Guana and The wooden Grouper

This is Buck a Book

This is the trail leading to Buck a Book

This is the return cooler for the books or DVD's

Tuesday April 23^rd

Plans are to go to Guana Cay tomorrow. So that means another trip to the grocery store.  On our way back from Maxwell’s, we noticed that our friend Don was in his shop.  We stopped and he recognized us when we said you took us the Easter Sunday in the back of your pick up last year.  We asked how his house was coming and he told us it was finished.  He had some other customers so we went into his shop.  We noticed he had carved some of the little wooden groupers that he is famous for.  They are his trade mark.  After the other customers left he invited us out in his yard.  We sat under a titki hut made from an old satellite dish and palm branches.  It was an outdoor work shop for him.  He had a table with tools on it and a few finished and unfinished groupers.  I ask if he would curve one and think about me and call it Freida.  He said he would.  He told us about his “pole” house and invited us to see it.  He said one day when he was going home during the week he would take us to see it

We talked some about his personal life in the states.   He then told us the story of the groupers again, we heard it last year but without so much details.  He was anchored out in Marsh Harbour and would make these little wooden groupers and the take them to the Jib Room and drink all night on the money he made.  Wake up the next day and do it again.  He realized that he was just drinking his money away. He moved his boat Pipe Creekin the Exumas.  He woke up one morning and realized he didn’t have but 35 dollars, no food, and very little fuel.  He looked out and could not see any boats.  He found two pieces of wood and started whittling some groupers.  Later that day a big fishing boat pulled up beside him, and asked to see the groupers.  The man and lady bought several little groupers. They loved them! He said his net worth just tripled in a few minutes.  The couple said they own the Compass Cay.  They had a dock if he wanted to dock his boat there.  They also had a generator if he wanted to use it.  The lady said her husband has to go in for treatment every weekend. I am not sure where he had to go.  Don said you could tell he was not in good health. One day he was in his boat the man came up and asked, in his very feeble voice, “would like to go fishing”. Don said he would love to go.  The man told Don the care taker is getting the boat ready now.  When the two were sitting in the boat, the owner of the island asked if he would like a cold one. Don responded, “yes, I believe I would”!  Don said at that moment he realized, “ Here the rich man who own a big fishing boat and owned the island but had all these health problems was not the rich man … he was.”  I am not sure if this was the pivotal moment in Don’s life but he is now a respected artist in the Abacos.  He has not had a drink in over twenty years, has built a home and obviously attends church. I told him he should write a book.  He replied, ‘oh that is also kind of in the making”. We told him we had to go but we would be back next week to pick up the grouper.  As we left I couldn’t help but believe that there is so much more to that man than we will ever know.  

That night we went to Mangoes for dinner sat with Enny, the lady that blows the conch shell so well and a few other people we did not know.  We enjoyed getting to know the group.

Wednesday April 24th 2013

We decided not to go to Guana until Thursday.  High tide was at 7:00 and we would have to leave at 6:30.  Rey brought us some mahi mahi !  It was a lot.  It will go great in the paella we plan to cook when Jack and Linda get here next week. 

Thursday April 25^th 2013

We left the docks before anyone was up.  That meant we had to undock by ourselves.  We did great!  Then we decided to get some fuel.  So we had to dock by ourselves.  We are getting pretty good at this.

 We then sailed over to Guana Cay. On the way to Guana we were surprised by a big fishing boat passing us on our starbough side.  He was on plane and was only a few hundred feet from our boat!  Needless to say we were hit with the wake of his boat before we could react!! All things in the cabinet were on the floor.  I almost lost my kuerig.  This could have meant WAR.  To make this worst the name of the boat was Georgia Girl!  So if any of you ever see Georgia Girl ask if they were in the Bahamas on April 25^th near Guana Cay……And if they were, just give them our REGARDS!

