Robert is Here! March 30-April 7

April 7th - Thursday -- He's gone   :(

April 6th - Wednesday - Robert's Last Day in Bahamas!

Off to the famous Hopetown Lighthouse.

Robert ... looking nautical!

Lighthouse ... looking majestic!

Room with a view! Full anchorage due to storm last nite.

Next stop... a little tourist shopping in town (b/c who can come to the Bahamas and not take home a tee shirt and cooler cup????

And finally, time to drop the lines to the mooring ball and head out of Hopetown just after high tide.  Off to Marsh Harbor for our last evening with Robert.  After anchoring in the harbor, our last big decision of the day was where to go... where to go...where to go???? So many choices, so little time.

We settled on the Jib Room since they were having a Wednesday nite BBQ.  Ribs for me and fish for Robert and Dan ... and the speciality rum drink for all!  Robert treated us to this fabulous buffet dinner and drinks, followed by dancing and the LIMBO!  The 3 of us abstained, but one of the guys in the band was fabulous ... his final limbo was probably 2 feet from the ground, under a burning bar that he used to light his cigarette!  too cool for our last night together.

April 5th - Tuesday

Last day at the beach!

There's a storm abrewing, so we took advantage of a beautiful afternoon to walk over to the beach and do some swimming and snorkling.  Dan and Robert snorkeled the reef and then found that if they hung out at the shoreline, they could catch some seaglass as it came in on a wave, just before getting buried in the sand.

By 4pm, the clouds will filling the sky and the thunder could be heard in the distance.  Figuring that maybe the weather forecast was going to be right today, we headed back to the boat with just enough time to batten down all the hatches before a torrential rain started with very heavy winds!  Wow.  Glad to be on a mooring at times like this.

April 4th - Monday

Today was a travel day - about 20 miles from Treasure Cay to Hopetown, last stop on Robert's tour of the Abacos.  Both spots are tricky with narrow, shallow entrances meaning that both should be approached on a rising tide ... not an easy feat to accomplish with high tide cycles every 12 hours!

Plus, we got off to a late start from Treasure Cay because when Dan did his routine engine checks, he was greeted by a broken belt on the engine.  Thank goodness for our store of spare parts ...

It was a clear, sunny and blustery day on the water ... and it would have been great sailing except that the wind was coming straight over the bow, and when you are heading right into the wind, it's virtually impossible to get the sails to stay full. But we tried ... and tried ... and tried ... and ended up motoring most of the way.  We had to kill a lot of time b/c of the tides and ended up getting into the Hopetown Harbor at 6:00pm, with 6.5 feeet of water under our keel!

We picked up one of the few mooring balls available in the harbor (cold front is coming and this is a great place to hide) and made it over to the local bar to watch the dismal NCAA basketball championship game.  Boo.

April 3rd ... Sunday

A good day to learn that Robert does not leave MarshHarbor on Saturday, but on Thursday!  Oh shit .. gotta get moving b/c we got places to visit!

We were up and moving by 8:30 (a record for this trip!) in order to get to Treasure Cay in time to make the narrow, shallow entrance at high tide.  This is one of the top 10 beaches in the world, and we just couldn't have Robert leave without seeing it.

Very calm winds, so we motored over to Treasure Cay, giving me the opportunity to make both banana nut muffins and potato salad while underway (a first for me to cook real food when not at anchor!).

A day at the beach in the Bahamas .... yes, paradise is a fitting word ...

Another vote for the Top 10 Beaches of the World! 

Beers at the beach 

Pina Coladas at the beach!

View from the shade ...

View to the sea ... 

ahhh... that color ...

No complaints today mon!

April 2nd ....

ahhh....a quiet nite at Orchid Bay ... which we need to recover from the Barefoot Man concert!  We really like this marina, but we decided that with the wind shiftting, we could save $40/nite by moving over to the anchorage at Fishers Bay, Great Guana.  So that was our big accomplishment of the day!

Back on shore, we headed over to Nippers Bar for round 2 of the Barefoot Man Concert.  We really thought that the evening concert would be the big draw with big crowds, and we were really surprised to find out how wrong we were!  Compared to the mob on Saturday, this was calm and quiet and small.  So we ended up splitting our time between Grabbers Bar (to watch NCAA Final 4 BB) and the concert at Nippers.  They are across the island from each other ... but remember, islands in the Abacos are skinny pieces of land, so it was about a 20min walk between the two bars.  And in the middle, there is Pirates Cove Bar which has free phone service to the USA.  So, I took the opportunity to call my sister, Laury, and congratulate her on changing jobs ... she will now drive less and be appreciated more!  What a great combo!

