s/v Kaleo

Archive for the Category »Great Guana Cay «

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 / Christie & Matt

Since Thursday we’ve been enjoying the beaches of Great Guana Cay, Abaco, Bahamas.

Poolside at Nipper’s

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 overlooking the Atlantic

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.

Matt doin’ a little island farming on the way to Nipper’s

Enjoying a signature Nipper

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.

Swimming in the Atlantic at Great Guana Cay

Enjoying the Abacos

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.

“Honu Lele” dancing the night away

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.

Diving the world’s 3rd largest Barrier reef

Tossing the football with “Honu Lele”

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.

Our neighborhood from the porch of the dinghy dock

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

Category: Abacos, Bahamas, Cruising, Friends, Great Guana Cay, Sailing One Comment

Peaceful Man-O-War

Thursday, May 19th, 2011 / Christie & Matt

We’ve been livin’ it up marina-style over the past couple of days on Man-O-War Cay.

Dock & Dine Restaurant at Man-O-War Marina

Man-O-War Marina was offering a special dockage rate of two nights for the price of one, a deal that fit it perfectly into our anniversary week celebration. Deep water with easy access into the slips, beautiful freshwater pool overlooking the marina, clean spacious shower facilities, well-kept laundry room, on-site Dock & Dine Restaurant … done deal. Bonus: Within minutes of securing our docklines, a young cruising family hailing from Austin, Texas that we briefly met in Marsh Harbour, pulled into the slip next to us.

Texan neighbors in the Abacos

With plans to meet up later, we set off to explore this quiet, picturesque settlement. Home to Abaco’s finest boat builders, and to the famous Albury’s Sail Shop tote bags, Man-O-War (named after the bird) retains strong influences of its Puritan past. Full of hardworking, Christ-centered residents, the streets and homes are immaculate and the island is “dry” (though we were allowed to bring our own dinner wine to the restaurant).

Hand-built Albury sailing skiff

Albury’s Sail Shop and Studio

Yes He is!

We spent the afternoon winding our way through golf-cart-sized streets, stopping into local shops and boat yards, over the hill of the island and past a baseball field with the best view of a peaceful Atlantic-side beach. After the tour of the town and a stroll on the beach, we spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in and around the marina pool.

Lounging poolside at the marina

Freshwater swimming

Tuesday evening we hung out with our new friends aboard “Honu Lele“. Their cruise began out of Kemah not long after ours, so we enjoyed laughs over shared situations and favorite stops along the way. We shared many treasures between our boats. From us, sea beans and an empty bottle for the kids to create a message in a bottle. From them, freshly caught Blackfin tuna sushi for dinner. It was incredible! Thanks Scott.

The next morning, we met two missionaries who were on the island for a conference hosted at New Life Bible Church. They invited us to come by for lunch and meet the other missionaries who were in for the conference. We had plans to drop off Fellowship Church Elevate Kids materials at the church anyhow so our visit worked out perfectly. We were able to share several sets with not only the church in Man-O-War, but with the far reaching hands of the missionaries who were attending the conference.

Later that afternoon, we hung out at the pool and then took advantage of long showers before having dinner at Dock & Dine with the crew from “Honu Lele”.

Dinner with “Honu Lele” at Dock & Dine

Dinner turned into a gathering aboard Kaleo where we visited and gave the kids sailing books we had on board for just such an occasion.

Thursday we awoke to a dreary sky but the morning was brightened by gifts from the kids on Honu Lele. Their daughter made Christie an anklet with a seashell and beads and both kids shared a couple of their pristine white sand dollars for our collection.

Thanks for the stylin’ shell anklet, Anna!

Just before lunch we untied the docklines and headed for our next island destination of Great Guana Cay. Shortly after leaving and right after unfurling the jib, it started pouring rain and we had a short but soggy motor sail over to Great Guana. The weather cleared as we picked up a mooring and we set off to explore this new-to-us cay.