View from Grabbers 

Beach at Nippers

We wanted to pick up a mooring ball.  We saw all these boats and they were anchored.  We called Troy at dive Guana and he said come on in we have plenty of mooring balls but the are infront of the anchored boats.  We thought we would have a long dingy ride but we were very close the beach at grabbers.  We were going to have dinner at Grabber’s and see the sunset but only the bar was open.  So of course, we then decided to get another cracked lobster on the bun at Nippers.  It was too early to eat dinner so we walked on the beach looking for sea glass and just enjoying the view.   After we walked on the beach we walked back the grabber’s to check on our dingy.  We came in at low tide but it was a full moon so the tides are high high and low low.  We walked back to Nippers for our dinner.  Yes Jack we saw Caroline and told her you were coming.  She was very pleased.  After our dinner we walked back to Grabber’s for a sundowner.  As we were sitting there I saw a dingy go floating away from the beach.  I alerted George and he, being the nice guy he is, got in our dingy and got the run away dingy.  By the way Dingies are not cheap!  A few minutes after that, a guy probably coming from Nippers, past where we were sitting and was obvious looking for his dingy.  I kind of enjoyed watching him worry and then find it tied to a palm tree.  He had just pulled it up on the sand without an anchor.  There were some young people that had anchored their dingy too far out.  We wanted to ask if we could help but decided it would be a better show if we just watched.  The guys stood back as the girls in her swimsuit swam out to get it.

We decided to leave just before sundown to get some pictures of Celebration.

Friday April 26^th 2013

  We got up and slipped the mooring off just before high tide. We were headed to Man O War. We had so much fun with Scott and Courtney last year on the mooring balls.   The entrance to Man O War Cay is very shallow.  The moorings are very much in demand so we called to be sure we could get one.  The marina indicated, “There are plenty”!  Well when we got there we could not see but one.  It was so close to the boat next to it I was afraid I was going to hit it while George grabbed the ball.  We bumped the bottom as we were going to the ball.  When we got the ball tied on I looked and we were in 6 and half feet of water.  Our draft is 6 feet. We were kicking up mud as we were tying on the ball.  Remember this is high tide falling. If we stay here we would be aground in just a few minutes.  So we called and asked again if he could see any ball down the way, he replied “unfortunately, I can’t see any but just get in your dingy and look around”. We think he just wanted to get us there and offer us a slip.  After he lied to us we did not want to give him any money.  We did not want to play his game so we left and came back to Mangoes.  We saw several boats anchored on the outside so next time, if the winds are right we will just anchor out.  We are going back with Jack and Linda anyway.

Celebration at Sunset

View from Grabbers at sunset

Home sweet Home at sunset

Full Moon at Anchor

Saturday April 27^th

We heard that Jimmy was singing again at Mangoes but we wanted to go to Wally’s.  Wally’s is very nice restaurant here in Marsh Harbour but for some reason we have never been. 

We decided we would go on Saturday night.  It is only open two nights a week.  It was beautiful.  It ranked right up there with Abaco Inn in Hope Town.  We sat on the porch and watched the sunset.  They have a beautiful landscaped entrance.  The food was great.  I had Smothered Grouper and George had Mahi Mahi. The service was the best in Abaco.  As you can tell I really liked Wally’s. 

View on the way to Wally's

Wally's Entrance

We sat on the porch at Wally's.

Sunday April 28^th

We walked to the public docks to meet the church bus.  We thought if Ricky does not pick us up we will still have time to walk.  I was thinking about all those people who walked days and even weeks to hear Jesus.  I was thinking, yes I can walk three miles to hear Pastor Derek, but I sure didn’t want to.  George had called earlier that morning and the driver didn’t answer his phone.  We called again and I guess he recognized our number because he answered,” yes, man I am on my way to get you”.  We met a man on the bus that almost told us his life story by the time we got to the church.  We also saw Super, yes that is what people call him.  He remembered us from last year. I think they call him super because he is a super guitar player.  After church we ate on the boat.  I made Mac and Cheese and slaw to go with our hamburger. 

