We are no longer in the Abacos!

Walking the back streets of Rosie's Place - looking for the bakery!

Crossing the wide open waters

"Center of the world" - rock out in the middle of nowhere!

Rosie's Place - quite colorful!

Tied to the wall in the Lucaya Canal
Got a little tight when the tide went out -
see the extension of the wall under the water?
We didn't!

One of the few homes that did build in the canal

Made it to Ocean Reef - Port Lucaya
Would be our home for the month June

Local tavern and "Aquarium"!

Interesting two story houseboat - and look at the two story deck!

We are no longer in the Abacos. We are now on Grand Bahama Island – last stop before we head back to stateside.

Last Wednesday (May 30) we left Crab Cay about 8:30 a.m. after a pleasant anchorage with three other boats. It was a beautiful day so we headed on to Grand Cay about a 45 mile trip. We arrived at Rosie's Marina about 2:30 p.m. Of course, true in Bahamian style – no one would answer the VHF. We just dropped a hook out in the harbor. We had heard this was quite an interesting place and we weren't disappointed. It's a very colorful area! Rather poor but well-kept and friendly. We could even get WIFI in the harbor! We walked around the small town – hit the bakery and had a drink at Rosie's Bar. The guides had told us that there would be lots of stingrays. They were right – we couldn't count them all. Some were huge! We met a couple on a sailboat anchored out by us. They were from Florida and helped us with lots of information about where to stay when we get back there.

We left Thursday morning for Lucaya Waterway. We passed Mangrove Cay – a popular anchorage because several passages criss cross here. We traveled about 45 miles today – saw a few sailboats early but as the day progressed it became obvious to us that we were by ourselves.

We stopped just outside the waterway in Dover Sound to anchor. It was early in the afternoon and Mike decided to check out the waterway in the dinghy. He found that it was a great place to anchor – there was even a wall there we could tie up to. SO we decided to move in there – the guides say it's sometimes used as a hurricane hole. Great protection from the winds. We tied up to the trees near the wall and spent a nice quiet evening.

The Lucaya Waterway was built by developers in the 70s who had a vision of a great Florida type housing community with docking for your boats in your backyard. Several lots were sold (over 5,000) and work began only to come to a grinding halt when the new Bahamian government ruled that only Bahamian citizens could own property here in the Bahamas. What a mess! It took years and years for things to finally be settled. However, the housing project with the waterway never really took off after that. There are some houses built along the canal but most of it is undeveloped. Some houses are just sitting there vacant and never finished. What a loss! It would have been beautiful.

We woke up to rain on Friday June 1 – another Bahamian Holiday! This one is Labor Day. We decided to just stay through the day waiting out the rain. We would head for the marina in Port Lucaya in the morning. BUT at low tide we found ourselves resting on the wall foundation – no harm done – just a little off – about 4 degrees list – "tilting"! We took a nap and the tide came back up and all was good! No worries!

Oh, and our pet hermit crab "Kerm" almost made his great escape! A small twig from the trees had fallen in his Tupperware bowl and he climbed up it and almost made it to the back of the boat and into the water. This means he had to have fallen about 4 feet or more – twice! That's pretty far and rather adventurous for such a little guy! Mike found him just before he took his last "Geronimo" dive into the water. We gave him some extra lettuce since we knew he must have been worn out! HA!

On Saturday morning it was easy traveling through the rest of the canal however it was quite choppy once we left the canal and moved into the Atlantic. Fortunately it was only a short trip to the Ocean Reef Resort from there. We found a great slip (no one answered the VHF here either) but some friendly boaters helped us land. Our slip is right in from of the Olympic size pool – one of two! There are several weekly activities – we may stay awhile – we like it here. It's even cheaper than the marina in Stuart! Now if we could only find cheap beer!

We spent Sunday cleaning up the boat and regrouping. We took a dinghy ride out to Port Lucaya – there are some really nice beaches here.

They had a shuttle on Monday morning to the store and liquor store. Of course, we needed to restock. We then hung out at the pool – meeting several nice people on boats as well as those in the resort's villas.  Monday Madness was at the pool that evening - FREE food and rum punch! We met several more crazy boaters and danced till my feet hurt – which really didn't take all that long!!
Mike even played in a pool tournament with his buddy Hank. They ended up winning the tourney! Bragging rights only but hey! - he won! There are tournaments throughout the week so he will have to defend his title soon.

On Wednesday there was a whale of a storm. One of the sailboats at the dock (belongs to Barry from Jolly Ol' England) was struck by lightning. His mast is about 70 feet so it is the tallest thing around here. It is a steel hull so he was fully grounded but it completely disintegrated his VHF antenna on his mast. What a noise that made! A little too close for me!!

Hopefully the rain will move out soon. Tomorrow we plan on going to the beach……!

Till next time!

Admiral "C"