Monday, June 13 – Day 48
Glenn and Laurie are still vacationing with us and we all
headed out on the Marlin Striker for Great Harbour Marina at the northern end
of the Berry Islands. The weather and
seas were excellent. So good that we
stopped several times when we spotted birds to see if we could catch fish. It was just not meant to be. Entering the harbor at Great Harbour was very
interesting. We headed toward the
shoreline and on course but could not see an opening. As we approached the shoreline the course took
a 90 degree turn and low and behold – a slice in the shore where we could slide
through. Can you find the opening?
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| Great Harbour, Berry Islands, Bahama |
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| We found the opening |
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| I think it is wide enough - maybe |
The conversation, I don’t know what else to call it, in the
office during check in was a local who spent the entire time arguing on the
phone with whom we assume was her attorney over a divorce settlement. We later found out that the lady lives on the
boat next to us which was named “Poor Ole Harry”. The tender was named POB (Poor Ole Bob). We have to wonder how many others have been
in what appears to be a long line of gentleman (husbands). We then had to listen to one more, not so
good conversation (from boat to shore), with another gentleman later that
evening.
Great Harbour Marina was reminisce of the 1960’s that had
totally died. The condos were run down,
the grocery store had only enough room for one, maybe two people to enter at
the same time and the Restaurant/Bar and Pool was quite a surprise.
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This is the ONLY Restaurant & Bar Open at 6PM
Cooking on an outside gas grill - about 100 years old.
We decided against it! |
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| What NO WATER in the pool??? It's 100 degrees outside! |
%  |
| AND NO Lifeguard |
Luckily we had decided to go on “recon” before putting on
our swim suits and planning for a late afternoon swim and drink. Needless to say, we spent the night and left as fast as we
could go the next morning. I don’t think
we will be back to Great Harbour Marina without some much better reports from
other boaters.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 – Day 49
Another fantastic day!
That was good because the guys had their hearts set on testing some deep
drop fishing holes on the way to Old Bahama Bay Marina at the West End of
Grande Bahama. We spent the entire day
fishing our way to West End. First, we
saw birds so Bill and Glenn threw out some tuna rods. We chased the birds and still had no
luck. After a while they gave up and we
headed full steam ahead to the deep drop numbers that Bill had documented from
one of his fishing shows on TV. This was
the first time that we had tried deep drop so the first line went down in 2200
feet of water. Yes, we have electric
reels for this type of fishing so no one had to reel up that much line, with a
10 pound weight on the end. Once again,
no luck. We moved to some contour lines,
no luck. This is getting
ridiculous! I can’t believe we have not
been able to catch anything. When it got
to be mid-afternoon we decide to head for West End. The seas were completely flat – that was good
luck! And the temperature was just under
100 degrees on the deck.
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| Can't use the deck cover fishing so the beach umbrella will have to do in 100 degrees plus |
Time for a swim
and drinks. Old Bahama Bay Resort was
beautiful. The condos were bright
Bahamian colors, it was clean, and there were lots of fishing boats. We check in and headed to the pool. That evening we decided to treat ourselves to
a night out in the resort restaurant.
The food was very good and it was nice not to have to cook on the boat
in the heat.
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| Old Bahama Bay Resort, West End, Grand Bahama |
Old Bahama Bay is the Bahama playground for many famous
people like Liza Minelli, Lady Gaga, and John Travolta. Unfortunately, it is here that John Travolta’s
son, Jett, died so he and his family no longer come to the island. It is no longer a happy place for them. Travolta’s son had epilepsy and they believe
that he had a seizure while in the bathroom and although there was always
someone with him, at age 16 he was unattended in the bathroom.
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| John Travolta House |
John Travolta still owns 4 rental condos in this villa, but
it is for sale for about $2 million if anyone is interested.
Wednesday, June 15,
2016
This was a day of rest and relaxation. The weather was sunny, calm and about 85
degrees. We spent much of the afternoon
lounging in the pool. While in the pool we met Aiden, the first person to be bite by a shark in Savannah, Georgia. He is now 15 years old and we got to see the shark teeth marks in his ankle. Glad he was young, 13, when this happened because it does not bother him at all and he continues to surf. After an early
dinner on the boat we retired early as we intend to head for Fort Lauderdale in
the morning. That way, Glenn and Laurie
can get a flight out of Fort Lauderdale back to Manchester, NH sometime in the
next few days before they have to go back to work on Monday.
Thursday, June 16,
2016
We were up early and prepared the boat for crossing the Gulf
Stream back to Florida. The sea report
sounded like it was going to be a rough trip but well within the doable
range. We had heard reports from the
boats arriving the night before that the seas on the Florida coast were
excellent but that about 15 mile from Grand Bahama the seas had turned into a
rough ride for everyone as well as a very wet one with the sea spray and the
thunderstorms. So we prepared for the
worst. Good thing!! The reports called
for SSE winds 10-15 and seas 2-3 feet.
Well that is not what we found as we left the breakwater of the
marina. The seas were at least 5-7 feet
and the winds were SSE 15-25 with some higher gusts. Because the entrance to the marina has lots
of depth changes and the reports from last night indicated rough seas on the
Bahama end we thought we would give it a little way and see if the seas
flattened as we moved over the ledges.