Our freezer is now at 10 degrees!!!!

Bill's Beach Cottage with a Million Dollar View

View of Sunset looking from Mangoes

Monday April the 15 th

This was day of recouping.  I am not sure if it was the food, the sweetie drinks, the sun, the excitement or all of it put together, but we needed some down time.  At first I thought oh no, what if this is a gall bladder attack, not here, not now.  I basically laid around all day.  George had something a little less serve than my ailments but similar. My stomach was not much better by night fall. I had slept off and on all day. I was really surprised when I heard all the conch shell blowing at sunset.

Tuesday April 16^th

I was much better today.  I felt like doing some retail therapy. We were looking to go home in a week or two so I had to do some serious shopping.  That night was pizza night at Mangoes so we went to Mangoes. Jimmy, the owner was there and talked to us about having an Asian night at the restaurant.  His cook lived in Hong Kong and Rey’s wife was also going to help cook on Saturday night. We saw a beautiful sunset from the restaurant. 

The two guys that cleaned our bottom. They also perform at
snappers.  They do the rake and scrape music.

Wednesday April 17^th

This morning I was walking down the dock just before getting on the boat and George calls out, “Do we need our bottom cleaned?”  I was looking at our slip mate whose wife is French Canadian, and he of course said, “That a little personal don’t you think!!” Of course I replied,  “ my bottom is fine but you can have yours cleaned it you would like”.  We all knew he was talking about our boat bottom.  The couple next to us was having theirs cleaned so we asked the guys to also clean ours too.  The Canadian couple did as well. The two guys who cleaned our bottom were almost like a comedy act. We enjoyed their antics after they finished to job.  The Canadian boat beside us had red moss on it.  It was very hard to clean.  They had been in the Exums and had not had it cleaned in 6 months.  Not sure if that helped our price or hurt it but ours was a little less.  That night we had pecan crushed salmon on the grill.

Salmon on the Grill

Pecan crusted Salmon, Asparagus, rice pilaf

Thursday April 18^th

Today the Buck a Book store is open.  If you remember that is the old trailer that has all the books and DVD’s in it.  You can take one for a dollar and bring it back.  They are only open on Thursday and Friday from 10:00 to 12:00.  If you need to leave a book or a DVD you just put it in a cooler outside the door.  George showed her the DVD we got and ask aren’t you going to write it down?  The lady replied, “Why no we trust you.”  George said I know but what if we put it in the cooler and someone gets it out.  No we never have that to happen, she responded.  So off we went with four DVD’s to watch.  By the way, we do not normally watch TV while we are cursing. 

Found out today that Jack wants to come and that Lynda will be coming with him.  Lynda will fly back and he will ride with us back to Brunswick.  They will get here on the 4^th.  We will be able to hold out until then but don’t think the beer will.  When we provisioned the boat we provisioned for the Keys and not the Bahamas and not for this amount of time.  So we may have to learn to enjoy the Kalik.  I just want to keep George away from the kalik gold. (long story!)

Friday  April 19^th

 We got up this morning with a list of projects to do, but that all changed when Bill called us and wanted us to see his house.  He was to pick us up a 11:00.  We rode past two communities before getting to his house.  I will let the pictures do the talking, however pictures do not do it justice.  I only took pictures of what he calls his forest and his view.  I thought it would be a little intrusive if I took picture of house.   He calls it a beach cottage and I guess that is what it is.  A beach cottage with a million dollar view! It is a lovely place and is solar powered. His battery bank will run the house for two days with no help from the utility company. As long as the sun shines, Bill does not need the power company. 

Bird of Paradise in Bill's yard

Bill's pet Bird...Really

Looking at the North Man o War Cut

Looking at Quana Cay

Looking at Elbow Cay, Hope town Light house can be seen at night.

Hybiscus Tree...Yes tree! About to be in full bloom.

