Still at Old Bahamas Bay Marina

We had the best of intentions. The weather was checked, other boaters consulted, everything tucked away for travel, signed out of the marina, and all. We knew we had a marginal 1 day window to travel from here to Port Lucaya/Freeport (top left of the map).

The wind was relatively calm as we left the marina and headed out of the inlet. WHAM! The wind was higher than the predicted 10-15 kts on the nose -- not fun but manageable, and was in fact a steady 24 to 28 kts, the waves coming at us causing us to slam into them, and a forecast of higher wind later in the day. We weren't too excited about the prospect of 7 hours of that type of sail and poor Wickie was howling like a banshee from down below. I went down to comfort him, but had to go back up top to help Luke. Wickie came bounding up the steps like a wild kitten, wanting only the relative comfort of his humans (not very Wick-like...). We turned around, called the marina to tell them we were extending our stay, and made a bee line back into the marina. To our defense, the other 2 boats that left with us also turned around and are back here too.

It had been windy here yesterday - look a those palms! - but the forecast was a calmer day today. oh, well...

After helping our boat mates get safely into their docks, we made a run for the 9:00 bus into Port Lucaya. May as well get there one way or another... We tried to go into town via the bus on Saturday, but by 1:30 the noon bus hadn't shown up and we gave up to go do other things.

The bus was on time today and we had a nice 45 minute ride to Lucaya. Our friends Suzy and Bill were on the bus with us, meeting their boat in Lucaya. They aren't seasoned boaters and are prone to a little seasickness... their boat hosts had VERY correctly suggested that they meet them in Lucaya instead of sailing with them early this morning.

The market in Port Lucaya was great, the usual local craft type market.

Thankfully, my hair isn't long enough to braid with beads, so I was spared the hawking from the hair beading girls. I did enough damage anyway, with tacky souvenirs.

One purchase was a cute vase, made from recycled cardboard, with proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research. The vase is for dried or silk flowers. The colors are the same as the Bahamian flag --- gold for sand, blue for water, and black for the strength of the Bahamian people.

oh, wait.... did I say that is a vase? Well, it's actually a cute holder for a snacks, etc. Just put the bowl inside the top and poof! You've got a really great bowl.

Oh, wait again.... did I say "bowl"? oh, no, I meant "HAT"! A wide brimmed one that keeps the sun off my neck and fits perfectly :-)

Pretty cute, huh? I was suckered in....

Lucaya also has a casino, so Luke & I decided to squander an entire $5 there. Believe it or not, we (primarily Lucky Luke) turned that $5 into $15 at a quarter slot machine. We really wanted to fill up this casino coin cup with quarters, but couldn't quite do it. Luke did hit a 45 to 1 payoff once --- shame we were playing with quarters instead of $100 bills (yeah, right!)

Anyway, we took our winnings and played 2 rounds of roulette. Won the first, lost the second. Basically, we spend well over an hour of fun, got free drinks, and lost nothing in our time at the casino. Lucky Luke!!

The marina area there is pretty. I'm looking forward to spending a day there when the weather finally clears (probably Wed or Thurs). We got our first Bahamian rainbow there.

We've heard complains that tourism is down --- imagine that. We heard that a major huricane five years ago devastated Grand Bahama Island, nearly destroying two major hotels, which have not yet reopened. We've seen a number of houses along the coast that were apparently damaged and not rebuilt. The adjoining International Marketplace has suffered with many shops closed because the 2 hotels are closed. Look at the beach/pool of the big Westin Hotel/Casino complex. It's windy, but warm, and not a soul is in the pool, beach, or any of the beach chairs. I love those chairs sitting in the water at the edge of the pool. I'D like to be there!

It's raining nicely now. That's good, considering the amount of sea spray we got on poor Latitudes earlier today. It'll help wash her off. We'll do the rest tomorrow. The wind is blowing, but apparently not at the max of 36 knots we saw earlier this evening here in the protected marina cove. It's warm, about 75. Wick is stretched out in blissful sleep on the sofa, snoring in that high pitched, whining old cat snore. We're safe, sound, and will venture out again when the weather gurus say it's OK.