Being in the Abacos is like being in our backyard; so many areas that we are familiar with and really enjoy!  The Abaco’s are the best area, in our opinion, to entertain guests; and we have guests coming in a little over a week.  We spent March 7th-18th scoping out our old hunting areas and seaglass areas to make sure they are still good hunting areas and the seaglass is plentiful and cooked.  The first week we were anchored in our favorite spot at Lynyard Cay and we met a big group of people that gathered on the beach every evening for cocktails and socialization.  We felt a bit like the Lynyard social directors as we took them to the blue holes (and discovered some new ones), told them where to get conch and lobster and fish, and marked their charts up with just about anything they were interested in while in the Abacos.  John gave them GPS lat/long points for bone fishing, seaglass hot spots, blue holes, conch beds and much more.  

The second week, we anchored off of Hopetown and hunted in our favorite spots and continued to scope out things to do, places to see, and people to meet while Alee and Kale visit.  We briefly visitied with our dear friends on Siren’s Call, but they were heading home (to Maine) the day we arrived at Hopetown.  

On March 18, we went into the Abaco Beach Resort marina to clean the boat, do laundry, reprovision, and do all that is necessary to prepare for guests.

Kale scores a BIG lobster day 1

Alee and Kale arrived in the morning on March 19 and I don’t think they knew what hit them until they left the following week.  As soon as they got on the boat, we left the marina and headed for the anchorage off of Hopetown.  One of the other boaters in the marina whom we had met the previous night hollored over to us, “You certainly don’t waste any time once guests arrive!”  We had a goal of getting conch for a conch medley dinner.  We immediately jumped in the dinghy once the hook was set and had our GPS points marked and headed out for our conch hunt.  I had to give Alee some shit and tell her not to let the conch bite her and how fast they were so she had to sneak up on them.  It was pretty funny watching her “hunt” them until she recognized I was giving her shit and all she had to do was pick them up.  We got the conch and were ahead of my very regimented schedule to see everything and do everything, so I decided I wanted to teach Kale how to hunt lobster.  I found a hole with a big lobster in it and showed Kale what to look for.  He thought I was crazy because he didn’t see the antenna until I chased the lobster out of its hole and told him to shoot it. SCORE!!!! Kale gets his first lobster on day 1. Alee had written to me that her greatest goal was to see an octopus and I had been snorkeling an area a few days before where I played with an octopus so our next stop was to go visit Ollie the octopus.  Unfortunately, Ollie had moved on so now it’s off to see the

Hopetown Lighthouse

Niece Love

Hopetown lighthouse and explore Hopetown. Meanwhile, John stayed on the boat to prepare conch cervice, cracked conch, conch sliders, and coconut conch soup. After a fantabulous dinner, we took the iPad up top and identified constellations.  We also had a brief lesson on how to SCUBA dive. Alee and Kale slept on deck and still had no clue of what they were in for this week.

Day 2:  We moved to Lynyard Cay while Kale and Alee slept on the front deck.  Once anchored, we went lobster hunting and saw about 20 lobster, but because they are inexperienced hunters, we only brought home two (Alee hunts just like her dad). We went seaglass huntiing at low tide and then did yoga and already Alee is asking me “you do this every day?”. We had a lobster medley meal and watched a movie. Also, another dry land lesson on SCUBA diving. We probably only swam two miles today and had a relatively easy seaglass day.

Sea Glass Hunting; Dive Alee dive

Jewels of the sea

Day 3:  Went to Pete’s Pub and art gallery (still our favorite pub in all of the Abacos). Alee and Kale decorated a T-shirt to hang up and saw the shirts left by Scott and Jeannie during their visits.

Pete's Pub tradition

Good memories

After an awesome lunch (as usual at Pete’s Pub), we walked a mile to a superb seaglass spot.  Initially, Alee didn’t think she wanted to climb down the 20 feet of ironshore rock to get her ass slammed by big waves only to collect a few pieces of broken glass, but I showed her my first “jewel” and she jumped right in and started calling “winner, winner chicken dinner” when she found a great piece. All four of us were in the cove and the seaglass could not be picked up fast enough. After an awesome day of seaglass hunting, we hiked the mile back to Pete’s Pub and I took John back to Makani so he could begin making pizza dough for pizza night while our guests did a bit of spelunking. After we returned to Makani, Alee and I did our daily yoga and then we all participated in preparing 4 of the best pizzas we have ever served. While enjoying dinner, we watched a great movie that Alee and Kale brought.  

Day 4: SCUBA Lesson in 8 feet of water with full gear on in the morning. After Kale and Alee felt comfortable in the SCUBA gear we moved the boat to Sandy Cay and did an actual dive.  Both Alee and Kale dove like pros. After the dives, we moved the boat to Armstrong Cay and Kale and I went out to lobster hunt.  We had steak and lobster for dinner and played poker well into the night.

