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!