March 23, 2013 Treasure Key, Abaco



Carole looking at the sharks sleeping on the bottom behind our boat!

Great Guana Cay is such a nice place that we decided to stay for a couple of extra days to look around and relax. We went back to Nippers where we had been for the Barefoot Man's concert just to have a beer and walk the beach. We never get tired of the Bahamian beaches!

Beachin' at Nippers
 

Bahamian snow plow!



Jack and Darla's beautiful Outer Reefs 65

Why wouldn't they just cut it down!


 We moved the boat over to Fisher's Bay for a change in scenery and easy access to Grabbers Beach Bar. What's great about this place is you can have lunch and a drink as well as a swim in their pool while overlooking our boat in the bay. Our stay in Fisher's Bay also rewarded us with a beautiful sunset.

Treasure Cay is on the main island of Abaco. It was developed some years back as an exclusive resort community with its own airstrip. There's a great anchorage that's well protected and very busy when we were there. The water is clear as in most of the Bahamas.  You can see your anchor in twelve feet of water and you would think that there's only two feet of water under your boat.
Being able to see your anchor doesn't always mean that it's set well. A thunder storm came up one night around midnight along with rain and strong winds. We were still awake and after closing up the boat, we went up to the flybridge to watch the lighting. What we didn't expect to see was a sailboat moving by us at about 4 knots, dragging its anchor! The occupant was obviously asleep and unaware of his predicament, so Carole started yelling out the name of his boat (Music) and Roly was blowing the air horns of our boat to wake him up. When he emerged from his cabin, totally disoriented, he started his engine to stop his rearward movement as his boat was about to crash into the sea wall behind him. His buddy hopped into his dinghy in the pouring rain and lousy visibility to go over to help him by steering the boat while he tried to retrieve his anchor. As he was maneuvering the boat around the anchorage while still trying to get the anchor up, he side swiped our boat with his bow pulpit and hanging anchor. The owner of the sailboat, Roy, did manage to get his boat to the marina for the rest of the night. We didn't see the extent of the damage until the next day when we took our dinghy out around the boat. The gell coat along the hull was scratched up pretty bad and there was damage to the railings and rub rail which Roly had just replaced last year. Roy was quite the gentleman about the whole affair and called his insurance company to have our damage repaired. Would you believe that our insurance provider, who was also notified, is sending an adjuster all the way to the Bahamas to assess the cost of repair! You never know when you'll be part of an adventure!

The sailboat "Music" back at anchor

There's a resort and bar facing the anchorage called the Tipsey Seagull that serves great mango slushies, with rum of course and Fridays are pizza night. A large round pizza goes for $32 by the way and a beer sells for $6. Not a cheap night out when you stay to watch the band! The place was packed with tourists, boaters and even the locals show up later in the evening, with their young children!

Carole enjoying her mango rum slushy

 

 

 

Carole's buddy, "Flipper"

 

The next morning brought calm waters and beautiful sunshine so we left early for Marsh Harbour with a planned stop along the way to do some snorkeling and spearfishing. There's a couple of rock formations that stick out of the Sea of Abaco called the Two Sisters. This area seemed like a good prospect for lobster and we weren't disappointed as we bagged three for the supper table! It was a joint effort, Carole spotted them and Roly speared them with a "Hawaiian Sling", which is basically a spear with a rubber band on the dull end.  It can be a challenge when you miss the first time and the little critter takes off and you have to chase it while still holding the same breath! With one lobster still in the freezer from our catch in Freeport, we had a total of four, added a couple of steaks and voila, Surf and Turf!

Yum!

The Two Sisters lobster hideout

March 5, 2013 Abaco, Bahamas

Sorry that it takes so long to add to our blog but our WIFI access is not always good enough to allow us to upload our photos. For the same reason it's almost impossible for us to upload videos though we may try in the future.




A power boaters dream, flat seas!

On a beautiful Tuesday morning we departed Ocean Reef Resort for the Abaco chain of the Bahamas. We crossed Grand Bahama Island by way of the Lucayan Waterway which cuts through the center of the island and leads us to the northern coast and the Bahamas Bank. From there we set a course for Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited island where we would spend the night at anchor.  The seas were calm and the water was the aquamarine colour that you see in post cards. The anchorage was deserted, we had the place to ourselves. A beautiful sunset was replaced by a starry night that stretched down to the calm water to the point that we couldn't tell where the sky stopped and the sea began...totally amazing!
 

A beautiful sunset at Great Sale Cay



This rock is named "Center of the World", don't know why!

We had planned to stay here for a couple of days but the winds came up and forced our decision to move on. Our next stop was Green Turtle Cay, Abaco. There are two anchorages, White Sound and Black Sound which we both used while we were there. White Sound has two major resorts with great food and entertainment on certain nights.

