Gregory Town, Spanish Wells, Little Harbour, Hope Town and Marsh Harbour

5/9/09

Staying an extra couple of days anchored in Annie Bight just off Gregory Town was really great. The Laughing Lizard Café not only had an excellent lunch menu (yumm – a big green veggie laden salad covered with a mound of jerk chicken!) but it also had free internet and lots of interesting local traffic and conversation. It is right across the street from where Lenny Kravits (sp?) has his place. We took that afternoon to walk all around an old family compound that was on the bluff overlooking Annie Bight. The views were quite spectacular from all different areas of this spot and we got some great pictures of the boat in the bight.

At one point during our stay in Annie Bight a guy named Adam and his big dog swam up to the boat to just ask about it, came aboard for a tour (fortunately the dog went ashore because I’m not sure we could have gotten him on the boat) and it turns out he is a former competitive sailor. He is a local native from Nassau and realtor who also happens to work tending Lenny Kravits' organic vegetable farm. He asked if he could hitch a ride with us as far as we were going the next day so he and his French wife came aboard for the sail to Spanish Wells. They were really a great young couple and it was lots of fun to hear all about the local culture, land deals, history, etc. all along the way. During this trip David caught a Barracuda which was much better than the string of Lizard Fish he had caught during previous sailing days. As we came into Spanish Wells Adam gave us the local take on the Spanish Wellsians (always makes my mind go to the Ellen Jamsiens from John Irving’s The World According to Garp just because my brain is weird that way) and it really is quite different from the Bahamian Islands we have visited to date. It almost puts one in mind of a small New England fishing village. Adam and his wife also were very generous in their gift to us of several grocery bags full of freshly picked vegetables, fruit and herbs. What a treat! We found out later that night that Cocoa has thing for dried Coriander. Go figure!

The next day we left Spanish Wells and went to the ocean by way of Gun Point which was really quite beautiful with loads of coconut palms and wide sweeping vistas of both the harbour and the ocean. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze and big, easy, evenly spaced ocean swells. At least the swells seamed OK to me until I went below and found out that they were definitely not OK with the kitties. Poor babies. I really need to get better at determining just when to administer the Dramamine. But, we made it safely to Little Harbour in the Abacos, after a 60 mile run across the open Atlantic, passing along the way the visual spectacle of the “boilers” which is where the big ocean surf runs into a reef just off the coast of the southern part of the Abacos. It looks as though there are just huge bursts of water being spit directly up into the air out of the ocean. We anchored for the night just outside of Little Harbour and then moved this morning into Little Harbour where we picked up a mooring for the day and went ashore for lunch at Pete’s Pub and a tour of the Randolph and Peter Johnston Gallery – beautiful sculpture! We took a little dinghy tour around the harbor and found on the far side away from Pete’s Pub what looks to actually be a cave for sale. Do you suppose that is anything like having swamp land for sale in Florida?

5/11/09

Yesterday we took a quick tour through Hope Town and saw the sites from the Hope Town Lighthouse. It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular. The lighthouse itself was pretty impressive, as well. Since it was Sunday there was not much open in the town so we are hoping to go back there in the next day or two to take in the galleries, little shops and hopefully, a coffee house before moving on to Man-o-War Cay and Guana Cay.

After Hope Town we came into Marsh Harbour to anchor for the night and today we have done some wandering around town. It is quite different here in that it is like a real town with real shops, grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. I feel as though we have come in from the outback. David and I were just wandering around one of the grocery stores like we had never before seen fresh produce or fresh packaged meat. It is quite amazing what we get used to and take for granted every day in the States. We have met some folks here that spend the summer months taking boy scouts out for a week at a time on their vessels and they have some great stories to tell. The kitties are happy that we are anchored in a calm harbour and right now it is all hands and paws on deck to enjoy the sunny afternoon. It is another fabulous day in paradise!