Nippers Bar

Sunset at Grabbers

At the Barefoot Man concert

The band!

These people are from Minnesota!!!

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March 28 ... Leaving Marsh Harbor on a high tide.  5pm.  Just enough time to get to Marsh Harbor and hunt for a spot in the anchorage before sunset.

March 29 ... We snagged a great spot in the crowded anchorage ... close to the dinghy dock for going to town and shopping at Maxwells grocery store and close to Snappas Restaurant where we'll meet Robert tomorrow.

March 30 .. the big day!



5:30 pm ... Robert is here!

He may not have had the smoothest travels (aka, leaving late from MN, almost missing the connection in Charlotte, running thru the airport at Nassau to catch the connection to Marsh Harbor, but HE'S HERE and in great spirits!  We had a perfect spot at the restaurant overlooking the water to enjoy happy hour drinks (from 5-11pm tonite!)

While we were having dinner, we got a surprise visit from Dan and Martha who are also cruising the Bahamas and who also know our friends, Ed and Connie Dooley, from Brunswick.  What a small world!

Dan and Martha

We stayed for sunset, and then the smoke from the forest fire burning in Marsh Harbor descended into the anchorage. For a couple of days, we've gotten up in the morning to find black soot covering the boat.

Naturally in Robert's travels, he met a lady on the plane!  Suzanne (in red) is from Canada and visiting her friend, Helen (in white) who is on m/s Miss B Haven.  We saw them come through the bar (Snappas is obviously the place for all new arrivals), and later, we stopped by Helen's boat where we stayed until almost midnight!  Back on Maja in time for a couple of traditional shots of Pussers Rum to inaugurate Robert's visit to the Bahamas!  Let the spring break festivities begin!

March 31

The weather predictions for the weekend have been dicey all week ... a cold front is approaching the northern Bahamas and we're expecting high winds (20-40 knots) and heavy squalls.  Since our destination is Great Guana Cay for the Barefoot Man concert, the concern has been weighing heavily on when we could get there and where we could stay since the winds are coming from the S/SW, blowing directly though the anchorage we would use.  Helen gave us a tip on Orchid Bay marina, so when we got them on the radio in the morning, we were able to make a slip reservation so off we went ... hoping to get into the harbor before the weather worsened.

We had a great sail for most of the day.  The wind was 20-22 knots, and we were zipping along at 5-6 knots with just 50% of our head sail out! A wonderful first sail to start Robert's vacation.  By the time we reached Great Guana Cay, the winds were above 25 knots and the swells had built to 4 feet.  With a few Hail Marys, and help from several people on the dock, Dan was able to drive the boat safely into our slip, and after tieing on every spare line we had to keep us secure, off we went to the pool and to show Robert the sights of Great Guana Cay.

Not much of a breakwater separating us from the Sea of Abaco!

windy windy windy

Orchid Bay Marina is a very nice place to hang out. Great bathrooms, lovely pool. Just no electricity.

The predicted storm did move through overnight with high winds and lots of rain.  The rain continued on until about noon the next day ... perfect time to give the boat a good wash down and stop in time for the Barefoot Man concert at Nippers Bar.

April 1

Today was all about the Barefoot Man concert ... "the Jimmy Buffet of the Bahamas" .... Nippers Bar was packed, leaving us to wonder where all these people came from (until they announced the inter-island ferry was leaving in 10 minutes and so did 80% of the crowd!).

No photos.  Which is probably a good thing considering all the grunting and grinding going on by complete strangers ... gezzzz ... color me old fashioned!  But the music was great, the weather was beautiful and the rum drinks were tasty!

After the concert, we walked over to Grabbers Bar which has a clear view of the sunset over the water.... (and I personally think better rum drinks than the famed ones at Nippers) ... and naturally, we meet more people that Robert had meet on the flight over to Marsh Harbor (this guy is a magnate!).  Turns out that one couple is from Minnesota ... from Edina MN ... and even went to high school with Dan's sister!  Yes, talk about a small world!