Sunday, March 6, 2011
Video of Sandy and Kim's Visit
Sandy and Kim made a cute video of their visit, showing the lifestyle we lead while living here. It may be found at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVBInLhypNk . The most excellent and appropriate music is by the Barefoot Man.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Good Times in February:
Life in the Abacos in February was just as you would hope. Almost every day the temperatures were in the 75 to 80 F range and the breezes were light.
Of course, this was expected since we had rented a marina dock space so that we would have somewhere secure to hide in the event of nasty weather. I firmly believe that as a direct result of this action, there was little nasty weather. This is something like carrying spare parts in anticipation of a mechanical breakdown. Nothing for which you have spare parts will break - ever. The only things that will break will be those things for which you have no spare parts with the probability of failure going up with the difficulty of buying those needed parts.
Of course this also meant that within days of our marina dockage expiring, the wind started howling. And as a result of that, we have been holed up for several days in Little Harbour, at the very foot of the Sea of Abaco, where I am now updating this blog.
We have spent a lot of time roaming beaches.
Sometimes searching for sea glass - sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. These people, Bruce and Gail, do some wonderful work turning sea glass into jewelry. You can find samples of their work in many of the gift shops.
Here is some of the glass that we collected in Lyniard Cay, early in the month.
We organized a lobster hunt where people came on our boat with their dinghies in tow. We did not catch many on that occasion but it did earn us an invitation to a lobster pig-out where sever lobster hunters pooled their bounty for a joint feast. Our contribution was conch salad made by Beverley from conchs we had found a few days before.
Cleaning a conch. What a messy job!!! You would not believe the amount of slime there is inside. We also tried a different approach. We took a couple of the biggest ones and froze them. The idea was that after thawing, the conch meat would be removable without cutting the shell. This would make a nicer horn. This was a good idea except that it did not work. We did, however, manage to clean these conchs by making a smaller hole in the shell than would otherwise be required.
Hanging around the dock had some added benefits. I got a free trip to the top of Mskoki's mast. The view of the marina was beautiful. I was thankful when they decided to let me come back down.
It also allowed us to attend a "low country boil": potatoes, onions, corn on the cob, other vegetables and lots and lots of shrimp. The recipe supposedly comes from Louisiana. The food after cooking, the food is dumped on newspaper where it becomes finger food. In Louisiana, they must have good appetites because we had twice as much as we could possibly have eaten.
Food being served. Not perhaps high society but really good!
We had parties on our own boat: one with 15 people that overflowed from the sun-deck to the fly-bridge.
A pretty sober looking crew!
Overflow to the fly-bridge
Ladies enjoying themselves - probably talking about us guys! Why are they laughing so much?
My sister, Sandy, and her husband, Kim, visited us for a week. It was fun taking them around to see all the sights.
The water over this star fish was 5 or 6 feet deep yet you could see it extremely clearly on this very calm day.
Every day at 5 PM, the people on the dock would get together for happy hour. This is Bev arriving with our food contribution. I had already taken over drinks and chairs.
Sandy and Bev at Little Harbour searching for sea glass.
Toute la gang at Pete's Pub in Little Harbour. There have been some major improvements to this bar over the last year. Some parts of it now have a roof!!!
Brad taking a picture of all of us. This is how he looks when he is sober!!
These are shots of Sandy and Kim touring Hope Town and Treasure Cay with us.
Sandy and I at the top of the Hope Town Lighthouse. She is a little leery of heights so I am not sure if this was a smile or a grimace.
Panorama of what you see.
We arranged for dolphins to swim in our bow wave while they are here.
We have also been forming a southern branch of Trident Yacht Club.
Showing the Trident burgee at Hope Town.
Moored beside "Wet and Wild" from Trident Yacht Club in Gananoque, Ontario, Canada.
Happy Hour with John and Rhoda from Wet and Wild.
The amazing thing about February is that hardly anything has broken on the boat. Instead of spending all my time fixing things, I have been able to enjoy life!
