Andros, Car

We have a little surge in the anchorage, a genital rolling side to side. We slept really well, being slowly rocked. Linda felt she was in a cradle.

The harbor at Morgans Bluff is protected from every direction, except for the north. There is a very rough wall in the inner harbor for a few boats when the wind it out of the north. Early in the morning a large mail-boat, which I find out later came directly from Florida, is unloading in the outer harbor in the Old Water Barge Dock. Barges use to load water here to take to Nassau, but now Nassau desalinates the extra water that they need. Unfortunately there are a number of sunken working boats and soon to be sunken boats along this wall, reducing the dockage.

 

Mailboat

In the small world category, the sailboat in the foreground is from Shelburne, Vermont, "Dream Katcher". I took pictures of Peter and Teresa's Stamos 44, 4 years ago when we passed it on the dock at Chipman's Point Marina on Lake Champlain as we were heading south. They now home base it in the Chesapeake.

Mark and our car

 

We dinghy back in to the inner harbor and we walk over to the gas station to talk with Patrick about a rental car. He had tried to contact me, but I missed the message. He had arranged to have a small Inn that rents cars to deliver one this morning. A short time later the car arrives and we take the driver back the Inn and drop her off.

 

 

 

I think they saw me coming

 

We drive south about 35 miles to Fresh Creek to see the Batik Factory, Androsia, famous for the Batik designs and clothing. They do sell bolts of cloth to various customers for their clothing lines. Unfortunately for us it is the end of their season and there is not a lot available. 

 

 

Androsia store

Drying die fabric

 

Nearby Androsia is AUTEC, Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center a US Navy base, at large facility that is largest employer on Andros, not open to the public without advance request.

We get a recommendation for lunch at the Brigadier, basically a bone fishing lodge of which there are many on Andros. We all have an excellent lunch on a covered dock over the water. Traveling further north we stop at the Mennonite farm for fresh vegetables. We inquire about strawberry's and are told they will be available in the morning. We stop at “Uncle Charlies Blue Hole”. There are a couple other blue holes in the National Park here, but very little signage to find them. I will have to do some research tonight for tomorrow. We get back to the boat just before dark. We are still to full from our late lunch and just have canned peaches for the evening.

Brigadier for lunch

 

 

Captain Morgan's Cave

 

 

Andros

Anchor up at 7:00am. Beautiful day, motor-sailed mostly. Once we get south of the Berry Islands we are off the banks and into deep water over the Northwest Channel. Our last couple hours are rather rough with the east wind. We get into Morgan Bluff around 3:30 after a 60 nautical mile day. We anchor and take the dingy into the inner harbor. The harbor master office closes at 3:30. We walked over to the gas station to inquire about renting a car. The attendant, Patrick takes my phone number and says he will contact me later with information on available rentals. We head back to the boats, have dinner and go to bed early at 9:30.

 

Morgan Bluff outer harbor

Morgans Bluff view to the west from Manana

 

GH, Anchoring out

Last day at Great Harbour. I clean the side of the boat at the water line. Our boot stripe is slightly underwater and if we don’t move frequently we start getting plant growth. Actually, I already cleaned the south side a couple weeks ago since it gets more sun, sitting at the dock here. I put up the outboard and dinghy for traveling. Robert stops by and I pass on my limited knowledge of AquaMap and Navionics, Navigation software we all have on our iPads.

Mark stops by with a suggestion that we head southwest back over the shallow banks to Andros. I had not considered that route, but after looking at it I agree that is a good idea. We can make it to Morgans Bluff at Andros in one day and avoid the heaver seas on the windward side of the Berry Island chain. I filled the water tanks and wash down the boat. Linda cleans, dries and packs her shell collection. At 4:15pm we leave the marina to anchor out side of Bullocks Harbour to get an early start to Andros in the morning. We were amazed to find 35 boats anchored. Nice breeze, that we don’t get in the marina. We sleep well.

 

Boats anchored outside of Bullocks Harbour

 

Fishing boat anchored out

GH, Shelling Beach

After breakfast, Karen, Linda and I walk over to shelling beaching a little after low tide. Did not find much. Four years ago we found loads of sand dollars, this year almost nothing. I assume changes in weather, storms account for the variations we see year to year.

