For the landlubbers
01 February 2008
(The Reluctant Adventurer - Part I)
S.V. Harmony, Bahamas
For the Landlubbers: How to have a Good Bahamas Vacation
A) Stay at home, crank up the heat to 75 or 80 degrees and watch a National Geographic DVD of the region. If you are watching water/sailing scenes, get on a balance board and rock a lot. If you want to pretend you own the boat, do all of the above standing in a cold shower ripping up $100 dollar bills. If you're "on a beach", sit back, relax and sip some kind of fruity drink with rum in it. (Umbrella optional.)
B) Be a Tourist #1, Stay on Land
Save up about $4-6000 (for two, air fare hopefully included) and two to three weeks during the winter months. Why so much time and money? If you really want to enjoy some part of the Bahamas you need time to deal with the vagaries of weather. Cottages in the Abacos regularly rent for $2-3000 per week for two to four people. To plan just one week is to risk spending four days in wind, rain, squalls or generally unpleasant weather. (Weather was unseasonably uncooperative in the winter of 2008.) If you are extremely lucky you will have booked time during one of the post-card gorgeous weeks. Or you may find you have only a day or two of good beach and sightseeing weather before you have to go home.
The Abacos are close to ideal for a vacation that you will treasure for a long time. It is easy to fly into Marsh Harbour during the day, then, with the help of a Travel Agent at home, take advantage of one of the numerous ferries to take you to an out island (Cay) if you choose to stay somewhere else. Or stay in Marsh Harbour and take day trips to areas with gorgeous beaches, diving sites and fascinating history.
Be prepared to spend money on enjoyable diversions. If you go to Treasure Cay with its spectacular three-mile white sand beach, you may rent an umbrella by the hour or by the day. Chairs are an extra charge. (Don't forget your sunscreen.) If you go to Hope Town with its beautifully painted typical Bahamian homes, the ferry ride will cost less per person than your lunch. Dinners regularly cost $70 for two, more if you have a couple of rum punches. Groceries cost one-third to one-half more than in the States but it saves money to cook in your cottage as much as possible.
Green Turtle Cay has New Plymouth, a fascinating town settled by Loyalists during or just after the Revolutionary War. On New Year's Day this town stages a daylight Junkanoo, a parade similar to Mardi Gras. The costumes are extravagantly colorful and the music is lively and loud. Local churches provide stalls of home cooked food for very reasonable prices.
To get to Green Turtle from Marsh Harbour is a $90 taxi drive 20 miles to Treasure Cay, then a 20 minute ferry ride. However, to rent a car is only $65 a day (less by the week) and, if you are comfortable driving on the left side of the road, is a good investment. You can drive to Treasure Cay and park by the ferry docks, spend the afternoon with the Junkanoo, then return to your cottage before dark.
Just before the turn to the ferry dock is the left turn into the 3000 acres where the wild horses of Abaco are protected. Contacting Mimi Rehor at Buck-a-Book in Marsh Harbour will get you a guided entry through the electric fence into the preserve and a guarantee to see some of the horses. The $50 fee per person goes entirely toward maintenance of the eight survivors of a herd once 200 strong. Unlike the horses of Chincoteague, these are more feral than "wild". The mares have become so used to visitors that they take naps while people visit. Bellatrix, the pinto, loves to be scratched. One stallion, Mimosa, is with this small herd, the three bachelors kept separate in a larger area.
A third driving day-trip would be south along the 20 mile paved road then about four miles on a dirt road to Little Harbour and Pete's Gallery and Pub. The gallery houses an extensive collection of breathtaking bronze sculptures created by the late Randolph Johnson and his son Pete, who celebrates his 50th Birthday with an anniversary party each year. The pub is reminiscent of Foxy's on Jost VanDyke in the BVIs. A short stroll up the boardwalk, through life-size sculptures of sea turtles and rays, takes you to the top of the ridge . From there you can see the Atlantic roaring against the rocks. Eleuthera is a full day sail to the south.
Another enjoyable day trip is to Great Guana Cay, home of the famous beach bars Nippers and Grabbers. The Atlantic barrier reef off of Nippers beach has a smaller reef closer to shore. This makes it one of the best places for amateur snorkelers to see the wonders of the sea life without going into very deep water. Grabbers is on a bay on the western side of Great Guana where the ferry boat docks. Both bars have rental cottages and rooms next to them. It was in this area that we saw five huge eagle rays and a sea turtle.
Be a Tourist #2 Take a Cruise
Nassau is one of the most spectacular ports in the Bahamas. The cruise ship docks are between Grand Bahama and Paradise Islands. Made-for-tourists Junkanoo parades greet each ship and horse drawn carriages wait to take you sight seeing through this historic area. Most likely you will wish you had more than the day to investigate this area. The hotel casino Atlantis is a short walk from the cruise dock. In the docking area around the resort you will probably see the largest yachts imaginable. In 2001 we saw one with its own helicopter pad. Visiting this resort with its famous glass sculptures is a must. Walking through the casino you feel like you are underwater, looking up at mysterious sea life. A short walk beyond Atlantis is a lovely beach. Back beyond the cruise ship docks you may find the Straw Market. It burned in 2003 but may have been rebuilt. If it has been restored, it holds countless stalls filled with locally made wares and artifacts. There is also a fascinating pirate museum. The small botanical garden, a taxi ride away, might please those who want more of an ecological trip. Or, you might be able to work in the day trip to Leaf/Allen Cay to see the iguanas.
