The Conch Wrangler

After the storm cleared and the dingy was repaired we took her around the island in search of the elusive conch.  David was determined and confident we would find them.  We drove to the north end of the island to a large cove and beautiful beach with a grassy bottom which is perfect conch territory!    He swam while I followed after him in the dingy.  The currents were pretty strong so he was moving quickly.  Then he found one, it was a beauty and definitely big enough to keep.   Then he hit the jackpot, every few minutes he'd come up with a new one. As his excitement grew, so did the currents,  He had the idea for me to drag behind the dingy him with the tow.  This worked great until he came up and said he was being asphyxiated by the outboard fumes.   Back to snorkeling without motorized assistance, he continued to find them, we decided not to take more than we could eat at one time so he stopped at 7. 

David the "Conch Wrangler"

Evidence of a prior conching expedition



Catch of the Day

We went home, cleaned the conch, searched the Internet and found a recipe for authentic Bahamian Conch Chowder and was amazed we had every ingredient.   It was fantastic!




Dingy Debacle #2

We left Man-O-War Harbour hoping to anchor at Green Turtle Cay, however there weren't any decent anchorages or anywhere we could get in with our draft so we continued north to Munjack Cay.   David and Ryan stayed here the month prior and knew it had good holding.  We had an approaching storm with heavy winds and wanted to make sure we were in a safe harbor.

Approaching storm

As the winds increased, the waves and current did as well.  We have been towing Little Girl the whole trip and now she was slapping up and down putting a lot of tension on the towing bridal.   David was on the cell phone and walked out onto the starboard walk and screamed "Jackie, the dingy's gone".  It was about 100 yards behind us bobbing away.   I grabbed his fins and a life vest and just as he was about to start swimming for her; we saw a neighboring sailboat couple making a mad dash in their dingy to retrieve her.   When the lady reached for the towing bridal which was lying across the bow we realized that something had broken because the whole thing was detached.   They brought the bridal with them and came to our boat to pick up David and take him back.  He jumped in, cranked her up and brought her home.   We thanked them profusely and got busy investigating the problem.

The "U" bolt on the bow of the boat had come loose.  I guess the rough water had vibrated the nuts off the end of the bolts and it just pulled out.   While David was retrieving her, I pulled in the end of the rope and realized the "U" bolt was still attached to the rope.   I took it off the end of the rope and DROPPED it in the water!!!   Since we were only in about 13' of water David decided to snorkel to see if he could find it.   I explained where I was standing on the swim platform when I dropped it, however with the wind and current we were swinging on the hook pretty good.  There was a fair amount of territory to cover, but after about 10 minutes he found it.  Thank goodness!    We then noticed we had two additional "U" bolts on the transom of the dingy that weren't being used.  So we robbed the bolt and nuts from the transom and Captain Dave saved the day again.   

Little Girl - rescued again and towing fine

Green Turtle Cay

We began the day at the historic settlement of New Plymouth.  This was another quaint old-world town full of character and charm.

New Plymouth is very small, and you can cover just about everything in a couple of hours. 







David in front of the New Plymouth Town Jail

We went to the Green Turtle Cay Cemetery, there were headstones that were legible that dated to the early 1800's and some that were so old, there were no headstones - just a pile of crumbling rubble.



We toured the Albert Lowe Museum

Albert was famous for making model ships

Painting of Albert by his son - Many of his son's paintings have been on various Bahamian postage stamps for years

Just a cool old house

We took the golf cart around the island to Black Sound, only to discover that there's really nothing much to see.  There are a couple of marinas and restaurants but nothing special - so we headed back to Little Girl to go do some exploring.   David wants to go conching and he's insistent he's going to find some!

Man-O-War Cay

Man-O-War is famed for its boat building and the Albury name is known throughout the entire Bahamas.  They have been building boats and sail making for almost 200 years.

We had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Joe Albury, he welcomed us to his shop to show us some of his handi work in progress.  He said he only makes 2 or 3 boats a year and the rest of the time concentrates on making models.  More people can afford a model than a hand made boat.