After we got back to the Marina we invited Rey and Bill for some Bar B Que that George had made on his grill at home.  Southern Bar B Q, Bill could not refuse nor could Rey.  We had a great visit.  They wanted us to come back in November where they would have more time to take us fishing. 

Saturday April 20

Today George was going to clean the grill.  It has been burning only on one side.  He proceeded to take the grill apart.  Of course when you work on something, you always meet someone who is willing to help, inters another John from Georgia, an Auburn graduate. However, the grill maybe to far gone to fix, even for a UGA grad assisted by an Auburn grad.  If they had asked this Ole Miss graduate, I would have found some way to rig it up to work.  The burner was all in pieces.

Another view from Bill's house.

Tonight is Asian night.  Yes we have even mentioned it to Rey several times.  We were pretty excited.  We went to Mangoes restaurant and ask what they were serving for Asian night.  To our surprise, the waitress had not heard of such a thing!  Oh well, instead we got smothered grouper.  It was excellent!

Sunday April 21

It was another lazy day in paradise.  Forgot to call the bus for church so didn’t get to go this Sunday.  We never set an alarm to wake up.  It is the sea gulls that wake us up or the cool air coming from the hatch over our bed, or maybe the sunshine coming in. An alarm is just not allowed unless we have to pull anchor early. 

I have not mentioned the freezer problems we have been having. The freezer is staying around 27 degrees to 29 degrees.  We have taken our frozen food and put it in a freezer at Mangoes.  We have defrosted the freezer but it did not seem to improve.  Tomorrow we calling another freezer guy!  Another mechanic!

Monday 22^st

 We walked to the marine store to get a burner for the grill.  They did not have one. As soon as we got back to the boat it poured, a great day for a buck a Book movie.  When we finished the movie the freezer man arrived. Our freezer is now 22 and on a downward trend.

What happens at Nippers Stays at Nippers (until we get home and tell it all)

Monday 8^th

We got up with good intentions of polishing the stainless.  After we noticed that we were on our keel at low tide, George decided to clean the bottom of the boat. I washed clothes so we did not get to the stainless.  George did continue to study his radio book while I goofed off.  Late that afternoon we went to the little store we loving call Sam’s club. It is a small store but they sell things in bulk.  We go by dingy and buy water so we don’t have to carry water from the store 2 miles away.  We also buy our crawfish (lobster) from there. What we call lobster they call crawfish.

This one's for you Lynda

Swim Up Bar

Tuesday 9^th

We walked to another Marina on the other side of the Marsh Harbour.  They have a great view and but not many sail boats.  The Boat Harbour Marina is a little more “upscale”  than Mangoes, but we love Mangoes. 

Just one drink.... Just took two pictures 

Wednesday 10^th We went to the jib room tonight to have ribs.  It was a little chilly so after trying to stay outside, we moved to the back of the jib room.  George was still chilly so we moved inside.  All of the tables had people setting at them.  There was one table with a nice looking couple and we ask if we could join them.  They seemed happy to have us sit with them.  We started talking and they were from Colorado.  Curt and Karen from Colorado even I could remember that. They were here renting a boat to see how they liked the area. They want to retire and “do what we are doing”.  I could not believe they had grown children, they looked so young. She was a Pilates instructor.  Move over Joe, pilates may be in my future.  We had a great time answering questions.  It doesn’t seem very long ago we were asking the same questions.  We asked them to come over for a visit and see our boat.  We did not see the limbo man this year.  I didn’t even dance, I am saving myself for Nippers.

Now that's a dingy!!

A Green Mango?

Thursday 11^th

It was a beautiful day.  We straightened up the boat after breakfast. George was studying down below and I was in the cock pit playing on the Ipad when I hear “Freida”, it was our Colorado friends.  We asked them to come aboard and we had a nice visit.  It is amazing how you meet people and you just hit it off. That is the way we feel about Curt and Karen. Karen shared with us that the night before they felt bad about taking a whole table and talked about moving, but said, “instead of us choosing some one to sit with, let’s let someone choose us.  She said she was so glad we had chosen them.  We gave them a boat card and asked them to stay in touch.

