Month: March 2012

by

Man o’ War

Our memories of a brief stop at Man o’ War Cay five years ago are a bit fuzzy, but I know that the settlement is more vibrant and lively than we recall. Even Guana Cay seemed busier than before.  All good news; cruisers, vacationers and locals all benefit from prosperity.

The trouble with Man o’ War is the mooring fields, the balls are not well marked as to ownership and many are very close together. Great way to meet someone when your stern is two feet away from their bow. The wind beat the forecast by 5 kts so we enjoyed a 2 hour brisk sail but had to tack to do it. No Antsy Lori on this trip as we were moving right along close hauled at 6kts.

The marina directed us to a mooring in front of another boat and we immediately became the “show”. Or usual mooring attachment set up was going to leave our stern hitting the mono behind us. He wasn’t overly concerned and said getting the pennant up on deck would keep us away. Was a fun maneuver with the strong wind while the poor soul at the helm tried to keep from hitting the other boat until the lines could be rigged right and at the same time moving the boat forward toward the mooring ball. We got it done and headed in so we could do what we came for- see the museum which would close in an hour. After all that messing about it better be open.

Our very close neighbor

Today's docent is a 78 yr old resident with many memories

It was and a lovely museum to boot. Man o’ War was settled by Loyalists who remain conservative, keeping the island “dry.”  We wonder if that tradition has any bearing on Man o’ War’s long history of productivity, most notably as renowned boat builders and sail makers.

One of the displays showed an open ledger book from the hardware store of items that Langosta purchased in 1951. I thought that was a very clever tie-in to local history. You may recall that Langosta was the vessel Randolph Johnston acquired a few months after arriving in Man o’ War with his family. They later made their home in Little Harbor.

Supplies sold to the Johnstons of Langosta

Several 45s are displayed over a door frame with a sign suggesting you take them down to show your kids; who if under a certain age, may never have seen one, let alone heard of them! Was it really 40 years ago I received a surprise gift on the family phonograph; the Archies, “Sugar, Sugar.”

Man o’ War is several miles long and not very wide, so a walk across to the Atlantic Ocean side takes 10 mins. Land for a cemetery was set aside many years ago, only problem is that it is a stone’s throw from the beach. Storms have flooded the graves which are in process of being re-built in concrete to protect the contents.

Cemetery receiving a "body lift"

The few gift shops are excellent shopping and here’s how it went down: (sung to the Barefoot Man’s Nippers song)

When you get cut off in Abaco, man you’ve spent too much

When the Captain tears you from the shops while you yell and cuss

You get run over by a golf cart while your packages you clutch

When you get cut off in Abaco, man you’ve spent too much!

The sail shop no longer produces sails, instead they make totes and bags of ALL shapes and sizes. I bought a large bag to hold my loot- which did include groceries. No, just joking about the bag. Gleaned ideas for one we want to make. Island Treats sells Edy’s ice cream; the temptation was too much- we caved but only bought kiddie size.  My mouth cried out in wonder “ice cream!!! Thought you’d never get around to that again!!” Russ just ate his.

Albury's Sail Shop as seen from the harbor

by

A Beach to Treasure 3/19- 3/21

I neglected to mention how we laid low for the Saturday venue at Nippers, but we did wander over Sunday afternoon to catch Sea n’ B do their own thing. Good music, smaller crowd- down a couple notches from Friday, and Saturday as well no doubt. Said farewell to our new friends (dirt dwellers is the cruiser term) and promised to meet up again next year. Laurie better send pics….

Grabbers has it all: bar, pool, beach, lodging, music, outdoor dining

We met up with Rick on Sojourner a Saint Francis 44(?) at Grabbers located at the head of Fishers Bay. Most of boats in the bay land their tenders on the beach there. We did the usual cruiser sharing of info thing and came away with useful info on Treasure Cay, our next stop, as well as a couple of IWC places. And talk about sailing, I thought we were doing a decent job, but Sojourner has us beat.  Newbies; room for improvement.

Treasure Cay’s claim to fame is its nearly 3 miles of beautiful beach and pristine shallow water edged by a wide band of white sand. It also boasts a well-known golf course and airport.  On the way from Guana Cay, we detoured to Cistern Cay for a possible snorkel, but it was a bust. Tuesday was Russ’s birthday so we said “let’s have dinner at Spinnakers.” Wrong. Treasure Cay Marina has 3 places to eat (not much else around) but not every place serves dinner every day and Spinnakers doesn’t even serve lunch. Soo………….. Tues is BBQ on the beach across the road, at Coco Bar. Sounded fine and we even ate lunch there after a beach walk so Russ could indulge in the frozen mango daiquiri we’d heard about from Sojourner. A thumbs up from the ancient mariner 🙂

The house special- booze in bottom, overflows when blender concoction poured in- yum!

Sun, sand, blue water. ahhhh

Good thing we enjoyed the first half of the day since the rain goddess was quite unhappy; mood swinging from a few sad tears to a full-blown down pour crying jag! We beat the showers after lunch, and then watched the clouds on radar trying to figure out what was going to happen when. Looked obvious our BBQ on the beach was going to end up a wash out, so we headed in to scrounge at the grocery. There we are at the checkout with our $6 Pepperidge Farm Coconut Cake. I look up; the wind is blowing and the rain is pelting down in buckets. Half the shoppers hang out for 15 mins by the door; even those with rain gear. Neither dry nor drenched we zoomed back to Ortolan.  Naturally, that was it for the rain and we could have gone to the beach BBQ for dinner.  I drizzled rum on the cake- we ARE in the Bahamas mon – and that made everything all better.

Wednesday was a beautiful day- figures- but we’ll take it. Even that lovely laundry chore did not mar the day. The small laundromat- sort of laundry-ette was clean and bright with a personable owner who will transfer and fold if you want.  A walk south along the beach toward the sand bar end netted 3 tiny sand dollars and a handful of pretty shells. Can you guess where we ate lunch?

Happy laundry lady Lori

A beach view from the deck at Coco Bar

At 4pm – an unheard of time to depart- we pulled up the anchor (right, the electric windlass did the work), managing not to crash into the boat who’d anchored right in front of us- because I smartly put the Captain at the helm. We needed to get a jump on Thursday’s sail to Man o’ War Cay in order to arrive in time to visit the museum which is open Thurs and Sat 11- 1pm. Knowing I’d be Ms Antsy Pants to get there on time, Russ smartly said we had to cut the distance.  The basin at Treasure Cay was nicely protected; once out in the Sea of Abaco we experienced a rough and choppy ride bucking the headwinds.  Motored out a few miles until we could turn 20 degrees to motor-sail. Spent the night in the calm waters behind Archers Cay, water maker doing its thing until 11pm. 9 times out of 10 we can’t make water underway – too many air bubbles (thanks to the daggerboards) push into the water maker’s thru-hull intake and it can’t do its job. We’ll fix that by re-locating the intake to the proper spot.