Debbie and Ruben (my sister and brother-in-law) arrived in Marsh Harbor Wednesday May 13.  No glitches getting here and that is usually a good sign.  I usually have some sort of snafu when traveling internationally.  I was glad it was glitch free for them. 

Debbie and Ruben’s travel plans did have them staying in West Palm over night so they were tired.  But as the saying goes no rest for the weary.  Wanting of course to give them the real experience of cruising we had them go to the grocery store and the liquor store with us and schlep (lug) the goods back to the boat.  This entails walking to the stores (however far they may be from the dingy dock) getting the goods, walking back to the dingy dock, loading the dingy, going back the sailboat and unloading the dingy.  Sounds simple, as long as there is not a lot of chop on the water.  Sometimes it can be a real trick getting in and out the dingy, the dingy goes down and the back of the sailboat goes up.  No problems.  It was as if they had been doing this for a long time.  That is always a relief as a boat owner.

We headed for Lynyard Cay around 1:00 P.M.  Lynyard Cay is one of Steve and my favorite places in the Abaco’s.  It is just a remote area.  It is a great place to anchor and just relax.  We snorkeled and found some great sea biscuits and shells.  Lynyard Cay’s location is nice.  We anchor in the Sea of Abaco and can walk a short distance to the other side which is the Atlantic Ocean.  Debbie and I did some serious shelling (looking for sea shells) on the Atlantic side.  While looking for shells, we each found a hamburger sea bean (reference pictures).   I have been looking for a hamburger sea bean since I arrived in the Bahamas in Dec.  I was so glad that Debbie found a sea bean because the proper thing for me to do if she had not found one would be give mine to her as she is our guest.  I don’t know if I could have parted with my first hamburger sea bean.

We took a rather long rolling dingy ride from Lynyard Cay to Little Harbor to have a great lunch at Pete’s Pub.  Pete’s Pub is an outside sand floor bar.  Good food. The ride back to the sail boat was not so bad.  By the way, this is where they learned how to take “boat showers”.  That’s where you do a washing while in the salt water (with salt water soap on the back of the boat), and then do the final shower rinse with fresh water that’s in the boat’s tanks.  This conserves water that is not easy to replenish.

We stayed two nights at Lynyard Cay and on Friday we pulled the anchor and were headed for Snake Cay to do a drift snorkel with our guests.  Once we dropped the anchor at Snake Cay we are all realizing that there was a lot of black ash flying through the air and getting all over the boat.  Unfortunately, the wind was blowing just right to have the ash from the brush fires the Abaco’s have been experiencing blow in our direction.  We had a staff meeting and decided we would skip the drift snorkel.  Our plans now were to go to Boat Harbor and catch the Rake and Scrape they would be having at a restaurant that evening.  We got to Boat Harbor dropped the anchor I believe 6 times and just could not get the anchor to hold in the grass.  Another staff meeting, we now decided we would go over and anchor outside of Hopetown.  We could not go into Hopetown and get a mooring ball as the tide was too low.  Don’t want to give our guests the entire cruising experience by going aground in the channel.  It was a great evening.  We of course had an incredible meal aboard Fine Lion.  I have never had a meal out that was better than what Steve can cook on the boat.  Yum!

We went into Hopetown the next morning at high tide.  We shopped, walked the beach and ate in Hopetown.  Debbie ordered cracked conch for lunch.  It is a neat area.  Sunday we headed to Fisher’s Bay on Great Guana Cay again at high tide.  We had a great sail.  The water was choppy so once again we had to change our plans.  We had intended to stop at Fowl Cay and snorkel but the water was just too choppy to get in and out of the dinghy safely.  Got to Fisher’s Bay and no one was anchored there.  That always makes one wonder what everyone else knows that we do not.  Oh well!  We plopped into the dingy (choppy water) and headed for shore.   We went to Nipper’s.  Nipper’s is a beach bar on the Atlantic side.  It has three levels, two pools and a great beach area.  Sunday is Pig Roast day at Nipper’s so it draws a big crowd.  We all had a great time. 

Monday we were off to Baker’s Bay, once again we changed our plan slightly and anchored across from Baker’s Bay at Spoil Cay (less wind).  It was okay with me because Spoil Cay has great shells.  We spent some time on shore shelling and snorkeling.  Again, a great meal on Fine Lion that evening.

Tuesday we headed back to Marsh Harbor.  It was to be a full moon that evening so we decided to stay on Fine Lion.  Wow, the moon was beautiful.  We all took our turn at blowing the Conch horn and did a pretty good job at making a lot of noise.  I’m sure our fellow cruisers were proud…

Did some shopping and walking on Wednesday.   Debbie and Ruben were able to watch George at the Conch Shack make Conch Salad.  We all put our own hot sauce on our salads and took them back to the boat.  Needless to say we all had to doctor our salads a little because the hot sauce was very hot.  I think Debbie liked her salad, but unsure if Ruben liked his.  He put a lot of hot sauce on his.

Thursday was departure day for Debbie and Ruben.  I must say when they said they were coming for a week I was concerned it would be too long for four of us on a 42 foot boat, but I was not quite ready for them to leave.  Much better then the alternative.  They were great boat guests.  We all had a great time.

Now for some “down time” on Fine Lion before heading back to the US.

Kim and Steve