A Quick Visit to Little Harbour

 There are few places like Little Harbour.

 Once you get down to the south end of the Sea of Abaco, you enter a small harbour then grab a mooring ball, or rather a mooring tire....

 and dinghy over to Pete's Pub.

It's an open air setting and there are lots of places to sit and relax.

Lots of people leave a signed T-shirt

Hey, don't we know them?

Easter dinner was a delicious blackened mahi sandwich with Bahamian peas and rice and pineapple coleslaw,
and the house drink- the Blaster!!

There were a dozen sailboats on the horizon when we walked across to the beach look-out.  We were
told the boats were coming north from Eleuthera and would enter the Sea of Abaco through cuts just north Little Harbour. 

Artist/sculptor Randolph Johnston, his wife Margot moved here from New York City in the ‘50s.  Randolph was internationally known for his bronze castings, and  intended to found an art colony  in the Abacos. Their son, Pete, is also an artist and he now runs the pub and an art gallery.  In addition to sculptures of people and  marine life we saw jewellery, paintings, belt buckles and lots of photos, newspaper clippings and books about the life of Randolph Johnston, who was born in Canada, by the way.  

Not sure if this was the one, but when they first arrived, the family lived in a cave.

the Art Gallery

For more info, check out http://www.bahamastudios.com/index.html

Lobster Adventures

Up until the season ended on March 31, hunting the spiny lobster  became a  focus of attention and  one of our favourite activities.  Many hours were spent talking with many experts to learn the ins and outs of first locating, then spearing these guys.

Lobster Hunting Experiment
Equipment: wetsuit, goggles and snorkel, fins, weight belt, gloves and spear, pail.

Procedure:  1. Dinghy to a place where there are shelves of rock or coral, the hiding places of the lobster.
                   2. Throw out the anchor, get into gear and get into the water. Wife remains on watch for any sign of shark fins on the horizon.  They shouldn’t be a problem as long as there is no fresh blood in the water and hunting in late afternoon -feeding time- is avoided.  Dive down, look for antennae sticking out from under the rocks, aim and shoot.
.                         “Can’t be that hard,” says Jane.

Lobster #1 was a group effort.  Ben wounded it and Pat B. grabbed it.

In addition, Pat speared several more fish this day.

Matt and Dan gave us a bottle of wine to have in celebration of Ben's first lobster.

Jenn prepared a feast- blackened grouper, sauteed hogfish, grilled snapper and cracked lobster.

Good friends, good times.

Lobster #2
The hunting team of Ben, Ed and another Pat.

Looks like they have the lobster surrounded

Success!

Way to go Ben!

Now for the good part!

Lobster tail: Before

Lobster tail after steaming

Appetizers-  curried salsa lobster with cram cheese rolled into wraps
Almost didn't get a picture before they were all eaten!

OK Ben, go get some more!

Man of War Cay

 It's Sojer Day on Man Of War Cay, a day to celebrate the boat building heritage of this island. 

 Below are pictures of places, activities, boats old and new on display.

Uncle Willie built boats behind his house.  This hull had been recently damaged by hurricanes.

Rope making demonstration

Boats on display:

The Tribute - a wooden boat open for tours

Check out the boom on the Abaco Rage, a Bahamian racing yacht

These wooden Man O War dinghies continue to be built by craftsmen.  

The hull of a new Albury Brothers boat- 23 ' fibreglass

A marine railroad to haul out boats needing repair

Albury's Sail Shop is now sells all shapes and sizes of canvas bags.

One of the roads to the beaches on the Atlantic side of the island.

Sea glass can be found in certain places along the beach.  You look for pieces that have been worn into smooth and interesting shapes by the waves tumbling them around the rocky outcrops.

Sunset .... you know what time it is!

The Conchquistador

One of the ways to get out in the water is to dive for conch, or be the one driving the dinghy as Ben dives for conch.  We went out from Man O War Cay with Chris and Deke and their poodle, Penny, who likes to supervise.
Way to go, Ben!

And another one!

The shells are all sandy and sea weedy, I don't know how Ben could see them on the bottom.

OK, how do we get these critters out?

We get a lesson  from Chris and Deke at the fish cleaning station.

Trimming the meat from the other "stuff" ...

...for tasty meals of conch salad, cracked conch, conch fritters, conch chowder...I'm going to be busy!

 After a little sanding and cutting with the dremmel tool, and voila!

We have our very own conch horn to celebrate the setting of the sun in the Abacos.