Bahamas Geography - As Far as I know it!

OK, today will be a more of a lesson on the geography of our trip. Before that, however, I must update you on our night last night. We went to Snappa's for Dinner and live music. The band was reportedly all less than 25 years old, with the majority of them around 17 or 18. The music was great. We were in the middle of the largest crowd we have been in since we crossed over to the Bahamas. This was the thing to do on a Friday night. They played a mixture of pop, reggae, and most importantly Bahamian music.

So here are the charts that I was able to create by using the tracks off the GPS unit. They are sometimes hard to decipher, so I made different views. You may be able to print them out for better resolution. The first map is from West Palm Beach to the West End in the Grand Bahamas. It also shows the overall path we have ventured so far, but I will put those up in more detail.

Here is a map with all of the days of travel broken out by color. There is still no detail on the water and some of the smaller land masses do not show up. Here is the recap of the travel days:

• January 3, 2007 -- West End Bahamas to Spanish Cay
• January 4, 2007 -- Spanish Cay to Green Turtle Cay
• January 13, 2007 -- Green Turtle Cay to Great Guana Cay (Sailed through the Don't Look Rock passage)
• January 16, 2007 -- Great Guana Cay to Marsh Harbor (Stopped at Man Of War Cay for lunch)

The following charts are more detailed and show the depths of the waters. Generally the water is between 9-16 feet in the Little Bahama Bank (North of the Grand Bahamas Island) and the same in the Sea of Abaco (the water in between Great Abaco Island and all the little Cays we are visiting).

I tried to isolate the Sea of Abacos on the following chart. This is where we have spent the most time. The eventual plan is the go south below the Abacos and head west back to Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Marsh Harbor - The Big City

We have been here for a couple of days trying to get all the supplies and tools required for the minor repairs on the boat. I have also been trying to get more reliable Internet so I can keep the posts coming. I have a request from one of our faithful readers to put a map up to show where we have been. I will work on that tomorrow. If there are any other requests, just post a comment.

We ran into our friend David from Hark The Sound. We went to the world famous Jib Room and had one of the last plates of ribs with him. Once dinner was over, BJ made some new friends that were on their last night from New Jersey. They got tho whole place dancing to whatever type of music they played. Even the "regulars" got up and danced. I heard a comment that it has not been this lively in a long time.

There we also met a couple that are staying in the Harbor View Marina with us. Mike and Karen are from Wrightsville Beach, NC. They have a 42 foot Searay Aft-Cabin named Voila. They took a taxi to the Jib Room, so I offered them a ride back to the marina in my pimp-mobile dinghy. They loved it. They invited us for dinner the next night on board the vessel Voila. Karen cooked some fresh shrimp and Mahi Mahi they picked up in Freeport. I made the famous Water's Edge lump crab meat bruschetta with some fresh Stone Crab claws we picked up at the local fish market. I used fresh Bahamian bread that we bought in Guana Cay. They tasted great and got us thinking about our friends back on Shem Creek. Dinner lasted until very early in the AM with a lot of dancing and laughing on the boat. The hospitality was great and we can't wait to get back together with Mike and Karen.

We have modified our plans so we are staying here until Sunday, where we will head back to Nippers to meet up with lots of friends from the past, and our new friends that are also planning on going. We will then make it down to Hope Town and ultimately around the southern side of the Abacos.

The Marina

Harbor View Marina

This is a small but very nice marina. We have met the owner's mother and dogs and all are nice.

The Food

Conch Inn (Curly Tails)

This is very average. We had dinner and breakfast there and were not impressed. the portions are large though.

Geno's Cafe

Local joint that had the best peas and rice, but since the fresh snapper on the plate had eyeballs and bones, BJ could not eat it.

Snappa's

Pretty good burger. No French Fries. This is a first in the Bahamas.

Lunch at Man Of War Cay

Here is the sunset from our marina at Great Guana Cay. It was really spectacular and the tradition is to blow a conch shell at sundown. A little distracting at first, but kind of cool.

