Tongue of the Ocean

Tongue of the Ocean  January 3 to 5, 2011

Another day, another fish. Crossing the Tongue of the Ocean from Andros to New Providence Tom landed a 40” wahoo.  We have a couple of books on board that we use to identify fish and determine if they are edible or not. Wahoo is very edible.

 We keep a tape measure close by.

 Tom’s fish filleting skills have improved with the help of a bigger, better knife. This one provided enough meat for six large meals. The freezer is starting to fill up.

 

 As we have not yet had the urge to visit Nassau, especially during the busy holiday season, we pointed Polar Pacer towards the quieter, south shore of New Providence Island where we anchored in Southwest Bay before moving on to the Exumas. To say we were “anchored” in Southwest Bay is stretching the facts a bit. When Tom went out with the lookey bucket (a glass bottom plastic pail) he saw that our anchor was hooked to a small piece of coral protruding from the scoured bottom.  That and the weight of the anchor chain was all that was holding us in place. Fortunately, the island was protecting us from the northeast wind that was blowing at less than 5 knots and held that way all night.

 I am no longer amazed at the number of abandoned projects that we have seen in the Bahamas. Many date back prior to the most recent downturn in the world economy. What does surprise me is that for every abandoned project there seems to be another new one launched, sometimes just next door.  It seems that the wheels of bankruptcy law must turn so slowly that if and when a failed venture does get sorted out, so much deterioration has taken place that it is cheaper and easier to start from scratch than to salvage what was already there.

 

Abandoned on New Providence.

 The neighbours. Still pretty quiet but freshly painted with windows and doors intact. 

Heading out from New Providence the fishing lines went back in the water.  It wasn’t long before we heard the ziiinnnng coming off the reel. We have a routine now. Tom starts to reel the line in. I slow the boat down make sure it is on auto pilot and gather the necessary tools: – gaff, knife, pliers  and a winch handle  to knock it out.

It seemed to be a big one and was putting up a good fight.

Half an hour later Tom had it up to the stern and was able to see the distinct markings of yet another barracuda.

Our first stop in the Exumas this trip would be Norman’s Cay. We had a nice bright day to approach the island watching for changes in the color of the water that would identify the shallows (very light colored) and the coral heads (dark colored). The wind was from the east and the island gave us good protection for the night. We had anchored here overnight on our way north last year. This time we made a short visit ashore.

Once a haven for drug runners, Norman’s Cay is now dotted with many private residences and has a busy air strip for charter flight to and from the island. There is talk about a large resort that is to be built on the island but in the meantime Norman’s Cay Beach Club (a.k.a MacDuff’s) is the only game in town with $18.00 hamburgers. Their spicy conch fritters are more reasonably priced and are delicious. 

 Just follow the signs.

 One of the Beach Club cabins.

  Garden ornament.

Happy Andros New Year

Happy Andros New Year – December 29, 2010 to January 3, 2011

It was another successful fishing day as we crossed the Northwest Channel from The Berrys to Andros with Talisa and Mutual Fun. As we passed the southern end of Chub Cay, both polar Pacer and Mutual Fun hooked mutton snappers. The two fish were more than enough to feed the multitude of cruisers at Morgan’s Bluff that evening.

 

 26 inches long.

We had been told by some Andros natives that we could take our boats into the commercial harbour at Morgan’s Town on the northern tip of Andros Island if the outer harbour anchorage was too rough. There was another cold front on the way and we would be looking for protection from the north winds once again. Incidentally, Morgan’s Bluff got its name from the famous English pirate, Captain Morgan, whose name and portrait have also been given to a well known brand of rum.

There is only room enough for five or six boats to tie to shore in the northwest corner of the harbour and there were three boats already there when we arrived. With a little bit of juggling and adjusting of stern/bow anchors and with a spider’s web of lines tied to the other boats and the scrubby casuarinas pines on the shore, everyone managed to get wedged in with enough room for the weekly mail boat to maneuver without hitting anyone. The dinghy was used as a  bridge from Polar Pacer to the shore.

