We left Marsh Harbor on a clear, calm Wednesday to sail up to Great Guana Cay, home of the famous celebrity- ridden private resort Baker’s Bay and the infamous beach bar Nipper’s.

We got up here within a couple hours and were tying up at Orchid’s Bay Marina when Ziggy decided to leap for the dock.  I saw her out of the corner of my eye and knew she was too far away.

“Ziggy wait!!!”  I yelled, but it was too late.

Dog in the drink. Again.  

The dock master yelled can she swim, but it was easily apparent she could, as soon as she hit the water.

Ed yelled at her to come to the back of the boat.  She tried to climb up the steps but the swim platform got in her way.

Ed dragged her out and we immediately helped her get on the dock safely.  Where I could hose her down.

Wet dog.  Again.

Oh well she needed a bath.

Guana Cay has a small settlement on the harbor with bars, a few shops and a tiny post office.  Nice grocery store and liquor store too!

Prerequisites for cruisers.

We wandered over to Grabbers on Fishers Bay, had the grabber punch (secret recipe, rum and some kind of fruit concoction) and enjoyed the view.

Yesterday we rented a golf cart and rode the island.  Even thought we might sneak into Baker’s Bay.

But the security at the entrance gate looked a little intimidating, like they might shoot us on the spot if we charged through.

So we reluctantly turned around and drove back.

Later we wound up at Nippers for a drink and the ocean view. Gorgeous beach but windy.

We looked at a little compound on the beach beside Nippers for sale.  Cute little cottages.  Ziggy spotted s chicken and chased it- bahamian chickens can fly!!

The dog also chased a cat up a palm tree at the marina.  Ziggy is enjoying the chase.

We did the wing special (imagine that) at the marina restaurant -8 wings for $5 plus a side! 

The place was packed.  We are with new friends Jay and Anne from Charlottesville.  They’re on a sailboat beside us.

Nice people.

We sailed up to Marsh Harbor on Friday from Little Harbor, about a 4-hour ride.  We had to motor since the wind was right on our nose.

After tying up at Harbor View Marina we walked some and got a wonderful much needed shower.  Snappas had free appetizers at 5 so we joined our dock friends there.

Saturday was the 20-minute walk to Maxwells, the much loved huge grocery store – the biggest in the out islands.  It’s the only reason many cruisers stop here, although the hardware and marine store are popular too.

That night we did the 30-minute walk (we do a lot of those) to the Jib Room across the harbor for their famous Saturday steak special.  Jason the bartender also is the dock master for boats coming in.

But his best skill is playing the saw.

Now that’s island entertainment!

On Sunday we watched UNC beat up on Pittsburgh and then we participated in the weekly bocce ball tournament across the street from the marina.

There were eight teams of two, and with Snappas providing happy hour prices for the players, there was much trash talking and braggadocio to be heard.

Some of these women take this game too seriously.  They’ve got some balls, huh?

Sorry – my bad.

Anyway Ed and I miraculously got to the finals, playing two Aussies who had never played the game before.

Not that we are pros or anything.

They won one game and we won one game, then it was sudden death.

And we survived!!!

Not only did we get cheers and jeers from the peanut gallery, we got the coveted Golden Coconut trophy.

Now, you know Ed has lots of trophies from sailing races and sports, but I only have one.

I was runner up in a tennis tourney when I was 14.  Problem is there were only two of us.  And I lost.

Anyways I’m so proud to have the Coconut trophy!  I will cherish it always.

We left Hopetown early yesterday and sailed down to Little Harbor, a natural harbor with moorings for about twenty or so boats.

It’s also home of the famous Pete’s Pub and Gallery, with a working foundry where Pete and his son Greg turn out wonderful sculptures of sea creatures and such.

Pete’s father Randolph Scott came here in the 50’s with his family and lived in a cave here for awhile before building his home and foundry.

The pub is a great outdoor dive bar decorated with donated tee shirts from around the world. Known for its “blasters” -rum drink- and tasty  wahoo and rockfish dishes, it’s a great spot to hang out and visit with cruisers.

We shared a burger for lunch and walked the beach.  Dinner was shared grilled wahoo with peas and rice and walnut salad.

Ziggy met Chica, the resident lab, who didn’t really want to play.

Oh and we met Pete too, he was hanging with Rolly at the Little Harbor Yacht Club.

It’s somewhat of a misnomer but that’s okay. Pete owns it, he can call it whatever he wants.

We celebrated Ed’s birthday yesterday with our friends John and Jennifer and Bill and Maureen.  

We had spent the morning walking to the  hardware store (about two miles) to get a can opener because mine crapped out, but no luck.

Then the afternoon was laundry day at the marina.  Fifteen bucks and three hours later our clothes were clean.

