Unexcused Absences Bahamas 2017 - Exumas Part 1 (he said)

Bahamas 2017 – Exumas Part 1 (he said)

by Kent 6 May 2017

Our first order of business after settling into the central Exumas was to re-acquaint ourselves with our favorite spots and activities. We also had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of new faces.

Yves and Marta are a Belgian/South African couple who were the prior managers of the Fowl Cay Resort, and who were passing through the area on their sailboat. We met them through the current managers. They have a fondness for conch, so with a couple large specimens we had found, plus one more we found snorkeling together, Marta demonstrated her excellent conch-cleaning technique, and we made up a big bowl of conch salad and some fritters using Heather’s time-tested recipe.

Marta cleaning the conch

Preparing the conch salad

Heather’s conch fritters

Moored at Gaulin Cay next to Marta and Yves

Another new couple was Dave and Thryn, who are captain and cook on a private yacht that frequents the area. We met them through a mutual friend and spent several evenings together, both on the happy hour beach at Big Majors and at [redacted] Cay.

On our aft deck with Thryn, David, and our friends from [redacted] Cay

We also got re-acquainted with Greg and Deb, a homebuilder and interior designer who are finishing up a major homebuilding project on South Staniel Cay for a property owner there. Greg somehow stretched the celebration of his 60th birthday to a full week, so there were evenings at the Yacht Club, plus daytime adventure excursions, plus a BBQ on a private island. Remind me to have him schedule my 60th birthday activities.

Birthday cruise for Greg (left)

We also met the new managers of yet another private island in the area, who were having a party on the cay to celebrate his 40th birthday. This party involved some wacky games, including running with snorkel mask and flippers, maneuvering a stand-up paddle-board blindfolded, and a three-legged race. Good fun, and fortunately there was drinking involved.

The “mask and flippers” race at “yet another private island”

The fishing season, too, started out with promise. We were able to catch a number of Mahi, practically every time we went offshore to fish. This gave us many opportunities to have friends over to the Miss Adventure, or to cater fresh fish to various social events. Who doesn’t love freshly caught gamefish, after all. It does my Scottish heart good to pull “free” food from the sea. Of course that “free” food was caught with hundreds of dollars of offshore trolling reels, rods, and lures, but still…

“Miss A” with her fishing arsenal deployed

Success – a nice 11 pound Mahi

The Staniel Cay Yacht Club

After a few weeks, our friends Richard and Laurie, of Forever Young, arrived at Big Major Spot in their motor yacht for their annual 3-month visit. Naturally there was a big dinner party onboard, and we met many fun folks (from the boats Sandpiper, Mint Julep, and Family Business), and Heather was excited to re-start her morning beach workouts with Laurie and whoever else they could shanghai from the anchorage.

Morning yoga and workout, Pirates Beach, Big Major Spot

I have to pause in my narrative now because we did a bunch of fun stuff on various private islands, but because they are private, the requirement for discretion is orthogonal to the desire to publish stories and photos. So let’s just say we did a bunch of fun stuff on various private islands and leave it at that. At this point we had a visitor, a longtime vacation buddy, Mike, who was on the way from California. He arrived at Staniel Cay for 5 quick days of cruising. We took him on a quick tour of the central Exumas and visited Pipe Cay, Pasture Cay (near Bell Island), and Thomas Cay. For the last night he took us to Fowl Cay Resort for dinner, which was quite a treat.

Mike with us at Fowl Cay Resort

We did actually take a trip through the northern part of the southern Exumas, but without all the parties and socializing and projects it was just some nice time to be alone on the boat together – not much to write about. Coming up next is the social event of the season, the wedding of our friend who manages “Large General’s Bits” (not the island’s real name), to be covered in my next post.