Another day in paradise.  We headed to Baker’s Bay, a beautiful bay on Great Guana Cay.  The kids went snorkeling while Dan replaced the alternator belt.  The beach here is beautiful.  We had a great time snorkeling over giant starfish and looking for rays.  It was a calm, so we spent the night anchored off the beach.  We spent a lot of time outside that night staring at the millions of stars over our head.  I have never seen that many stars.  It was incredible!  The next day the squalls started coming in.  They came hard but were over relatively quickly.  We waited out 2 rain,as we wanted to go to another part of the beach to look for shells.  Finally, got a break in the weather and headed to the end of Bakers Bay where the controversial Baker’s Bay resort is located.  The resort is situated on the most pristine beach on the island.  The fear is that the resort, marina and golf course will destroy the reef around Great Guana.  A lot of the residents feel the government basically gave away the beach to the developers.  Troy, the owner of Dive Guana, even made an appearance before the United Nations pleading for help.  A committee of world scientists agreed that the project would destroy the reef and the entire matter has been taken to court.    Right now they are selling lots to potential homebuyers.  They send out invitations to people they feel are qualified (qualified to buy lots starting at about 2 million with at least another 1 million in building expense), fly them for free to the island and give them a free vacation.  Lance Armstrong recently bought a lot here. It is easy to see the appeal but hard to justify the golfcourse whose chemicals will most certainly harm the environment.

We had brought our dinghy to shore around the corner from the resort as I wanted the limestone backdrop for a picture of Tessa and Tristan.  Next thing I know, Dan, who had walked ahead of us, is gone.  The kids and I keep walking and around the corner we see this reef lined swim area.  In the trees we can see some cabins.  And there, trudging across the resort area, trying to blend in, is Dan.  We follow him,  doing our best impression of millionaires as we pass  a few of the guests staying there.  Once you cross over the dune that separates the Sea of Abaco and the Atlantic Ocean, the view is spectacular.  A pristine, white beach as far as you can see without a soul on it!  We make ourselves at home for awhile enjoying the babypowder soft sand and crashing waves.   When we finally head back, we pass a guy cleaning fish.  Tessa stops to ask him what kind he caught.  He is very nice but says he is from Hawaii and doesn’t have a clue what type of fish they are.  He and his friend caught them spearfishing in the lagoon.  Now he was cleaning them.  It was going to be awhile for him as they had about 15 good size fish in the bucket.  We wished him luck and walked back around the corner of the rocks to our dinghy.

The weather did not look like it was going to improve and with the wind changing direction we couldn’t stay another night at the unprotected anchorage.  We went further down Great Guana and picked up a mooring ball at Fisher’s Bay.  Thank goodness we did.  That evening as we were finishing our meal at Grabbers overlooking Fisher Bay, a huge storm blew up.  The winds got stronger and stronger, blowing our leftover food baskets off the table and dark rain couds rolled in.  Fisher’s Bay has mooring balls but it is unprotected from any kind of wind or waves from the west/southwest and that is where this storm was coming from.  We gathered up the kids and headed as fast as we could to the dinghy as it looked as if it could pour down rain any moment.  The winds got stronger and as we got to our boat we noticed one of the sailboats was loose from its anchor.  Not only was it dragging, it was now only  about 30 feet from a rocky shore.  We could see a someone on board and another boater headed over in his dinghy to help.  We then saw two guys, the boat owners,  in what I am sure felt like the worlds slowest dinghy, making their way to the boat.  Dan dropped us off on Alegria and headed over to help.  The wind increased to well over 30 knots.  The waves are bouncing the dinghys around like toys and the sailboat is still lurching like a frightened horse, dragging closer and closer to shore.  Finally the owners get on board and start the engine.  They get the anchor on board, but even with the engine on, the boat is struggling against the wind and waves.  They can’t reanchor in the storm, and it is too dangerous to try and pick up a mooring ball.  It is also dangerous to try to leave the bay in the dark, as it is now, because there are exposed rocks near the entrance.  All they can do is motor, in the dark, until the wind lessens and they can reanchor.  About an hour or so later they get their anchor reset, but the winds are still strong.  We have a very bouncy night as the wind and waves continously pound us.  The next morning the wind has let up some and we head over to settlement harbor to hopefully some better protection.  It rains most of the day and by evening the wind and the waves are pounding the boat again.  We are thankfully on a mooring ball and as evening comes, boats are coming in from all over to escape the storm.  The mooring balls are all gone and Orchid Bay Marina is now full.  We have another night of strong winds and pounding waves.  In the morning it is much better. 

Thankfully the day turns out to be beautiful and we spend Father’s Day at Nippers.  Cathy and Fred join us for the Sunday Pig Roast.  It was a different crowd than when we went before.  More people were on the beach this time, enjoying the sand and the waves.  We had a good time but didn’t stay too late as the last two nights had wore us out and we had a lot of laundry to put away.  Earlier that day we stopped at the fruit and vegetable stand.  The guy who runs it is nice if a bit eccentric.  The tomatoes looked good but I balked at the $4.00 avacados.  He understood my pain and dropped the price to $3.00 per avacado and threw in a tangerine.  He also sold shells and necklaces.  Among the shells Tessa found a dried up seahorse she was fascinated with.  He told her to take it.  People are always giving Tessa free stuff.    She was so excited to add it to her growing seashell collection.

