March 27 - ??, 2009 -- Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Now for the big wait. We will watch the weather window for an opening which is favorable to our crossing the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, to reach Florida’s East Coast. Until then, we will spend a few days in Marsh Harbor, and then make our way to West End, about two to three day trip, which is the jumping-off point for the Gulf Stream crossing.



There’s plenty to do here as we wait. Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast at a local eatery, Jamie’s Place. The Bahamian specialty for breakfast is Chicken Souse, which we ordered for the first time.


This dish is similar to a chicken stew or soup, with chopped chicken (bones and all!) and potatoes in a flavorful broth. It is served with sides of grits and Johnnycake, which is not cornbread here, but rather a sweet soda bread.



Next, it’s on to the art fair at a nearby resort, featuring lots of paintings, prints, sculptures and handmade jewelry by local artists.



Along the sidewalk, the local conch man has a stand where he makes conch salad from his catch. The salad is diced raw conch and vegetables, marinated in lime juice.


He also collects other interesting shells during his conching, like these Helmets and Tritan Trumpets.




On the dock just across the fairway, the marina’s two guard beagles make several patrols daily, sometimes alone just checking out the scene. At other times, they accompany boaters as they walk to and from their boats.



Rumor has it that they are big mooches, and have even been known to board visitor’s boats and eat the boater’s pet’s dog food.

March 23 - 26, 2009 - Lynard Cay

Friends John and Carol Nyland arrived today from St. Michaels, Maryland. John was Jerry’s college roommate. We enjoyed a brief cruise with them, anchoring in Lynard Cay,








shelling on the beaches and a fun but fruitless hunt for conch.

The area’s shoreline consists of jagged limestone. Marty lost her head on this shore!

John and Carol both enjoy boating, and we enjoyed having them. We will stop at their place in the Chesapeake in May as we work our way north.

March 18 - 22, 2009 - Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Every morning, we start the day with breakfast and the “Cruisers’ Net”, the VHF radio broadcast of weather, news and items of local interest. Then, we usually do a walk about of Marsh Harbor, where we enjoy the scenery, for instance, this buoy tree at the local fish market.
At the marina’s restaurant, Mangoe's, every Thursday evening, the featured entertainment is “Rake and Scrape” with the artist “Brown Tip”. Rake and scrape is an “Island ting”, where the artist plays CDs of Island music, and plays and sings along.

Brown Tip’s featured instrument is a carpenter’s saw. He holds the handle against his shoulder and the blunt end in his hand, forming a variable bent shape, and scrapes it with a fish fillet knife, in rhythm with the music. Maracas are played by his assistant, or often an audience member. It’s most interesting, and loud enough we can enjoy it from the aft deck of Monarch in her slip. Brown Tip’s other job is as a local diver; he hires out to clean boat bottoms.

March 13-17, 2009 - Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Now that our company has left, we knuckle down to boat chores. No sooner had Jim and Janet’s flight departed, and out came the blue tape and varnish, for some spiffing up.

This marina is a nice one for our purposes of boat chores and guest pick-up. We are meeting some fellow travelers, and enjoying their cruising stories. And of course, beautiful sunsets.

March 12, 2009 - Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Today was the trip back to Marsh Harbor, so Jim and Janet can catch their flight home tomorrow. The weather was fine, and we could see into the clear water.


Janet counted the starfish as we passed.

We dined on site at our marina, Mangoe's, and then enjoyed another beautiful sunset.

March 11, 2009 - Great Guana Cay, Abacos

Today’s stop is Great Guana Cay in the Sea of Abaco. We anchored in popular Frazier’s Bay, jumped in the dinghy and went exploring.


First stop is Nipper’s, a famous watering hole across the narrow island, right on the beach adjacent to the world’s third largest barrier reef. The establishment features occasional concerts – a recent one was Barefoot Man, locally famous for his Jimmy Buffet-like island music.

The place is painted in colorful Bahamian style. We next stopped by Orchid Bay, a new and very nice marina community on the point, with an attractive restaurant. On our walk back to the dock, we stopped at the local bakery for some coconut bread, which Janet will make into French toast tomorrow morning.

March 10, 2009 -- Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos

We are pleased to announce that the winners of yesterday’s name that location contest are Carl and Nancy Meyers of Marco Island, Florida. Mr. & Mrs. Meyers correctly identified the location as Hope Town, and win Goombay Smashes for two. They must pick them up aboard Monarch at their earliest convenience.


Bright and early the next morning, we upped anchor and headed north about 14 miles to Elbow Cay. Here, we anchored just outside Hopetown Harbor. The first order of the day was to defrost and clean our conch catch.