 All tied up.

 

 Rafted

Since this time of year is not the best for exploring Andros due to the lack of adequate protected anchorages we chose to get a rental car for a couple of days and do a road trip. The Androsia fabric factory is located at Fresh Creek about half way down the eastern side of the island and the central part of the island has Mennonite farms where we hoped to pick up some fresh vegetables. The roads we travelled were paved and mostly in good condition. The hard part was remembering to drive on the wrong  (left) side of the road. 

 

The speed limits are different for cars and trucks.

No speed limits were posted for tractors.

The Androsia factory was closed for the holidays so we were not able to get a tour. 

However, the outlet store was open for business and there was no shortage of material to buy. Now there are three projects to finish.

Another Prout Snowgoose

The Fresh Creek entrance, looking towards the Tongue of the Ocean.

Marvin, the conch salad guy, is just one of several examples of proof that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well on Andros Island. We met Marvin on New Year’s Eve when we arrived way too early for the rushin’ at the Church of God of Prophecy in Conch Sound. Marvin has a little stand under the street light beside the road that runs past the front of his house at Conch Sound, a short drive from Morgan’s Bluff. Not only did he make us a great conch salad, we were the recipients of personal instructions on how to remove the conch from its shell, clean it, skin it and chop it finely for the makings of a salad. His other ingredients included a large onion, a cucumber, one red tomato, one green tomato, an apple, the juice from several oranges and just enough hot scotch bonnet pepper sauce to give it a good bite. He gave us the option of including the conch skin or not, claiming that the Bahamian way is to include it even if it is a little tougher that the rest of the conch. Later, when he wasn’t looking, those tough bits got tossed in the bushes beside us.

With the help of the street light, Marvin has chosen to live off the grid for now rather than pay BEC’s too high electric bills. Someday he would like to turn his little piece of property into a small resort complete with swimming pool and small cottages for his guests. There is nothing wrong with dreaming big. In the meantime he’ll continue to sell his conch salad and maybe some beverages from the collection of half empty bottles. If there is a special event anywhere on the north end of the island he can pack up his equipment and set up shop wherever the customers are.

After spending an hour with Marvin, we continued down the road by foot to location of the rushin’, expecting something along the lines of a junkanoo. We did not know how big the crowd might be so we left the car at the conch stand to ensure that we did not get blocked in somewhere and have to sleep in the car overnight. As we neared the church it was obvious that whatever was happening would be indoors and not on the grassy field next door like we had anticipated. We entered the church just as the service was about to start and the extensive band was taking its place at the front complete with a full set of drums and a couple of electric guitars. A bank of five microphones occupied the other side of the stage. The pews filled up quickly and the pastors (four of them) took their turns at the microphone. Some of the sermons were accompanied by much singing. We were conspicuously two of the three non Bahamians in the house. A young girl politely brought us hymn books in case we did not know the words. I did recognize Amazing Grace. 

Three and a half hours later (we didn’t want to be even more conspicuous by getting up and leaving early) the New Year’s Eve countdown had been incorporated into the last sermon and we were all free to go rushin’. It was well after midnight before the band to dismantle their equipment in the church and set it all up again in the building next door. We contemplated calling it a night and as we walked down the road towards the conch stand where we had left the car we encountered several people returning from changing from their formal church attire into clothing more suitable for going to a night club. Even one of the pastors returned in tight jeans and knee high, six inch heeled, red suede boots.  We were informed that we couldn’t leave yet. The rushin’ is going to start soon. The band started up and the dancing began. One continuous dancing circle, over a section of reinforced floor, that did not stop until sometime after the sun rose.  We were almost embarrassed to leave sometime around 2 AM when the little ones just barely old enough to walk were still going strong. The crowd was still growing as we found our way home to Polar Pacer.

