IM STILL HEEEERE!!!

Well another long-overdue post.  I do apologize, my AC inverter refuses to charge my computer and I have to use the generator to run it.  

Over the last month, Meadowlark has traveled all around the southern Abacos. After my last post from Man O War, I went over to Marsh Harbour to check out the "city" scene.  FINALLY some nice big grocery stores and places to provision.  Met Dan (picture below) who is single handing his small catamaran, and Daniel single handing his 34ft sloop from Munich.  Had a couple nights involving rum, wine, and fishing.  In the picture, Dan and Daniel are preparing a tasty mutton snapper we caught about 2 minutes prior.

After about a week in Marsh Harbour, I decided to head back to MOW because I was having some potential overheating problems with the dinghy motor.  Unfortunately the mechanic in MOW was unable to fix it, but went BACK to Marsh and got her fixed.  It was a pretty major job and required a lot of disassembly, but she's running cool now and I'm happy.

Next we headed south towards Little Harbour, stopping at some beautiful places on the way.  There was beautiful snorkeling, sailing, and plenty of fishing on the way.  When I got to Little Harbour, I decided right away that I would stay for at least a week.  So much wildlife, history, and some very cool (always hammered) locals.  Pete's pub is a popular venue here, and I made it a point to be there every night and spend way too much money.  Here's a bad picture of the place.

So, sailed north to Elbow Cay again to regroup.  Met up with some Australian friends I made in Marsh Harbour, and went on an all-day lobster spear fishing excursion in a rental boat (much faster than ol Meadowlark).  I'll try to post some pictures of that stuff when they email them to me.

Since this is almost the middle of hurricane season,  there are frequent tropical storms to watch closely.  Earlier this week,  hurricane Cristobal was scheduled to come right over is, but fortunately moved well to our east.  Meadowlark was as ready as she could have been for hurricane-force winds at MOW.  She's since been put back together and I'm getting ready to head north soon for more good times.  

Things have been going great.  I'm eating well, feeling healthier, and enjoying these beautiful islands at a nice slow pace.  What more can one ask for?

I have become quite the fan of the mollusk.  Particularly these big guys.  That's the whole critter above once removed from its shell.  Yes, it does look like something from another planet, and cleaning them takes a little getting used to.  The flavor of the meat is sweet; somewhere between shrimp and crab, but is best (in my opinion) eaten raw with lime juice.  Conch are all over the place here.  As a matter of fact, they are so abundant that the locals use their shells to build walls with concrete mortar.  I'm not going to be turning down free food while I'm here, so I plan to take full advantage.

By the way, saw the largest shark I have ever seen in the wild the other evening while looking around for conch near north Man O War cut. Visibility was a little poor, but it was probably a nurse shark. I estimate i'ts length was over 7ft.  I'm not supposed to be scared of those things, but I do know a few things:  It was a shark much bigger than me, it was interested in me for at least a while (or it would not have been there), and it is hard to look intimidating with a stupid mask on your face and a snorkel in your mouth.

This is a picture I took while at Guana Cay.  Kinda shows your daily afternoon thunderstorm madness during the summer months.  These things come out of NOWHERE and go WHEREVER they want.  I recall not getting a drop of rain that day even though I was surrounded by these for a couple of hours.  So I have stopped trying to guess the forecast and just go with it.  What else can ya do?

Don't know what my plan is.  Maybe Marsh Harbor in a few days.

  Nothing quite like winding down in the cozy cabin dry as a bone while the rain comes down outside.  Feels like a little victory.  

   Nice long and relaxing day at the beach, cleaned up the boat a little, short trip to the bank, made some soup.  Not a dollar spent on anything today.  

   

   Why the fuck didn't I start doing this sooner...?

Too much to cover in the last week or so.  Tropical Storm Arthur decided to stick around for a couple of days over the Abacos and gave me about 6 inches of rain.  Continued to rain for a couple more says nonstop so I was in the cabin for most of it.  Boat did just fine, even though I was in an unprotected anchorage at Green Turtle Cay.

Went north to Manjack Cay for a couple of days and fed stingrays, sharks, and turtles.  Very cool.  Also found some conch and tried my hand at cleaning one.  This will take some more practice ;).  Since I had the entire island to myself for most of the time, I did a little exploring and furiously battled the mosquitoes  There is not enough DEET in the world.

Patiently waiting for squid.  One did accidentally bite me (since I put my damn fingers in its mouth), but no biggy they don't have big teeth and I could tell it was sorry.

 
Decent Cero Mackerel caught just off of Whale Cay on the way to Guana Cay.  Tasted pretty good too.

So now I'm anchored in Fisher's Bay, Guana Cay.  Just up the hill is Nippers, the everyday party venue in the Abacos.  I'm bound to head up there pretty soon, just hoping the budget holds out (it wont).

Now that internet is more readily available in this area, I'm going to try to post every day for a while. Maybe.

The above depression has made the last couple of days a little wet.  Waiting for this to continue north, however it is unusual that it has made it this far south already...will be watching this closely.  Tis the season.

So, what is Martin doing with EVEN MORE time on his hands these days?  More eating, and more rum.  No money for that fancy bar fair, so trying to actually do some cooking.

Sailboat style french fries.   Potatoes + Oil + Heat is always good.  Doing something as simple as this can keep me occupied for quite a while :)  I take a multivitamin so who cares what I eat all day right?

Internet has obviously been pretty shaky since I left Man O War.  Stayed outside of Hopetown for a couple of days and checked out the 150th anniversary of the Elbow Reef Lightouse.  Very cool machine.  A neighboring boat took me over to Marsh Harbor a couple days ago(in his much faster boat).  He needed some engine work done and I had nothing else to do.  Marsh is an interesting place.  Bigger stores, much more like things are at home.  There are some major issues however with illegal immigration, particularly those entering the Bahamas from Haiti.  Much like the illegal hispanic population working under the table in the United States, the Haitians are hired for very little pay, and do most of the work the locals are too lazy to do themselves.

Here is the difference between the problem here, and the problem in the United States:

Pigeon Pea.  A place where people don't know how to build houses in straight lines apparently.  This is one of the two Haitian communities on this small island.  Frequent house fires demolish large sections of the neighborhood and the local fire truck (shown below) can only do so much.

Anyway, enough negativity.  Here are some pictures of the lighthouse.

The last of its kind, the giant fresnel lenses (which can be seen for 15 miles when lit) rotate on a bed of MERCURY.  Yea, crazy.  Pressurized kerosene is vaporized in the lantern room, providing the bright warm light I get to see every night here.

 The lighthouse is also hand wound every day by the lighthouse keeper.

View from the top.  Little Meadowlark is anchored somewhere outside of the harbour on the left. 

Now, anchored just off of Tahiti Beach a little ways south.  Figured I'd slowly make my way south and see what happens.

Anchored outside of Elbow Cay last few days, cool island, but definitely one of the more touristy ones.  The fact that they sell booze alone is enough to draw bigger crowds.  That and the lighthouse of course.  That thing is 150 years old and still burning bright (one of the last ones on earth). 

Internet was surprisingly crap outside the harbor.  So I stayed a couple days and ran back up to Man O War today to "recharge my batteries" so to speak.



Rice and meat. Pretty typical one pot meal for me lately.  Note the mysterious green cocktail on the cockpit floor.

All is well.  All is well...