Treasure Cay - Vellucci and Lipka's visit

I remember before we started this trip. I was anxious about a lot of things. A big one was what would I do to fill the time? What if the weather was bad? We had so much to see and every minute was critical. We had lists and time lines. We had plans, darn it.

I am not like that now. I can easily fill time. Bad weather does not bother us anymore. I read a lot and work on my business, we work on what to see where we are now and what to see next, take a nap. Have a beer and relax.

We can have this attitude because we do not have too many time limits. Sure, every so often we have to connect with someone so we have a vague deadline in the future. We want to meet up with One September in late March. That is sort of a deadline. I am sure as we get closer to “the end of March” we will get more concerned. But there is a lot of latitude in “late March”. A cloudy or rainy day here or there could be just an excuse to sleep late and spend the day in our pajamas with a book. Come out of hiding at dinner time.

This week friends came in from Ohio. Great friends. We love them dearly. We have known the Lipka’s and Vellucci’s for years. They are the best people ever. But they are on vacation. And the weather sucks this week. We are in the Bahamas and they are spending a week of precious vacation time and the weather sucks. This is an awful situation. I never thought I would find it confusing. And yet at first I must admit I was confused at their disappointment. I forgot.

I have been on the tense end of this equation before. I remember a week in the Outer Banks with super sucky weather. We sat in our beautiful rental house (with the Lipka and Vellucci families of course) and watched the dark ocean crash onto the beach for five out of seven days. We couldn’t go out. No sun and fun at the beach for us. We were all outraged then. It was unfair. A whole week of precious vacation wasted.

Yet I forgot how that felt. We have been gone for 8 months and I forgot how it feels to be outraged that the weather is bad. I find that observation fascinating… and odd.

So we did what any good boaters do. We made the best of the bad situation.

It all started the previous week with Bunny and Evan. I wrote about our journey with them from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas. We arrived at Green Turtle Bay Resort on Wednesday 2/27 to great weather for Kermit’s birthday. We were scheduled to meet Lipka’s and Vellucci’s on Friday 3/1.

The weather was amazing almost the entire week we were with Evans. Sunny, bright, warm. Everything you would expect from The Bahamas. We swam in the ocean and everything.

On Wednesday night Evan said, “We really need to get going or you won’t get to Treasure Cay to meet your friends.” Darn. We really wanted to explore Green Turtle Cay because it was supposed to be awesome. We wanted to take another day. The weather was great on Wednesday.

John Vellucci getting settled in the room

Our friends were in two of these hotel rooms -
they moved around a lot

But we trust Evan. Even we could see that the weather was changing. We would have problems if we loitered. Since we were uncertain, we emailed Dan and suggested we might have weather problems and they should get a hotel room just in case. Turns out that call was totally prophetic. If we hadn’t left on Thursday for Treasure Cay we could not have made the four hour trip around Whale Cay until at least Monday, the weather was so bad over the weekend. 

We arrived at Treasure Cay and met our friends Friday afternoon, late. They were surprised we were able to make it because the weather reports in the States predicted the bad weather. Predictions were correct. The bad weather came.

Judy Vellucci and Dan Lipka with snacks

On our advice, before leaving Ohio they made reservations for hotel rooms for the entire weekend because they didn’t think we could make it to Treasure Cay for days. The rooms are nice with patios and lounge chairs looking out over the marina. The beach is across the street on the other side of the Cay, a walk of about 5 minutes or less. They were comfortable in the hotel rooms. I bet Dan wanted to be on the boat but he was out voted. 

Marilyn Lipka, Judy Vellucci and Kermit

Sometimes we ate on the boat

On the boat... 

and sometimes we relaxed at the bar

We learned a few things about our friends: Turns out Marilyn gets sea sick really easy. Who would have thought? We boated with her for over 20 years and never knew she got sea sick. The idea of sleeping on a boat that swayed and rocked in a storm wind was enough to make her green. We used hand gestures to demonstrate the potential rocking and she turned green. So staying on the boat was not an option for her.And John is a little claustrophobic. He preferred the wider open spaces in a hotel room.  They ended up staying in the resort for the entire week. We liked having two bases of operation - the hotel room with a kitchen and lots of room and the boat with the ability to get away or stay put and enjoy the water.

Kermit at Spinackers

Dan and Marilyn at Spinackers

At Spinacker's, the fancy restaurant

The weather turned better as the week went on but it was still cool in the morning and cold in the evening with a  strong cool breeze blowing straight off the water at the beach.

Only Tuesday was good for boating and only Wednesday and Friday were passable at the beach. On those three days the day time temperatures got close to 80 in the sun but other days were in the 60s – not beach weather. The sand was actually cold in the shade and hot in the sun. Weird. 

L: John, Marilyn, and Judy reading in the sun on the patio

L: Kermit and Dan reading on the patio
The marina is in the background

Everyone read at least 2 or 3 books during the week. The hotel rooms had great patios that were protected from the wind so we hung out there sometimes to take in the sun. And we took advantage of the resort.

We did get to the beach on three days - Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday morning. It was windy and a  tiny bit cold (70s) and we did not want to go in the water but it was great to read in the sun.