I don’t have a lot of clothes because Ed made me travel light – worried about the weight on the airplane coming over here.

So I am slowing adding to my wardrobe when I can sneak something in.  After all, we are taking the boat back at the end of March, not the plane, so what’s a few more shirts or hoodies.

Yeah hoodies.  It’s been pretty cool here this week and I got tired of wearing the same one so I broke down and bought another.

Damn wind.

Back to Ed’s celebration.  We met at our favorite place- Wine Down Sip Sip- two drinks for $6, unheard of here in the Bahamas.

I had arranged for a homemade cake from Vernon’s Market.  Mr. Vernon is about 75 and he makes fresh coconut and banana bread daily.  As well as custom cakes.

He made me a Mr. Bird cake, a Jamaican recipe that’s kind of like a carrot cake.  But no carrots.   

Pineapple, coconut, mango, raisins and who knows what else.  Viv do you know this cake?  Is it named after a bird or a man named Bird?

Mr. Vernon had been running late on it because his power went out and his phone line went down too.

It was supposed to be a small bundt cake but he forgot and made a big one instead.

“He forgets things,” Mrs. Vernon told me.  “He needs to retire.”

They just charged me for the small one anyway.

I brought it to our gathering and we ate it for appetizers.  And we offered it to our servers Ken and Clarice, as well as everyone else there, except Ziggy.

It was delicious!

Bill gave Ed a toy ball (for his sports fanaticism) and made him wear a party hat.  Oh, and a new line for the dinghy.  Practical stuff.

And Bill says this is the week of Ed.  So more shenanigans to come.

A bocce ball challenge today…

We woke up Sunday morning to the biggest blow yet this season, 35-40 knot winds and rain.

When you’re on a boat in a mooring during a storm, the wind truly howls and everything not tied down clatters like it’s coming apart.

Ed had gone out at 4:00 am to check on things and bail out the dinghy.

He’s a better sailor than me!  Ziggy and I were tucked away in a warm bed.

So Sunday morning was a washout, we didn’t go ashore til about 1:30, when the winds calmed a little and the rain stopped.

Ziggy had been sitting up staring at her beloved dinghy for awhile, hoping to send us the signal that her little doggie behind needed to go to shore.

We finally relented and did just that.  Some other folks with cabin fever (that applies to boats too) did the same and we all walked for awhile in the bluster, happy the rain was gone.

Of course we have mixed feelings about rainy days because we have a rainwater catchment system and it fills up our water tanks here when it rains. And water is not a gimme in the islands.  So our tanks are full today!

We dinghied over early (and slowly in the wind) to the Super Bowl party at the Hopetown Marina to get a good seat.

They had the plastic sides down but it was still pretty cool outside.

The place was packed.  We got a $30 buffet that they reduced to $25, of meatballs, wings, Bahama burgers, nachos, hot dogs and lots of other unhealthy Super Bowl food.  But it was good!

Despite the Panthers’ lackluster game we cheered them proudly, with most of the crowd from all over the U.S. and Canada pulling along with us.

It wasn’t Cam’s night.  It was the Denver defense’s night for sure.

Oh well, we drank hot tea to stay warm, wishing we had a blanket for our feet.

Not our year but Cam is just a youngun.  Keep pounding!

Unintentionally of course.

We were headed back to the dinghy from the Two-4-One wine bar and it was pretty dark.

Ziggy was her usual confident self, and decided she knew which dinghy to jump to.  Before we were ready for her she takes a flying leap, and misses both dinghies.

“She’s in!” I yelled, along with a few other choice words I won’t repeat.

Ed and I ran to the shore calling her to swim to us.  We could hear her but couldn’t see her it was too dark so we weren’t sure where she was.

Finally Ed spotted her and guided her toward me on the beach area.  She emerged and shook mightily while I stood by.

“Good girl, you’re okay,” I reassured her, really thinking why did you do that again? Bad dog.

No worse for the wear, we dealt with a wet dog that evening.

Yesterday we needed to get s pump out and fill our water tanks, so we came off the mooring ball and headed to the marina, the one where we sometimes sneak in for a free shower.

They actually gave us a free pump out, not sure why, they must feel sorry for us or just assume we never pay for anything.

Since we were off the mooring ball we decided to take a short sail down to Tijuana Beach at the south end of Elbow Cay, then on past Tilloo Cut and Lubbers Quarter. 

It was a beautiful calm day, a number of boats anchored down there enjoying the water.

We turned around, cut the motors and sailed back with only the headsail, in a beam reach and 5.5 knots.

Now that’s the greatest joy.  Next to a free shower, that is.

I skipped the hot shower and jumped into the Hopetown Marina pool (they don’t care we aren’t staying here).

It’s not heated but if you’re only in there a minute you can take it.  