Jerry was on task with channel locks, grabbing the conch by its operculum, a horny, sickle-shaped end on the conch’s foot. A quick yank, and the entire conch is freed from the shell. We were fascinated to see its proboscis and two eyestalks, complete with tentacle and eye.




About half the conch appeared to be liver, entrails and other slime, and about half, meat. Janet and Marty did the honors of cleaning the three conch, which yielded about three pounds of good, white meat. Later that evening, Janet’s culinary skills were tapped, the conch was marinated in limejuice and Tabasco, dipped in a wonderful batter, deep-fried and we had the best conch we ever ate!

But first, into the dinghy for more exploration! We cruised right by Fran’s Fancy, the lovely cottage we have rented twice, on the shore of Elbow Cay. This brought back fond memories. Glad to report the dock gazebo has been rebuilt, complete with hammock!


We stopped in Hope Town on Elbow Cay for some shopping and sightseeing, then back to the boat for more snorkeling.











Tonight, the full moon rose over the Elbow Cay Lighthouse. The light, built in 1862, stands 120 feet tall, with 101 steps to the top.

March 9, 2009 - Lynard Cay, Abacos

This morning we snorkeled in Sandy Cay in the Pelican Cays Land and Sea Park, a marine preserve of the Bahamas National Trust. There were buoys for the dinghy, and we knew we were in the right area when a local dive excursion brought a boatload of tourists and picked up the buoy next to us. We had just finished our snorkeling, having seen beautiful parrotfish, blue tang and many types of coral.


After a quick lunch back aboard, we took the dinghy to the settlement at Little Harbor. Here, the attractions are a gallery and foundry established in the 1950s by internationally renowned sculptor/artist Randolph Johnston. Back then, his family lived in a cave here. Now, magnificent bronze lost wax castings are still produced by the founder’s son, Pete, and the gallery features these and other local artists’ work.

After an interesting dinghy landing (Janet got quite wet!), we took in the gallery.


Next door is the celebrated Pete’s Pub, owned by the gallery owner. At this beachfront, sand floor, open-air establishment, we had a refreshment......



and looked at outdoor bronze statuary.....

and just over the rise, the magnificent Atlantic.

We were back aboard in time for dinner and another beautiful sunset.

And here’s a bonus: name our next destination!

Special prize for the first one to answer correctly.

March 8, 2009 - Lynard Cay, Abacos

On the early morning high tide, we departed our marina in Marsh Harbor, which is about midway along the Abacos. The Abacos, a series of cays that stretch more than 160 nautical miles, are the northernmost part of the Bahamas. The outer cays form a chain that protects the islands of Little and Great Abaco from the restless Atlantic Ocean. These cays also define the eastern edge of the temperate, protected and beautiful Sea of Abaco. Our trip of about 28 nautical miles was the perfect powerboat cruise – calm seas and a nice breeze.


We anchored off Lynyard Cay, one of the barrier cays. After getting situated, we jumped in the dinghy to explore. Fellow cruisers had shared with us their secret conch location, and we headed for the Bight of Old Robinson. This was the first time any of us had gone “conching” and we weren’t sure exactly how to go about it. We first tried to spot them through the "lookie" bucket from the dinghy, on the bottom in shallow water, and then tried wading along the shore. At last we found an area with a few.

The conch must have a shell lip of at least ten inches to be legal, and we found three over the course of four hours of wading (compare that with the local conch guy who goes out for 45 minutes and comes back with 50 or so – he’s a pro!). The conch are covered with sea grass, which effectively camouflages them.
They crawl along the bottom by means of a “foot” which they can push out of their shell.

Returning to the boat, we scrubbed the shells clean and froze the conch in the shell. We had heard that the meat can then be removed without damaging the shell. The “pros” use a claw hammer to break into the shells, which is more efficient but leaves a hole in the shell.

While we waited for the conch to firm up in the freezer, dinner was a half turkey on the grill.

March 6-7, 2009 - Marsh Harbor, Abacos

Guests Jim and Janet Sass arrived for a week’s stay. They were glad to leave Washington, D.C.’s recent snowfall and cold weather. We were happy to see them. Since we had to wait for a favorable tide to leave our marina, we decided to spend the day seeing the town. The Sass’s, both being in the food business, suggest that you can tell a lot about a new community by visiting its grocery store, and so we did!

Also stopped by the bakery for some of that wonderful Bahamian bread, and dined at sunset that evening on lobster tails grilled by Jerry.