NO it got worse the further we went so at about 1 mile out we decided to
turn around and wait for another day. At
this point, looking at the sea reports we knew it was going to be at least
Saturday before we could move. In fact,
if we did not get out in the small window of Saturday morning it looked like we
could be in West End for another 7-8 days at least. So Glenn and Laurie started looking for
alternative options to fly home and we made plans to go to Port Lucaya
Marketplace on Friday. After spending
most of the day on the fuel dock wall waiting for a new slip assignment we
headed over to the pool for a late afternoon swim before cooking dinner on the
boat.
Friday, June 17, 2016
– Day 52
The weather prediction was for thunderstorms but the morning
was beautiful so we rented a car and headed to Port Lucaya Marketplace. Port Lucaya is about 1/3 of the way down the
island past Freeport. It was good to get out and see some countryside. Although Freeport is the largest commercial
shipping port in the Bahamas the area between West End and Port Lucaya was
extremely poor and definitely representative of a third world country.
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| Conch, Conch Everywhere |
It amazed us to see all of the “mountains” of conch
shells. They were being used as break
waters, docks, walls, just about anything that the Bahamian people could think
to do with them.
The Port Lucaya Marketplace and Marina were
interesting. There were shops and booths
which provided everything from local Bahamian crafts to very expensive Rolex
watches, John Bull jewelry and everything in between. We stopped to get an ice cream after and
early lunch at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and got an earful about Bahamian
politics and social life from one of the gals who worked there. This is a story that can best be told in
person so remind us to tell it when we see you.
We returned in the late afternoon and once again prepared the
boat to depart in the morning although none of us were very optimistic. There were a few more small boats arriving
who gave the same or worsening stories as we had been hearing from the previous
couple of days. And now the winds were
well into the 25-30 knot range and the waves were rolling over the
seawall.
Glenn and Laurie once again looked for alternative flights
from Grand Bahama to get them back to NH for work on Monday. There current plan had been to fly out of
Fort Lauderdale early Sunday morning.
They did find some options for late Sunday afternoon and if nothing
worked they were okay with staying a few more days. They both have lots of vacation time. It was the boss’ reaction which were their
concern.
Saturday, June 18,
2016 – Day 53
We were all up very early as the wind was howling and we
were all wondering what the day was going to bring. Now the marina is packed with boats that have
been waiting 2-3 days to leave and everyone’s watching the weather,
thunderstorms, and seas. By 7:00 AM
there were about 7-8 people out on the jetty watching the waves and wondering
if it was going to be a day to move or settle back in for about another
week. The weather and sea reports look
good but what we were looking at was very questionable. By 7:30AM a couple of boats had decided to
give it try. One was a 47’ Ocean very
similar to ours only smaller. These
boats made it past the ledges with no problem and did not turn back. As they were leaving a smaller center console
boat came in and put up their yellow flag indicating a new arrival which has
not cleared Bahamian customs. Bill and
Glenn immediately went over to talk to them about the ride and where they were
coming from, although it had to be someplace in Florida at 8:00 in the
morning. The report was good seas so we
immediately left to give a try ourselves.
None of us looked forward to being in West End for the unforeseeable future. It was a little rough but very manageable
coming out of the entrance and for about the first 5-6 miles. After that the seas settled down and with the
expected wind and tide change the waves went down to a comfortable ride all the
way to Fort Lauderdale. We arrived at
Bahia Mar Marina at about 1:30 PM. I
called in to clear customs with our local boater and global access numbers. Bill and I cleared just fine, but Glenn and
Laurie had received new passports which in good old government fashion had not
been linked in the government computers to their old passports so they were
told that they had to report to a US Customs office within 24 hours. How do you do that on a Saturday
afternoon??? After many phone calls and
inquiries, they were able to go to the Fort Lauderdale airport (on Saturday
night because their flight was before the office opens on Sunday) to get
cleared. What a hassle! So beware, if you have a local boater card
and update or get a new passport you must report IN PERSON to re-link the two
prior to travel. Who would have
known? After all of this we once again
decide to treat ourselves to dinner out.
We went Anthony’s Runway 84 which is one of our all-time favorites. The meal was great and it was a very nice
last night with our friends.
Sunday and Monday,
June 19th and 20th
Glenn and Laurie left at the crack of stupid, 5:15 AM on
Sunday morning. Bill and I spent the
rest of Sunday and Monday doing some errands to West Marine and some of the
other great boating supply stores in Fort Lauderdale. We replaced some of the things that we have
used on the trip as well as got replacement parts for some items that had
broken or we just needed in case something broke. Then Bill worked on some mechanical repairs
and I cleaned the boat and worked on this blog.
We have not decide exactly when we will head for Cape Coral. The weather reports for the next several days
offshore do not look good and we are not excited about going north through the
ICW and across Lake Okeechobee. There
are over 40 bridges to get through on the ICW which means slow go, waiting and
possibly putting our outriggers down at each one. Not to mention that Lake O is shallow and
always a danger. But if we wait to go
south through the Keys it could be another 4-5 days before we can go
anywhere. Today the seas are 9-11
feet. None of this would be a problem
except that we are scheduled to go north next week to go camping with Bill’s
sister through the 4th of July weekend so we will need to get back
fairly soon, so we can leave again. I
will let you know what we decided in the next blog. Until then, smiles, it has been a great trip.
We are back in the US with phone and internet access again. Yeah!!!
The group soaked in the warm water most of the afternoon. The ocean water was warmer than the pool. So we decided this was much more desirable.