SCUBALEE

Number one rule? Don't pee in my wetsuit

Day 5: John and Kale went out lobster hunting and blue hole exploring while Alee and I stayed on the boat and cleaned, baked fresh homemade pretzels, did our daily yoga and had great girlie conversation. We took turns on the paddle board. We explored the ruins of the old bone fish camp and gathered wood for a fire on the beach. After enjoying a great meal of conch and lobster, polynesian style, the highlight of the day was a beach fire and “stick stories”.

Umpalumpa's?

 I don’t have any idea what umpalumpas and big birds and little birds and sailing all have in common, but that is what usually happens when the stick stories are told.  Of course, Nassau Royale might be a contributing factor.  We lighted Chinese lanterns and a good time was had by all.

Day 6: In the morning Kale, Alee and I went lobster hunting.  We saw turtles, a shark, snails and lots of other creatures and got a few lobster.  When we got back to the boat, John went out and got 5 different types of fish while we prepared the fixins for fish tacos.  While John was frying up the fish for a fish taste test feast, Alee and I went in search of an octopus. Unfortunately, we did not see an octopus, but I did get to point out some other cute creatures to Alee.  After we had lobster the other night, Alee said she wanted lobster every night while here, but tonight after she had the fish tacos, she said she wants fish tacos the rest of the time she is here. Everyone was pretty worn out, sunburned and ready for a relaxing night so we started a movie and everyone fell asleep almost before the introduction.

Day 7: Anchored off of Man-o-War Cay and did the island tour.  We showed them the zen gardens and the cemetary and met Lola (who unfortunately can’t run her bakery anymore). Alee and Kale were able to pick up some souvenirs for their kids and we visited the spot where Alee’s dad saw his life pass before him while he and I were lobster hunting on his 50th birthday.

Satisfied guests

Paddleboarding

 In the afternoon, we had to go to Marsh Harbour and check into the marina so our guests could shower and get their belongings together.  We had time to go to the pool and relax some and had fish tacos again per Alee’s request. Alee and Kale were great guests and we were sad to see them go, but we could tell they were missing their kids and all that we didn’t get to this trip will just have to wait until the next time.

We went to breakfast at the marina before Alee and Kale had to catch their early morning flight out. Kiwi had gotten off the boat during the night and had not returned by the time we said our goodbyes.  We started our post-guest routine of laundry, cleaning, and putting gear away and occasionally walked around the marina to call and click for Kiwi, but she still hadn’t shown up by dusk.  By now we were starting to get worried, because like Indi, if she doesn’t come when we click, she probably CAN’T come. We increased our efforts walking each pier and around the grounds calling and clicking, but still no sign of Kiwi.  We went through all the emotions that we had when we thought we lost her overboard in December and felt sick and depressed.  We went to bed, but John couldn’t sleep and got up every hour and walked the grounds of the marina calling for Kiwi.  By morning, we had pretty much given up on finding her and had to make a decision to leave the marina today or stay and look another day.  At 6am, John made a final walk around the grounds and heard a mew.  He spotted Kiwi sitting under one of the condo porches.  She was obviously scared to death and moving very slowly.  John tucked her into his shirt and got her safely back to the boat, but she was obviously hurt and frightened to death. I did my best assessment and determined that she didn’t have any broken bones or open cuts so we tucked her into a quiet place and left the marina.  It was three full days before she started moving like her old self and a full 5 days before she started acting comfortable and trusting and emotionally secure.  We can only guess what happened to her during the time she was gone, but judging from her injuries and cowering demeanor, we think someone hit her or kicked her.  She is such a love bug, she would certainly go to any person, but we think she went to the wrong person.  Anyhow, she is back home and safe and recovering both physically and emotionally.

Man-O-War and more niece love

Final day of lobster season

Nursing Kiwi back to health

Starting to be trusting again

Now we are starting to discuss when it is time to leave and start the journey home.  I wanted to get in a few full days of seaglass hunting in our spot behind Pete’s Pub and get our last lobster hunting in before the season closes on April 1.  The weather was most conducive to us staying at Snake Cay for a few days where we hunted our butts off, finding some of the biggest lobsters of the season.  We then moved to Lynyard and had several days of great seaglass hunting both in the cove at Little Harbour and the cave off Lynyard.  Now lobster season is closed and our ankles and feet are torn up from seaglass hunting. Also, we have some things brewing back in the United States that makes us feel like we should be “home” to take care of so we will be heading to Marsh Harbour today to reprovision a final time and then start looking for an opportunity to go through the Whale. We will spend some time in the northern Abacos and watch for a weather window to cross.