The first night Dave and Joan were here we went to Mangoes
for dinner. The restaurant had been closed for the winter and had reopened only
about a week earlier. In fact, during dinner both the owner and the chef
(formerly of the Four Seasons in Nassau) came over to introduce themselves. Now,
that kind of thing doesn’t often happen in the States! For dinner, the four of
us had some combination of conch chowder, cracked conch marinated in lime,
grilled grouper and barbecued ribs. Everything was scrumptious! Ann and I
really like Mangoes because it has both Bahamian and American fare, because the
food is good and because it is on the water. Other restaurants have two of
those characteristics, but not many have all three. In fact, we like it so much
that we also went there on Dave and Joan’s last night. But I am ahead of
myself.
Anyway, the next day we went to Hopetown on Elbow Cay. We
aren’t going to tell you all about the island because we already did that in an
earlier posting (it was one of those Loyalist enclaves after the Revolutionary
War). On the day we arrived, we went into town for the historical sites (for
Dave) and to the boutiques (for Ann and Joan). The next day we rented a golf
cart and toured the southern half of the island – which is beautiful – and had
lunch at “On Da Beach,” a cute little bar and grill that Ann and I discovered
the last time we were on Elbow Cay. It is a small one-room establishment that overlooks
the long beach on the Atlantic side of the island. The day we were there, the surf
was a little too rough to get in the water, but we did stroll along the beach
for a bit. The last time we visited On
Da Beach we were the only customers; this time there were a number of people. I like to see lots of folks so I can be sure
they will be open the next time we come around! |
| Ann, one of our lighthouse junkies, at Elbow Cay Light |
After the trip around Elbow Cay, Dave and Ann – who, as most of you know, are Lighthouse Junkies – visited and walked to the top of Elbow Cay Lighthouse. That evening we ate on board and had, what else, but lobster with drawn butter. Mmmmmmmmmm
The weather forecast was looking a bit iffy so we decided the next
day we would go to the Marina at the infamous (deep scary voice) Treasure Cay. Now,
some of you will remember that only week or so prior we had a not-very-pleasant
experience in the anchorage at Treasure Cay. This time, you will notice that we
got smart. Instead of going to the anchorage,
we headed straight to the marina. It
was a bit windy, but we pulled into our slip without incident. Then we went to
the beach. Again, it was magnificent. You just have to see the beach – the
multiple shades of blue, turquoise and aqua – and you have to feel the
confectionary sugar-like sand between your toes before you can understand why
we like that beach so much. We also had a little snack at the local beach bar,
Coco’s, then did a little shopping and headed back to the boat.
The second day at Treasure Cay we learned a lesson. The day prior
the wind was 15 gusting to 20, but it was generally from the south. That meant
that while there were some significant gusts of wind at the marina, there was
little more than a pleasant breeze across the peninsula at the north-facing
beach. The second day, however, the wind was about the same strength, but it
was from the north, so it was coming
straight off the Sea of Abaco onto the beach. So, while we spent some time at
the beach that day, we didn’t spend as much as we would have liked. That night
we went to dinner at A Touch of Class,
one of the five local restaurants. They came to the marina to pick us up and
took us the two or so miles to the dining room. The service was great, but the
food was only okay. Moreover, it wasn’t on the water – and I do love eating on
the water. Overall, I think we would all give the place a passing score, but we
probably won’t be going back this year.
 |
| Ann, in her "Prepare to Anchor" pose at Marsh Harbor |
On Tuesday we headed back to Marsh Harbor to anchor. Why you ask?
Well, I could bore you with the whole story, but I am just going to give you a
summary. (As I was editing this, I noticed that I wrote more than I intended. I
guess I changed my mind – I am going
to bore you with the whole story.) Our most diligent readers will recall that
our autopilot failed part way across the Gulf Stream. Andrew (the local
electrical guy) looked at it and said he thought it was the control head. The
solution was simple: get a new control head and replace the old. Under the
heading “nothing is easy,” however, we discovered they no longer make the
control head that I had. I e-mailed Rick, our broker, friend and all-around
maintenance guru and asked what to do. He found that there was a new control
head that was supposed to be compatible with the old one. After some discussion,
we asked him to order one, send it via Fed Ex and bill us. The day we were
leaving Marsh Harbor with Dave and Joan we got a call from the marina telling
us that our package was at the Marsh Harbor airport and we needed to take our
temporary cruiser’s permit to Customs so they could clear the package and we
could pick it up. We asked if all this could wait until Tuesday and we were
assured that it could. That is why we were back in Marsh Harbor. But the story
is not yet over.
On Tuesday, we called the number we had and were told that we did
not really need to bring the permit to the airport, we could fax it over. (We
had specifically asked about faxing on Friday and were told that customs need
to see the original.) So we went to our favorite marina and asked them to fax
the Fed Ex invoice number and the cruising permit. Five minutes later the package cleared
Customs and we were told that we could pick it up the following day. Jason, one
of the dock masters at the marina heard part of our phone call and asked why we
were going to the airport instead of having Fed Ex deliver the package here. The
answer was because we thought we were told we had to. Jason called the Fed Ex
office and asked why they didn’t deliver to the marina any more. Well,
apparently the voice on the other end claimed it was all a big misunderstanding
and of course he would be willing to deliver the package. Yea, yea, yea,
yea. Anyway, I now have the part – but
the story is not over. I will tell you the rest in the next installment.