While I was drying in the sun a fishing boat came up with the day’s catch.  They had been trolling, 300 foot depths, on the ocean side, and boy were they biting.

Whoa…they brought in 8 or 9 wahoos and a huge mahi.  Nice.

We watched him deftly clean and filet their catch.   Slice each side, de-gut (is that a word?) it, throw the innards over the side to the feeding frenzy of dark snappers.

Ed is chatting up the fishermen, hoping for a handout.  We shall see.

Yes!! Success.

That’s a standard here, along with Mac n cheese.  It’s a quarter fried chicken wrapped in foil with enough French fries to feed an army, all stuffed into a paper bag.

Not sure what the bag is for, but the chicken was good.

We watched a dinghy (not inflatables) race yesterday, outside of the harbor on the Sea of Abacos.  There were probably 7 sunfish sailboats and as many wooden sailboats.  They’re the traditional Abacos dinghies and they’re beautiful little boats.

One of the long timers here – Will- raced in his wooden dinghy named Mac N Cheese.  Don’t think he won.

We ate both meals on the boat!  A first. It’s too tempting to hang out at one of four restaurants here.

Where they all know our names. 

After a harrowing windy and rainy night, when neither of us slept much and Ed bailed out the dinghy three times, we emerged from the boat Friday for strong coffee and a blueberry smoothie at the Coffee House.

Yummy….

Then we met Bill and Maureen and John and Jennifer on the beach for some lobster stalking.  It was on the leeward side from the wind so we were fairly well protected.

Bill and Maureen wore shorty wetsuits and John was in a full wetsuit, dagger lashed to his lower leg and gloves for grabbing the spiny suckers.  Jennifer was walking the beach, looking for sea glass – she makes jewelry

The water was pretty cool and Ed and I had decided to just watch.  But Maureen would have none of that.

She insisted on going back to their boat to get the other man’s shorty wetsuit for Ed.

“Oh no don’t worry about it, I’m fine I can just sit here and watch,” he said.  We had brought a little cooler of beer and two comfortable chairs from the boat.

“No,no,” Maureen protested.  ” I’ll get the wetsuit and you can decide if you want to use it. No pressure.”

Yeah, right.

So she took off for her boat.  Ed shook his head and said, “Well I guess I’m going in.”

She came back with it and Ed suited up.  We had our own goggles and fins. As he walked toward the beach John handed him a spear for the lobster search. Ed politely declined, saying he would just do a little snorkeling.

After a few minutes in cool waters and a fairly strong current, Ed emerged.  He saw some fish and a barracuda.  He had done his manly duty so he was done.

Meanwhile the other boys were out there still looking. Occasionally you would see fins go up as they dove the reefs.

Bill came back in, tired and a little cold.  John ventured out further from shore.  We kept an eye on him.

After about 30 minutes John surfaced, tore off his goggles and triumphantly held up a lobster in his hand.

Victory!!!

Bill waded out to meet him and I got a few pics.

Jennifer walked up and I told her, “John got one!”

“Of course he did, she said.  “He’s a lobster magnet!”

He told us he also was tempted to spear a couple of groupers out there, but they’re not legal til late February.

Darn.

Back on shore they twisted spiny’s tail off (that’s the only part you eat) and threw the rest back into the sea.

A few minutes later a guy walked up and asked why he threw away that lobster.

John explained that was the head, the part you don’t eat.

We celebrated that night at Wine Down Sip Sip, the local wine bar that has the best flatbread I’ve ever had.

The lobster is in John’s freezer.

After our morning coffee house routine (the kids weren’t there, yay for no screaming), we decided to make the trek to Sea Spray Marina, at the other end of the island, where Ziggy and I went the other day by golf cart.

Ed rented a bike again and the dawg and I decided to walk.  We both need to drop a few pounds and after consulting with Ziggy we agreed we could walk there.

An hour later we were there, maybe 2-3 miles one way? 

No potholes to avoid this time. 

Ed watched Colin Cowherd on ESPN; he’s still talking about Cam Newton.

He’s comparing him to Donald Trump in that he doesn’t fit the quarterback stereotype.

Colin says we want our presidents to be presidential (unlike Trump’s bombastic nature) and our quarterbacks to be “quarterbackial” (a new word I think), meaning leading but not celebrating too much.

Colin says to stop the Cam hate and let him be who he is!  We agree.

Our bartender yesterday at the Reef Club on the beach said his favorite basketball team is Carolina.  He knew all the history and players.

Ed asked the young Bahamian man today at the marina – eating by himself while we listened to Colin – who he was pulling for in the Super Bowl.

“Cam and the Panthers,” he said immediately. 

He’s a pretty good role model for young men here too, it seems.

And that’s a good thing.