New Year’s Day was technically a holiday but we still had the rental car until mid afternoon and there was an opportunity to get some laundry done. We arrived at the Laundromat around 9 AM to closed doors and no response to a knock at the house next door. 

 

As we drove away thinking that the proprietor was still recovering from the all night party we were flagged down by a passing vehicle whose driver advised us to “Keep knockin’, they’ll open up for you.”

Sure enough, a few more knocks at the roused seventy one year old basil Campbell who had not been out all night (he has been having trouble with his knee) but had been watching a movie on TV and hadn’t heard us outside.  

 

 Mr. Campbell’s Laundromat uses modern equipment in a less than modern manner.

This was our first time to do laundry since leaving Florida. Between Polar Pacer and Mutual Fun we had seven loads to wash and dry. Both washers and dryers operate on $2.00 worth of quarters but the charge is actually $3.00 per washer and $3.50 per dryer.  Once the first automatic washing machine is put into operation there is not enough water pressure left (Mr. Campbell has his own well) to fill the others and he fills the other six machine with a garden hose. By the time the last machine is filled and ready to go it is time to go back to the first machine and start the routine over again for the rinse cycle.  If you want hot water he needs a days notice so he can turn he hot water heater on and heat the water overnight. I suspect there may also be an extra charge for hot water.

Andros Island has an abundance of fresh water unlike any of the other islands we have visited where the water supply is reliant on catching rain water or having a reverse osmosis system. Most of the water for Nassau is supplied from Andros. 

 This water tanker makes a round trip to Nassau every 26 hours. At one time there were three vessels making the trip.

 Giant water hoses used to fill the tanker.

If you are looking for a truly Bahamian, off the beaten path, vacation spot you should try the Pineville Motel on Andros. Eugene Campbell has put both his business and artistic talents to good use and has created a diverse and unique holiday experience.  Our introduction started with getting internet access. As far as we could tell Eugene’s service is the only one in the area besides the fifteen free minutes that you can use at the Batelco office down the road. He told us about his plans to put up a transmission tower so boaters at Morgan’s Bluff can sign up for internet services without having to come to the motel. Although the kitchen was not officially open for lunch Eugene offered to make us hamburgers.  

Seating arrangements for dining are in the gardens. 

We chose one of the long tables in the center in order to have an all round view of our surroundings.

While the burgers were being prepared I visited Miss Pineville in the petting zoo. Such a sweetie.

A live band and a buffet meal were on the agenda for that evening. Sometimes there are fashion shows. If you bring your children and they are not keen on the adults’ entertainment there is also a movie theatre with babysitters available. Eugene offered to provide transportation to and from Morgan’s Bluff for anyone who was interested. That’s another service that he provides. He also has a few small buses and arranges island tours and field trips. 

The Pineville buffet.

Dancing the night away under the Pineville disco ball.

The rooms in the motel are each decorated according to Eugene’s current inspiration and are changed on a regular basis, something like the theme hotel at the West Edmonton Mall. We had a tour of two rooms that were not occupied.  

  

In the very cosy honeymoon suite. 

There are plans to install a fountain in one of the rooms sometime soon.

Tom and Eugene. Check out the latest developments at www.pinevillemotel.com.

The reefs and rocky shoreline outside of Morgan’s Bluff are reported to be abundant with lobster just waiting to be picked. Tom and Randy went out in the dinghy to test their lobstering skills and came back empty handed. Lucky for us Monroe lives on his boat in the harbour and promised to get us some lobster and conch just as soon as he got the motor running on his skiff. Three days later he delivered seven large lobster tails, trimmed, cleaned and ready for the BBQ, all for what we considered a very reasonable price. 

Tom and Randy go lobstering.

Monroe’s lobster in a 9 1/2 x 11 cake pan.

 Monroe was also the source for enough fresh tenderized conch to make a pressure cooker full of delicious conch chowder.

Abandoned junkanoo costumes at Morgan’s Bluff. A young man told me that after failing to win in last year’s competition the group had lost interest. Too bad.

