Lisbon Creek, Andros, Bahamas

It's that time of year again...

Really pleased with this recipe!   https://www.browneyedbaker.com/white-bread-recipe/

So light and fluffy. 

It continues to be quite stormy....the view from the back of the boat one minute.

Same view later.  Warm and breezy!  High of 80, low of 78.

Lisbon Creek, Andros, Bahamas

The dock started filling in with vehicles mid-day....and the mail boat arrived.   Lots of activity with folks carrying their goods from the boat to their cars.

The storm is settled in - it's windy and rainy.  Not much happening otherwise.  It still looks like there may be a short window for us to escape and sail to the Exumas or further south on Monday.  Stay tuned!

Lisbon Creek, Andros, Bahamas

Found this little sprig of bougainvillea when we walked to the grocery store. So bright and cheerful!

Time to leave Fresh Creek - we have some rather large winds approaching tomorrow.....

We're off the dock first - Now & Zen behind us down the channel.

Had a great sail but had to keep one motor on low rpm to keep our speed up - we arrived Lisbon Creek just at sunset.

Up the narrow channel and we're now tied up at the government dock.

And within minutes of our arrival, our little friend James was on both the boats fishing.  A year older and still so sweet.  He fished while we got settled and had dinner with Leslie and Ralph.  He is a real fisherman!!  Caught several fish in short order - here a yellow jack.  This is more than a hobby to him, he proudly takes these fish home for their dinner.   We'll be seeing James a lot over the next few days.

The weather is not going to be great for 3-4 days so we'll probably just do some chores and relax.  Next window to move south may be early in the week before Christmas.

Fresh Creek, Andros, Bahamas

This is the nasty tear in our jib.  The large tear is about 4" long.  (The zig zag stitch you're seeing is much larger than your normal home sewing machine stitch).

It took us about an hour to do this hand sewn patch using sail tape.  The sail is about 9 years old - so I think a new one is in order next year assuming (knock wood) that this one lasts the winter!

Still at Fresh Creek moving soon to Lisbon Creek.  Will probably be there a while also to shelter from some nasty cold fronts and winds.

Fresh Creek, Andros, Bahams

We had a great sail from the Joulter Cays 35 miles south to Fresh Creek.

We caught this small skipjack tuna on the way.  He looks small but he's actually fat and round.  You know what's going to happen to him later!!

All tied up at Fresh Creek.

Yep, sushi.....

Duane's not a big fan of sushi....so I had veggies and my homemade hummus dip as well.  Leslie and Ralph stepped off their boat onto ours for dinner.

 They had caught a huge wahoo - so we had that grilled.  Their fly fishing  buddy Prescott joined us for dinner as well.  A fun evening.

And first thing this morning, the propane truck stopped by!  I had arranged a few days ago - so now we are all topped off with propane.  More chores today....oil changes, some laundry and we have a small tear in our jib that we need to patch before we sail again!

Joulter Cays, Andros, Bahamas

We had a delightful sail up to the Joulter Cays. 

Now & Zen - lovely morning.

The Joulter Cays are a beautiful group of little islands.  The water is extremely shallow around them.  Leslie and Ralph got "local knowledge" about the entrance to a protected area where we could anchor.  Looking at the charts, one would not think we should go to this area as it is too shallow.

But paying careful attention to the tides, we had no problem.

We wandered ashore, hiked around and found this cabin ruin that we could see briefly from the dinghy.

Leslie taking a little break on her dinghy.

 

We went up a couple of little tidal creeks hoping to find some turtles.  Fun and peaceful.

Stopping to chat.

Back to the boats, dinner on Now & Zen.

We'll move south to Fresh Creek tomorrow.

Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

Lazy rainy day....

Made my first loaf of bread.  (Baked some sweet potatoes in the same warm oven to be frugal with my propane!)

Then we took a little stroll up to Morgan's actual bluff.  Breezy and pretty.  Not much else happening, planning to go to a small cay tomorrow for some exploring.

Stil Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

We set out to sail south to Fresh Creek.....

Now & Zen under sail in choppy seas.

But it was pretty yucky out -  Now & Zen called to see if we wanted to turn around and go south on a better day....So we said sure.  We're in no rush.

So we sailed back and anchored again at Morgan's Bluff.

Leslie arranged a rental car, so off we went.  Just exploring the island. 


Stopped by the Mennonite far for veggies.  Great locally grown veggies, a rarity in the Bahamas and one of Leslie's (and my) favorite stops.

This year we were in luck - the Ambrosia batik cloth factory was open for tours!  (Last year it was Jan 1st and everything was closed.)

The process is pretty simple - they start with plain white cloth.

And choose the appropriate natural sponge stamp.   This stamp is submerged in hot wax and used to stamp the pattern on the cloth.

The ladies use the lighted table to stamp the cloth at regular intervals.  They have different backlit patterns for different size stamps (and different arrangements of the stamps too depending on the design).

The wax-stamped cloth is then taken to the dye room.  Here the cloth is dyed in various color vats (bathtubs).  This gentleman is washing out the wax in boiling hot water.  He's using heavy rubber gloves to protect his hands.  When all the wax is washed away, it reveals the pretty white pattern.  (They catch and recycle the wax).

And then the cloth is hung out to dry in the back yard.

And these ladies make all sorts of garments from the cloth - here they're ironing aprons.  Cool visit.

We stopped for a late lunch on the way back, early night.

Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

Last day at Morgan's Bluff....we went out to the exposed reef for a lovely snorkel.

We were snorkeling around this little spit with breaking waves.  A little difficult but worth it.

The coral there was just beautiful

And I spotted a small ray asleep on the ocean floor.

Really nice to see such healthy coral.

Fun day, we'll sail all day tomorrow south to Fresh Creek.

Extra

Here are a couple of shots Leslie took of us at Whale Cay - I stole them from her Facebook page and share them here because we just don't have that many photos of the two of us!

Morgan's Bluff, Andros, Bahamas

We moved out to the anchorage from the dock - the bar next door was just a little too loud until about 2AM.....no one else around.

 The mailboat came in at the government dock....

Can't miss it because it clearly says "Mailboat"....I don't think I've seen this one before.  Seems like a rather nice boat compared to the usual ones we see.

Our propane tank ran dry while I was cooking breakfast, so Duane changed it out with our spare that we keep in the bow compartment.  The empty tank was very rusty - it had been in it's compartment under the helm station for 6 or 8 months undisturbed since the Bahamas in the spring.  Duane decided that he didn't want to lug the rusty thing ashore to have it refilled - so we sanded it down.....

 And painted it with Rustoleum.  Not a perfect job, but at least we won't be shedding rust all over the boat and dinghy.  

That's about the only excitement for the day - breezy and warm.  Dinner on Now & Zen and then a fun game of Mexican Train dominoes.