Walk for the Cure

Members of the RMHYC were out in force to support the 1st Abaco Cancer Society Walk for the Cure. We were each asked for a donation as we registered for the walk. The walk was 5 miles all around the streets of Marsh Harbour. The funny thing was you could purchase a shirt. It was $8.00 and again the money went to the cancer society. The shirts were left-over from September 29, 2007, Nassau Cancer Walk. We felt good to get a little exercise and to do our bit to help.

Little Harbour

• It's time to do a little exploring. It would probably be a lot cheaper to rent a car and drive around the cay. I always will remember a time, several years ago, when Jo and Whitey, Sue and Dennis, Nancy and Gregg and the two of us took our boats around the island to Oyster Bay and City Island. It was a 45 minute ride by car and a couple of dollars in gas. It took us a couple of days and a fortune in gas. Anyway, we took our boat to a place called Little Harbour. We left Boat Harbour around 11:30 and headed south. We passed many points of interest, out plan was to go straight to Little Harbour and stop at all these spots on the way back. We passed Cormorant Cay, Tavern Cay, Snake Cay, Deep Sea Cay, Iron Cay and Bucaroon Bay to name a few places. When you read the books on how to approach these harbours it doesn't tell you to follow the red and green markers. It says " When the white house at the SW corner of the harbour is centered in the harbour opening, head for it. Proceed until you are on the range line between the other prominent house (white roof) and the Point, then turn and head toward the house." How's that for directions. There is a nice white sandy bottom with about 3 1/2 feet of water. It's a small, fully protected anchorage. There were moorings in the harbour. I just picked one up and tied it on and we were ready to party.
• We took the dingy to the shore and started our expedition. There's a small dilapidated structure without a traditional lighthouse tower, it was the lighthouse. There's also a place called Pete's Pub, it was closed for the day. The men were busy renovating it. They were busy putting sand under the tables. We took a walk along the Atlantic Ocean. Could this really be the same ocean I swim in at Gilgo? The color is so different.
• Randolph and Margot Johnston made Little Harbour their home in the middle 1950s. The story is that the Johnstons, with their son Pete lived in a cave on the west side of the harbour. Very interesting. Randolph was an internationally known artist renowned for his casting in bronze. There are two art galleries with life size marine bronzes and jewelry inspired by locals.
• We had dinner aboard Sea Smoke, with Frank and his little dog Dee Dee. We left when Frank ran out of vodka. Sad but true.
• The next day we did more sight seeing and riding around the harbour in the dingy. At night we went aboard Sunset Key with Mike and Sue and had a little cocktail party. We left to go to dinner at Pete's Pub. It's an open air bar on the beach that serves delicious food. When we left and headed back to our boat, it was so dark we had trouble seeing our way. The stars were out, the moon was nowhere to be seen. Next time I'll remember to bring the flash light.
• The third day we headed back to boat harbour. We stopped to do some snorkeling. We went to a reef off Lynyard Cay. It's all quite beautiful.

Chili Anyone?

• Every January the RMHYC has a chili cook-off. Approximately 175 people attended the 2008 cook-off. To my surprise it was a man's cook-off, all along I thought that only SHYC was chauvinistic. There were 29 chefs. The categories were hot, medium, mild and unusual. Each chef had a hat with his vessel name on it. The club supplied the libations, salad, condiments, cheese, onion, sour cream and desserts. There were 5 judges, 2 professional chefs and 3 club members. To keep it honest, the pots were marked a,b,c, so no individual names appeared. You'll never guess who won 1st place for unusual...Mike did. What made it unusual was elbow macaroni and sausage meat. The entire evening was fun.
• At home the people at the yacht club were often called the boat people. Down here in the Bahamas the people who live in homes and belong to the yacht club are called dirt people.
• I also learned the difference between a Cay and an Island. An island has fresh water. A cay has to have water brought in.

Happy New Year

• There were a couple of choices for New Years Eve: dinner at the restaurant, Angler's with all the trimmings, or a ferry ride to Elbow Cay and Hope Town. We got together with several other couples and decided to have an early dinner. We all brought something to share. Hot dogs, hamburgers, (guess what I made) macaroni salad, beans and anything else you can think of to make a good cookout.
• It was a very warm night, you didn't even need a light sweater. When we finished eating we all walked to the ferry terminal. We boarded the ferry and away we went. We could not see a thing, except the stars. It was a very dark night. I kept watching for markers, when I finally saw one, I realized it was on land. I said to myself, make a quick left and the captain did. All of a sudden you can see all kinds of Christmas Lights. There's a red and white candy striped lighthouse with lights running up and down. If that didn't set the mood to party nothing would. It's 10 and the festivities start at 12. We took a walk all around the cay. The homes are very close together all nestled on the hillside. There's one road, you just follow it in and out of alleys and you end up right back were you started. At 12 the fireworks start. Once again I'm amazed at the beauty. They were spectacular, on a parallel with the N.Y. City bi-centennial. Then the junkaroo parade started. It's an exciting display of art and culture in the Bahamas, an elaborate display of costumes in a variety of shapes and sizes. You listen to the sound of horns and whistles and feel the pulsating rhythms of the goat skinned drums and cowbells. It's like a fertility dance. I think it's the first New Year that no one was over served. We headed home on the ferry and were in bed by 2:30 the latest I have stayed up in a long time.
• We started the year off with a nice dingy ride. We went to several small cays. One is called Matt Lowe's Cay. The family that owns Lowe's owns this cay. We went to (rumor has it) Tiger Woods Cay. There was a big sign,"No trespassing, by invitation only" Mike figured since he saw Tiger play at Bethpage, it would be OK to visit his cay. We just rode around, did a little swimming and a lot of shelling. It was a hot day. I can't believe we are here for 4 months. It's all a dream. Please don't wake me.
• On Sunday one of the couples on our dock invited us to Nippers on Guana Cay. This cay is on the ocean. You dock at the Orchid Bay Marina or anchor at the Baker's Bay. We walked over to Nippers Bar and Grill. It's a real party place. It's a combination of Willy-T's in Tortola and Flynns on Fire Island. The Nippers' special drink is rum and fruit juice.