 

After lunch we play Mexican Train dominoes at the Pavilion with Mark & Karen, Robert & Karen/Linda and I. After cleaning up on the boat Linda and I head back to the Pavilion for Pizza Night with Christine & Peter, Diane & Alain.

GH, Carriel Errel

One more quick trip to the store before we turn in the Mule. Hung out on the boat for the morning doing a little cleaning. I did a little exploring. On Google Earth I can see two tennis courts that I did not realize was there not far from the 9th fairway. I find the old road and find that the two clay courts are still in use by local residents. The courts don't appear to be used often, but there are large push brooms to clear pine needles off the court. Someone has kept the nets in service. Looks as challenging as the Golf Course is.

 

"Tennis courts"

Right next to the Marina, but hidden by over growth is a swimming pool and a Pavilion that housed a small restaurant.  This was actively used until 10-15 years ago. Too bad they have not maintained it, aside from the overgrowth it is in fairly good shape.

 

In the afternoon we get together with Mark & Karen, Robert & Karen and Linda & I to play Joker & Pegs. The only other card playing friends that play this game is our friends Dave & Joan. Everyone else we know has never heard of it.

We quit early to shower up before we all go to Carriel Errel for dinner. Carriel Errel was this “Botik” hotel and restaurant previously owned by British couple who had tried to sell their struggling business for years. Well, sell they finally did. The new owners have a much more profitable change, it is now a Bone Fishing lodge. It employees a lot more people than it previously did. Fishing guides and hotel, restaurant staff.

The place was very busy. Karen made reservations a couple days ago for dinner for one of the few nights they take non-guests. It started off not looking too good. Linda gets Pina Colada, has no rum or pineapple and not much coconut. She didn’t ask for a virgin drink, but got one anyways. Well the dinner more than made up for than, we all had Blacked Grouper topped with creamy Cajiun shrimp over sweet potato mash and roasted brussel sprouts. We were all leaving room for dessert, Creme Burlee, but were informed that we had been looking at the menu for the Bone Fishing lodgers, Bummer.

Carriel Errel

 

Carriel Errel pool

We had some disagreement on which was the quickest way to walk back to the Marina. We took Marks route which turned out to be way longer, but it was interesting. Since this is BBQ night back at the Marina, Linda and I walk over there to visit. One couple off a 60 foot cruiser, that is wintering here at the marina sang and played instruments. The Captain was very good on the keyboard and guitar, even had their own amplifiers. They are also in the process of building a home on the island.

We sit down and talk with Christine & Peter and Diana. Someone was has having a birthday and there was a couple cakes, so we still got our dessert. Late night for us, we did not get back to the boat until 9:45pm

 

 

 

 

GH, Mule Driver

At 9:00 AM, Cleveland the mule owner brings it by and we fill out the paper work. I ask about getting gas if it gets low. Cleveland, says the island is not that big, don’t worry about it. He will fill it back up for the next customer.

Linda, the two Karens and I take the mule to the A&L Grocery for fresh produce. At noontime we head over to a so called restaurant by the Police Station with Mark and Karen. Turned out it was more bar than restaurant, so we ride over to the Beach Bar. After lunch we did a tour of the north end of the island and were back to the boat around 4:00PM.

 

The Mule

Sugar Beach Cave

 

GH, Mule

After breakfast I took a bike ride to explore.

Great Harbour Airport

Linda spends much of the morning making “Texas Caviar”, rather labor intensive. The recipe is mostly from can goods. After that she does a load of laundry, while I help Alain with a bent retaining pin on his anchor roller that got bent the other day coming into the dock. The bent pin would not release the anchor. Karen our resident young person and Apple expert helps Linda with her phone and iPad.

Linda arranges to rent a “mule” for the day tomorrow. A Mule is a gas powered heavy duty version of a golf cart. Golf carts don’t last long of some of the rough pot hole filled roads here.

Tonight’s dinner are hamburgers on the grill with Texas Cavair for a side. We watch the movie “Dog” on Amazon Prime.

GH, Canadians

Changed the transmission fluid, a job I have been putting off. Visit with “Blown Away Too”, Alain and Diane in the morning. We all head over to the Beach Club for lunch with “Manannan” and find it unusually crowded. There are 60 people there and only two waitstaff. We were there for a couple hours.

