Valentine's Day...

We got the anchor up at 9:30 and sailed west out of the Park. Our goal for the day was the anchorage at Staniel Cay which was about 20 miles south..... if you happen to be a crow. Sailing is not the fastest way to travel. We tacked a few times but and had a wonderful sail again. The trades here are from the east so with a little consideration for bad weather, the sailing is great.... good winds and only moderate waves.

We arrived a Big Majors Spot, where there are wild pigs on the beach that swim out to greet you when approaching in a dinghy. We stayed away from them as we anchored well off the island. Later we took the dinghy into Staniel Cay to check out the town. It was a ride of about 2 miles and a little rough . We tied off at the Yacht Club Dock and went for a walk around town. There were a few rental cottages on the water painted in vivid colors that looked nice but as we walked further, it was evident that the village was not all that prosperous.

Back at the Yacht club... which in truth is a bar/restaurant with a long dock, we had a slow lunch with Jim who had come ashore to fetch a pail of water....and some gas. The lunch was slow because our waitress was setting up for the Valentines Party that night and we were not her first priority.

We had a Valentine's Day Lunch... I had a conch burger for $12, Kathy had a shrimp salad for $10 and Jim a BLT for $8 (Beth stayed on the boat due to the rough situation of getting to shore-distance and bouncin). The food was good and proportions were fine. Conch is the Bahamas version of tofu. It doesn't really have much taste of it's own but does a nice job of absorbing others. A conch salad is a finely chopped conch mixed with onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and scotch bonnets. It is all soaked in lime juice to soften both the conch and the hot peppers.

You can also buy "cracked conch" which is what is in a conch burger. In this case the conch is pounded, or run through a meat processor of some sort and then soaked in lime just as a tenderizer. It is then lightly breaded and deep fried. It is good ... but again tastes more like the lime than the conch.

After our lunch we unlashed our dinghies and headed for the grocery store down the beach about a half of mile. We came ashore, and tossed the anchor on the beach before wandering up to the the first floor of what looked like another pastel painted house. The store consisted of a room about 12 feet by 24 with hardware on one side and food on the other ... there were shelves, a cooler and a chest freezer on the food side of the establishment. We bought butter, frozen pork chops, limes, frozen hamburger, romaine, cucumber, ginger beer ( to make Dark and Stormies), some juices, potatoes, and carrots. So although small they did have some essentials ... NO chips, crackers, or junk food in sight except for some candy bars in the freezer that we figured we didn't need.