The Abaco's & Great Friends
19 May 2011
Jolie
We hopped around The Abacos for about 5 days before Bob & Sandy's arrival. Tilloo Cay, Matt Lowe's Cay, Sandy Cay, snorkeled the Coral Gardens and visited Nippers on Great Guana and slowly tried to adapt to the much more inhabited, built up and touristy Abacos. We had a few calm days and were able to get out and snorkel the outer reefs. Just diving around under the boat we were able to collect a few conch. David tied them up on a stringer and we towed them around for a while so we'd be sure to have fresh conch when Bob & Sandy arrived. On Mother's Day while anchored off the South Point of Great Guana a gentleman who lived in the house overlooking our anchorage boated up to us and introduced himself. I had been snorkeling & trying to spear fish around the boat. He used to live in Alexandria and said he rarely, if ever, saw boats anchored from Louisiana. After some conversation and him asking us to please not spear any of the fish near his pier, he gifted us with 3 nice lobster tails!!
On the 10th of May we headed in to Conch Inn Marina in Marsh Harbor. The boat needed a good cleaning and we had quite a few chores & errands to do in preparation for our friends' arrival.
Bob & Sandy arrived before sunset on the 11th. We spent our first night in the marina just catching up, enjoying rum drinks and dining on a meal of Grilled Tuna, Veggies & Pasta. They had brought us gifts and items that we requested from home. But.. the biggest.. and oh so special.. surprise were some cards from Jason and a wonderful disc he put together that included family pictures and video of Roman set to music. I cried before I could look at any of it, then we all cried later after we watched the disc.
We had great weather for the duration of their visit and we jumped around mostly in the area of Great Guana Cay, Man O'War Cay and Hopetown. Mostly just dinging around, beach combing, snorkeling, eating, drinking, sunset conch shell blowing and some late night music jams including beans, conch shell horn, tequila bottles and the kitchen sink. I apologize to anyone who may have been in the harbor on any one of those nights. I have to say one of the funniest things each evening was watching Bob (a great musician as most know) being unable to blow the Conch Horn. I'm sure by now he's home and long since figured it out.
We had some fabulous meals including the one of Grilled Tuna, Grilled Grouper (twice), Grilled Chicken, Lobster Egg Rolls w/ Lobster Salad Avocado Boats, Crabmeat Pasta Salad, Fresh Conch Salad and some boudin we had been saving since home. Seems Sandy & I spent a lot of time chopping veggies, but I enjoyed every second of it. We ate out only once for lunch at a great waterfront place in Hopetown. We did walk around town in Man O' War and Hopetown and climbed to the top of the lighthouse, but mostly just wanted them to get the feel of our life on the boat. Hopefully it was a nice enough experience that they, and others, will join us next time.
We were happy to see our friends Mike and Bree of Sea Monkey in Hopetown and they joined us for one last night aboard as they were heading back home in the next couple of days. And what a night it was!!.. I think it was nearly 2 am when the party ended. Tequila Conch Shell Shots anyone??
Saying goodbye to the last of our cruising buddies and saying goodbye to Bob & Sandy hit home for us... it is time for us to start slowly making our way back to the States.