All my life I’ve been fascinated by horses. To me they symbolize freedom. I have always wanted to see them in the wild and thanks to a devoted, hardworking woman named Mimi, my wish came true.

(This is taken from her newsletter) Since 1992 on Great Abaco, Bahamas, Mimi has waged a passionate battle to save a breed of horses known as the Abaco Spanish Barb. These horses are direct descendants of horses who found themselves shipwrecked or abandoned near the island at the time of Christopher Columbus and have lived in the wild for nearly 500 years. The horses have been designated a sub-breed of the critically endangered Spanish Barb, the “Horse of the Conquest.” Until the 1960’s the herd was 200 strong, but were then unthinkably decimated by humans who chased or gunned them down for sport or retaliation. Only 3 survived! The numbers gradually built up but dropped again as foals were killed by wild dogs. Thanks to Mimi and her dedication there are now 4 mares and 4 stallions.

Mimi works tirelessly for these horses. She lives an extremely minimalist lifestyle, living on her very modest sailboat, driving out to check on the horses on a motorbike when her truck isn’t working, and working out of a sweltering office that had a former life as a metal container. She runs a program called “Buck a Book” where she sits in another hot, metal container and accepts donation of used books and sells them for a buck. She also gives guided tours of the horses and that’s what we did.

We rented a van as it is a about an hour drive to see the horses. Mimi rode with us and another family followed in their rental van. Along the way Mimi filled us in on her history with the horses and it was fascinating. She’s finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel as the government has given her some land for the preserve and she is hopeful that at least two of the mares may be pregnant.

On the way to the preserve she filled us in on the Haitian problem in the Bahamas. A lot of Haitians come to the Bahamas to work. If you hire them, you are supposed to make sure they have papers saying they are here legally and you are to provide housing for them. This isn’t done all the time, so the Haitians have begun building make shift houses for themselves wherever they want, on anyone’s land. The government tries to shut them down when they see them or at least stop them in mid construction but they are overwhelmed.

In Marsh Harbour there is a place called The Peas and Mud and that is one of the largest Haitian slums in the Bahamas. It just sprung out of nowhere and now consists of several hundred houses. We passed another Haitian neighborhood on the way to the preserve. The houses are really shacks, no running water, no indoor plumbing, but on the roof of several houses are television satellite dishes. They also have numbers spray painted on the sides where the police have come out to keep track of the amount of houses going up. It’s a sad situation.

We made it to the preserve and said hello to the dogs Mimi has rescued. She must have at least nine and one kitten. She checked in with her two workmen to find out where the horses were and we headed into the brush. The land is full of scrub and tall bushes and the horses blend easily in and out of the foliage. They were hard to see at first. This group was one stallion and four mares. The other three stallions are kept separate. They are beautiful and seem in excellent health. The horses were a bit wary at first and we kept our distance.

Mimi approached Bella a brown and white spotted mare. She encouraged the kids to come up slowly and pet her. Mimi told them to only touch her side and not to approach any of the horses from the back. That didn’t last long. Dan started giving Bella a massage on her neck and from that moment on she started following him around wherever he went. She even followed Tessa around looking for some attention. All of the horses warmed up to us after a bit and we were able to get closer to them and even pet them. I was sitting on the ground and one of the mares was grazing close to me. I stayed still and eventually she put her head close to me and let me touch her on the nose. It was great.

We had some excitement too. The preserve is all fenced, and within the preserve are other fences that form temporary pastures. This keeps the horses from overgrazing a certain area. The fence is rope strung lines, three high. Dan was following one of the mares. As he watched she got low on the ground, put her head under the bottom rope, flipped it over her head and she was out of the fence. Dan hurried back to Mimi to tell her what happened. This horse had gotten out of the fence several times but this is the first time anyone had seen how she had done it. Now we needed to get her back into the fence. So started the horse roundup.

The workmen were called to open up the fence, the other family was to herd the remaining horses away from the workmen, and Dan, Mimi and I were chasing the mare toward the new opening in the fence. It was complicated. This horse was smart as she led us on a wild goose chase through the bushes. After about 15 minutes eventually all the horses wound up together at the watering hole. We still aren’t sure how they all got there but our job was done. Now we were all hot and thirsty and ready for lunch. We said good bye to the horses and headed to the blue hole.

The Bahamas are full of blue holes. Most of the blue holes we have seen are in the ocean. This was a freshwater blue hole and it was spectacular. We drove down a tree lined road which dead ended into a clearing. I am not sure what I was expecting but I was just in awe. In a near perfect circle carved from limestone rock was clear, blue green water. It reminded me of something magical, something from a fairy tale. This blue hole was 270 feet deep total. The freshwater went down 40 feet and rested on the saltwater. The entire island actually rests on a freshwater lens on top of saltwater. Over the years, the island has “breathed”, literally moving up and down, creating petrified sand dunes. It’s fascinating.

