March 31,2013 Little Harbour, Abaco

Our next stop after Tilloo Cay was a beautiful and well protected little harbour appropriately named Little Harbour!

Back in the early1950s, a Toronto born sculptor and artist by the name of Randolf Johnston left his life as a college professor in Northampton, Massachusetts and sailed his boat along with  his wife and four children down to the Bahamas. With no particular destination in mind, they settled in what is now, Little Harbour. In true Swiss Family Robinson style, they lived in caves, built thatched huts and eventually a foundry for Randolf's bronze artwork.

One of Randolf's sculptures

The Johnston Art Gallery
Check out the "speed bump", a piece of large diameter rope on the sand road!

 We had a chance to tour the art gallery that Randolf's son, Pete now runs. His own as well as his father's art work are displayed there for sale to the public. Carole wouldn't let Roly buy a six foot sculpture of a nude woman...don't know why, it would have looked great on the sundeck! Pete Johnston is the only family member that still keeps a relatively high profile in the area. He owns and operates Pete's Pub, the only place to get a drink and a meal for miles around.

 

 

As you can see, Pete's is not a formal type of bar, it's ok to take a nap on the floor when you're tired!

You know that Pete's is a pretty popular place with the boaters as you look up at the rafters and see all the T-shirts with the names of their previous owners written on them. Not to be outdone, we added our own shirt to the collection. 



We made good use of a gag t-shirt given to us by our friends, Brad and Rebecca!

Marlon Marina dock #1 has now been immortalized at Pete's Pub!

We took a step back in history and walked through the caves where the Johnston family took refuge from the elements. Not a place where we would want to live. It was dangerous just walking around in there, let alone spending any time at all living there! 

The Johnston cave

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Little Harbour is the southern most area of Abaco that we explored this year. At this point we headed back northward, retracing some of our steps and stopping at some of the Cays that we missed on the way south.

 



 

Tilloo Cay - March 30

 A short ride to Tilloo Cay so we just pulled the dinghy

With the winds in our favour, once again we headed south. Our plan was to find a nice secluded cove to anchor in and explore. We stumbled upon a beautiful stretch of beach on a deserted part of Tilloo Cay. Being Easter weekend we had the company of a couple of sailboats in the anchorage, so much for seclusion! None the less, we headed for the beach in the dinghy. The tide was low so it made for great shelling and conching as it turns out. While Carole walked in one direction on the beach Roly walked into the water in the other direction and was excited to see conch in the ankle high water. He collected two of the biggest ones that he found and put them in our bucket that's kept in the dinghy. Carole found a bright red sponge and some sea biscuits and shells.

Very old anchor chain that looks like it could have come from the 1800's



Tahiti Beach with our boat in the background

Fish swimming close to our feet

Roly's big find

We then started walking south on the beach to what looked like a resort and golf course. We were greeted by the owner Ray as we approached. We asked if there was a bar to quench our thirsts but he explained that his was a private resort and guests were there by invitation only. As we made our apologies for trespassing and started to turn around, Ray invited us up for a drink. We took him up on his invitation and walked up the stairs to his house.  Yes, the building that we thought was a resort, was actually his home! The resort was the buildings behind the house along the golf course. He explained that he is now in semi retirement and that's the reason for the "by invitation only". He offers up invitations as donations for charity fund raisers as well as to celebrities. Apparently Greg Norman, the pro golfer, has been a guest on more than one occasion. Ray and his wife Linda, gave us a tour of their home and property. The 13 hole golf course was at the highest point of land and afforded an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Sea of Abaco to the west. Ray bought the land 30 years ago for a measly million dollars! I shudder to think of what it might be worth today! Thanks again for the drinks and hospitality Ray & Linda. You meet the nicest people at the beach!



Ray & Linda on their very long porch

Their house from afar

View from their backyard and golf course

 

Had to take a picture of this. He had 2 clay urns
about 2 feet high filled with wine bottle corks.
He must love wine as much as we do!



This birdhouse is one of many created by Ray himself. This one was made up with 250 wine corks!

Upon our return to the boat, Roly got to work on cleaning the 2 conchs. Being a first timer at this, it was quite a long tedious job.



Made a few holes trying to find the right spot





                 



After trying to pull the creature out with plyers for the longest time, it finally came out.

Insides of the conch


He got to work afterwards cutting off the unwanted parts until it was only white meat left. It was sooo hard that we pounded it with the back of a clever then cut it up and made our conch salads.