Carole enjoying a Green Turtle Twister at Green Turtle Cay Resort
 

Black Sound is close to the settlement of New Plymouth, a small but clean little town that offered three small grocery stores, two hardware stores and a bank which only opened on Mondays and Thursdays! We rented a golf cart and toured the island one day. The views from the east shore over looking the Atlantic ocean were breathtaking!


While on Green Turtle we took the opportunity to dinghy over to a beautiful beach to let Carole do some shelling and photo taking.

Endless deserted beaches!

The island next to us is called "No Name Island", (really). We were cruising around slowly looking for conch when Roly spotted what looked like a small dog running on the beach. On a second look we realized that it was a piglet and not a dog at all. We beached the dinghy and the little boar came right up to us and Roly was able to pick him up and hold him!

My little Buddy!

After a moment, the mother of this little guy showed up along with four other sows and a boar as well as three other piglets. It was quite a sight to see all these animals come through the trees and down to the beach to greet us. We were a bit apprehensive at first because we had heard that they could be dangerous, but they just wanted to see if we had any food. They must be used to people because they let us pet them and were not aggressive at all. Carole fed them some granola bars that we had with us and immediately she became their best friend!

The weather window we were waiting for finally arrived on Wed. March 27th. The winds had been blowing from the north for many days preventing us from going through a passage out to the Atlantic called the "Whale Cay Passage." This can be a very dangerous stretch of water as many sailors lost there lives going through here at the wrong time. We headed through the fairly calm passage when the tide started falling which creates a condition called a rage, (the tide flows opposite the wind and causes some pretty big waves to build depending on the strength of the wind).  Well as you would guess, the tide and the wind picked up just as we were going through. With reefs on both side and the waves building, we had no choice but to keep on going. Three large waves crested as we went through them and really sent us for a ride, especially the last one. It's hard to estimate the height of a wave from the fly bridge but I would say 10' plus. What a ride!!! Coming down the back side of the last big wave caused the boat to hit the water hard and damaged our dinghy and dinghy cradle that sits at the top of our sundeck roof. The repairs were made when we arrived at our next anchorage in Great Guana Cay.

This pic was taken after we passed through Whale Passage. You can see the waves breaking over a small freighter that grounded because of hurricane Sandy last fall.

The reason we took the chance and travelled the Whale Passage in less than ideal conditions is because of an invitation from friends Ian and Michelle to attend a concert by a guy named Barefoot Man on Great Guana Cay. This musician is a local legend that performs concerts throughout the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands where he lives. He has a large following around here with the boaters that come in from far and wide to hear him play his funny and amusing party music. The crowd at Nipper's Bar on the beach was really rocking, young and old, and you could tell that they felt no pain. This was an afternoon concert which made for some really good pictures.

Ian, Roly and Michelle at the Barefoot Man concert.

View of the crowd at the bar from the third level.

 

Carole and the Barefoot Man, aka; George Nowak. 

 

I had to add the picture of this woman in the leopard print outfit. Check out her waist! Apparently she's in the Guinness Book of Record's for the smallest waist.  She's had her two lower ribs removed and other assorted surgeries to make her waist smaller and accentuate some of her other body parts! You meet all kinds of people in the Bahamas! 

The next day we got together with friends Ian, Michelle, Jack and Darla to do some snorkeling and try to get some lobster for supper. Well, no luck with the lobster but we did find a great lunch restaurant and then a beach bar where other boaters dinghied to as well for some entertainment by a local "Rape and Scrape Band".

Jack and Darla followed by Ian and Michelle.

No luck with the lobster but a great swim anyway!



Grabbers Beach Bar
 

"Rape and Scrape" band. The local music.

This guy is actually playing a hand saw, hope it doesn't slip and cut off his...

Ian decided that he wanted to try some deep sea fishing the next day so we hopped aboard his boat and the four of us headed out on the calm sea to try our luck.

A dozen or more dolphin decided to entertain us, the first we have seen in the Abacos.

We were in about three hundred feet of water when I got the first strike of the day. A feisty 12 lbs mahi mahi, what a beautiful fighting fish! It took a little while to land but with every ones help we got it aboard!


What a little fighter, thanks for the help Ian!

The second strike of the day was again on Roly's line, a 35 lbs wahoo! This guy measured out at 5' and was almost exactly the same size as the one Ian caught back in Freeport. When this fish took his lure, (a $7 Ace Hardware lure by the way), he thought he would strip all the line off of the reel but he managed to get him under control. His arms were a little tired after reeling in almost 300 yards of line with one pissed off fish on the other end!


Can't wait to eat you!

Our day of fishing produced two strikes for Ian which unfortunately didn't make it to the boat and one other unproductive strike for Roly as well. All and all, a great day on the water!

 

 

Ian teaching Roly how to clean wahoo and mahi mahi.