Joe's father Lewis Albury began this particular shop in 1927, however many of the Albury relatives and ancestors have been building for much longer.   Since so many boats are going to power, the need for sail making is not what it used to be; now the sail shop has been converted and a group of ladies make souvenir's with the sail cloth.  You can get anything from a toiletries kit, a pocket book, book bag or duffel bag, or many other items in a variety of colors and patterns.  You can add whatever color strap you want at whatever length suits you.  The only place in the world you can get one of these treasures is at Albury's Sail Shop.  They do not import or sell to anyone else.   We met a sweet lady in the shop by the name of Nan Brown, she is a resident of Commerce, GA and knew the moment we started talking we were from somewhere in GA.  She has been visiting Man-O-War for over 50 years for a one month vacation.  She along with her 85 year old sister traveled together.  Her sister has worked for First Baptist Church of Atlanta for 50 + years and was there before Charles Stanely and claims she taught him a thing or two.

Man-O-War has maintained its integrity and kept it unique character mainly due to a strong religious sense of bonding that holds the community together.  They live differently from the outside world and have a total ban on alcohol sales on the island. 

We had a nice time and met a lot of wonderful people.

Hope Town

Today we took a ferry ride to Hope Town, it is one of the most quaint and charming islands we've gone to.  The homes are clustered together and painted in bright beautiful colors representative of the islands.  Flowering shrubs and flowers in vibrant exotic colors adorn walls and picket fences everywhere.  The streets in town are narrow concrete and only large enough for a golf cart.

Hope Town's candy-cane striped lighthouse is one of the world's last working pre-electronic-age lighthouses and is still in service today.

Picture taken from the Deck of "Da Beach" a little restaurant on the beach

We returned to Marsh Harbour to begin celebrating both my birthday and mother's day.  We started at "Snappa's" for a few cold libations. Check out the cool Miller Lite can I got.

this was followed up by my birthday cake (photo below)

Yummy!

We left "Snappa's" and headed back to get ready for dinner at the Jib Room.  They have a dinner every Saturday night thats by reservation only and you have to place your order with your reservation.  They have a long grill and and an even longer line where everyone clammors for the front, all to get the same sides (baked potato, steamed veggies, salad and bread) and of course your meat of choice that you pre-ordered - steak, chicken or fish.  It was standing room only and took us a while to find a table.  The food was excellent as well as the routine limbo man show.  He can lower the bar to 10" off the ground - SET IT ON FIRE - and limbo under it without burning himself.  Oh yeah, he also lights his cigarette while going under the pole.   We've been here before and seen him perform, but it's always a treat to see the children squeal with excitement.

It was a long day with a lot of celebrating (ha ha) so we headed home for a good night sleep!

Marsh Harbour

We've returned to Marsh Harbour, my hubby wants to take me to the Jib Room for my birthday / Mothers day treat, however they only serve on Saturday night so we'll have to wait a couple of days.

We received a little treat while at anchor, on Saturday morning we we awoke to a frenzy of children in small sailboats all around us.  The Grand Bahama Sailing Club was having races and our boat happened to be in the middle of their course.  It was adorable, there were boys and girls that looked no older than 6 or 7 years that were sailing their own boat, and probably 30 small boats in all.     While they were having their race, the larger boats called starfish were also racing another course.   As the day progressed a huge storm system was approaching and whistles were blown for all boats to return to shore for safety reasons.   



Running for Cover

The storm blew over and the sky's cleared so we decided to go snorkel Mermaid Reef; it's small but full of very pretty fish.

Pretty Parrot Fish

Trigger Fish - first one either of us has seen

We continued our explorations with a dingy ride to Matt Lowe Cay.  This is a private island with breath taking views and gorgeous manicured beaches.

Matt Lowe Cay

Nassau Harbour

We just left a hell hole of a marina in Nassau Harbour and had the absolute worst three nights EVER and we were tied up in a marina!  It was nothing but rocking and rolling and surge all day and all night, not to mention the boats were stuffed in like sardines.  We were too close for comfort for my liking.  This coupled with the fact that the power source was inadequate and likely led to our charred power cord along with the fact that they had just painted the piers with an enamel paint that was still tacky, and as such,  rubbed onto our fenders and onto our boat.   

We were able to get the prop swapped out (in the water) and were impressed that this type of work could be done while in the water.  The only saving grace in Nassau was a fantastic sushi restaurant called "Seafront Sushi".   We were surprised not only with the excellent quality of the food, but also the outstanding service and lastly the very reasonable price.   The meal was well worth the price and much less than we expected compared to other Bahama restaurants.  