Our supper of conch salad and a turkey (fishy) burger, lol

The salad had a great salsa taste with the onions, tomatoes, peppers, lime and orange juice, but the conch was just way too hard to chew, (it was like eating cartlidge). Found out later that this type of conch was not the edible ones, hahaha!

Hopetown, Elbow Cay, March 28

Hopetown Lighthouse

Hopetown is the nicest settlement we have had the pleasure of visiting. It's located at the north end of Elbow Cay with a protected harbour complete with an authentic lighthouse that still uses kerosene to power its light. The glass mantel that revolves around the flame is mechanically rotated similar to a watch movement and must be cranked by hand every two hours of every night, 365 days a year! This lighthouse is one of three of its kind that still exists in the world and all three are in the Bahamas. The full time lighthouse keeper lives in a house at the base of the tower. Open to the public, tourist are welcomed to climb the 101 step circular staircase to the top. Being the full time tourists that we are, we took the challenge and climbed up to the most spectacular view in the Islands. Our pictures will describe the view much better than we can. Roly was fascinated by the mechanical apparatus that rotates the lens but getting out of bed every two hours and climbing all those stairs to crank the spring is not a job for him!

Rol & C's anchored in the center

Beautiful Bahamian Water
 (make sure to adjust your screen to get the full effect of the water colors)

Climbing those stairs was a piece of cake, ugh!

Roly checking out an old piece of furniture in the lighthouse



Roly trying to hold it in, lol

Walking through the narrow streets, we were amazed at the colourful pastel painted homes and small businesses. The village is clean and shows the pride of the community.

Very narrow streets

We tried renting a golf cart for a day trip but after calling all the rental outfits on the island and found none available, we settled for bicycles! The day became an abbreviated "pedal til you puke" as we stopped at every bar we found! I believe it was the Hopetown Inn that had the coldest and first draft beer I found since we left the USA. This is where we ran into Mark, our neighbour at the harbour moorings. Mark's boat is named the Dixie Chicken and we had a chance to hear him play the blue grass music that must have inspired the name of his sailboat. He plays a mean slide Dobro guitar!

Roly enjoying a Marguerita at the Firefly

Noticed this during our bike ride

Looking out at the Abaco Inn

 

The water colour here is even more intense than the northern area of the Abacos. The blues and aquas are so rich that even after being here for two months, we're still mesmerized by their hues and clarity. We see many more sea turtles and stingrays here as well as starfish and conch that makes us want to snorkel even more. Hopetown will be a definite stop on our way back north.

 

 

Marsh Harbour, March 22, 2013



View from our boat in Marsh Harbour

Marsh Harbour is the biggest town on the island of Abaco and it even has a traffic light! If you need supplies, this is the place. They have a large grocery store like we would find back home, a very well stocked hardware store that probably carries everything you would need except the two bolts that Roly looked for to repair our windlass! He improvised! They also have some pretty good restaurant/bars! Of course we tried as many as we could! Great drinks and cracked conch at Curlytails, huge Angus beef burgers at Zappas, awesome ribs at the Jibroom! We are always on the lookout for local delights. Can't get enough of coconut bread or monkey cheese! Even the liquor stores are a must stop. Roly was surprised to find some Forty Creek Rye and wines made in the Niagara Region. Another great stop was Mangoes Marina. Excellent prices and even better service thanks to Ray, by far the best dock master we've come across! The winds were quite strong while we were there, one of our dock lines was frayed so bad Roly had to cut it back. 

Party at the Jibroom

Up at Curlytail Lounge

We had a chance to meet up with our insurance adjuster who flew in from Florida. He examined and took pictures of the boat and gave us a ball park estimate of the repair cost, NOT CHEAP!

While in March Harbour we took on fuel for the first time since we left Florida Feb. 5. $6.27 per US gal. OUCH! In the Bahamas you usually have to pay for water. We have been charged up to $.35 per gallon for water in some places! Electricity is usually metered at the docks and can run as high as $.65 per kilowatt hour. Back home, I believe we were paying something like $.17 per kw/hr.

Every day at sun down there is a tradition amongst the boaters. Participants gather at the end of their docks to blow their horns, and by horns we mean conch shell horns! They make holes in the end of large conch shells and "play" them much like you would play a trumpet! Pretty hard to miss when your docked at the end of a dock and a chorus of horn blowers start their symphony a few feet from our ears!

Sundown Conch Blowers

Saw this during one of our walks, lol