I left you last in Nassau where I was busy prepping the boat for my first guests arrival.  As such, I was WAY too busy to get any pictures (honest, it has nothing to do with being slack!) of Nassau.  Speaking of pictures, I need to reiterate.  All of the pictures on this site can be clicked on to enlarge.  It says so on the "How to navigate this site" page but I've had several people ask me if there were larger pictures so...

After my guest arrived we went down to Potter's Cay under the Paradise Island bridge where the locals have food and vegetables stands.  We had fresh Conch salad with some Kaliks while listening to a young Bahamian business man purposely antagonizing a group of Bahamian women by extolling the virtues and privileges of being a man.  Way funny!  Later, at a vegetable stand, I was lucky enough to find some Sugar Bananas.  Sugar bananas are small bananas that have a sharper banana/pineapple flavor and are great in banana pancakes served with chunky applesauce, smothered over the top.  I'm salivating as I write this!  Anyway, the next day was still a bit blustery with NW wind blowing 15 to 20.  The forecast showed a serious cold front moving in sometime in the next day or two.  Not wanting to get stuck in Nassau, we prepped the boat and departed for Allan Cay in the Exuma's.  The boat handled the 3-4 footers on the Yellow Banks quite well and, in just a couple of hours, we were at Allan Cay home to the indigenous Bahamian Iguana.  We anchored between Leaf and Allan in what turned out to be a fairly rolly anchorage with the winds coming out of the NW.

Our next stop was Normans Cay - a favorite for the sound side reefs with their grouper and lobster.  Here we met up with old cruising friends of mine, Oliver and Pam on "Dejarlo" and joined Oliver for an afternoon of spearfishing.  We first went to my favorite spots on the sound side... well... we would have but, since I didn't have GPS waypoints for them and it's been a couple of years, I couldn't find them.  So we regrouped and went to some heads on the inside where Oliver said he had had good luck in the past.  Sure enough, we ended up getting several lobster and a large grouper.  Great fun!  This is a large part of what I come to the Bahamas for.  The diving that is, the spear fishing just gives me purpose to explore more reefs and drive to keep going after I start getting a little tired.  Great exercise.  That evening we enjoyed grouper, pepper, onions and tomatoes grilled and then drizzled with lime butter.  For those of you that think that you don't like fish, you haven't had it this fresh and sweet.  "Tastes like chicken!" LOL, just kidding folks...  It's just fabulous!

The next day I waited till slack tide to dive on another of Oliver's secret reefs just North of the Exuma Land Sea Park boundary.  My guest and I got 5 lobsters there.  I had been so focused on diving that I wasn't paying any attention to the weather. As we started to leave the area, I noticed that the wind had freshened and that low and behold, a frontal cloud had moved in.  The edge of the cloud was just NW of us and was looking like it might spawn some waterspouts.  Time to move out and fast.  I had planned on being on a mooring in the Park at Warderick Wells Cay when this front hit, but time got away from me as it always does when I'm diving.  This is when I really appreciated the speed and fine hulls of the MC 30.  While we didn't beat the front to the mooring; we did get there fast, safe and in relative comfort.  After grabbing a mooring, we were invited up to the park headquarters to have drinks and food with the other cruisers.  Talking that evening, I found out that they could use a hand installing a sliding glass door in back of the building so we decided to stay and work the next day.  After 2 days at the Park head quarters, it was time to move on.  The front was still raging; but, with the shallow draft of the MC30, we would be able to safely cruise in the shelter of the islands and so we left.   We cruised through and dove in a couple more locations before getting out of the park at the South and anchoring at Staniel Cay

Staniel Cay is always a fun stop for both me and my guests.  There's a lot to see and do.  Being Thanksgiving Day, it's also a great place to celebrate the holiday and get a traditional holiday dinner.  The day was spent diving at Thunderball cave where portions of the James Bond movie "Thunderball" as well as "Splash" and others were filmed.  Then we visited "Pigs Beach" on Big Majors Spot.  Way too Funny!  Pigs swimming out to the dinghy hoping that we had brought them a little snack.  Definitely a must see.  Later that evening; Thanksgiving dinner, a fun and casual affair, was enjoyed at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. 

With time running out for my guest and so much more to see, we left the following day to tour the nearby Black Point Settlement.  I always stop to see what Billy at "the Garden of Eden" has been up too.  His tour of his art and garden is always very enjoyable, and he and his wife Betty are the most gracious of hosts.  Our pictures that morning didn't turn out and so we returned in the afternoon to take more.  The lighting wasn't as good in my opinion; but, oh well... come down and see it for yourselves.

The other thing that I make a point of doing while in Black Point is to have dinner at Lorraine's Cafe.  Lorraine is a wonderful cook as well as a lovely person, and I just love spending the evening at her cafe enjoying beers from her honor bar and Lorraine's fine cooking mixing with other cruisers and locals alike.  In the morning before we left, Lorraine brought some of her famous Mac and Cheese down to the docks so that my guest could try it before she left.  Warm Mac and Cheese was the breakfast that morning and folks, this is not your ordinary mac and cheese, please!  A square of it, all golden brown and crunchy on top with bits of fresh hot peppers inside, is something that everyone should be lucky enough to experience in their lifetime.  Makes me hungry just thinking about savoring a larg... err... small square!

We only had time for a couple more stops before turning back to Staniel so that my guest could fly out.   The first stop was the anchorage off of the mile long peach colored sand beach South of White Point.  The anchorage is placid in easterly winds as well as usually being deserted.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  Very nice! 

The next day it was on to Farmers Cay for some fun and food with Allie and his wife.  Allie's wife has a restaurant at the bottom of the hill at Little Farmers where she has a thriving business cooking for the locals and any cruisers who happen to come along.  She makes the best Conch Fritters that I've had in the Bahamas bar none.  Allie runs the small but very fun bar at the bottom of the hill.  He always plays great music for the locals and visitors and, if you're halfway inclined (literally), he'll get you to karaoke over his stereo.  Always a very fun stop! The people of this island are wonderful! 

Finally, after my guest flew out of Staniel Cay on Flamingo Air ("it's only a bit over 2 hours late mon, chill...") I saw this Brit that we had met at the Yacht Club earlier in the day where she had been drinking Karl's specials. As she was walking past the airport, she spotted this sign (click on the picture to enlarge so that you can read it...) and then ran screaming across the runway...  Really!  I couldn't make something this crazy up.  I heard tell of "mad English men" but never anything about the women... go figure.

OK, this is starting to sound like a cruising guide and that's not my intention.  I really wanted to make this page humorous and light but feel strongly about my Bahamian friends and favorite places so many of which are in the Exuma's.  I'll try to lighten up the next segment a bit more.  Since I'm not sure where I'll be, I'll either have a #2 hyperlink next to the Exuma1 hyperlink if the story is in the Exumas or else you'll see one of the other islands name become a hyperlink.  For all of you MC30 owners and the MC30 owners group, I've updated the Beaufort page (since it's predominantly a "what I've done to the boat" page, and the new material will be at the bottom of the page and consist of my thoughts on the boat and installed equipment now that I've actually had a bit of time to live with them.  I will date that posting as well as any future updates to the page to make it easier for you to keep up.  To go to the updated portion of Beaufort Page, Click HERE.

Wishing you all the best this holiday season!

More Pictures

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

I hope that you're enjoying this half as much as I am and I'll do my best to get the next page up by January 2, 2007 (depends on the party, of course).