The next day we check out the pool, tiki bar and beach. We decide to ride bikes several miles to go see where the locals live, work and play. Stopped at a small bakery and ate a mystery meat pocket sandwich. It was really good, I think it was chicken with a brown gravy and spiced up with curry. The lady in the bakery suggested we try a conch salad and gave us directions to a little blue building on the waterfront. I had no knowledge as to how a conch salad is prepared and was curious to find out. We order a conch salad and watch the man in the conch shack clean and prepare the conch. I am guessing that the conch will be cooked and look around for a stove, a grill or a fryer. No cooking here, you eat it raw. This is a great tasting salad. The conch is tender and mixed with white onions, green peppers, green tomatoes and plenty of lemon juice. I added there spicy hot sauce. Just right with with a couple of local Bahamian Kalik beer's.
The housing in this area is scattered with unpainted and un kept run down structures. It looks like a storm came through 5 to 10 years ago damaging everything except the Methodist Church.
Ready to cruise towards the Abacos and anchor at Great Sale Cay and then Crab Cay. Great Sale Cay is 47 miles to our anchorage. We are cruising in 10' to 12' of the most beautiful sparkling turquoise water. After a couple of hours I spot a school of dolphins. Brandy goes to the bow to shoot a video of the dolphins playing in our bow wake. This is the highlight of our day. An awesome video of the dolphins in this clear water. You can see large starfish on the bottom. We anchor in Great Sale Cay with 15 sailing vessels.
Head out the next morning and run 46 miles Crab Cay. We are the first boat to arrive at this anchorage. Put the dingy in the water to go exploring and visiting the sailing vessels as they arrive arrive.
Today is a short day only 22 miles to Green Turtle Cay. We pick up a mooring ball in the harbor at White Sound. We take the dingy to Black Sound and visit the town New Plymouth. It is Saturday afternoon and most of the businesses are closed for the evening. We find a bakery named McIntosh's Bakery and it is open. We order a fried conch sandwich and fries. This sandwich is yummy, very tasty. Continue walking the town and taking photos of the pastel colored houses. A dingy ride back to the Bama Belle it is time to get ready for the sunset. A rum drink and some raggae music will get the evening sunset celebration started. We meet our neighbors, Chuck and Bonni Morrell on the sailing vessel "Stat Gazer". We discuss the aproaching windy weather and decide to go around "The Whale" tomorrow afternoon and find a protected harbor. We get around The Whale channel just fine. Pull into the old cruise ship channel, pass up Bakers Bay Mega Yacht Marina and tie up to a mooring ball at Great Guana Cay. This is the home of the well known Tiki Bar Restaurant "Nippers". Dinner is at Nippers with the Star Gazer crew. Nippers sits on top of a sand dune and has an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean. This is a white sandy beach with the waves crashing against the scattered coral mounds. The Sunday Nascar race is on the big screen TV in the covered bar area. Nippers is alot like The Flora Bama in Alabama but with coral and beautiful clear blue water.
The next day we go on a walking tour of Great Guana Cay. Over the hill is Fishers Bay and a shop called Dive Guana. We stop at a beachside tiki hut called Milos and buy lobsters and conch salad to prepare on the boat.
The next cay is Elbow Cay which has a charming little town called Hopetown and a well protected harbor with lots of mooring balls. Hopetown is known for its friendly people and a beautiful red and white historical lighthouse. We stayed at Hopetown Marina for a week. The local watering hole is a 200 yard dingy ride to Captain Jack's that has a good happy hour every afternoon. It was fun meeting the locals and learning the history about this cool little town. Hopetown was my favorite in the Abacos.
Treasure Cay has one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world. The main attraction here is the beach which extends for three miles in a semi circle. The water is a beautiful emerald green and also has a stunning turquoise blue channels. C.J. and I enjoyed conch burgers at CoCo's the tiki beach bar and restaurant.
After four weeks of cruising, fishing, cooking lobster every way you can and anchoring at beautiful white sand beaches and exploring all the Bahamian scenes with the dingy. It is time to head back to Florida. On our way back to Great Sale Cay, Ruby and I baited up the trolling rods. We were in 20' to 25' of clear water and running at 8.5 miles per hour for our three hour run. Fifteen minutes later the reel is screaming, Ruby says "fish on" it was fun to reel in a 8 to 10 lb cubera snapper. We baited up the rods again. Another fifteen minutes, screaming reels again. zzzzzz zzzzz I love that sound. Ruby reels in a 15lb. wahoo. He was smiling with joy when he said, "That is the biggest fish I have ever caught" this is a fun day of catching fish. We caught another wahoo about thirty minutes later. We were happy to fill our freezer with fresh fish . We anchored at Great Sale Cay along with another Canadian sailing catamarin. We saw a 12' shark swim by while we were anchoring. Ruby decided not to go for a swim this evening. lol
We had fun visiting and enjoying several drinks with Bruce & Val Marshall aboard there Windrush a 36' PDQ Catamarin.
All the sailboats were staying put the next day due to a 20 mph west wind, we have a westerly heading and a 54 mile run to Bahama Bay Resort & Marina at West End. The Bama Belle does fine heading into the wind and swells.
Another day cruising around the resort on bicycles and relaxing on the white sand beach and drinking cold Kalik beer. Tomorrow the weather is just right for a gulf stream crossing back to Florida.
We head out at daylight with several other boats. We all agree to stay in touch with the vhf radio. The weather is a little breezy at 12mph to 17mph and 3' to 4' swells rock us a bit. We averaged 9.5 mph and arrived at Saint Lucie Inlet with calm seas. We tied up at Sailfish Marina In Stuart, Fl.
