2026 Bahamas Trip - John’s T-Shirt and Bar Memory Cruise
John was my high school boyfriend and neighbor. We went to the prom together, watched him fix his cars, and we did other things that young teens did back in the 60’s.
We went to different colleges ( he was much brainier than me so he ended up going to Williams College in Mass). I was accepted at University of Delaware ( provisionally ). The majority of my teachers and parents, as well as me, assumed I was much less intelligent. I was sort of intimidated by him.This was before I became aware that I was dyslexic, but actually pretty sharp despite my problems. The point I’m trying to get across is that I was very timid and not very confident with myself. Life events and knowledge have greatly altered my personality over the decades. College led to an ending of our relationship ( John said I dumped him - which is probably correct cause I had met Chris at U of D, whom I married in my junior year. )
Facebook helped up us reconnect. But no f2f until about 15 years ago. I followed his sailing adventures and was so envious - that I said I would volunteer as crew if he ever needed it. It actually happened. I am in the Bahamas on a 51 ft catamaran (really not crewing but that is another story).
Our “Crew” consists of 3 couples mostly from different locations. I flew in from Brunswick, John, Mads and Lotta ( who are originally from Denmark and Sweden) flew from Lagos Portugal. The third couple, Ian and Trina, are from the UK.
We all stayed in Nassau for 2 nights and walked around the city for one day. Lots of good food and drinks. The most interesting thing is how they do conch. They collect them by swimming in the grassy areas where couch feed and gather them. The conch guys bring them into one of the local conch restaurants on the water. The restaurant keep them alive in a watery pile. Cooks string 3 or 5 of them together. Then when needed hook the string and pull them up to finish getting their meat. The cook bangs a hole in the third whorl of the shell and then cut the attachment muscle that strongly holds it to shell and the conch slides out. Then the real work starts….. lots of tenderizing or mincing of the remaining meat.
Four of us stayed in the British Colonel Hotel -- It was very nice. Right on the harbor so that we could watch the 4 to 6 LARGE cruise ships that came and left daily.
We left Nassau early the morning of Wednesday, flew on a prop jet to Marsh Harbour to board our reserved waiting 42 ft catamaran, things did NOT go smoothly. The 3 guys are all experienced sailing one hull sailboats, but then we were told that we couldn’t have the 42 ft boat and that they would substitute a 51 ft catamaran for us. Sounds great but cats that big are harder to maneuver in some of our planned smaller harbors. The guys were hesitant to take on that responsibility with no catamaran experience. The Moorings compromised and gave us a local captain for the first few days. But unfortunately, the boat and captain wouldn’t be ready till 3pm (we had been expecting leave the marina by noon). Another glitch was that in 3 days we would have to return to the same marina and change boats again - This time to a 46 ft cat which caused another day lost on the water. We did use the extra time to grocery shop and stock up for the few days.
No wind so we motored to Great Guana Key and anchored in a cove. Our new captain, took us to Grabbers- an open bar and restaurant with wickedly strong rum punches.
After Grabbers we walked to Nippers another of Johns favorite bars where we had food and I finally started feeling stable.
During some of our free time ( remember we still have a captain that did the motoring ) we played cards - kings in a corner. This game really forces you to pay attention, which is probably good thing in today’s media heavy world. Later that afternoon, we asked Geo to transport us to the islands’s Sundowners bar, where we had dinner, music and more rum drinks.
We got back to the boat just in time to see Musk’s latest launch. 8:41
Friday - Green Turtle Cay
We had a tour planned with some of John's friends this morning. We learned a lot about the 2019 Dorian Hurricane and the rebuild. Don and Susan are John's friends from his first Bahama sail in 2015 or 2016 (?) They rented a couple of golf carts and drove us around the area. Both Don and Sue were born in America but moved to Canada in the 70's. Winter in the Bahamas on their boat and summer in Canada.
Susan was a special ed teacher in Canada but now volunteers at the local school on the island. She dropped her US citizenship (which now costs 3000 k to do so). Don still has duel citizenship. On the tour we saw a lot of buildings that were still just a pile of debris. They said that there were no leaves left on the trees after the storm. We started our tour with a good lunch at the Wrecking Tree.
We went to a beach that had very freindly sting rays and turtles. No bites just the stingray exploring my feet. We also saw a couple of nurse sharks.
We visited the high end Pineapples Bar and Grill and saw the Dollar Bar with a Jimmy Carter and Robert Downey Jr signed bills.
We finished up our tour with the conch tree and ice cream - storm is on the way.
After a touring break we went back for a drink at Evonne's bar for some drinks and some Bahamian music ( sometimes called 'rake and scrape' due to the vegtable grater that is used for rhythm ). The dancing was a lot of jumping around but the songs were always happy and had a very repetitive melody.
While we were dancing and drinking. Our captain Geo was being a hero ! On the way back to the boat after dropping us partiers off he heard a guy yelling for help. He had pulled his starter line off his skiff motor and he didn't have a flashlight or phone. Geo became the hero and rescued the boater.
Saturday - Trading boats
Next morning we headed back to Marsh Harbour to change boats again and to lose our great captain Geo. On the way we stopped to snorkel for the first time - small area but really healthy looking coral and lots of pretty fish. The Sea of Abaco is 70 miles long with about 700 islands of which only about 35 are inhabited. This time we got a 46 ft catamaran - After having Geo for 3 days the guys felt fine doing the boating/sailing without Geo- But we will miss him!
We anchored at Great Abaco which is home to the Johnston Art Foundery
We didn't have Geo to take us to the beach this time - we had to do the dingy by ourselves. We all got soaked landing the dingy on the beach. We miss Geo! Beach had tons of shells but it was getting dark and we had to find our way to Pete's Pub.
Right past this foundry there was the famous Pete's Pub. I had the best blackened Mahi Mahi here - also loved seeing all the t-shirts from around world.
We anchored next to this totally black (with solar panels) all electric boat. Sort of looked a little menacing.
Our new 46 ft boat was almost as spacious as the 51 ft - 4 staterooms each with a bathroom. I actually liked this one better - less things to bang into and get bruises.