Anyway, back to Dave and
Joan’s Winter Adventure. On Wednesday we headed to Great Guana Cay – home of
the world famous Nippers. Now Ann and I have been wanting to go to Nippers for
the past couple of weeks, but weather had always changed our plans. On Wednesday,
everything looked good and off we went. On the way over (about an
hour-and-a-half cruise) we saw a dolphin! Although we had seen several in
Florida, it was one of the few we had seen in the Bahamas and Joan, in
particular, was thrilled. The omens were good!
 |
| Dave Joan, Mike and Ann at Nippers. |
Our boat buddy John was waiting for us at Great Guana along with
his friend and visitor, Katty. Katty is from Caracas, is fifty years old and is
as cute as they come. John met her some years ago when she was a sergeant in
the Venezuelan Air Force. She speaks pretty good English, though she sometimes misses
some of the discussion. John’s Spanish isn’t good enough to translate, but we
all seem to get along anyway. We took a mooring ball at Great Guana and,
without further ado, the six of us headed for the bar I mean restaurant.
Nippers is a multi-level bar-restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic
beaches of the island. It has a two-level pool with a water fall connecting
them. The day we were there, it was kind of hot outside and Ann, Joan and Katty
all used the pool to cool off. It was
kind of cool to sit there, eating conch and drinking beer, taking an occasional
dip in the pool and watching the surf roll in.
Speaking of surf, while we were at Nippers the water on the Sea of
Abaco was nearly flat; the waters of the Atlantic, however, were boiling! At
the far reef – about a quarter mile offshore and the “third largest barrier reef
in the world” – the breakers were easily ten to fifteen feet high. At the
beach, they were only about six feet, but still strong enough to knock most
people down. Well, Ann and Joan just had to find out how powerful those waves
were, so they went out in the surf to brave the waves! They didn’t go out quite
far enough to get knocked down, though they did get knocked back a bit. Me??
Well, someone had to take pictures!!! All in all it was a great place to visit!
 |
| Ann, dressed nicely as always. Mike in "Island Formal" |
Everyone is familiar with history’s most famous photos and videos.
There are, of course, the magnificent photos of Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz
and others. In an entirely different vein there is the Magruder film of the
Kennedy assassination. Well, I will soon have in my possession, a digital image
that combines the artistry of the great photographers with the history-defining
nature of the Magruder film. Yes, I will have a photo of the “Great Swimsuit Malfunction,” otherwise known as the “Wolf Film.” This picture is the first known photograph
taken of Joan Wolf’s posterior after she slid off Traveling Soul’s swim platform and tore her swimsuit. It documents
the fact that small tears in women’s swimsuits can become much larger almost
immediately and that they can show off parts of a woman’s anatomy that they
usually want to keep covered. Yes, my friends, I will have only one of two
copies of this photograph. The difference between mine and the one Dave Wolf
owns is that I will be happy to sell mine to the highest bidderJ.
After Nippers and Great
Guana, we headed back to Marsh Harbor. The original plan was to rent a car and
go see the lighthouse at Hole-in-the-Wall about 15 miles to the south. However,
in talking to some other folks, they recommended not going unless we had a
four-wheel drive – apparently it is a bit of a bumpy road. So, we decided that
though we had been to Marsh Harbor before, there were still places to shop and
sites to see. Now to most people a
grocery store is not on the list of sites you need to see. Well, Dave is a bit
of a foodie so he certainly wanted to check out Maxwell’s, the Abacos answer to
Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Wegman’s. Ok, it is not much of an answer, but in
addition to the standard fare, they had Sheep’s Tongue, Pigeon Peas and some very
strange Bahamian spices.
On Saturday, Dave and Joan had to leave. We kind of wished they
had already retired and we could have kept them here for a bit longer. However,
they needed to go home so they could make enough money to keep their boat Sans Souci ready for the summer.
ANN'S NOTES: It was a very busy week and the time went by quickly. We all had a great time showing Dave and Joan all the fun places that Michael and I have discovered. I did take a lot of pictures but when we went to download them the ywere gone from the camera memory card. The only thing I did was change the battery and some how that is when the pictures must have gone away. Thank heaven Dave is a picture taker so that is what you are seeing in the blog. Thank you Dave very much for pictures. The delivery of the boat part was like a three stooges movie...three different telephone conversations...three different set of instructions...my solution...get a local person on the line and let them handle it. Jason is such a nice guy and he takes good care of us in the marina. The one thing that Michael did not mention was when we were in Treasure Cay we rented bikes to go to a local ceramic handpainted store. It was a fun ride together...we bought a few items and than headed back to the marina via the local neighborhoods. There are some beautiful summer homes on the beach. Also when Dave and Joan were here, Michael lost a dental crown. To everyones surprise I had bought a dental repair kit and we did fix it for a little while. About every other day we had to re-glue it...I guess that is about all I have to say...Traveling Soul...out....
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