March 5, 2009 - Marsh Harbor, Abacos

We have arrived in Marsh Harbor, Abaco. We plan to stay for a month, off and on, here in a marina, which will allow us to pick up a couple sets of guests and explore the local islands.

We ate at our own marina's (Mangoe's) restaurant on “Italian night”, had great pasta and pretty good Caesar salad - not Jerry's, of course. The manager, who knows we're staying a month, is most solicitous. Tomorrow night at Mangoe's is rake and scrape, which is an Island entertainment thing, a guy playing a carpenter's saw with a fish fillet knife - we'll have to catch that!

Monarch looks much better now, after two days of washing the exterior and polishing the stainless. The salt was caked on her from our many days at sea and at anchor.

We’ve made new friends, Dana and Larry from near Spokane Washington, who are on a sailing catamaran here at the marina. Larry caught a large king mackerel, and brought over a big filet. Jerry did it on the barbeque - delicious! Enough left over for mackerel salad sandwiches on Bahamian toast for lunch.

February 28 - March 1, 2009 -- Buckaroon Bay, Abacos

We made the “big” crossing (51.5 miles) from Eleuthera to the Abacos, leaving the “far” Bahamas for the “near” Bahamas. The seas were 6 foot, moderate rolling swells. We passed several sailboats headed the same direction, and several heading the opposite direction. There are charted “highways” in the ocean, where traffic concentrates.

We passed through the Little Harbor Cut, into the protected waters of the Sea of Abaco. Now, after being in water over three miles deep in the ocean, we were in six feet of water!

The passes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Sea of Abaco are often very rough – and sometimes dangerous – when the wind direction is unfavorable. We had an easy entry in favorable winds. Wise boaters wait for favorable conditions to transit these, and are aided by the daily morning “cruisers net” radio broadcast, which covers weather, sea states, international news, and local community and business announcements.

We found a calm anchorage in Buckaroon Bay, after staying clear of the prominent sandbar, which had a Moorings charter sailboat stuck on it, high and dry, awaiting high tide for an embarrassed exit.

Our only other companion upon anchoring was a catamaran sailboat, with no civilization visible ashore. We were glad to have made the safe passage in the Atlantic Ocean, as in the night the wind piped up and is predicted to continue strong for a week.

February 25-27, 2009 -- Royal Island, Eleuthera

The 67 mile long passage from Rock Sound to Royal Island Harbour was with a beam sea, so we hugged the lee shore of Eleuthera for protection from the swells. There were many villages and settlements along the shore. We passed through narrow Current Cut, navigating very close to shore to stay in the deeper water.

Here, rip currents can run in excess of 5 knots. As we were almost at slack tide, we only had a 3.2 knot following current, boosting our speed.

Current Island residents park their cars here on the Eleuthera Island side, to use after they arrive by boat. The little village here was covered with a wall of water and battered by winds in excess of 200 MPH during Hurricane Andrew. They are still recovering.

Now we are at Royal Island, a secure anchorage and good jumping off place for the trip north to the Abacos. An elegant private estate was built here in the 1950s, but has fallen into ruin.


Now, developers are changing the uninhabited island into a resort with villas (these have canvas tent-like roofs), golf course and marina, all under construction. Boaters are no longer allowed ashore, but may still anchor in the protected harbor.

February 22-24, 2009 -- Rock Sound, Eleuthera

Watching the weather window carefully, we departed Black Point Settlement and spent a quick night at Highborne Cay, which we’ve blogged about before. This was the perfect jumping-off point for our hop to Eleuthera, one of the Bahamian out-Islands, also known as the “Far Bahamas.” While this area is only 26.3 nautical miles from Highborne, the North Atlantic Ocean chart depths reached over 1730 meters (more than a mile deep!) on our route. The day was a relatively calm one, bookended by the usual windy days. We have learned to take our opportunity to go when we can!

Eleuthera is known as the first Bahamian settlement and the first true democracy in the New World, founded in 1647. It is about 90 miles long, thin with little more than a 2 – 3 mile width, and crescent shaped.

Our first port-o-call here is Rock Sound. Here, where we walked the town, very sleepy on a Sunday afternoon.

Many houses are gaily painted with flowering shrubs.




About one mile east of town is the famous “Ocean Hole.”

This completely landlocked tidal lake is rumored to be bottomless. Fish find their way into it through subterranean tunnels from the sea. The fish were eager to be fed!










We ate lunch at Sammy’s Place with its homey atmosphere and excellent cooking. Conch fritters were a big hit.

At Rock Sound we found the best supermarket since leaving Nassau, and a complete if somewhat dusty hardware store. Also, stopped by Nat Hall’s Produce Stand for fresh tomatoes.