I have to share the picture below for my mom, she LOVES to gamble and the last time we were at the Atlantis she pulled a lever on a slot machine and hit it big with a 25K pull.  By the time she left for the weekend, she had paid for her room and all expenses and still headed home with over 30K.

The Atlantis @ Sunrise



Lighthouse at the East End of Nassau Harbour

I must pat myself on the back, the lighthouse is a pretty cool picture - my brother-in-law Billy is a professional photographer and I think he will like this one.....  



   

Back to Highborne Cay

This morning we pulled out of Norman's Cay headed to Highborne Cay, slowly making our return trip North.    Do you remember in my earlier post when I mentioned David and Ryan bringing down our spare prop to store in the event of an emergency?  Well thank goodness they did; we accidentally hit a lone unmarked rock with the prop pulling out of Norman's Cay.  After we recovered from our panic attack, we slowed and David dove in to see how bad the damage was.  It was a tiny nick, however it was causing mild vibration.   We continued on to Highborne to explore the island and had a wonderful night on anchor.

Beautiful shot on Highborne Cay

The main road in Highborne Cay

Look at the limestone walls that line either side of the road, can you imagine the amount of work that went into making the roads.  Between the limestone and mangroves it seems like a tremendous amount of work.  I read a story that the mangroves; a couple had arrived by dingy and decided to find a more intimate spot for some afternoon delight and got caught in the mangroves and could not get out.   Fortunately, they were close enough to the marina that someone heard their pleas for help and came to their rescue, they had to be cut out by machete.

Tomorrow we are off to Nassau to get the prop properly checked out and do some much needed boat clean-up.



Norman's Cay

Today we ventured to Norman's Cay, this little island was formerly under the control of drug lord Carlos Lehder and in fact you'll find an almost totally submerged aircraft from his drug running days.  Norman's is a quaint little island with a few private homes and one restaurant / bar called Norman's Cay Beach Club.  The island also has an airstrip for private and chartered planes.

 

Airstrip at Norman's Cay

We had the pleasure of meeting Stephan, the proprietor of Norman's Cay Beach Club.  He filled us in on the island history and served us up some scrumptious food.  We had their twist on a Bahamian staple Conch Chowder with a Thai Twist.  This served alongside one of the best burgers we've ever had.   Perhaps food just tastes better in paradise!





Stephan at Norman's Cay Beach Club





Beautiful shot in Norman's Cay Lagoon

We took Little Girl for a cruise around the island and saw the sunken airplane, some caves and other breathtaking views.   We departed Norman's and headed back to Highborne Cay.





Warderick Wells - OOOPS, Shroud Cay

We headed to Warderick Wells this morning, I was so excited because this is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands and a "must do" in the crusing guides.    Due to our draft, we had to select our mooring ball carefully as the approach is so shallow.  The Exuma Land and Sea Park gives out the mooring ball assignments and placed us in Hog Cay on mooring ball S-3.   Since we are pretty green at trying to moor Fat Bottom Girl, it had been recommended that we have one of us in the dingy and one on Fat Bottom Girl.   I took Little Girl around the south side of the island to survey the area and confirm that David would be able to come in from the north.    All APPEARED to be fine from a dingy's perspective, however when he rounded the corner and came into sight I could see what an affect the current (now in a rising tide) was having on the boat.    I knew in a quickness we were about to be in a world of shit!    We made one attempt at hooking the line and decided the best course of action was to haul ass and get to hell out of there.  Thrusters or not, there are just situations you don't want to be in.

David went north, and I went south.  I circled the island and met him on the top side, we stopped long enough for me to jump on Fat Bottom Girl and and tie off Little Girl and get out of the rough currents.   We attempted an approach to the other two mooring locations at Warderick Wells and decided it would be better to just go north and find a calm / safe anchorage elsewhere.

We traveled to Shroud Cay, our friends Scott and Sue from Staniel Cay highly recommended Shroud Cay and I'm glad they did.    

Black Point Settlement - Great Guana Cay Exuma

Today we traveled to Black Point Settlement - what a gorgeous island.  We were immediately greeted and welcomed by another Krogen, Dream Weaver upon entering the harbour.   We took the dingy in and explored the small island.   Within a matter of a quarter mile you pass the grocery stores, police station, all age school, clinic and the three restaurants.    While passing the school, the playground (AKA basketball court) which is in front of the school had several boys playing, while the girls were all across the street in what looked like a large lemonade stand doing crafts.

