natives who had lived on the islands for thousands of years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, we dropped the mooring ball in Hope Town Harbour, motored past Parrot Cays and raised the sails. We swung by the dock at the Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbour to pick up Blake's bag, which had finally arrived from Ft. Lauderdale and then set off for Man-O-War Cay, where we anchored as twilight descended in Corn Bay. I snorkeled to see that the anchor was set, spotting sea stars a few fish and a ray as I swum over the grass and sand in 8 ft. of water. We ate spaghetti on board that evening.
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| Albury Boatyard |
The next day (Wednesday, March 4), we went into the small town on the island, which has two groceries stores, a small marina, one restaurant (where we could not have lunch because the place was booked by a group of school children visiting from Nassau), a cemetery, a couple of gift shops, a hardware, three churches and some boatyards. The narrow lanes only accomodate golf carts, bikes and pedestrians. Most residents bear the last name of Albury or are related to the Albury family in some way. The Albury men were accomplished wooden boatbuilders who used the local mahogany and native hardwoods, and at least one of them still practices the trade. We looked in at his workshop and at a small Abaco dinghy being refurbished. A short walk of a few blocks over the ridge from the harbor brought us to shore of the turquoise Atlantic, protected from crashing waves by offshore reefs.
Our next stop was Fowl Cay, just north of Man-O-War Cay, famous for its snorkeling. Five of us (excepting Peter), dinghied to the reef outside the cay. While there were lots of fish and coral--and even a barracuda--the surge made the snorkeling less peaceful than we would have liked. After some time in the water, we dinghied back to the Sea of Abaco side, where Peter had taken the paddle board out. It was his first time on a paddle board, and he really enjoyed the experience.
Since the anchorage at Fowl Cay was for day use only, we pulled up anchor and went further north to Great Guana Cay, where we dropped anchor at Fisher's Bay for the night at 6:30 (before dark!). We had purchased fish and chicken, rice and vegetables in town earlier, so we set up the grill on the stern, and Blake, Mike and Gay prepared a delicious meal, which we ate at the large table on the stern of Summer Salt as the star appeared in the sky and the moon rose in the east.
Our next day (Thursday, March 5) was more of a sailing adventure. Peter, a great mentor, spent time on that day as well as on the other days of our week-long stay in the Abacos, teaching everyone else (except me) how to read the wind, set a course, steer and set the sails. We set off early, at 7 a.m., and by 9 a.m. were going through Whale Cay Passage to the Atlantic side of the Abacos, because the Sea of Abaco is too shallow in that area for boats drawing more than a couple feet. North of the passage, back in the Sea of Abaco, Gay at the helm spotted a frolicing pod of dolphins.
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| Coco Bay |
At noon, we anchored at Coco Bay on Green Turtle Cay, where we spent the rest of the day swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding and relaxing on board Summer Salt. The anchorage was protected, but outside of it the sea was a bit choppy. Nevertheless, the majority wanted to go to the island for dinner. We ended up an upscale resort and ate at the Jolly Roger Bistro.
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| New Plymouth |
Peter scrambled eggs and made bacon the next morning (Friday, March 6) and we continued to enjoy the beauty of the anchorage, reading, relaxing, snorkeling (Giant stars littered the sand around the boat.) and paddling. Blake, Peter and I took the dinghy south to the unpretentious settlement of New Plymouth. Without a full load of passengers, we were able to get the dinghy up on the plane and whiz along the top the water, to Blake's delight. New Plymouth does not cater to tourists and retains its local atmosphere, with little changed (other than golf carts and electricity) in a couple centuries. The family name of Lowe predominates in this town. We chanced upon Vert's Model Ship Shoppe, tucked away behind Bay Street, where Vert, in worn Crocs, was seated behind his walker among his models, paints, tools and hardware. He told us about his life, including his days as a captain transporting lobster and passengers to Florida before his retirement, and accepted our compliments on the ingenious hanging arrangement of mason and other glass jars, with their lids nailed to the rafters so that the contents could be easily seen and accessed from below by unscrewing the jar from the lid rather than the lid from the jar.
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| Blake on the bow watching the approaching rain |
After the three of us returned to Summer Salt, we raised anchor at noon and headed south toward clouds and rain. We had good wind for sailing, and we entered the rain as we approached Whale Cay Passage just before 3 p.m.
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| Whale Cay Passage in the rain |
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| Rainbow after the rain |
After we passed through the rain, we were delighted to see rainbows on the horizon. We anchored in flat seas at Water Cay along Great Abaco island, on the west side of the Sea of Abaco, just after 5 p.m. Around 6 p.m., Peter and I set off, on paddleboard and in the kayak, to explore the coastline and paddle up into the mangroves, where we saw an abundance of turtles and a large ray as a gorgeous double rainbow arched above the trees and deepened in intensity as the sun sunk lower in the sky. The chefs onboard (of which I was not one) prepared another delicious meal which we enjoyed as we floated on the peaceful sea.
