Friends near and far........

End of February here in the Bahamas and another month till we start heading back. Lots of our family and friends have had a winter to talk about.

 Lots of snow, and long spells of very cold weather. It been cold here but then it’s all relative now isn’t it. By cold I mean 60’s in the day and low 50’s during the nights. The winds have been very high here too and mostly from the north so fishing, diving and snorkeling have been spars this month.  We’ve had two visitors from the cold this month and really had a great time with them.

Jon and Marguerite came at the beginning of the month and stayed on the boat. They used the aft cabin and claimed it to be great sleeping. We moved all our stuff from the garage as we call it and turned it into a bedroom. Hell even I was impressed at how it cleaned up and once the freezer was out it was even roomy.  We rented a car for the week picking them up at the Airport and had a cold rum drink waiting for them. We made a trip to West End where boaters usually check in from the states, we hit several beaches and of course Port Lucaya where all the little markets are. We took them out snorkeling in our dinghy only once because the weather just wouldn’t allow it.  But we did a little cruising in the canal system here looking for fish and Lobster from a local that goes out as often as he can in his paddle Kayak (Not Allen, another fellow Perry). We scored some very good sized lobster, enough for two meals for the four of us and a good sized Hog fish which was a full meal for the 4 of us again. One of the better nights out was at the Sand Beach Bar meeting Alex and Mary there for drinks and dinner.

 Jon and Marguerite treated us all to drinks and some wings done up just right, Thank You! It’s called the Sand Bar because there is only Sand for flooring in the building; I guess you could call it a building. A visit to Flamingo Marina and Taino Beach Resort in the middle of the week had a double purpose, we had a slip booked for a week in the middle of February when our 2^nd guest where coming so we wanted a look and other boaters we knew from ORYC where there with grand children, so we could use the largest pool in the Bahamas and a it has a great beach. For most of the meals we ate on the boat saving a ton of money for all of us. It seems we all like eating out less and less everywhere we are. Food and drinks are usually overpriced, and the food is just so so compared to how we eook on the boat. They felt the visit would indeed keep them going through the rest of the winter and maybe even till their boat gets back in the water.  They made it home to some really cold weather and work. We look forward to visiting them on their boat this summer and anchoring out somewhere for a night.

Dinner music by Kevin

We had a week to ourselves and then our other guest from the cold came for a visit. Kevin and Tamera came from Tully our old home town where we raised our kids and had our business. We’ve known them for a long time but only see them a few times a year if that. She was the kids dance teacher when Amy and Jill where very young. They stayed at the Flamingo marina and Motel, we took a trip with Kasidah and had a slip in front of their room. Again we rented a car picking them up from the airport with a cold rum drink. The first few days there was nice weather and they spent some good time at the big pool. It took them 3 days to get towels from the resort for the pool; I guess Kevin walked about 2 miles one day getting the run around from the front desk at the Motel to the front desk at the Resort across the street to the laundry room then to some other place without a towel to be found. Finally we found him at the pool with a drink and no towel. Arline had towels on the boat for them. About Wednesday they found a mother load of towels in their room, enough for the week I guess. We took the water taxi from the Motel to town one night for a really nice meal at Agava Restaurant, Thank you. 

On Friday we brought Kasidah back to our slip at ORYC so they got to sail on Kasidah. It was a bit cold but we had a nice easy trip and even took out one of our sails and turned the engine off, even had out a fish pole for a bit. 

Kevin and Tamara, like us, enjoy hanging out where the locals hang out. So the highlight was the $2 bar, which we love and go to a few times. Beers are cheap, and Burgers are like $8, right across the street for the ocean, just a shack but they do a nice job. We were sitting at lunch with our Sands beers and burgers when a young well dressed young man walked in pointing at our beers telling us that’s a great beer. He is a sales rep for Sands made here on the island; he had a nice Sands shirt on too. Steven asked if we had done the brewery tour yet, and we really had meant to do it but Kevin had an ear infection after snorkeling with me 2 day before so a quick Dr’s visit and drug store stop left us a little short on time that day. Normally there is an $8 charge at the door of the tour to cover all the beer you can drink policy, but we muscles a photo of Steven with Kevin and Tamera while he gave us the name of the lady at the door and promised we could get in for free or was it a golf-shirt would be there for us. Finishing our meal and several beers we noticed Steven putting up a poster for a Sands Sponsored Party at the $2 Bar on Friday night 4-8 pm. 2 Sands beers for $5 and you get a free Sands Light beer a DJ with Music too. 

We got there with another couple Duncan and Cathy, it’s only 1 mile from our Marina so I made a few trips with the car to get us all there. They had tents out where you get your free Sands light and we find Steven manning the booth. He was very happy to see Kevin and Tam spending a good length of time talking over the VERY LOUD MUSIC, I don’t think Woodstock had as many speakers as there were at this party. As Steven gave you the free Sands Light he also had Shots of something for you and he did them with you, Arline even was talked into 2 shots of some spiced whiskey, oh yeah.  We danced in the street, and did I mention Tamera has a Dance

Tamara,Kevin and Stephen. Stephen is from Sands brewery.   

Studio, she had choreographed a dance to every song they played that night. Michael Jackson, Cindy Lauper, Clarence Carter and Smoken, (You Tube it). What a blast we had, all night there was only a hand full of other cruisers and then all locals who where dancing and laughing with us. I must say that the people who waited on us and the owner, I assume, made it a very nice night. They saw you walk in with your hand in the air with $5 in it and by the time you got to the bar your beers where there. If you made a detour to the bathroom when he saw you come out of the room he walked them over to you. They had people picking up bottle and cans outside to keep it neat and safe. The food was very prompt, good and prices right. We ordered Wings and fries, they came out to take our order and again when it was time to eat finding us a table inside, when the food showed up there had to be a gallon container of fries. The owner saw me looking for something though the crowd, saying “Hot Sauce” to him, no way he could have heard because of the crowd and music, but he knew what I wanted and met me half way across the room with it. We will visit the $2 Bar again before we leave next month. Kevin and Tam left the next day and got snowed in at Philly over night with a canceled fight home. We hope to see them this summer at their camp on the St Lawrence.

This is a Century Tree Plant, it grows the bottom part for about 20-30 years and then in its final year

it shots up 20-30 feet with the flowering top and sends its seeds out I guess and then dies. There is one near our boat and we’ve been watching it grow with out knowing what it was till it was pointed out to us, I will try and keep an eye out for the flowers at their peak if we are here long enough. Really a beautiful plant!

We hope to do a lot of fishing and diving in the next 3 weeks and then start looking for our window to get back to the states. Our Grandson Cal is growing and crawling now, eating and eating and becoming so aware, Arline can’t wait to get to see him soon.

Thank you all for watching.