Captain Dan reading at the beach

Kermit reading at the beach

We cooked on the boat several times. We cooked in the hotel room after our guests moved into a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen and living area. Shirley and Tony from Headquarters joined us twice.

We ate at the nice resort restaurant once and on the beach once. We were well fed and relaxed. 

The whole gang, from L: Judy, Marilyn, John,
Kermit, Katherine, and Dan

We ate at the beach restaurant, Coco Beach, many times, so many times we laughed that we were sick of it. I think we tried almost everything on the menu! I loved the grouper sandwiches and the Caesar salads. Judy had chicken almost every way it could be prepared. The conch gave Dan indigestion. Kermit at fish almost daily – this is a big advancement!!

Sunset at Coco Beach

Marilyn and Judy pick dinner at the Bonfire

Kermit walked the beach at sunset

Kermit and Dan at the Bonfire

L: Tony and Shirley from Headquarters, and Kermit

The bonfire - kind of small

Wednesday is the Beach Bonfire at the Coco Beach Restaurant. The resort pulls all the staff together and everyone in the neighborhood gathers for dinner at the beach.

Coco Beach Restaurant on Bonfire night

Everyone tried the cinnamon buns at the local coffee shop until we are now sick of them.

Dan and Marilyn Lipka

We had a fish and lobster feast on Wednesday. Tyrell is our fish and lobster pimp. Actually he can get you anything you want. He came up to the boat when we first arrived and asked if we wanted lobster. We said yes and he went away and came back the next morning with a bag. We bought 7 and cooked them on board with the Ohio friends. Delicious.

A few days later Shirley and Tony pulled Headquarters into a dock for a day or so. Tyrell came up to Tony and offered to sell him marijuana! So I guess you can buy anything from Tyrell. The other day we saw Tyrell talking to some locals remodeling a condo across from us. He came up to us to chat and Kermit saw he was smoking a joint!! Right on the street!!

The ladies table with rusty to keep watch

John did the dishes and Dan helped

Judy and John Vellucci

Tyrell corned Kermit early in the week and sold Kermit more lobster and some fresh caught red snapper. I am not sure it was red snapper. It was really bony with relatively large filets. I put them in the fridge and on Wednesday we had a feast. We brought the gas grill over to the hotel room. I made a marinade for the snapper and a Champaign butter sauce for the lobster. We grilled 12 lobster tails and about 2 pounds of “red snapper” for the Vellucci’s, Lipkas, Tony and Shirley, and us. Dan and Marilyn added baked potatoes and squash. We had a salad, too. It was a feast!! All the food disappeared.

Solving the problems of the world over lobster and drinks

John is showing off the huge bottle of rum he bought that day. It holds 3 liters of rum - almost enough for a week's worth of rum and cokes!!

Tony from HQ checking out Rusty who made himself comfortable

And then there was pizza night on Thursday. We heard pizza night when we arrived with Bunny and Evan the week before but we ate on the boat so we missed the excitement. It appeared to us that the entire island gathered together. Boy is that true!!

Shirley from HQ

Judy, Marilyn and Shirley enjoy ice cream for dessert

Dan and Marilyn 

There is a pizza grill with a big counter under the roof at the pool side bar. At the beach restaurant you order at the bar and they give you a number on a stick then the wait staff bring your food to the table with the right number. At pizza night they close all the other restaurants at the resort and bring all the staff to the poolside bar. They also bring their numbers on sticks.

When we got in line around 6pm the line was already snaking through the bar. Our four couples, Dan and Marilyn, John and Judy, Tony and Shirley who came over on the dinghy from their mooring spot, and Kermit and I, got numbers 32 through 36.

Judy, John, and Kermit

We got our pizzas around 7pm. The line got longer and snaked all the way around the bar until at around 9pm they were serving number 130 and the line finally cleared!! It was packed. They brought out more tables and chairs. Every plastic table was carefully covered with red checked table clothes because it was pizza night of course.

Tony and Shirley

It was really, really crowded. I don't know where all these people came from. 

We had a great table by the pool. 

We had a great table right near the bar under the stars. It was a clear, clear night with stars so close you could almost touch them. One more beer and I could have touched them for sure!

The singer uses one of those recorders with the background music. He has a great warm voice sort of like Marvin Gaye and he sings for hours. He started around 7pm. As he sang the crowd got more buzzed and louder, singing along as the beer flowed.

The singer in the red hat - the junkanoo folks came in!!

At about 8 or 8:30 the buzz got really loud and you could hear a drum beat in the background. It was a “junkanoo”. This is a Caribbean tradition probably left over from slavery days when slaves celebrated form three days after Christmas “by singing and dancing in colourful masks, traveling from house to house.” (http://www.bahamas.co.uk/about-the-bahamas/junkanoo/what-is-junkanoo) 

We heard the drums from a block away. There were about 12 folks dancing with masks and sparkly costumes, masks and headdresses, playing huge goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles, horns, and bells. It was AWESOME!

They slowly danced through the bar three or four times. It was hypnotic. I took a video because words just don’t capture the amazing experience!! I will figure out how to get it into the blog without sucking the life out of our computers. I think I have to use YouTube. 

Next blog I will share about our trips to Hope Town, Green Turtle Cay and Marsh Harbor. Enough for now. Time for a book in bed! Sleep tight.