Allens Cay

Allens Cay was our first of many remote island stops in the Exuma chain. There were several options for anchoring here but strong currents made you have to choose wisely. We have gotton good at "Bahamian style" anchoring which requires two anchors, one upstream, one downstream. This way the boat swings without tripping an anchor.

Steve speared his first fish on a reef just outside the harbor here!
Conch were not as plentiful, however we did buy some fresh snapper from a local fishing boat that had anchored in Allens for the night to add to our meal.


Dinner tonight....Iguana on a stick, truely divine dining. (Just kidding...)
Thank you to Seazen for always hosting these lovely potluck dinners!









Iguanas on Leaf Cay.
The sound of the dinghy motor draws them out of the brush to shore.
Several power boats come each day from Nassau full of tourists to feed these iguanas lettuce and grapes on a stick.
These iguanas are only found in the Bahamas.


Hook with Allens Cay in the background.


Buddies...


All our dried and salted clothes hanging off Hook.
P.S. they never really dry...


The girls are doing laundry more independently now. We can only hang so much on Hooks life lines so laundry has become almost a daily chore.


Sunrise over Leaf Cay. Hook was anchored between Leaf and Allens Cay.


South entrance into Allens Cay.

Steve caught a Tunney and small Blue Runner on the way into Allens Cay. It was enough to make a dinner out of so we were happy.

March 22-23, 2010
March 25, 2010

Nassau, New Providence Island

I loved all the lovely "hairdo's" .....

All the above pics are wonderful shots of the locals here on the island in the parade.

Surprise parade all through the streets of Nassau.

Bahamians celebrating 89th convention of their Baptist church. At the end of Bay Street & the parade they were performing Baptisms right in the inner harbor.

Escaping the sun for a "siesta" to rest our weary legs

Steve getting his walking stick signed by the artist. He kindly carved in "Hook" for him also.

Nassau straw market.

Bahamian boy making conch horns.

Is that a man sleeping in my vegetable patch?

Snappers fresh off the boat.

Checking out the crabs for sale at the market.

Walking to fish & vegetable market under the bridge. The bridge in the background crosses the harbor from Nassau, New Providence Island to Paradise Island.

Friends on "Seazen" approaching the anchorage

Entering Nassau channel

Approaching Nassau, Bahamas

Very little sailing this day.

15Kts on the nose, at one point the waves actually stopped our forward momentum to 0Kts, never the less a great day.

March 20-21, 2010

Fraziers Hog Cay

Kids learning how to do laundry Bahamian style.
You need two buckets. One with ocean water and laundry detergent, and one with ocean water and fabric softener.
1. wash in soap
2. rinse in ocean
3. wash in fabric softener
4. squeeze dry
5. hang
6. walk around in dry salty clothes!


Leaving Fraziers Hog Cay

Conch shells seem to be as common as Mussel shells in Maine!

Dirt road to neighboring Chub Cay and the "Berry Islands Club"

Sea Slug

Fraziers Hog Cay

Using a "look bucket"

March 18-19, 2010

Great Bahama Banks

We had a decent sail on both Tuesday and Wednesday across the Bank.
Tuesday night was quite "surreal" swinging on our hook with nothing around you for so many miles. The night started out a bit lumpy but it settled down around 1 a.m. (just in time for our 3:45 alarm to get moving again). We started out in the dark headed for Fraziers Hog Cay near Chub Cay as rain was coming in in the early afternoon with an increase to 20Kt winds. We made it in and found a nice anchorage to spend the next 2 days while waiting out yet another cold front. Our new friends from "Seazen" accompanied us across the banks. It has been so nice to have a buddy boat when doing the crossings. We have one more big one left, the "Tongue of the Ocean" between Fraziers Hog Cay and Nassau!

Maddie checking on the anchor set by using our "look" bucket. We adhered a piece of plexi-glass into the bottom of a plastic bucket. Makes a great looking glass to the ocean floor.

Great Bahama Banks

12-30 feet of water over an expanse of 2 days. You could see clear to the bottom when the seas calmed down. Flat horizon in every direction

March 16-17, 2010

More Bimini

New friends at Weech's Dock
Happy Sailing!


Found the local milk goats!



Classroom entrance


Elementary school K-6th grade.
Girls were super excited to see their classroom for the morning and meet the children.
They both were very polite and the island kids were full of giggles and played tag on the playground. Both girls school work came back with 100% marks and stickers. Emma was sent to the principals office to show off her work. She was very pleased!






Typical street scene....






Wonderful Antoinette from the Bimini tourism office. She organized a gulf cart tour of North
Bimini and the children to go to school the next day. She was full of surprises for us from giving us complementary conk salad to organizing conk pizza for us that night.




Maddie catching the hang of snorkeling! Once she saw all the colorful fish there was no turning back.




Local knowledge from new friend Tom, on how to clean a conk.

Searching for the elusive conk for dinner! When Maddie looked up she said, "Jack-pot!" Empty conk shells! You'd think she found her little bit o'Heavon!

In the end we found 2 conk to cook up for our first conk salad dinner.

I must say it was delicious, however Mama had a hard time chewing it down after seeing the "harvesting" process and the snails eyes wobbling around on long tentacle like posts as it was being pulled out of its shell!

The Bimini Boa, indiginous to Bimini Islands only.

The shark lab work here has been instrumental in preserving the numbers of Lemon Sharks. The North and South Bimini Islands habitat are nursing grounds for these sharks.

One year old lemon shark. In adulthood they can be as large as 8 ft long.

Life span 0-60 years old and they start having young at age 12. They have live births and can have up to 12 young at one time.

Ed walked us out to the shark pens to get a closer view

Lemon Shark Lab

South Bimini