We have been here for nearly 3 weeks but not sure what we
have to show for it – that might be the right answer.
Observations –
- It is really quiet at night – absolutely no sound – it wakes me up sometimes; sleep really hard for 2 hours then wake up around 1am because it is so darned quiet. During the day there are boat noises, hammers, and tons of birds squawking away. But at night it is silent. We are very glad the guy with the noisy spiny thing on his sailboat left because that thing was LOUD.
- It is hard to take pictures because the view is mostly the same – I could substitute pictures from any day and you wouldn’t know – we wouldn’t know either. This is a good thing – so pleasant.
Critter alert – Mama dolphin with baby visited the marina on 3/14. The little guy was hopping and jumping around. You could see Mama trying to corrall it. So cute!!
I took those pictures with the little silver camera (a Nikon Coolpix S51). Unfortunately we had a problem. The little camera got sand in it
and now is a great looking paperweight. I suspect dropping it didn't help.
I had that camera for years and it worked great I was just figuring out all the things it could do. I checked and it costs at minimum $100 to get it repaired so I bought another one – a refurbished
Nikon Coolpix AW100 – waterproof and shockproof. I sent it to Bunny and Evan for when we get back to the US. In the meantime we have to use the big camera which makes great photos but is so much less portable.
The camera broke while we were walking on the sand one day. It
was a great day.
On the ferry on Sunday after the Barefoot Man concert (more on
that later) a nice lady from Boston said there was a really great restaurant at
the end of the beach if you walk to the left from our hotel. Monday was a great
day for a walk so we set out for it. We kept walking and walking, checking out
every building to see if it could be the restaurant. Turns out Treasure Sands
is the second to last building on the beach. It was about a 2.5 mile walk each
way. It didn’t look that far.
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| Follow this beach all the way to the top of the page to the left to get to our resort |
Treasure Sands is so beautiful. I wish I had photos but this
is where the camera broke after we were hit with a pretty big wave. I was
holding the camera in my water hand. Stupid. Cameras don’t like water or sand.
Poop. So here are pictures of this lovely place from their website.
The day we walked over, there was hardly anyone in the
place. I think it was about 4pm by the time we got there. We were wearing
bathing suits and we had no money so we weren’t staying. We were met by the
manager, Vincent, a confident friendly fellow who stands up straight and looks
you right in the eye as he shakes your hand. We liked him.
The entire place is open to the elements. Imagine a big
rectangle divided into four parts. The part along the ocean has the kitchen in
the corner, then a big rectangular bar, then a table area right by the sand on
a cement platform. The trim on the floor and the bar and the tables are 1”
squares of glass tiles in blues and turquoise.
Curtains hang from the high
ceilings are pinks, oranges and browns. The tables and chairs are brown wicker.
Along the bar and table area filling half the long part of the rectangle is the
pool with the glass tile trim again and chaise lounges with pink and blue cushions. 
The other half of the long rectangle with the kitchen on one side and open to
the pool is the restaurant. It is also open. The closest I can think of is like
a big barn set up for parties. There is art work hung on either end of the open
air “barn”. Everything is in browns, pinks, and blues, with red art to set it
off.
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| This is a picture of the duck I had |
We arranged for dinner on Wednesday. We contacted Eric our
favorite cab driver who brought us over at about 6pm. He prefers round trips so
we don’t pay him until he picks us up again. He came back at about 7pm and hung
out at the bar until we were ready. Everything is that casual.
Eric returned early to pick us up because he dropped off a
wedding party. A middle aged lady and her new husband along with their children
made up a small party that was having the wedding dinner at the big table along
the water during sunset. Sounds about perfect to me. We have no pictures
because the camera broke. She looked beautiful.
Dinner was good. I had duck and Kermit had steak. I probably
should have had the fish but the duck was good. Everything was very expensive
but you are paying for great service, good food, and a beautiful location.
Yesterday we walked about a mile in the other direction to
the end of the island closest to the ocean. Another great view but sorry no
pictures. We can’t afford sand in another camera. We might ride the bikes down there today and get pictures of the end of the island. There are really big houses down at the end.
The entire island was abuzz because Barefoot man was coming
to Nippers Friday and Saturday. Yippee!! We checked out his music on iTunes and
it was ok and everyone was talking about it so we decided to go. Kermit checked
with Orchid Bay when we visited the previous Sunday for the pig roast at Nippers
but he couldn’t get a slip. We decided to take the ferry so we could drink and
enjoy the party.
Our favorite ferry is Prozac run by Oswald and his other captain. Oswald says he never met another Oswald until he moved to Treasure Cay years ago and met 3 different Oswald's. He and Kermit had a chuckle about stupid names.