Friday 12^th

I was so excited we were going to my favorite Cay, Elbow Cay home to Hope Town.  This is the Cay with the light house and the quaint little brightly colored houses. The other reason this is my favorite is because we always take the van to Abaco Inn. The Abaco Inn has the best beach for sea glass, best meal, best view, best service, and we had it all to ourselves. 

Elbow Cay

Now this is what happens when you waitress really likes you!

Our view at lunch from Abaco Inn.

Like I said, we had it all to ourselves.

Hope Town's School House

I did not take many pictures of the light house because well I have a million already.  We did go by Vernon’s grocery store.  He is famous for his key lime pie.  We made a big mistake.  We got his coconut custard.  It was good but very unusual. It has big chunks of coconut in it but it did not compare to his key lime. 

On the walk home from the ferry landing we met a lady from our dock.  Her name was Shirley and she had been to Spanish Wells.  We talked to her about what was in Spanish Wells.  She said it was nice to visit if you are there but not a destination. She told us she had some friends coming in on Sunday to help get their boat back to Massachusetts  She asked us some questions about which cay to take her friends on the way out. They decided to go to Guana, Green Turtle, and West Inn.

OK so I sneaked one in of the Light House.

Saturday 13^th

We ate at Mangoes Restaurant because we didn’t have any eggs.  Yes, we have to walk to the grocery store today.  Before leaving for the grocery store we stopped by to talk to Shirley.  We meet her husband and found out they were from near Buzzard Bay Massachusetts.  George and Bruce talked about how to use the AIS feature on the radio. George got back to the boat and said, “How about that. I taught a navy guy something about his radio.”  After going to the store we were tired.  We decided to have sandwiches instead of pecan crushed salmon.  It was a good thing, because it started raining and did not stop until the middle of the night.  There was some lighting in this storm also.  We wanted to go see Jimmy, the owner of the Marina, and Mike, someone we meet last year, at the restaurant tonight.  Mike, a professional pianist, was to play the piano and Jimmy was to sing.  We did not make it. The electricity was off because of the storm and we were without internet for two days.

I just can't stop taking pictures of the beach!

Sunday April 14^th

This morning we are heading to Guana Cay, home of Nipper’s and the big pig roast.  However, we were not going for the pig roast.  We were hoping they still had the cracked lobster on the bun. They did.  We saw Caroline and she was worried when she didn’t see the rest of the group. We danced and enjoyed the scenery.  My camera’s battery ran out just as I needed it so not many pictures of Nipper’s.  George had a special treat!!!!  That’s all I am saying about that!  We had a great walk on the beach before going to Grabbers for a swing in the hammock.

Caroline recognized George ! 

Caroline and George

Cracked Lobster on the Bun

Another photo shoot.

I can't believe my camera died!!!  This is one of the prettiest  beaches 1

Blowing the conch shell at sunset

Thursday April the 4^th

   Slept late, not leaving at first light!  We did have guests coming for dinner so George walked to the grocery store while I cleaned up the boat.  We went to Curly Tails for lunch so we could call Jack and Greg and let Gerta talk to them.  Rey came by to tell us he had forgotten about a previous commitment and would not be coming by for steaks.  We promised to cook him one the next morning for a bunch.  Bill did come and as usual we enjoyed talking to him.  He has bought a house in Marsh Harbour.  Last year he was building a house on Cat Island. However, after his recent marriage he decided to buy a home in a more populated area.  She is from America and he feels she would be happier near Marsh Harbour.  He invited us to visit him in his home next week.  He also told us we should go to Spanish Wells while we were here.  We are going to take a look at that possibility.

