Since Thursday we’ve been enjoying the beaches of Great Guana Cay, Abaco, Bahamas.
With Kaleo secured in Fisher’s Bay, it was a short walk into the settlement. Located at the center of the Abacos Islands, Great Guana Cay features miles of pristine white beaches and is home to the legendary Nipper’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, perched on a forty-foot sand dune, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Nipper’s is a cruising crossroad with visitors from around the world stopping in for the view, pools, lively conversation and frosty signature drinks. Another draw to Nipper’s is its close proximity, just a few stair steps away to the world’s 3rd largest Barrier reef that can be reached by swimming right off the shore.
Friday, we headed to Nipper’s to make a day of the beach, pool, and restaurant. Surprisingly uncrowded, we had our pick of a “dune front” table overlooking the Atlantic where we spent lunchtime enjoying grilled Mahi ceasar salad, a chicken Waldorf Salad wrap, signature Nippers and visiting with fellow cruisers. We spent the heat of the afternoon swimming in the ocean before heading back up to lounge poolside.
While at the pool, we met a family vacationing on the island that we would soon learn we have a lot in common with. Their daughter and son-in-law (our age) live in Dallas, not far from where our townhouse was in Lakewood. Christie also went to the University of Texas at the same time as their son-in-law AND their son is a copywriter at an ad agency in North Carolina with a guy Matt used to work closely with at The Richards Group. Small world.
And to add to the camaraderie, our friends from “Honu Lele” walked up the path to the pools at about the same time. With so many great people hanging around, we tabled our plans to sail to Treasure Cay that day and stayed another night in Great Guana to continue the fun well into the evening.
We returned to the beach on Saturday afternoon to meet up with Honu Lele and to snorkel the Great Abaco Barrier Reef. An easy swim out brings you atop a well-developed reef system that starts less than fifty feet from shore, and rises from a depth of about forty feet to within inches of the surface.
Amidst swimming, snorkeling and sunning we made plans for a taco dinner aboard “Honu Lele”. On the way back to our boats in Fisher’s Bay, we all stopped into Grabbers, the other beach bar and grill on the island, for snack time appetizers and a dip into their pool before returning to “Kaleo” to cook up our contributions for the Mexican Fiesta dinner.
Aboard “Honu Lele”, we dined on ground turkey and pulled chicken tacos and sipped Mojitos in the cool breeze. After a radiant sunset, the kids brought out glowsticks to light up the night and Sheri baked delicious chocolate chip cookies. We laughed over the light show performance in the cockpit and indulged in the warm cookie treats.
Sunday we watched an excellent Lifechurch.tv message titled, “I Quit Living in Fear” and lazily prepped the boat to head for Treasure Cay. After sailing off the anchor, we drifted by and briefly visited with our friends aboard “Fishhead” who had just arrived to explore Great Guana. We waved good-bye to them with plans of our courses crossing again in Green Turtle in a few days and to “Honu Lele” with plans to meet back up in “Treasure Cay” the next day.
N 26° 39.99 / W 77° 07.10
Now thats one VERY nice looking place, thanks for the pics & info. It is now on our list of places we will go when we start in Dec. / Jan.