It’s Wednesday morning and we are in Black Point, Exuma, home to what is widely believed to be the best laundry in the Bahamas. We plan to test it out. There are plenty of boats here and the crowds at the laundry are testimony to the popularity of this spot as a good place to get clean sheets. While there are plenty of machines, there are even more cruisers so it’s mobbed. The island is also known for Loraine’s coconut bread. I ordered two loaves for pickup in the morning. Yumm…
Yesterday we were treated to a snorkeling and shelling trip by our friends John and Wendy who live aboard their 65’ Canadian built aluminum trawler, Windermer. I have to say that this boat clearly qualifies as a yacht, complete with granite counter tops, a Sub-Zero fridge that’s larger than our fridge at home in Essex along with two case freezers that hold hundreds of pounds of food. On a practical note, he uses about as much electricity in two hours as I use in 24 hours. There is a price to pay for everything. Nice boat though.
Their dink, no let’s call it a launch, has a 50hp engine so a trip to various spots was quite a treat for us. Tooling about in a center console launch at 30kts is a lot different than our little inflatable, that’s for certain.
The goal of our outing was to visit some of their favorite snorking spots so we could collect shells and sand dollars. And, we found plenty. Brenda also snorkeled for the first time yesterday under the gentle guidance of Wendy. We were on a quest for sand dollars and they were particularly fun to collect as they are just laying on the bottom. The white ones, which we now have plenty of, are actually dead and bleached . Some were 3-4” inches across. What fun.
We also found lots of fun shells. We had looked before but with their help, we went to the right spots. It’s a lot easier that way.
We snorkeled over a great reef that had loads of fish and wonderful purple sea fans. Unfortunately, the photos underwater don’t really do justice to how beautiful it really is.
I enjoyed using the go-pro video camera and took some footage of us underway blasting along in the launch. These videos aren’t that great but I can’t edit them right now. I hope that a video is better than 1000 well chosen words.
Here is one that I took at Thunderball Cave the other day that’s fun.I have to say that being able to snorkle each day is so amazing. However, in spite of my wetsuit, water in the 78 degree range begins to feel cold after a while.
And yes, it’s still really windy. At least it’s not hot as the breeze keeps things cool.
Wendy and John are just so nice and generous. We love spending time with them. Happily, their home port is in RI so we will see them next summer. They expect to come to our Gam in Essex on June 22nd.
Remember the pigs on Big Major I wrote about the other day? These porkers will happily take the food out of your hand. Happily, not chunks of skin taken along with the snack.
After feeding them we headed over to a great spot where some cruisers had set up a tent and chairs. What a great view to enjoy a sandwich with. Catch those James Bond shades. Appropriate given the proximity to Thunderball Cave. Looking cool in the shade?
So far, we are toughing out life in the Bahamas. Hope we can stand another 4 months. Perhaps…