Gerta talking to Jack

This one is for you Carolyn and Courtney, yes a Goom Bay

Friday April the 5^th

We are still a little tired from a trip and had a very lazy day. It rained most of the day but that was fine with us.  It will finish washing off the boat.  George washed the boat on Thursday but nothing like a good rain to really get the salt off.  In fact last night we had some lightening.  We met the people in the boat next to us.  They were from Denmark but lives in Philadelphia in the summer.  The ironic thing is that they keep their boat at Brunswick.  In fact there are five boats here from Brunswick.

 Henry and Enny, Barbara and Mike were all here last year.  Enny was the lady who blew the conch shell so perfectly every sunset. 

Saturday April 6^th

It rained off and on all day but that just gave us a good excuse to rest.  I think we are still recouping from our passage.  We wanted to go to the same church we attended last year so we called and made arrangements to be picked up by the bus. 

on the way to meet the church bus

Also on the walk to the Public dock

Sunday April 7^th

We walked to the public dock to meet the church bus.  We were the first to get on the bus.  In fact the driver, Ricky was about 15 minutes early but so were we.  The bus went into neighborhoods that most tourists never see. It was a very interesting ride.  We stopped at several houses where the adults just sent their children, some as young as 4 or 5 years old.  The driver told us, “Oh yes this is the time the adults can get rid of the children.”  We went by one house and a lady stuck her head out and said, “ I just got out of the tub, come back by.”  So we picked up a few more people and went back by. She was still not ready but I could tell she had made some progress for she had her make up on, but she again stuck out her head and said come back around.  The driver just said okie dokie….He also made some remark about if a lady asks for 10 minutes always give her 20.  We kept stopping and I wonder where everyone was going to sit. I even had a little boys sitting in my lap.  When the bus was full the bus turned to go to the church.  Rickey let us out and then headed back to pick up more people and hopefully the lady that was not ready before.  The children we picked up were well behaved and the older ones seemed to instinctively take care of the younger ones, even if they were not family.  To my surprise a lot of people remembered us from last year.  It was again a very up lifting service.  We went to Snappas for lunch.  We did not realize when we when into Snappas we would be in the middle of an award ceremony for a regatta.  The Regatta included some kids that were around 8 -10 years old. 

 

Sunset from the docks

Not My favorite Crossing

March 31 2013 Easter Sunday

We weighed anchor at first light leaving Vero Beach. The route that we were taking was the same one that we took the first time we crossed together in 2011.  We were to go out the Ft.Pierce inlet, sail south to about Jupiter then hold 95 degrees and ride the gulf stream up and go to Matanilla shoals.  We had checked the weather and knew we had to make Matanilla shoals by 1:00 a.m.  The weather window was very good but the waves and winds were to increase at Midnight.  Waves were to be 4 feet at 5 seconds and the winds were to pick up to about 20.  This was not anything more than we had been in before, we just knew it was going to be uncomfortable.  The quicker we got there, the less time we would be in the rough weather. We made good time in the ICW from Vero to Ft. Pierce.  We were hoping to make our turn at Jupiter around 4 pm. The boat was only going 2 to 3 knots and we thought it was due to the wind and waves on our nose. We finally realized that at only 4 miles off shore we were fighting a north current. We headed closer to shore and the boat speed picked up. We did not make our turn until about 7:00 p.m..  This was three hours later than we had hoped.

 

Leaving Ft. Pierce, these are the jetties that George played on  as a child.

Before making our turn and losing cell phone coverage, we called our children to say goodbye and that we would not be in contact before Wednesday.  As I was talking to Jill I spotted a sea turtle.  I was trying to show George, well I had a blond moment, while talking on the cell phone, I pointed to the turtle with the other hand…bad move…hit a wave …down I went but I held on to the cell phone.   

Also, I always ask my sweet facebook friends to send up prayers as we cross over the gulfstream.  After I sent the message on facebook, one of my friends commented back, ” where is Hells Gate, Florida, that is where you message was sent from, we sure will be praying”.  Needless to say I did not have a warm and comforting feeling knowing that. 

