We are getting to know the area pretty well. Toni lost her new glasses overboard last week and we went to Eyeglass World and replaced them, for 3 times the original price... While we were waiting for the glasses, we found a 'all you can eat' italian buffet! That eased the pain in our wallet a little bit. Cardella's is the name of the place, wonderful! We also found a Big Kmart, but didn't buy anything. We were at the corner of Northlake and Prosperity Farms road, just incase you have a hankerin' for some good eats.
We caught rain in the dink and saved it to buckets & a cooler to use for the dishes
and our showers. Worked great and saved a trip to the docks.
Well, the starting battery went on the fritz last night. We are off today to Auto Zone to get
another. Toni made cranberry bread last night for this morning so we are off to a delicious start,
(cranberry bread= left over whole cranberry sauce to the Jiffy bisquit mix banana bread recipie
instead of bananas! yummy!) Good food always makes the bad things better... so far we haven't had a
bad day, too much good food!
December 19, 2000 WE MADE IT! We crossed the Gulf Stream today with 10 to 15 knot winds out of the west. Should have left at 3am instead of 4am. Just outside of West End on Grand Bahama Island the wind clocked out of the north which built up some very heavy seas. As I was hanging on the boom, pulling down the mainsail, the engine died. Whoops! With no engine, in heavy seas a boat will rock from side to side TO EXTREEEEEEMS! Not fun..."Restart the engine!", "NOTHING!"....fear strikes...down I go to the engine room and find no electricity to the starter. I hot wire the starter and cross the contacts to start the engine...God guided us, Toni had us pointed calmly downwind in to the harbor. Whew, nice to know our boat will sail under 'bare poles'. The problem with the engine turned out to be a dirty air filter and a push button circuit reset that I didn't know existed.
After spending a month in Lake Worth loaded down, a green algae had grown on the upper 2 inches of bottom that had normally been above water. The water was cold but we saw loads of tropical fishes feeding on that algae line! It must not have settled well with them, because the next day there was still algae left, but no fishes! So sorry, no pics, but we did entertain the whole marina for a day!
The weather is still chilly, even cold at times, but we make the best of it.
We have to take a bus 30 minutes into Freeport to get proper papers for the kitty, which takes 24
hours to process so there goes our weather window to head on around to Port Lucaya. Yes, Lucaya is closer
to Freeport, but we are not allowed to take the kitty from West End until she has those papers.
She doesn't care...She ought to be real pretty after all the beauty rest she gets...
West End is full of cafe's and bars which are very...mmm...'quaint'...well
...mmm, 'rustic'...hummm, 'special', close enough. The water front is filled with empty conch shells,
and sunk boats, which, if dry enough at low tide, become a cafe or bar or fish cleaning station.
The folks here are very polite and friendly, and I even found a GOOD ice cream store. I have found
the local ice cream to be very good and cheap. You do find a lot of EDY's and Bresler's stores here,
however they are way too expensive. The local ice cream is not made with cream. It is made with
skim milk and butter. A very slight difference in texture, but the taste is SUPER! Milk, when found,
doesn't keep very long. The butter is from Ireland, Canada and New Zealand and beats anything I
have tasted in the states.
We were invited on another, much larger, sailboat in the marina for Christmas Dinner with all the
fixin's. They taught us how to play Double 12 dominoes, not a Bahamian thing but rather a cruiser's
game. Dominoes is played locally as the regular double 6, the double 12's are a much larger set,
with the numbers going all the way up to double 12, (duh), and can be played by more folks. The hosts,
Reggie & Virginia, who manage the realty of the new marina/resort of Old Bahama Bay, a live aboard named
Ralph, Daniel the customs official, Clint, Sharon and daughter Tammy of '4th of July', and us!
We had a wonderful time.
We noticed that building codes were not what we were used to. Although
a Royal Palm does look better! I haven't caught any seafood yet, unless you count the live lobster
bought from a rasta man. He had a whole 'lobster net bag' full, at $5 each, they were no great deal,
but a whole lot better than freezin to get your own!
We got a window to cruise around to Port Lucaya, the new tourist town built up on the south shore
of the older Freeport. Freeport is where the duty free shops were, then things were sent to the new
International Bazaar by the Bahamia Casino area. There are more duty free shops down by the beachside
hotels called The Marketplace.
The Marketplace is home to Count Basie Square, he lives on the island, where music and dancing are done
surrounded by numerous open air bars. (And let's not forget the duty free shopping). Yes it was
Christmas time, however I believe the bulk of the lights are up year round.
Here in Freeport/Lucaya on New Years Day Night, January 1, they hold a Junkanoo. The rules say, Horns
whistles, kalik bells and drums only, kalik bells are kinda like cow bells but go 'kalik'. They
have a beer named for it. Goat bells maybe?
All 'floats' must be carried by 1 person. There are HUGE costumes by some and simple,
'dress in like colors' by other groups. 'Dey go round en round til dey tire out mon, bangen dey
drums and ablowen dey horns fo dey judge. Din dey burnup dey costumes an start awork on next yea's
costumes don ya see.' Lots of food / beverage stalls to dine / grog at.
We left Lucaya for Great Stirrup Cay, (the cruise ships call it Coco Cay) January 7th...
Until next time...
Gary
~~~_/)~~~