We took the ferry to Great Guana Cay to Nippers instead of
taking the boat. It costs less too. The ferry costs $100 for 2. Taking the
boats for the 15 mile trip probably costs that much in gas.
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| Katherine with Barefoot Man |
Barefoot Man claims to be an island phenomenon, the Bahamas
Jimmy Buffet. They even make special t-shirts to that effect. I am not sure we agree.
He was ok. It was something we had to do.
Barefoot Man is a German guy who prefers the island life. He
came to the Bahamas just out of high school and he is no middle aged. He is
short – shorter than me – and very pleasant. He mingles with the crowd before
the show having drinks and chatting with people who clearly have seen him many
times before.
Barefoot Man has odd feet, really big, flat, with strange
looking toes. I counted them because they give the impression that there are
more toes than there should be but he has the requisite 5 toes per foot just
everyone else. His feet are just… odd looking. No photo of the feet. That would
have been rude.
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| Barefoot Man is next to the blue pole in a little pit where they keep little muscians |
He has a nice voice I guess. We couldn’t hear much because the band was loud. We couldn’t see him either. He was sitting down below the crowd. He practically disappeared. The music has a nice island sound. The crowd knows all the words and shouted out at just the right time. I don’t know. We still like Pat Dailey better.
As people were arriving, we got buzzed by a Coast Guard helicopter that circled for a while before flying away. It was pretty exciting!!
Barefoot Man has groupies – old people in odd clothes –
these must be folks who live full time in the Bahamas but not the rich ones
with big condos – these are the folks who chucked it all and get by – not a bad
way to live.
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| Great ocean view |
Young people were brought by old people. This is clearly an old folks haunt. This baby was very confused.
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| Very curious baby. |
We tried twice but never got food. At Nippers we ordered sandwiches
but it took us 2.5 hours to figure out no food was coming. So we left and went to Grabbers.
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After an hour food eventually came but the chicken was raw
on the inside and we turned it back in. Stomachs were grumbling on the ride
home. We ended up eating a nice dinner at Spinnaker back at Treasure Cay.
Most days I spend working at my computer. I am preparing three new marketing
campaigns to launch in April.
Kermit spends his day on the Internet looking for a bigger
boat and doing lots of projects. Here are some of the projects he worked on
this week:
- · Tried to fix head watch - he need some parts so he couldn't fix it properly
- · Fixed lights
- · Put decals on ice machine that he needs to remove
- · Fixed the dinghy latch
- · Oiled all the zippers on the bridge
- · Fixed doors
- · Tightened screws on cabinets
He has been very busy. Although when you think about it, we
are not really doing much at all. I guess that is the idea.
People are always worked at the resort too. When our friends were here we watched a guy walk up a palm tree to cut the branches. He did this over and over. I took a series of pictures because it was just unbelievable. He walked up the ladder, secured the ladder to the tree because we wouldn't want anything to happen to the ladder. Then he literally walked up the tree and sat in the branches. He pulled up machete and proceeded to chop off the branches around where he sat. Unbelievable.
At pizza night last Thursday, we ate dinner with a bunch of
sailboaters. One couple, Allen and Marianne, are on the sailboat next door. They
have this Bahamas thing down right. Yesterday we didn’t even see them once
during the day. Allen is reading a biography of Winston Churchill that has his
complete attention. He joked that if he fell asleep the book could kill him if it fell on his!
They introduced us to a British tv series called Doc Martin.
It is great fun. We saw two episodes on Saturday night and hope to see two more
tonight when they come to our boat for dinner. We have to get that dvd for
ourselves.
Here is our realization. There are about 150 slips here and
there are about 32 boats in them, including runabouts for hire and little
charter boats. It is essentially empty. There is even plenty of space in the harbor
for anchoring. As we sit here on the
back of the boat in this essentially empty marina, we are constantly amazed
that no one we know has ever mentioned this place. No one. Yet we meet people
who have been coming here for years. I guess they were keeping it a secret or
we are not meeting the right people. Lots of the folks with a history at this
place are from Maine and Boston. And tons of Canadians.
Next on the agenda: We want to ride the bikes at least once,
maybe today. We also want to go to Hope Town to actually walk in the
lighthouse. We want to go to Man-o-War Cay famous for boat construction and
those wild pigs. By the end of the week we will start looking for a weather window
for the crossing back to Florida. I suspect we will leave this wonderful place
next weekend to go back the way we came. When we get to Green Turtle Cay we
might stop to go scuba diving. We’ll see.
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