Captain's Choice blog: Exploring the Abacos with Allison

Allison's flight arrived on time Wednesday the 13th, getting through customs was quick and easy, a short taxi ride to the marina and smiles on our faces when she arrived!
After getting her settled we took a walk to the bakery and grocery store to pick up a few things I neglected to get. Dinner was at Wally's which is a cute restaurant right across from the marinas. Marsh Harbour has probably been my least favorite town, so I was glad that the wind forecast for Thursday had gone down a little so we could head over to Great Guana Cay and Orchid Bay Marina. The Sea of Abaco had a little chop but other than that it was a nice ride and Allison could get her first glimpse of the beautiful clear waters of the Bahamas. Orchid Bay Marina is really nice with a restaurant and pool looking out over the Sea of Abaco. The only draw back to this marina is the surge, it gets a little rolly in the marina no matter what direction the winds are out of and the no-see-ums, they are brutal and both Allison and I got bitten bad.
When we checked in they told us Thursday night is wing night, 7 wings for $7, a bargain by Bahamian standards, but that you need reservations. Wow, coming from Buffalo reservations for wings seemed crazy...but just like pizza night at Treasure Cay the restaurant was packed with people getting wings. We had made our reservation for 7:30 pm, we knew we were going to head over to Nippers first, "the most celebrated beach bar in The Islands of the Bahamas". Nipper's claim to fame is their pig roast on Sundays. We decided Sunday the 17th with spring break, St. Patrick's Day and the normal Sunday crowd it would bring a bigger crowd than normal, probably a little more craziness than we needed. We opted to see it during a little more "relaxed" time. Nippers is set on a cliff and has spectacular views of the ocean. We enjoyed lunch and "Nippers frozen juice" which consists of pineapple juice, orange juice and rum, rum, rum (according to the bartender) and took a stroll on the beach before heading back to the marina.

Friday Allison and I decided to explore the island, somehow I was a little directionally challenged on an island that is only 7 miles long. There aren't many roads and we wanted to cut over to the ocean side and walk the beach, which we eventually found, but without Allison I think I would have walked the entire length of the island before realizing it wasn't a loop and it wasn't going to take me to the beach. We certainly got our 3+ miles in, by the time the day was over we had walked 7 miles.
We met up with Mark and headed over to Grabbers, another beach bar that is a highlight of Great Guana Cay. Their specialty drink is the Guana Grabber and when Allison asked what was in that drink the bartender said "rum". This establishment is located right on the beach along Fisher's Bay. There were at least 15 boats anchored in the bay and we agreed that would be a great location to anchor if and when we come back.
Along with another beautiful sunset from the marina, we were watching the sky for a rocket launch that was to take place between 7 and 9 pm. We had the live coverage on and when they had liftoff at 8:26 pm we had our eyes on the sky. Allison saw it first and we watched it for several minutes until just after stage separation. The rocket was carrying a satellite that became the 10th wideband global SATCOM communication satellite in an Air Force constellation that supports military personnel deployed globally.

We got an early start Saturday and headed over to Hope Town on Elbow Cay, 13 miles, and anchored at Beneath the Lighthouse in 7' of water with great holding. We put the dinghy in the water and headed over to the Hope Town Lighthouse which gave us spectacular views of the area. We then headed to town, went in some shops and ate lunch at the Reef Restaurant. The views of the ocean were great and with just a light breeze it was the perfect spot. The town itself is how I envisioned the towns would be, very charming with colorful homes, beautiful flowers, restaurants, gift shops and people running around on golf carts. Probably the cutest town we have visited so far. We dinghied through the mooring field and the marina then headed back to the anchorage, where by this time there was at least 20 boats anchored for the night.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Normally I would be cooking corned beef and cabbage but not this year as I didn't bring nor could I find the ingredients I needed. We left Hope Town, did some snorkeling at Mermaid Reef then headed to Treasure Cay, 25 miles, where I figured we could find an Irish feast and party somewhere. We were greeted at the dock by Jim from Shell Belle and let them know we were heading over to the beach after we were situated to find some Irish fare. This is one of our favorite beaches and we were anxious to show Allison how beautiful it is. Jim & Mandy joined us at the Bahama Beach Club, but there wasn't any Irish fare or green beer. Instead it was frozen drinks, Bahamian beer and fish and it was great to catch up with Jim & Mandy.

The perfect weather came to an end Monday with clouds, sprinkles and some rain. Thank goodness the "all day rain" didn't materialize. We headed to the creek on the dinghy to do some exploring after the first rain storm in the early morning. It gets really shallow so we needed to watch the tides which would be low around 1 pm. It was great, we saw starfish, turtles, rays, fish and a couple of sharks. The afternoon brought some more sprinkles. We wanted to walk the beach since it was Allison's last day and started out several times just to get rained on so back to the boat we went. Finally it cleared and we enjoyed a nice walk.

Allison leaves paradise today (Tuesday) under rainy and windy conditions. It's a little easier to leave when the weather stinks. Well we thought she was leaving, she got in the taxi to the Marsh Harbour airport. We had decided not to take the boat back to Marsh Harbour due to the weather forecast, it wasn't looking good but her flight was scheduled for 12:45 so we thought she would get out of dodge just in time. WRONG...we checked to make sure her flight was still "on time" which it was before she left. When she checked in they said it was delayed and then 10 minutes later it was cancelled. With that she got rebooked on a flight out of Treasure Cay Wednesday, got a taxi and headed back to the boat. It was like she was never gone...actually she wasn't.