Moving around a bit

 As some might know, we had company for the last two and a half weeks. Deb's brother was in town staying with us aboard Freedom. It was a challenge to keep everyone occupied or, more appropriately, entertained because the weather was good and sunny, but windy. The wind kept us from taking the dink out to the reef or other areas across the Sea of Abaco where one can find some of the best sights in the area. It also prevented us from making a run South to Little Harbour so that we could stop in at Pete's Pub. Oh well.
 So once we had witnessed Junkanoo we were left to make the best of the rather windy weather we found ourselves within.

 But in spite of the wind we managed to get over to Lubber's Quarters and Cracker P's for lunch a couple of times. If you are ever down this way, it's a must stop for a fantastic view with a good lunch and cold beer. The food is good pub food that includes fresh grilled fish sandwiches etc.. And the view, well, there are probably better but this photo accurately illustrates how good it can be looking East towards Tilloo Cut. Staying at the Sea Spray marina made it very easy to get across to Cracker P's since the stretch of water separating the two places is in the lee of weather from the East and West. About the worst we saw was perhaps a foot of chop which our Avon RIB dink can handle quite well. 

 So while we were at Sea Spray we spent quite a bit of time foraging for shells on the Atlantic side. While the East side of Abaco is mostly beach sand, just off shore at low tide there are several flat rocky areas one can wade through looking for shells. Not only are there shells, but small octopus, eels, and other life inhabits this area. It's always a pleasure to come upon the life and witness it. As long as you keep your eyes open and look where you are stepping you will have no difficulty as long as you have a good sense of balance. Once in a while you may even get to pull in a good size lobster. But without wearing gloves one does not want to pick one of these critters up. They have spines all over their shells that easily pierce your skin and once having been made aware of them, the spiney thorns, one is not likely to attempt picking them up without gloves unless one has a shot at grabbing their antennae.

 So having time to move around we moved Freedom up to Guana Cay. We really wanted to head South to Little Harbour but the Atlantic was rough and I refused to take Freedom through North Bar Inlet. It's just too rough a ride and the thought of dumping a freezer, refrigerator or two of food, emptying closets and shifting furniture just didn't float in my mind. The ride up to Guana was a bit sloppy but nothing of concern. We rolled along until we cleared Point Set Rock and made it into the lee of ManOWar Cay. Once in the lee of ManOWar things settled down considerably and we settled down to enjoy a smooth ride.
 Arriving at Orchid we were greeted by McKenzee who was happy as usual to see us. He asked us about all of the other boaters we knew and if we had news of their arrival in the Bahamas. We didn't really know why until we were there about six nights.
 During the day at Orchid Bay I was running the water maker. It eventually filled the tank and coincidentally a ferry arrived with a crew of Bahamas Electric Company (B.E.C.) employees. They walked by smiling and waving and we waved back. As a matter of process I went into the bilge to shut down the pumps and as I released the pressure to idle the power went off!
 No shore power!

 Subsequently we learned via a letter of apology from the managers that B.E.C. had shut off their power. A subsequent conversation with them informed us that the Stateside company was not paying the bill. So with that we hauled anchor so to speak and went to Hope Town to finish up Rich's stay. When I think about it, it wasn't such a bad thing because Guana hasn't as much going on as Elbow anyway. I mean, there are only so many frozen Nippers one can consume.

 With time winding down on Rich's stay we wound up with walking some more of Elbow and enjoying all of the sights and establishments it has to offer.

 Anyone else up for it? Tracks loaded up, I'll post some photos into the bucket soon enough.