We first meet “Blown Away Too” and “Manannan” at Hop-o-Nose putting our mast up. They came down the Erie Canal after crossing Lake Ontario from. “Blown Away Too, pulled out right behind us after we passed the first lock to the Erie Canal.

Linda, Diana, Christine, Alain & Peter

 

GH, A&L

 

Jan 23

A&L Grocery

 

Hung out on the boat most of the day. Did one quick trip to the A&L Grocery, but only found apples worth buying, low on everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stopped by the mailboat dock. A boat was here recently delivering building supplies, cinder blocks, cement and sand. I didn't see the unloading, but the following day the pile of sand was gone.

 

“Blown Away Too”, Alain and Diane arrive just after sunset after a long day motoring from Grand Bahama

 

GH, Cookies

Linda works on her journal and talks with her sister, while they play Wordle. She works on the computer reconciling bills. I take the dinghy to the fuel dock in the morning to gas up the dinghy. Christine on “Manannan” our dock neighbor makes Chocolate Chip cookies and gives us some, very good. I work on the computer in the afternoon updating my electrical wiring diagrams for changes I have made since we left Vermont.

GH, Hammerheads

We try Hammerheads again for lunch, but call first to make sure they are open. Linda and I walk, everyone else rides bikes. According to their sign they specialize in Sea Food. Unfortunately they have one red snapper, so we all get hamburgers. Some other dock mates had dinner there a few days ago and were happy with the food. We decide we don’t need to go here again.

Walking back a seasonal resident, Ester, drives by in her white and red oversized golf cart and she turns around and offers us a ride back to the Marina. In the hot afternoon sun we accept the ride.

Tonight is pizza night and we pick it up ourselves since they are short on staff to deliver. This way we also get a hot pizza. The pizza is huge, we get three meals out of it.

GH, BBQ

BBQ night. The Marina was busy with everyone watching the resident Manatee family slowly cruise around the boats on the docks.

Mr. Manatee

We had hoped to go to a new place “Hammerheads” for lunch, but they were closed, Island time hours.

Reminds me of the sign on the side of Ocean Cabin at Little Farmers Cay

Hours of operation

Most days about 9 or 10

occasionally as early as 7 but some

days as late of 12 or 1

we close about 5 or 6

or maybe about 4 or 5

some days or afternoons

we aren't here at all

and lately we've been here about all

the time, except when we're

someplace else.......

but we might be here then, too

We spend later afternoon playing Mexican Train dominoes while waiting for BBQ night. The Pavilion was getting rather noisy and buggy so we take our dinner back to the boat.

GH, Ride

Linda and I walk to the stores again. Another Mailboat came in yesterday. A local young man offers us a ride to the A&L grocery store. We have seen him before at the marina, he takes customers out Bone fishing and has a fishing pole rack on the hood of his truck. 

 

Linda gets a ride

 

A&L Vegetables

 

At A&L we get talking with a woman from Florida who is moving to Great Harbour and she offers us a ride back to the Marina. Karen and her husband Jay, spent many seasons on their sailboat at Great Harbour. Liked it so much the bought property and built a home here. 

 

 

GH, Golf

Linda and Karen headed to Shelling beach in the morning at low tide. I spent a hour or tow trying to straight out some bogus charges on Verizon. They have been trying to charge us $10 day for international usage even though our phones are on airplane mode. They claim we are on automatic international plan. Bullshit we have not been out of the US in 4 or 5 years.

 

I met Mark at the Beach Club and we wait for the ladies to return from the beach. After lunch I play six holes of golf. I find almost as many golf balls as I loose. Unfortunately at the Golf balls I brought are colored and I only find white golf balls. White golf balls are the worst color to keep track of here, you can loose them in the middle of the fairway. Any balls hit outside side of the “mowed” fairway are goners, never to be found without a machete.

 

 

 

Tonight for dinner we have spaghetti squash with shrimp and Alfredo sauce. To save on propane I microwave the squash. It was very good and nice to get some stuff out of our freezer.