I put my hand into the water. It felt soft. I’ve never felt water like that before. Dan was the bravest and dove in first. The rest of us soon followed. The limestone edges offered perfect diving platforms and natural steps for getting in and out. It couldn’t have been landscaped any better. Not only was the water soft, it was cool. It was a kind of cool that lasted on your skin hours after we had left. It was fun to swim, but because it was so deep you couldn’t help but think of some big sea creature lurking in its depths. We stayed for long while just enjoying the beauty of the pool. I can only imagine how amazing it must be to see it lit under a full moon.

After dropping Mimi back at her place we decided to take a drive in our van. We headed down to Cherokee Sound and Little Harbour. Cherokee Sound is an isolated settlement near the end of the island. It’s hard to get there by water so it is not visited too much by sailors. The water is very shallow here and there are a lot of reefs. We did a quick tour of the town, very small, and then headed to Pete’s Pub. Pete’s Pub is owned by Peter Johnston, a bronze sculptor. He, like his dad before him, has a gallery here with fantastic marine sculptures. He also owns an eclectic bar where he holds court at the end of the day, a silver chalice of white wine in his hands. We relaxed and talked about what a great day it was until after sundown when we made the drive back to Marsh Harbour.

One of our best days of snorkeling.  We went with Cathy and Fred on Makaiover to Fowl Cay Reef near Man O’ War. We anchored to the southwest of Fowl Reef and took our dinghies around the other side to the national park mooring balls.

The first dive was beyond expectations for coral. The water here is such a beautiful shade of blue, and once you look below, you are just blown away by the coral. The underwater is transformed into an explosion of colors.  Shiny golds lay like a blanket at the top of the reefs, lush purple fans wave in the current, bright yellow from damsel and triggerfish and brilliant blues from the surgeonfish can keep you enthralled for hours. It’s a pretty easy snorkel as Tessa had no trouble keeping up.

The snorkeling at the second set of mooring balls was not as nice.  The water was colder and while there were remains of some kind of wreck, the coral was not nearly as colorful. Tessa did just a short snorkel that time as the current was pretty strong.  As I was helping her into the dingy I glanced up at the sky. Way off in the distance I could see rain bands coming down and off to one side I noticed the start of a waterspout. It was pretty well formed, with a big funnel at the top, spiraling down into a tight tail. It stopped about halfway to the water and then went back up. It came down again and broke into two distinct tails then retreated.  It tried one more time to reach the water and almost did before it gave up and became a harmless cloud again.  It was incredible to watch.

After this we got back into the dinghy and headed a little further out. The water was getting colder each time. Tessa opted to stay in the dingy and warm up.  A very short swim from our boat, Dan got our attention and pointed to a small southern stingray skimming the along the bottom below us. I love to watch rays in the water. They are the most graceful creatures. We watched him pass behind us then we turned to head out into deeper water. We hadn’t gotten much farther when I spotted a grayish brown shapeweaving in and out of the coral. SHARK! I grabbed Tristan who was next to me, yelled shark and pointed excitedly.   Tristan got Dan’s attention. The thought neveroccurred to me that I would ever be in the water with a shark, but here was a nurse shark about 4 feet long swimming less than 20 feet from us.

This was our fourth encounter with sharks in the Bahamas. Tristan later said he was scared at first but then realized how cool it was. I never felt scared,  just amazed that I was seeing a shark. Now if I had known a shark was in the water before I got in, I’m sure I would have thought twice, but being in the water and seeing how truly beautiful the shark was, I was in awe and incredibly thankful for the experience.

The shark would disappear for a bit and I would quickly turn around to look behind me, making sure he was not sneaking up on us like barracudas like to do. A few seconds later he would emerge and we followed along. Soon the shark got tired of us and left. We snorkeled some more, then agreed you really couldn’t top seeing a
shark so we headed for the dinghy. As we were about to get in, Tristan got a surprise.  About 6 feet from our dingy was a huge barracuda. We saw three smaller ones earlier but this one was at least 3 ½ to 4 feet. He scared me much more than the shark. He was just hangingout there, looking at us, mouth open, showing us his big teeth. To me that is the scariest thing about barracudas: they just lurk in the background and show up when you least expect it.  I really wanted a picture of him but I had no more battery power left in my camera.  I told Tessa she needed to get in the water and see it.  No way she said.  I told her she would really regret it if shedidn’t get to see it, so she bravely donned her mask and jumped in.  She went underwater and came up sputtering “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” and shot into the dingy.  It was funny. I told her later she was verybrave to do that.  It’s one thing to be in the water and see a big barracuda but another thing to jump in when you know one is there.

We stopped at one more spot, but it couldn’t compare to what we had already seen. We headed back and closed the evening by eating Chinese takeout on Makai.