 

 

Two nurse sharks and a sting ray eating the scraps from the fish cleaning station.

Ian taught Roly how to clean our catch, (first time Roly's ever caught anything that big) and then we had a great feast back on our boat with an appropriate wine of course.

Thanks again Ian and Michelle for taking us along for a great day of "catching" fish!

 

Enjoying the fruits of our labour!

 

Feb. 28, 2013 - Ocean Reef Yacht Club and Resort

We've been here now for about three weeks and have been having a great time. As far as resorts go, it may not be a 5 star but it's     probably the best marina we've been to. Two pools and two restaurants, a hot tub, bar and many organized activities are a big plus. The staff have been friendly and helpful but the other boaters have been the reason this place has been so much fun.

 

Carole and Michelle enjoying line dancing at the Monday night "meet and greet"

 Some boaters come here year after year and spend their whole winter here. Others make it a yearly stop on their  way to other areas of the Bahamas. Most boats here are Canadian, it's like being back home when you see your flag being flown everywhere.



Life is tough!

The water here is crystal clear, we have had the chance to take the dinghy out to the reefs a few times to do some snorkeling and spear fishing. The abundance of colourful marine life is awesome. We've seen squid and moray eels as well as colourful parrot fish and sea horses. Roly swam over a couple of sharks while spear fishing that were about 8 and 10 feet long (I think he's exaggerating), they seem to be asleep on the bottom. He thinks he scared them...they certainly scared him!

Carole was in her glory feeding fish from a Ziploc bag full of bread. There were literally hundreds of them following her around. The water temperature here is about 78 to 80 degrees...beats the hell out of Lake Erie right now!

 

Scuba-dooba-doo!

 

Carole's buddies




Sea horse at our dock



This local legend " cooler guy", swims around all day pulling and filling his cooler with fish and lobster that he spears.



 

This 'unlocal' legend only got one lobster!

 So far Roly has only speared one lobster. They're hard to find as they always hide under rocks and reef ledges, but half the fun is looking for them.

Our dock neighbors Ian and Michelle from New Brunswick went out to try their luck at trolling one day and came back with a 4 foot wahoo. This monster came in at about 36 lbs which seemed a little light to me considering the length of it. We had a couple of good feasts on that fish. Ian gave us a couple of big steaks and we were invited to share a meal with them and another couple, Jack and Darla on their beautiful 65 foot Outer Reefs Yacht, (Roly's dream boat), what a treat! Thanks for preparing the great meal Michelle.



Yahoo for Ian's wahoo!

Ian, Darla and Jack
Feasting on wahoo aboard Jack and Darla's beautiful boat

Michelle, Roly and Carole

We had the pleasure of some company from back home. Brad and Rebecca, our good friends from Chippawa rented one of the time share units here at Ocean Reefs. It worked out that their apartment looked directly over our boat.

We went out to the Port Lucaya Marketplace where the girls could shop and the men went looking for a bar. This place is quite large, plenty of shops and restaurants as well as a straw market for those unique island gifts. We had a great meal at Sabor's restaurant, thanks Brad!



Rebecca and Brad enjoying a cold one.



Brad (Gilligan) knocking down coconuts

 

Thirsty for some fresh coconut water!

After dinner drink on the fore deck

Roly regressing back to his youth!





The winds didn't allow us to take the Rol & C's out for a ride on the Atlantic while they were here so we did the next best thing...we took the 10' dinghy with four people in it out in three foot seas, not only once but twice!!! Everyone got a salt water bath!



Spotted this ghost ship from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean on the way to the Port Lucaya Marketplace.

 One of those excursions took us to a nice beach where we walked and stopped for lunch at a beach stand that served conch salads and barbecued fish. Brad opted to have the head removed before cooking, I guess he didn't want his meal looking at him while he ate it! It was sad to see them leave after only 4 days but it was a lot of fun to have them here and to catch up with some old friends.

Showing off our bling on Oscar night!

It's now time to give our livers a well deserved break...well maybe not, we had our other neighbours, Devlin and Donna over for a few after the Monday night "meet and greet". The resort puts this on every Monday, free meal, Bahama Mamas and dancing. Can't pass that up!  

A group of kids from a local school visited the resort to get a demonstration on water safety from the BASRA (Bahamas Air-Sea Rescue Association) personnel stationed here at Ocean Reef. This association is staffed mostly by volunteers and depend on donations for funding of their program. As a boater, it's great to know you have people like this around if you need them.

By the way, Tom, the captain of Rescue 1, was also an extra on the movie Pirates of the Caribbean that was filmed locally. 

Roly's still in the process of painting the decks. It's taking time but it's coming along. He hope's to get it done by next week, that's when we plan on leaving here for the Abaco chain of the Bahamas. This place is very comfortable but we're getting restless and need to cruise and see other islands.