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| Ann and Mike with their friends Russ and Lori eating lunch at Xuma, on Highbourne Cay |
After escaping the wind at Hawksbill and making one last
visit to the Exuma Land and Sea Park we started meandering home. If we were
“going” home, we would have taken the shortest route and just waited for
weather windows between the various stops. Since we were “meandering” we wanted
to head in the general direction of home, but made sure that we stopped and
smelled some of the roses along the way. Our first stop was Highbourne Cay.
Every year we look for an excuse for going to Highbourne. We go there for one
reason and one reason only: it is the home to what is probably the best
Bahamian restaurant south of Nassau, Xuma.
Located on a cliff just above a wonderful little beach with some beautiful
views, more importantly, the restaurant serves some of the best food we have
had in months (with the obvious exception of Ann’s). Ann and I shared both a
lobster salad (scrumptious) and a fish sandwich which was cooked to perfection.
Normally when we leave Highbourne, it is off to Nassau where
we spend a couple of days, dodging thieves and enjoying the sights, then we go to
Chub Cay where we anchor one more time, then on to Bimini and eventually home. But
since we were “meandering,” this year, we decided that we wanted to do
something different and to include the Berry Islands in this year’s itinerary.
In fact, we decided that we would go from Highbourne to Alder Cay in the
Berries in one day – that is over 80 miles, about half of it over some serious
ocean. We don’t usually go that far that fast, but were encouraged by our
friends Russ and Lori who had similar intentions. The only thing that concerned
me was that their power catamaran is generally faster than Traveling Soul. You will be glad to hear, though, that we made it.
In fact, we left Highbourne about 0630, just at sunrise, and arrived at Alder
at about 1530 – about 9 hours later.
We anchored at Alder for one night. We had initially planned
to go a little further and anchor behind Bonds Cay, because we were concerned
about the swell behind Alder. You can just look at Alder and know that with any
southerly seas there is going to be significant swell in the anchorage. Lucky
for us, however, there was virtually no southerly component to the seas and
thus virtually no swell, so we decided we would spend the night there with two
other boats that had beat us to the anchorage. The next morning headed out for
Great Harbour Cay Marina, a more manageable distance of 60 miles away. I kind
of wish we would had anchored a few more times in the Berries, but the island
group is very shallow and, since many (most?) of the islands are privately
owned, you can’t get much further ashore than the beach.
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| Some strange patterns in the sand near Great harbor Marina. Aliens?? |
The reason we had come to the Berries in the first place was
to go to Great Harbour Cay Marina. We had heard that the marina and its
population were very social and that management organized events for almost
every day of the week. While it is true that everyone was friendly, there were
a few people who were social enough to organize events and it was these folks
that made the week for us. So, we want to offer special thanks to Chris and
Barbara on their boat Hallelujah, a
48’ Hatteras, and Arch, a single-handler, on KaJen, a Marine Trader. We met them at the Beach Club, a cute, clean little bar/restaurant just off Sugar
Beach. They invited us to go with them to Carriearl, a boutique restaurant and
hotel, for Sunday brunch. They knew the owners from previous visits to the marina
and we had a blast. The owners are truly characters in the most positive sense
of the word. If you go to the marina on Great Harbour Cay and do not go to
Carriearl, you will have missed the opportunity of a lifetime … and they serve
pretty good food as well!
Great Harbour is an in interesting island with a fascinating
history. In the late-sixties, it was the
place to be. People like Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks, Brigitte Bardot (ooh la
la!), Telly
Savalas, Jack Nicklaus and F. Lee Bailey vacationed here and development of the
island was going strong. In fact, there was a world-class golf course (that had
three professional tournaments), together with a mammoth golf club. Many of the
island’s houses still stand (others have deteriorated significantly) and the
golf course is, I suppose, technically playable, but Great Harbour Cay is a
shadow of its former self. In my opinion it just goes to show what a corrupt,
incompetent government can do to an economy – as is the case here and on so
many other islands in the Bahamas. You can still sense, however, what it once was
and what it might have been.
We stayed in Great Harbour for six days, then saw a weather
window that would allow us to get to the Ocean Reef Club in Lucaya on Grand
Bahama Island. We had heard of the Club
through some friends who told us that it was inexpensive ($1/foot!) and a lot
of fun. Our original intention was to spend a week at the Club, then wait for a
weather window to head back to Palm Beach. After the first day or two at Ocean
Reef, however, the forecast window closed shut. It looked like there might be
an opportunity to leave on Sunday (which would have been out fourth day there),
but if we did not leave on Sunday, none of our weather sources showed a good
travel day for another 10 days. So, we decided to leave early.
We did swim in the very, very nice Ocean Reef pool, and we
had dinner and lunch at their pretty mediocre restaurant. We did not
participate in the afternoon Bingo games, but we did enjoy the live music on
Saturday afternoon. Overall, we were so focused on leaving that we did not give
Ocean Reef a chance. With that said … I have to point out something. On “D”
dock, which was for larger boats, there were ten, count ‘em ten Canadian
boats, five US boats and one French
boat. That is empirical proof that the Canadians
are in the process of invading the Bahamas. Again, none of them invited us
aboard their vessels so we cannot verify how much arms and ammunition they are
doubtless carrying down below. Since many of you don’t believe me, I may have
to write a whole blog entry on this nefarious scheme in the near future.
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| YOu can see the restaurant, the swim-up bar and the swimming pool. We really had a great slip! |
Anyway, we are now sitting in North Palm Beach for a few
days before we take off for the Whiticar Boat Yard in Stuart where we hope to
fix the generator and the battery problem FOREVER. When we get it done I will
tell you what we did. Lord, I hope this works.
ANN’S NOTES: I am
Happy to report that Spot is sound asleep, curled up in her cat bed next to me,
as I enter my blog comments. She is not in some strange sail canvas cover on
another boat.
We did have a yummy lunch at Highbourne Cay which was made
that much better by sharing the meal with our friends Russ and Lori. We have
had a fun time exploring and eating our way through the Bahamas with them.
I think next time we go to the Ocean Reef resort, we will
actually leave the property. We were so fixed on watching the weather that we
did not even go to the local straw market. Our slip was very nice, and we were
directly in front of the pool. No long walks, no lugging towels and stuff back
and forth, we just stepped off the boat onto the dock, and claimed our chair
pool side under a little cabana. NICE!!!!So it is time to wrap up this year’s adventure in the Bahamas. All-in-all it was a good one. We did not have to hide from any strong west winds like last year. We did have some wind from the north and east, but really not bad. We saw some new islands, meet some new friends, and enjoyed the company of old friends. Spot had her own adventure and caused us a few heart palpitations. Traveling Soul, considering her age did well, she produced water and her generator held out and produced electricity as long as it could and most important, she kept us safe.
Remember to save your pennies and plan to visit us on our
next adventure.
Thanks for reading.Traveling Soul…OUT
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