May the good times continue! These really are the good old days. Today! Right now!
As long as our livers hold out!
Of course, this was expected since we had rented a marina dock space so that we would have somewhere secure to hide in the event of nasty weather. I firmly believe that as a direct result of this action, there was little nasty weather. This is something like carrying spare parts in anticipation of a mechanical breakdown. Nothing for which you have spare parts will break - ever. The only things that will break will be those things for which you have no spare parts with the probability of failure going up with the difficulty of buying those needed parts.
Of course this also meant that within days of our marina dockage expiring, the wind started howling. And as a result of that, we have been holed up for several days in Little Harbour, at the very foot of the Sea of Abaco, where I am now updating this blog.
We have spent a lot of time roaming beaches.
Sometimes searching for sea glass - sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. These people, Bruce and Gail, do some wonderful work turning sea glass into jewelry. You can find samples of their work in many of the gift shops.
We organized a lobster hunt where people came on our boat with their dinghies in tow. We did not catch many on that occasion but it did earn us an invitation to a lobster pig-out where sever lobster hunters pooled their bounty for a joint feast. Our contribution was conch salad made by Beverley from conchs we had found a few days before.
Cleaning a conch. What a messy job!!! You would not believe the amount of slime there is inside. We also tried a different approach. We took a couple of the biggest ones and froze them. The idea was that after thawing, the conch meat would be removable without cutting the shell. This would make a nicer horn. This was a good idea except that it did not work. We did, however, manage to clean these conchs by making a smaller hole in the shell than would otherwise be required.
It also allowed us to attend a "low country boil": potatoes, onions, corn on the cob, other vegetables and lots and lots of shrimp. The recipe supposedly comes from Louisiana. The food after cooking, the food is dumped on newspaper where it becomes finger food. In Louisiana, they must have good appetites because we had twice as much as we could possibly have eaten.
Food being served. Not perhaps high society but really good!
We had parties on our own boat: one with 15 people that overflowed from the sun-deck to the fly-bridge.
A pretty sober looking crew!
My sister, Sandy, and her husband, Kim, visited us for a week. It was fun taking them around to see all the sights.
The water over this star fish was 5 or 6 feet deep yet you could see it extremely clearly on this very calm day.
Every day at 5 PM, the people on the dock would get together for happy hour. This is Bev arriving with our food contribution. I had already taken over drinks and chairs.
Toute la gang at Pete's Pub in Little Harbour. There have been some major improvements to this bar over the last year. Some parts of it now have a roof!!!
Brad taking a picture of all of us. This is how he looks when he is sober!!
Panorama of what you see.
We arranged for dolphins to swim in our bow wave while they are here.
We have also been forming a southern branch of Trident Yacht Club.
The amazing thing about February is that hardly anything has broken on the boat. Instead of spending all my time fixing things, I have been able to enjoy life!
May the good times continue! These really are the good old days. Today! Right now!
As long as our livers hold out!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Life at Treaure Cay: Continuing our journey to the Dark Side
On Feb 27, we set out from Green Turtle for Treasure Cay. The weather was delightful.
When we arrived, friends offered to put us up at a dock in return for a few favours we had done for them and, I believe, to entice us to stay.
We had just been through several nights of interrupted sleep. Last year, February was a month weather front after weather front at about 3 day intervals. This contrasted sharply with the first year we were here when they came through about every 10 days.
Treasure Cay has a special dock rate every January and February ($500/month), so I thought I would do my bride a favour and rent a dock for 30 days. (When moma is happy, everybody is happy.) This made moma very happy.
Treasure Cay Marina as seen from the flybridge of the R&B Haven
Now if this seems a pretty lazy and comfortable lifestyle, it is.
Not only do you have easy access to the land for walks, even when the wind howls, but you get invited to things that you would otherwise miss.
Birthday party at the property of Dave and Tony, the people who accepted our dirty diesel.