GH, Turtle Creek

This morning at 6:00 AM the temperature was 56 degrees. Very cold by Bahamian standards. Even in the 60’s the locals are wearing heavy jackets while we are in T-shirts. After breakfast Linda does some laundry and after lunch we have good conditions to try to go to Turtle Creek, via Shark Creek. Conditions were near person not a lot a wind so the water surface was smooth for easy viewing. Took lots of pictures, but did not know how good they were until we got back to the boat to review them.

I spent the evening figuring out how to do slide shows and video on iMovie to post the results on Facebook.

 Turtle Creek Video

https://youtu.be/MDFJBiRvV4o 

 

 

https://youtu.be/MDFJBiRvV4o 

GH, Frenchie

Canceled another trip to Shark Creek. Robert is still repairing their dinghy, so we will try another day.

Frenchie

 

Our Island Wi-Fi device is now not connecting at all. So in desperation I do a factory reset - WRONG. So now it is even more useless.  I contact our old friend Frenchie, who orginally set us up with My Island WiFi 4 years ago. Frenchie was the Island nurse until she retired a few years ago. She stops by later in the morning to reprogram our device and admonishes me for the Factory Reset.  I forgotten, to reboot the device you have to pull out the battery and reinsert, since there is no on/off button.

 

 

Linda and I go for a long walk to the grocery stores in Bullocks Harbour, since the mailboat came in yesterday. 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we play Mexican train with Robert& Karen, Mark & Karen and Linda & I in the Pavilion. Still enough wind to keep the bugs at bay.

Karen, Linda, Robertm, Karen & Mark

 

 

 

GH, Golf Partner

The wind is considerably less this morning and it is relatively warm. Today I have a golf partner.

Leslie and Andy who are from Blue Hill Maine and have a very nice metal hull sailboat. They have spent the last couple season staying in Great Harbour for a couple months. They do not take the boat all the way home any more and haul it out in the Chesapeake in the spring. When I first noticed their boat I took a picture of it and sent it to our friend, Althea in Blue Hill Maine who owns a garden center with her husband Don. I was not surprised that Althea knew who they were, Leslie frequently has been a customer. As soon as I talked with Leslie the connection was complete. Leslie had seen me go by in our dinghy and photograph their stern and was wondering what I was up to.

 

"Samuel Fiveland", owners Leslie and Andy

Anyways, Andy has a couple woods and I only have irons, so its an interesting mix, "Woody" & "Iron Man".  It is nice to have someone else looking where the balls are going that we hit.

GH, Cool

Panattone French toast for breakfast again. Saturday is normally pizza night. It was canceled last week. Usually that happens when the mail-boat did not deliver to goods. The old restaurant at the end of the marina which has been close for 50 years, still has a functioning kitchen and a local couple is allowed to use it to make pizza there on Saturday night to sell the the locals and marina guests. They actually make very good large pizza’s for $30, not a bad deal by Bahamian standards.

 

Full Marina

Today is very cool, high 60’s, low 70’s but the added wind chill makes it rather cool. First time wearing our fleeces here, this year.

Our first week and a half here has been warm and humid and we had been running AC in the boat to lower the humidity in the boat. Even though the temperature inside is the boat is same, as outdoors the lower humidity inside the boat was some much more comfortable. We can’t complain, we have had some rather cool weather here in January.

 

For the next couple days, I have half the enclosure up to block the wind on the north side of the boat. Without the wind blowing on us the cockpit is comfortable. Tonight instead of pulling out the heavy blankets again, I just wear sweat pants and socks to bed.

Our pizza gets delivered to the boat around 5:30. We close up the boat and retire below for the evening.

 

 

 

 

GH, Windy

The marina is now full to capacity. It is windy today and the next couple days are suppose to be blowing close to 30 knots. Everyone is looking to hide out somewhere. There are 15 boats anchored in the outer harbor waiting out the blow.

I ride a bike to the two stores in Bullocks Harbour. Still no eggs. The mailboat did not come in last week, but it is in this morning, I find it unloading. I head back to A&L Grocery in the afternoon after they receive their shipments and start stacking their shelves.  I get some lettuce, oranges, blueberrys, bananas, cookies and eggs. Signed up to tonight's BBQ. Canceled plans to go to Shark Creek again way to windy to get there on the open water. Linda orders eggs from Freddy one of the staff members here at Great Harbour. He and his wife raise chickens.