Well, yesterday we headed out of Great Guana Cay to Marsh Harbor. We decided to stop at Man Of War Cay for lunch and to check out the sights. There is not a lot of activity there, as most people are part of the boat repair industry. And did I mention it was a dry Cay? There is only one restaurant, 2-3 grocery markets (can't call them stores) and a few other gift shops. The thing that is impressive about this island is how well-kept the entire island is. Even the individual homes are really nice and manicured.

We walked around for about 30-40 minutes and saw the entire settlement and most of the beaches. There are more beaches, but there is no more settlement or people. We then had to laboriously wait for the only cafe to open at 11:30AM for lunch. Amazingly, we were the first customers of the day and did not eat until 12:30. The food was just OK, with no flavor added. It did fill up, thought with almost a dozen people. She was slammed!

After lunch, we headed for Marsh Harbor. This is where everyone gets their provisions while cruising in the Abacos. This is the "Big City" and happens to be the capital. We arrived and were told to anchor out for about 10 minutes because the dock hand/master was out. So we came in after we were called (about 15 minutes) and after I rinsed down the boat and tried to connect to the Internet, we left for the stores.

It was really just one auto parts store after another. Some were auto/marine stores. Some were auto/hardware stores, but nonetheless, there were a lot of auto parts stores. So we hit them all looking for the parts and tools that I need to repair the minor problems on the boat and Dinghy.

We found an unusual attraction for this part of the world: a traffic light. It is only a 3-way intersection, but apparently they needed a stop light. We also heard sirens for the first time (including the Coast Guard). This is the big city here, but it is terribly small. There seems to be more hustle and bustle, though, and you see sailors (cruisers) up and down the streets with bags in their hands or collapsible carts in tow with all the "provisions" that they need.

This is a true mariner's town where people seem to keep coming back and looking up their old friends. We ran into our friends from the True Blue this morning as they were here to pick up the boat's owner. I also radioed our friends from Hark the Sound. Babi had to fly home, but David is still here. We plan on having a drink with him later. We have also met numerous people from North and South Carolina. I am starting think that THEY are seasonal, and here is where everyone lives.

We will rest here for a while, while I make boat repairs, and do some cleaning/maintenance. We had dinner and lunch at the Conch Inn Marina; nothing to really report. Just OK.

Guana Cay and Check out my Nippers

We are alive and well. I know it has been a while since we have updated the blog, but WiFi has been scarce, and time has been precious. I will do today's blog, and hopefully go back and fill in the last few days. Maybe we can even get some pictures up here.

We came to Guana Cay for one thing: Nippers Bar - http://www.nippersbar.com/. They have a wild pig roast every Sunday. I am not sure that the pig is wild but the bar is! We were supposed to meet our new friends from Green Turtle Cay, but they did not show up. Amazingly enough, we made more friends here. We are tied up next to a sport fisher, True Blue from Daniels Island. The captain is Bam Bam, and the first mate is Coon. Coons is still a little angry because he lost 2 leg wrestling matches to BJ the other night here at Nippers.

We also met a couple from Minnisoooota. They were a lot of fun, especially the northern accents here in the Bahamas. I also saw a friend of mine as we came in for the pig roast yesterday, David Spaulding. He is keeping his sail boat, Nina at Treasure Cay and flying down as much as possible for the winter. I have known David ever since I moved to Charleston, as we worked together.

We were so busy at Nippers yesterday, we missed the roasted pig! We ended up at a dock party on the True Blue. They brought out the burgers, our other neighbors from NJ brought the vegetables, and we provided the only thing left in the freezer, Oven Fries. Before you knew it there were about 20 people down at the dock, which is more than most bars have this time of year. The food was great, thanks to Abe (Coon), he can be seen below manning the grill. We left there around 1:00AM and crashed hard. Today has been a pretty low key day, we even missed our dive appointment, but I was too tired.

Tomorrow, we will head out.