Bahamas Recap

Bahamas Recap

Some interesting stats

·       Nights in marinas or on mooring balls  = 15

·       Nights on the hook = 28

·       Gallons of water purchased = 300? for a total of 80$ - does not seem to justify several thousand for a water maker?

·       Grocery stores visited = 100 % - our favorite was Maxwells in Marsh Harbor – pricy but stocked with everything. Most places had dry goods galore and only minimal fresh produce –  and then only on the day the shipments arrived. But eggs were easy to find as well as fresh milk – sort of.

·       Bakeries – visited everyone we heard about from Bimini to Spanish Key – have to give the highest points to Hudson’s in Treasure Cay for those warm cinnamon buns.

·       Fish caught after the 1^st week = ZEROish

    can we count the not so tasty ones that jump in the boat?

·       Rum drinks consumed? (OK, too many to count???)

A brief listing of the good, the bad and the ugly from our six weeks in the Bahamas

Good – there were many

1.    Water – it is really as clear and sparkling as advertised, and it comes in every shade of blue, green and aqua imaginable. The eye never tires seeing these crystal waters but us boaters do need to learn how to read the deceiving depths.  (New toy – hand held depth sounder – came in handy more than once.)

2.    People – those we met on other boats and those we met on shore.  Especially the stories of Red Boy’s Ice Cream and Vert’s models stand out as well as Donny in Black Sound.

3.    Anchorages = too many to list that provided safe and roomy scenic places to hang out, swim, dive, beach comb or launch a dink adventure. 

4.    Favorite stop (not an anchorage) is New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay.  It felt like a real town inhabited by local people not just a charming tourist destination – and we visited many of those as well.

5.    Best travel buddies ever – Marty and Suzanne – who but perfect people would hang around with us for most of six weeks and still remain friends? It was a pleasure and an honor to spend many leisure hours together not to mention countless hours following or tag teaming them from anchorage to anchorage. Finer friends we could not have…. They saved us with loan of a cell phone from day one and up to the last moment were relaying weather from their satellite service to guide us safely into port. 
                                    

Bad

Bugs, bugs and more bugs – favorite sign – “if only mosquitoes sucked FAT instead of blood!” Sadly for Julia they prefer her blood as do the no-seeums and everything else that was biting.  The big flies actually drew Steve’s blood.

Ugly                                                        

Setting the anchor – Captain Steve dove, snorkeled or bucket checked our anchor every time to make sure it dug in.  After repeatedly trying all three of our anchors, we had the best luck with our aluminum Fortress. Go figure. A new anchor maybe in our future….

Lessons learned

We used Bahama WiMax to stay connected plus a sim card for data on our Ipad. Between those and the occasional marina WIFI we managed to get weather and e-mail. Thanks again to the Tucks for the loan of their phone when the one we brought refused to work. Thanks also to Suzanne for unlocking the mystery of the Ipad sim swap.

The food we brought was about the right amount to avoid buying those pricey items – Steve may even have a bag of chips for the trip home. We did have to restock some fresh items – when we saw them or get by with some canned substitutes – ie. milk, fruit, veggies, etc.  Should have brought more chocolate bars and maple syrup plus Aunt Jemima ’s complete buttermilk pancake mix – will do that next time around. There is the whole southern Bahamas to explore next time around.