Bev preparing an appetizer. Everyone brings something to eat and whatever they want to drink.
Dave, the birthday boy
Tiesha hiding from the other dogs.
After meal sing-song.
A lobster hunt: Dingys were taken from Treasure Cay Marina to a local beach where the ladies set up shop. The guys then went hunting for lobster. Emery and I got skunked (I found 2 but they were too small) but Brad and Scott bagged 4.
Ladies on the beach, supervising.
While I was cleaning diesel out of our bilges, the other guys went offshore fishing. They bagged their limit. A fish fry was then organized at someone's house and the meal was followed by a hootenany.
Brad and Karen chose a strategic location to play and to sing. Karen brought printed sheets of song words.
We would not have been invited to any of these things if we were not at the dock.
It is now February 7 and the first weather front since we checked in to Treasure is just now arriving. The weather has been beautiful - not at all like last year. Even with the passage of the front, there is only a 20% probability of rain and even that will likely happen in the evening.
When the weather is good, I get restless.
We have taken a number of tours to other islands and to other resorts. The photos that follow are meant to give an idea of our lifestyle.
Bev quilting on our sun-deck. She has pretty well finished this quilt over the last 2 weeks.
Walking the beach at Treasure Cay
The beach at Treasure. The white sand is as fine as flour. When the sun shines, the turquoise colour of the water is truly stunning.
Our boat was originally named the Georgia Girl. This boat, the Georgia, was tied up at the end of our dock and is over 110 feet long. Bev wanted to know if it could be our next boat!
Bev walking the beach again at Treasure
Yacht Harbour at Great Guana. Note that there are no boats. The Canadians are here but there are few Americans. The Bahamian economy must really be feeling the pinch.
This is a poisonwood tree. If you touch it you will get a poison ivy like rash. If you even walk under it during a rain storm, you will get a poison ivy like rash. On some islands these trees are very prevalent.
The colourfull bar at Nipper's. Their rum slushies are mostly rocket fuel.
More of the bar at Nippers. Nippers inspired us to create our own rum punch. You take a gallon of fruit punch ($3.95) from the grocery store at Treasure Cay. You pour out 60 ounces. You then fill it back up with Bacardy Gold ($15 for 1.75 liters). Put it in the freezer for a couple of days until it turns to slush and voila, R&B Haven rum punch!
Walking the beach at Nipper's
Bev on the Beach near Nippers
More Nippers Beach.
Who says you have to go the Exumas to experience heat? This thermometer was in the sun, but it also read 80F when it was still in the shade.
Beach at Hope Town. This is one of our favourite spots to hunt sea glass which we then use for making "fun" jewelry.
The Jib Room in Marsh Harbour had a conch cleaning and conch horn making demonstration. Bev volunteered to be a guinea pig. Here she is cleaning the conch.
Here is her prize! The guy doing the demonstration then turned the conch into a really yummy salad using mostly just conch, orange coloured limes and some spices.
Bev, the good sport as always, blowing a conch to show how it is done.
On the way back to Treasure, we stopped for our own lobster hunt. I only got one, but it was a good size!!
Bev on the Beach again.
Tomorrow will bring another day. We are hoping to take a crowd on the R&B Haven to one of the good lobster spots. We will tow a number of dingys with us so that people can set up camp on shore if they like. They can also use the dingys to go out to the rocks where the lobsters are most commonly found and will return in the late afternoon.
At the beginning of this trip, I felt like I was always spending all my time fixing things. We are now at the stage where I feel like I am able to adventure and enjoy myself also.
Life is good!
When we arrived, friends offered to put us up at a dock in return for a few favours we had done for them and, I believe, to entice us to stay.
We had just been through several nights of interrupted sleep. Last year, February was a month weather front after weather front at about 3 day intervals. This contrasted sharply with the first year we were here when they came through about every 10 days.
Treasure Cay has a special dock rate every January and February ($500/month), so I thought I would do my bride a favour and rent a dock for 30 days. (When moma is happy, everybody is happy.) This made moma very happy.