Throughout the Bahamas, new ports have been or are being developed for the deep-draft cruise ships. One port in the lower area of Eleuthera is accessible but the dock in the Abacos has been abandoned. A caution: book your cruise well after hurricane season. In November '07 one cruise ship that was supposed to be in the Bahamas was in Charleston, NC to stay out of the way of Tropical Storm Noel. What a waste of a vacation that was for a boat load of disappointed tourists.
Be a Tourist #3, Charter a Boat
Cruising: fixing your boat in exotic places.
If you must sail, book a boat for two weeks, have up-to-date charts and two experienced sailors aboard. A good back-up sailor relieves emotional and practical uncertainties if one turns an ankle or something worse. The charter company will have taken care of your boat, as far as they know. Nevertheless, you may have a surprise or two once you are underway. While we were in Marsh Harbour, waiting out imminent squalls and gale force winds, we watched one chartered boat leave the harbor. We assumed that they had rented the boat for only a week and were determined to sail. We didn't hear any gossip about a disaster so they probably made it to some safe place that day. Had they been able to wait just another couple of days, the winds would have been much more favorable. It is best to spend the money for dock space (if it is available) when the weather turns to lousy conditions. If your sailors know how to set two anchors, you might be able to ride out high winds like the 80-plus sail and power boats that managed through the gale around Jan 21, 2008. Some marinas will not allow you to use their moorings in these conditions because their concrete "anchors" are not set for such high winds.
All that said, if you can charter a boat of your own, you will be much more likely to see dolphins, turtles and rays. Even the smaller fish are fun to watch. You may see shore birds tucked into the mangroves. You may be able to anchor near Mermaid Reef, take your dinghy to the mooring ball and snorkel.
C) Own Your Boat.
This is not for landlubbers. It is possible to learn to sail but it takes time and a lot of hair-raising experience before a comfortable venture is possible. It isn't a matter of being at ease with possible misadventures. It is knowing that, with experience, you might get through them and live to tell the tale.
Feb 1, 2008 - F. B. Hill
Abaco Horses
06 January 2008
see catamaranharmony.blogspot.com for pictures.
Abaco's Wild Horses
If you are interested in enjoying and helping sustain a most unusual herd of horses, contact Mimi Rehor at arkwild.org. Guided tours can be arranged if you come to Abaco.
At 8:30 Saturday morning (1/5) I met Mimi at Buck-a-Book in Marsh Harbour. Proceeds from this used book store help support WHOA, the Wild Horses of Abaco. About 35 miles north of the Harbour are the survivors of a 500 year old history laced with mystery, mindless slaughter, well-meaning but mistaken care, natural disasters and a number of health problems. Since Mimi took over the management of this herd, they have been DNA tested, designated a sub-breed of the critically endangered Spanish Barb and their preserve was created. A group of three stallions form a bachelor herd in a remote part of the preserve.
Once into the preserve, bouncing along the tire tracks in Mimi's pick up truck, looking left and right into the bush, I was not prepared to find three of the horses on the road ahead of us. They did not bolt and run as I expected but stood watching us until we stopped a few yards away. As we approached on foot, Mimi told me that the two beautiful bays were mother and daughter. The pinto was the third mare in this group. It was the pinto that I felt comfortable touching. What an unusual animal.
First I noted its blue eyes with rectangular pupils. Do all horses have such pupils? Like all Abaco Barb horses she has a "Roman" nose that smoothly curves from between her ears to the tip of her muzzle. Also she has an extremely long tail that sweeps the ground with a soft plume. Abaco horses' manes are also distinctive in that they are wavy as if they had been braided while wet, allowed to dry, then shaken out. If these horses were not feral, their magnificent manes would be quite spectacular. However, the whole point is to let these animals roam freely therefore brambles catch in their manes and tails, trimming them naturally. To call this gentle group wild gives a mistaken impression. It is more accurate to realize they are simply free. Unbridled, they forage as their ancestors did, getting different nutrients from the variety of plants in the forest.
Mimi was concerned that the other two horses of this part of the herd were not present so we drove further up the tracks to find them. They were also approachable on foot and didn't mind our presence. The thunder of hooves filled the air as the first three horses galloped up the trail, completing this group once again. For a couple of hours we followed the horses as they foraged, took naps, drank from a little water hole and acted like we were not there. Four of them are bays. The alpha stallion, who has a diamond between his ears and another on his nose, literally killed off his rival a few years ago. That was tragic but actually quite natural.
Mimi and I are hoping that the activity we saw between the stallion and his current favorite mare will result in a foal by next Christmas. It is a very long time to wait!
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