Have Yourself a Berry Island Christmas

Have Yourself a Berry Island Christmas – December 21 to 28, 2010

  Leaving Lucaya

We left Sunrise Marina in Lucaya at 4:00 AM using our 1500 candle power flashlight to navigate the narrow channel. The full moon was still partially darkened by the remains of the lunar eclipse. 

  Post eclipse sunrise

We had clear skies, light winds and flat seas for the 60 nautical mile trip. We reached Great Stirrup Cay in the early afternoon and anchored in the cruise ship playground at Great Harbour. We saw groups tourists who had ventured off of their massive floating hotels to play on jet skis, kayaks and parasails.

 Cruise ship kayakers.

One of the launches that ferry people from the cruise ships to shore. They spend the night on the mooring balls in Great Harbour.

The ships that we saw when we arrived at Stirrup Cay silently swapped places during the night with their counterparts bringing in a new crop of fun seekers.

Fishing in the Northwest Providence Channel was rather productive. As we sailed down the eastern edge of the Berry Islands after leaving Great Stirrup Cay and headed for an anchorage at Devil’s- Hoffman we trailed one line from a Cuban yo-yo on starboard and a second line from a rod on the port side. We had four catches before noon. The first one was an 18 inch barracuda that we threw back, the second was a “little tunny” (member of the tuna family), the third was a 3 foot barracuda that spit out the hook just as Tom was about to pull it on board with the gaff and the fourth was another barracuda that would probably been as least as big except that something even bigger took a big chomp out of it as Tom was reeling it in and left us with nothing but the head and the gills. The Bahamians always tell us how good barracuda is to eat but we have not been able to get past the vicious looking teeth and have sent them back to the sea.  We have also read that they can carry cigutera and would rather not take the chance. 

We kept the Little Tunny

Our new Anglers Cookbook describes the little tunny as the least desirable but most nutritious of the tuna family. I marinated the filets in fresh lime juice for three hours then steamed them in the pressure cooker for three minutes with chopped garlic, thinly sliced onions and a peppery spice medley that we had purchased from The Spice and Tea Exchange in Charleston (www.spiceandtea.com). The meat was initially very dark but most of it lightened up with cooking. I discarded the portions that stayed dark and did not look too appetizing. It had good flavor but was a bit dry. Next time I will only steam it for 1 ½ minutes and let the pressure cooker de pressurize naturally.

 The leftovers made great fish tacos the next day.

 Big Gaulding Cay (Or was that Little Gaulding Cay? It is so hard to keep them straight.) has been home to many cruisers’ gatherings. It has a nice sand beach for dinghy landing and a table to spread out the happytizers. You might even find some coconuts.

 Meet Margarite, a Venezuelan potcake who was adopted as a puppy and has lived on a boat most of her life and likes to go ashore for potluck gatherings.

A cold front with winds gusting to 40 knots was predicted for Boxing Day. The anchorage at Devil’s -Hoffman does not have good all round protection so we struck out for the Berry Island Club on Frazer’s Hog Cay hoping to be able to get a good mooring ball to sit on for a few days.  The strongest winds were expected to come from the west and we would be in the lee of the island. When we arrived we were pleased to see that there were moorings available and they are quite new with 3000 pound blocks of concrete holding them in place. The red channel marker that had strayed from its proper side of the channel could have been a major inconvenience had we gone aground but thanks to Duncan on Talisa we had an advance warning not to follow the red, right, returning rule there. He even came out to meet us in his dingy, escorted us in and helped to secure our mooring lines.

Our boat sized Christmas tree decorated with shells from Hobe Sound in Florida and a sand dollar souvenir from last year's Christmas craft sale on Man-O-War.