Our Anchorage @ Black Point Settlement

All Age School

Local Boat Project

Sylken Sea @ Anchorage in Black Point Settlement

While walking back up the island, low and behold we heard our names being called from Scorpio, one of the restaurant / bars.  It was the group of GA rednecks who had came down for the day to see the island and stopped in for a cold beverage.  We visited for a little while and got on our way; we walked across the street to Loraine's for some lunch.   I have to say, we've eaten a lot of fish sandwiches in our lives, but this was absolutely the best!

We returned to Fat Bottom Girl and noticed a new 48' Krogen North Sea in the harbour.  It was Sylken Sea, she and her crew had been out for a days fishing.  We spoke the following morning and hope to catch up again in the Abacos. 

Thunderball Cave

This morning we took the dingy to Thunderball Cave, filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball,  for a snorkel trip.  Its recommended to come at low slack tide so you can simply swim in.  It certainly is a lot smaller than what Hollywood portrayed in the movie.  It was a beautiful little cave with multiple entrances from water as well as from the land above.  



Thunderball Cave



If you notice the 8 people in the picture, this is a group of GA rednecks from Marietta.  What a small world we live in, we come to the Exumas and run into people who live only a few miles from us.   One of the ladies in the group surprised her husband for his 50th Birthday with a trip to Staniel Cay with 6 of their closest friends and arrived on a private jet.  It seemed as though everywhere we went for the next two days we ran into them.  Great people who we shared contact information with and hope to meet up again when we return home. 

When we returned to the Marina we decide to give Fat Bottom Girl another necessary wash down, and later treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the Marina along with the customary bloody Mary & beer combo.   While enjoying our lunch I was approached by a local gentlemen who sat beside us at the bar.  The conversation began discussing the weather, as we were in the midst of a light shower and he commented on the need for rain on the island.   He was a rough looking character and made the comment that most people shun him and won't give him the time of day, he attributed this to his good looks (ha ha).  We ended up talking for hours while David played pool and shot the shit with the self proclaimed "Island Concierge".   As the evening ended the gentleman thanked me for being so nice to him and taking the time to share a few beers and good conversation with him.  At that, he informed me who he was.  He goes by Captain Tony and he owns Staniel Cay as well as two other surrounding islands.  He usually never tells people that because they are so put off by his looks that they won't talk to him and if they know who he is then they are nice just because they think he has something.  He said I had a good heart and good soul and was a very nice lady (oh how sweet) and he could see kindness in my eyes.   The next morning he came to the boat with a gift, two beautiful cleaned and polished conch shells wrapped up.  One is so large that it is considered a Queen conch.   What a thoughtful gesture!

Now I don't know if Tony truly owns the islands, but everyone working at the bar concurred.   It doesn't matter to me one way or another, I was just proud to have met him.  He was a true gentleman! 

Ahhh, swimming pigs in paradise

We went to the neighboring island of Big Major, home to many wild pigs and local attraction for cruisers.   When we arrived there were several other boats waiting at the shore for the pigs to show;  the waiting boats lost patience and moved on and as soon as they did, here came the pigs.   Big one's, little one's, short one's and fat one's.  We had met a gentlemen that warned us to be careful and not hand feed them.  They had been known to charge boats, and in fact, deflated one of the inflatable types with their hooves trying to get in the boat.   There is another local named John who lost part of his middle finger in the pigs mouth.  SO, when mamma piggy tried climbing on the bow of little girl, I jumped, screamed and ran to the back of the boat.   David was cracking up "attack of the killer pigs".....  Ha Ha

Here Piggy Piggy

We later returned to find a few boat loads of people, including small children maybe 2-3 years old frolicking on the beach, hand feeding and hugging the pigs.   Now I feel silly for being scared!

David and I had packed a picnic lunch in hopes of discovering our own little private island with sun, sand and shade.  We found the most beautiful little spot with a large shade tree, we pitched our blanket and spent the afternoon snorkeling, taking pictures and just relaxing. 

We returned to the marina to discover they were having "happy hour" at the Yacht Club.  The band was set up, we sang and danced into the night.  The base guitarist is a local named Yellowman;  island rumor is that he died and when placed in a body bag he came back to life.   