I had planned the watch schedule very carefully, making sure George was on watch at 12:00 that was when it was to pick up. We were going to take 4 hour shifts. I don’t remember what happened to the watch schedule.  I just know that at 11:30 I took the helm and it had already picked up. George laid down in the cockpit instead of going below for his rest.  By 1:00 the rolls would put the rails almost in the water on one side then on the other side.  It was not happening but every few minutes. I was not scared just very very uncomfortable.  I had to hold on with both hands and plant my feet to keep my balance. Every muscle in my body was tense, some from nerves but mostly just to keep my balance.  I knew George had to get some sleep so I wanted to hold on for at least three hours.  About 2:00 the rolling had become very regular and I was exhausted from every muscle being tense. I told George,  “ You’ve got to take it.”  Of course he was aware of the rolling because of my occasional exclamations. At that time the wind was 22 to 28 knots and the seas were 4 to 6 feet with an occasional 8 foot wave on a 5 second period.  To make it worse the waves were on our beam which increases the rolling. George then turned 40 degrees off course to limit the rolling and make the ride slightly more comfortable.  As George was at the helm I was down below trying to pick up the mess below.  K cups were everywhere, the computer, ipad books coffee pot everything that was not in a cabinet was on the floor.  I was trying to put up things off of the floor,  but George told me just leave it because it was not safe to move around down below.  At 4:00 we were on the banks. Normally the banks are calm but that night they were only less rough. I took the watch back over about 4:30 and about daylight the seas calmed down.  The sunrise was a welcome sight.   We finally got to the anchorage around 3:00 pm on Monday and we had completed a 32 hour nonstop journey. We were still a little squirrely, as George calls it, from the night before. We had left over pizza for dinner, which is now a tradition.  We did not see the sunset that night, we were asleep long before that.  It was April’s Fools day …..just saying!

sunrise after a long night!

 

April 2, 2013

We weighed anchor early that morning for it was a full day sail to Powell Cay, our next anchorage.  We would have stayed another night at Great Sale anchorage to rest but needed to get through the Whale Pass by Wednesday before the winds picked up again. The seas were calm.  The waters were the beautiful deep aqua color that is so typical of the Bahamas.  George and I both agreed we were glad we came, even knowing the weather was to be that rough. All the rough seas were worth the effort.  We did not see any boats on our way to Powell.  We enjoyed a good meal of Bar B Que chicken on the grill and enjoyed the sunset.

grilling chicken

I thought this was an awesome reminder who is in control!

sunset at Powell

10 feet of water and you can still see the bottom!

Now that is a smooth sea!

Sunrise  at Powell!  Yes we left before first light to get through the Whale

The Whale

April 3, 2013

Today was our final leg of our trip to Marsh Harbour. The seas were as calm as they could be.  It was as if they were saying, ‘OK, you have proved yourself worthy, now enjoy!” Enjoy we did!  We were seeing sail boats all around us, the water was beautiful, the little settlements on the land also had a calming feel, these were all the sights we love about the Bahamas.  The camera just can’t capture all the beauty.

 We got to Mangoes Marina about 2:00. Of course Rey told us it was a starboard tie but as usual, we were going into the slip and it was a port tie.  Being the efficient crew and captain that we are, we had a perfect docking!  We had to wait for immigrations and customs to clear us before we could go anywhere.  The customs officer was a cute young lady named Nicole.  She was a very engaging and friendly.  After we were cleared we were off to Curly Tails, another tradition!  We saw our friend Greta, the waitress who always puts up with our craziness.  She was sad to hear that the rest of the group was not coming this year.  She said she had been thinking it was about time for us to be getting here.  

George and Greta,,...jealous Greg and Jack?

The view from Curly Tails

This one is for you , Charlotte !

Rey called Bill, a friend we made from years past, and handed to phone to George. George asked Bill and Rey over for steak tomorrow night. They accepted. As the song from the Barefoot Man goes, we are here to ”Harbournate” for a while!

Mangoes Marina