The day before Christmas was baking day on Polar Pacer. Sometime earlier in December I promised to make a truly Canadian dessert for Christmas – butter tarts. I even made a test batch before we left Florida. Do you have any idea how much I dislike making pastry? The test batch was almost a failure. The pre-made tart shells that I would normally rely on were nowhere to be found so I dug up a recipe for pastry that calls for cooking oil instead of shortening thinking that it would be easier to roll. After making it quite clear that I do not like making pastry and almost shipping the whole mess overboard I was able to piece together enough dough to hold a bit of filling. Then I underestimated how hot the oven actually was – no, there is no thermostat – and almost burned the whole batch to a crisp. In the end they did all get eaten.

 I managed to find a boxed pastry mix in the grocery store at north Palm Beach that I remembered worked for my mother many years ago. (I inherited my dislike of pastry making from her.) It was so easy to work with, even with only a jar of jalapenos for a rolling pin.

Not the test batch.
 

The Berry Island Club is not as commodious as it might sound.  There is room for four stools at the bar and a couple of tables. You will likely be asked to move if someone has made a reservation for dinner.  The Explorer chart book indicates that three new cottages were under construction in 2006. In typical Bahamian fashion they are still under construction in 2011! The Club hosted a party on Christmas Eve, complete with a DJ and food flown in from Nassau for the event, to say goodbye to one of the customs officers who was being transferred to another island. No one minded us crashing the party but I’m sure that our so-called dancing did not do justice to the popular Bahamian version of the Macarena – “Shake It Up! Shake It Up!”- in spite of some coaching from Johnny Scott.

 According to Stephen Pavlidas, in his guide to the guide to the central and southern Bahamas, On and Off the Beaten Path, this building was the first house built on the island about 60 years ago. All considered it is in rather good condition.

Several of the boats that were in the area when we arrived, chose to take advantage of the light winds on Christmas Day and headed for Nassau. That left Polar Pacer, Mutual Fun and Talisa to share Christmas dinner on the Lawn in front of the beach bar. Nothing was missing from the menu. We had turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, a special chicken dish, several different vegetables, pickles, chocolate fudge, butter tarts, pumpkin bread and stolen. A very normal Christmas meal. It was sunny and cool but still pleasant enough for an outdoor meal. An added bonus we were able to get internet access long enough between power failures to call our son and our very good friends and wish them all a Merry Christmas.

  Relaxing after Christmas dinner.

Merry Berry Island Christmas

Johnny Scott, our new best friend in the Berry Islands, offered to give us a tour of Chub and Frazer’s Hog Cays, if he could get his truck to start.  It took a bit of coaxing on his part but eventually he got it to stay running without too much sputtering and wheezing. After obtaining his assurance that he would get us back to the marina (he did not say when), six of us piled into the truck prepared for a little adventure.

 The little truck that could…..

We took a left turn on to the main road and headed towards Chub Cay with Johnny pointing out the various lots owned by ‘second homers’ from different corners of the globe, all ‘good people’ according to Johnny. The road is not much more than a dirt trail bordered by mangrove, two different kinds of buttonwood and love vine that supposedly makes good tea. I have not been tempted to try it. We passed by a blue hole that comes right up to the edge of the road. That part of the road is often under water at high tide. You want to be extra careful not go off the road in that spot after too many rum drinks as the blue hole is 65 feet deep.

The Chub Cay resort is just a short ways past the air strip. Be sure to check left and right for aircraft before entering the runway and again in the rear view mirror to make sure that nothing is coming in for a landing behind you as you cross over to the other side.

  Lots of room for customers at the Chub Cay Club.

The last stop on Johnny’s tour was the private residence at Pointe Nirvana which we understand is where he lives and works.  Elegantly rustic and in need of a few repairs it has been used as a private get-away by the rich and famous. It is for sale and can be yours for just a few million. www.pointenirvana.com

 Pointe Nirvana from the beach.

The view from the top.

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On the deck with Johnny. As you can see it was not exactly sun bathing weather.

Just about the time we were ready to return to our boats the little truck that could decided that it just couldn't anymore. Fortunately our host had the keys to another set of wheels...............