   

Dingy Debacle on the way to Staniel Cay

Today headed to Staniel Cay, it was a short day of about 6 hours.  15 minutes after our departure we got swamped by a mega yacht; we checked "Little Girl" to make sure she hadn't been swamped too and she was GONE!   Panic mode immediately set in, we thought that possibly she had sunk.    Without a dingy our trip would be a mess with no way to get off the boat or go exploring.   I radioed all vessels anchored on the west side of Highborne Cay to be on the lookout; which I guess in hindsight wasn't the smartest thing to do.   We had no reply from any cruisers, but heard a little chatter from what appeared to be locals about a missing dingy.  We turned around and headed back to our anchorage and there she was just bobbing away.  I can assure you, we will never leave again without making absolutely certain she is tied off properly!  We were ecstatic to have her back and the debacle only cost us about 30 minutes of time round trip (a small price to pay).

We arrived at Staniel Cay Yacht Club to find that the marina had no power, which was not good news for us since the only reason we went to the marina was to spend a little time on shore power to help charge our inverter.  Running the generator works to recharge it, but it doesn't get fully charged.   Power or no power what a wonderful place!  

Staniel Cay is home to Thunderball Cave, the dive scene location for the James Bond movie Thunderball.  We hope to dive / snorkel this spot tomorrow.   It's so small and shallow it really can't be considered a dive.

Highborne Cay

We arrived in Highborne Cay today and what a beautiful island.  We made a special trip here to see the island because we just finished a book called “Life on a Rock” by Kate Albury.  Kate and her husband Peter left their life in Nassau in 1990 to move to Highborne Cay after accepting a position as the island managers for the next seven years..  The book entails the trials and tribulations of living on and managing a relatively desolate island.    We found this island to posess all of the beauty described in the book and more. 

We secured our anchorage and got ready for a fun filled day exploring the island by dingy – but our crane had other plans for us.   We raised the boom and BAM it stopped dead in it’s tracks.  No crane, means no dingy in the water and David and Jackie are boat locked.   We dug through the volumes of books and owners manuals to find the Steelhead Marine Owners Manual. We tried every troubleshooting technique offered and nothing worked.   We were able to get a repair tech on the phone and he said it was a bad solenoid.   By this time I had made a few phone calls in the event we had to have a part flown in.  I was directed to a very helpful man named Bill with Watermakers Air.  They have two flights daily from Ft. Lauderdale to Staniel Cay Yacht Club and would only cost $35.00 (plus 45% of the cost of the part for the duty fee) to get the part.   While we waited several hours to hear back from Steelhead Marine to determine if it was in fact the solenoid, David took the remote controller apart.  It basically looks like an Xbox controller, however the Xbox controller is probably built with much better quality than this Mickey Mouse contraption we have.   Once open, he discovered a tiny piece of metal not much bigger than a pencil lead.  Since it had a defined shape he assumed it went somewhere.  He found a tiny hole and went to move the piece of metal and realized it was magnetized.  He placed it in its home with his pocket knife and BAM the controller worked again.  Halleluiah, we could get off the boat.   Finally the following day, Steelhead called back convinced it was the solenoid and we had to inform them that it was not and that the Captain had saved the day and fixed it.

Our Anchorage at Highborne Cay

Dingy freed and in the water, we took off to the marine to fill up Little Girl and find David some cigars.  While there, we discovered the local nurse sharks in a feeding frenzy at the fish cleaning station.  They were beautiful and all the children staying at the marina were having a great time! 

Sharks at the fish cleaning station

Later, we ventured  north to Allen’s Cay.  This is a deserted island home to thousands of rare iguanas.  These iguanas are the rarest and most endangered iguanas on earth.  They can grow upto 24/lbs and live to 80 years of age. 

As we approached the island we could see probably 30-40 iguana running on the beach.  When we beached the dingy another 30-40 came out of the woods and ran right up to us.  It was amazing, they just followed us around, never getting too close but close enough for me.  There was one big guy who wanted to take our shoes,  he just stood over them like he was guarding them.

Allen's Cay Iguanas

Walking Allen's Cay

This guy wanted our shoes!

We snorkeled for a little while and the area appeared to be a nursery for baby conch, baby coral and such.  We returned to the boat for some good music / icy cold cocktails and fabulous sunset on the cockpit.  This was a good day!