 

Mail Boat is in !

 

Everyone's stuff is being unloaded, busy

 

I notice a familiar boat “Departure” down on the other end of the marina. We met Marketta and Tom on our second trip south. They are from Dillon Colorado and normally launch their boat in early February and head to the Bahamas. The year we met them they had spent the summer in New England on their boat and were traveling down the ICW. I think we first met them in the Dismal Swamp. I stay in touch with Marketta occasionally. We see them walking by and Marketta recognizes us and we have a long conversation catching up. They will be heading to Georgetown, so will probably see them again in a month or so.

 

Manana

 

Full time marina residents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today being Friday, it’s BBQ night. With the marina packed there are allot of boaters taking advantage of not having to cook tonight. Linda and Karen complaint everything is too spicy, not so much for me.

Because of the wind, bugs are not a problem so we eat our dinner at the Pavilion with all the other cruisers. Very loud, hard to carry on a conversation with all the people there.

BBQ Evening at the Pavilion

GH, More Lobster

Hung out on the boat in the morning and walked to the Beach Club for lunch with Robert & Karen, Mark & Karen and Linda & I. I brought my golf clubs and played holes 6, 7, 8 & 9 to get home. Bought more lobster from our fisherman friends in the later after for dinner. Our days here are getting kind of repetitious, its a hard life.

Nile, Karen, Mark, Karen, Linda & Robert

 

GH, Bellaventure

Linda does laundry, sheets, etc. I transfer our rail diesel cans to our fuel tank. Mark and Karen take the marina bikes to a couple stores and finds no one has eggs. Our Nova Scotia friends Robert and Karen on Bellaventure arrive in the afternoon. They did an overnight sail from Lake Worth to here. We were last with them in Vero Beach a couple weeks ago. Robert and Karen, brings a few packages to Mark and I that were delivered to Vero Beach after we left.

 

Bellaventure arrives

 Lobster Mac & Cheese for dinner

GH, Lobster

Avocado and eggs for Breakfast. I take the dinghy to the gas dock to fuel up the dinghy gas tank.

I head over to play golf around 10:45 planning to meet Linda, Karen and Mark for lunch at the “Beach Club” after the 5^th hole. Linda is finally out of quarantine. Linda and I split a tuna melt, her favorite, and conch bits. 

 

 

Nile, Linda, Karen & Mark

 

We all meet back at the Marina pavilion later in the afternoon to play Mexican Train dominoes. Late in the day the “no-seems” (nickname, flying teeth), break up the party. The fishermen come into the dock and I buy some large lobster tails for dinner.

GH, Caddy

Linda’s first “project” is to return the shirt of a fellow who left it yesterday in one of the washing machines. Made him very happy. The rest of the morning Linda works on reconciling our credit cards and other paper work.

 

Our outboard has not been running as well as I would like it too. So I pull the carburetor out and clean it. I looks perfectly clean, but I clean it anyways. I do adjust the idle and it idles much quieter without stalling.

 

 

 

In the afternoon Linda accompanies me as my “Caddy” while I play golf. Not much help, now two of us that can’t keep track of golf balls. We can hear some of them land, but don’t see where they went. Loose a few balls in bounds.

 

GH, Shark Creek

Sea Vu Play, Manana & Manannan, 3 boats on the right

We take a dinghy ride to Shark Creek with “Sea Vu Play” and “Manannan”. We leave around 8:00AM to catch high tide. The wind was in the wrong direction to visit Turtle Creek which rippled the surface making it hard to get a worthwhile pictures of turtles. Just looked like fast moving rocks. We were back to the Marina by 11:30 AM. 

 

 

Fast moving "Rocks"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark & Karen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another boat comes into the Marina “Windara” owned by Melissa and Chris. I first met Melissa via correspondence, since last year they owned a Catalina 36 and spent much of the winter in the Abacos. They both work remotely and travel on weekends and work during the week. Last year I had been asking Melissa lots of questions about familiar places in the Abacos that were hit by Hurricane Dorian.

So it was nice to finally meet her and Chris in person.

 Video of Shark Creek Trip

https://youtu.be/yJchY6vBhDY

Watch another episode of Yellowstone.