The next morning (Saturday, March 7), Peter and I went snorkeling among the rocks by Water Cay while the others took turns exploring the mangroves. By the time got ready to set sail just before noon, the the wind had picked up and shifted to the NNE. This made sailing back to Marsh Harbour easy, and we stopped there for water and gas for the dinghy engine just before 2 p.m. The wind was now gusting up to 20 knots and the sea had become quite choppy, so we chose to spend the night at the marina.
After another eggs-and-bacon breakfast prepared by Peter on Sunday (March 8) at the dock (People passing by were sniffing and coveting our food.), we decided that the wind speed and direction called for a sail back to Great Guana Cay to check out the famous bar Nipper's. With two reefs in the main, we cruised along comfortably in 15-20 knot winds from the ENE, on a straight course for arriving in Baker's Bay on the northern end of Great Guana Cay, where we arrived after almost three hours under sail. The sun beamed down from an almost cloudless azure sky as we anchored near 1 p.m. in Baker's Bay to have lunch, swim and paddle. After a couple hours, we pulled up anchor and sailed south to Fisher's Bay. Quickly, we got in the dinghy and went the short distance to shore, where we pulled up on the beach in front of Grabber's Bar.
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| Nipper's |
We walked through the grounds and followed the signs to Nipper's, on a bluff over the Atlantic. The music was loud and the young crowd was lively, but we suspect that, since it was only early afternoon, the party had barely begun. We had drinks and walked down the wooden stairs to stroll in the sand for a while.
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| Sunset on Great Guana Cay |
We then headed back to Grabber's, where we bought another round, played cornball and watched the sunset before going back for our last night at anchor. After another full day, the gentle waves lulled us to sleep.
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| Sunrise over Great Guana Cay |
The next day (Monday, March 9) was the last one of our bareboat cruising adventure in the Abacos. Since we had to be off the boat by 10 a.m., we pulled up anchor at 7 a.m. and motorsailed to Marsh Harbour, arriving at 9 a.m.
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| The gazebo overlooking the water at Gay and Mike's apartment |
Gay and Mike were spending a few more days in Marsh Harbour, so we all went to check out their apartment, which turned out to be a welcoming place with a panaramic view of the sea within swimming distance of Mermaid Reef. After relaxing for a while there, we walked back to the marina and had a delicious lunch at Curly Tails, overlooking the docks.
John and Blake's flight to Ft. Lauderdale was scheduled for 4:18 and we were not scheduled to depart until 5 p.m., so they took a taxi to the airport before we did. Peter and I roamed around the docks of the marinas looking at boats until it was time for us to leave. John and Blake were still in the departure lounge when we got there! As we went out onto the tarmac to board our plane for Freeport, they had just been informed that their plane was leaving Ft. Lauderdale. They did not have much luck with Silver Airways!
Paula picked us up at the airport in Freeport. Dan and Ian, their sons, had just departed for San Francisco the day before, and all the other party guests were gone, so just the four of us were there. We spent the next couple days in the pool, playing anagrams and reading. Paula, Peter and I bicycled to an aparment building being constructed (and almost finished) by a friend of Paula and Andrew whom we had met at their birthday bash. Peter was quite interested in the styrofoam and concrete construction infrastructure being used.
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| Paula, Andrew, Sherri and Peter at the Flying Fish Restaurant |
Our last full day in the Bahamas, March 11, was Peter's birthday. Paula, being more ambitious than me, made a cinammon cake for him (like his mother used to make). We went to an absolutely fabulous, award-winning restaurant in Lucaya on the water for his birthday dinner. The service was impeccable, the setting was lovely, and the food was unique, flavorful and artistically presented. Paula had called the restaurant the day before for a reservation and informed the staff that one of us (me!) is a vegetarian. When we arrived, the waiter told us that the chef had already made preparations for a special meal for me--and it was special. This was such a change from the usual choice of a salad or pasta for me. I was thrilled.
Now we are back in Gold River, after a day of travel on Thursday, March 12. Matthew picked us up at the airport in the evening and informed us that he had made mushroom-barley soup for our dinner and a surprise. The soup was delicious and much appreciated, but the surprise was spectacular (despite the splatters on the tiles behind the stove and the grains of sugar on the floor). He had found a recipe online, gone to the store for ingredients and prepared brigadiero, a rich, chocolate Portuguese sweet which we had never had before. We were impressed at his thoughtfulness and creativity.