Treasure Cay Marina as seen from the flybridge of the R&B Haven
Now if this seems a pretty lazy and comfortable lifestyle, it is.
Not only do you have easy access to the land for walks, even when the wind howls, but you get invited to things that you would otherwise miss.
Birthday party at the property of Dave and Tony, the people who accepted our dirty diesel.
Bev preparing an appetizer. Everyone brings something to eat and whatever they want to drink.
Dave, the birthday boy
Tiesha hiding from the other dogs.
After meal sing-song.
A lobster hunt: Dingys were taken from Treasure Cay Marina to a local beach where the ladies set up shop. The guys then went hunting for lobster. Emery and I got skunked (I found 2 but they were too small) but Brad and Scott bagged 4.
Ladies on the beach, supervising.
While I was cleaning diesel out of our bilges, the other guys went offshore fishing. They bagged their limit. A fish fry was then organized at someone's house and the meal was followed by a hootenany.
Brad and Karen chose a strategic location to play and to sing. Karen brought printed sheets of song words.
We would not have been invited to any of these things if we were not at the dock.
It is now February 7 and the first weather front since we checked in to Treasure is just now arriving. The weather has been beautiful - not at all like last year. Even with the passage of the front, there is only a 20% probability of rain and even that will likely happen in the evening.
When the weather is good, I get restless.
We have taken a number of tours to other islands and to other resorts. The photos that follow are meant to give an idea of our lifestyle.
Bev quilting on our sun-deck. She has pretty well finished this quilt over the last 2 weeks.
Walking the beach at Treasure Cay
The beach at Treasure. The white sand is as fine as flour. When the sun shines, the turquoise colour of the water is truly stunning.
Our boat was originally named the Georgia Girl. This boat, the Georgia, was tied up at the end of our dock and is over 110 feet long. Bev wanted to know if it could be our next boat!
Bev walking the beach again at Treasure
Yacht Harbour at Great Guana. Note that there are no boats. The Canadians are here but there are few Americans. The Bahamian economy must really be feeling the pinch.
This is a poisonwood tree. If you touch it you will get a poison ivy like rash. If you even walk under it during a rain storm, you will get a poison ivy like rash. On some islands these trees are very prevalent.
The colourfull bar at Nipper's. Their rum slushies are mostly rocket fuel.
More of the bar at Nippers. Nippers inspired us to create our own rum punch. You take a gallon of fruit punch ($3.95) from the grocery store at Treasure Cay. You pour out 60 ounces. You then fill it back up with Bacardy Gold ($15 for 1.75 liters). Put it in the freezer for a couple of days until it turns to slush and voila, R&B Haven rum punch!
Walking the beach at Nipper's
Bev on the Beach near Nippers
More Nippers Beach.
Who says you have to go the Exumas to experience heat? This thermometer was in the sun, but it also read 80F when it was still in the shade.
Beach at Hope Town. This is one of our favourite spots to hunt sea glass which we then use for making "fun" jewelry.
The Jib Room in Marsh Harbour had a conch cleaning and conch horn making demonstration. Bev volunteered to be a guinea pig. Here she is cleaning the conch.
Here is her prize! The guy doing the demonstration then turned the conch into a really yummy salad using mostly just conch, orange coloured limes and some spices.
Bev, the good sport as always, blowing a conch to show how it is done.
On the way back to Treasure, we stopped for our own lobster hunt. I only got one, but it was a good size!!
Bev on the Beach again.
Tomorrow will bring another day. We are hoping to take a crowd on the R&B Haven to one of the good lobster spots. We will tow a number of dingys with us so that people can set up camp on shore if they like. They can also use the dingys to go out to the rocks where the lobsters are most commonly found and will return in the late afternoon.
At the beginning of this trip, I felt like I was always spending all my time fixing things. We are now at the stage where I feel like I am able to adventure and enjoy myself also.
Life is good!
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