April 20, 2009: Grand Bahama Island to Great Sale Cay, Bahamas

This morning we wanted to take advantage of the pier access to see more of Grand Bahama Island and West End. We took the bikes and rode through the Old Bahama Marina and around the housing in the gated community. There were empty lots of sale with random houses already built. One on the ocean front was striking and large enough to had been a hotel.

Then we rode the two miles into the little village of West End; noticing right away that the pavement outside of the resort was less well kept. The community is primarily where the employees of the Old Bahama resort live. There were evidences of hurricane damage in large home and store structures which had been damaged and deserted. We did find a little fishing hut and pier so someone is likely to be doing some fishing. It was really eclectic with nets in a heap, a rusting anchor hanging on the side and an old outboard motor casing on the roof. We also discovered that the islanders were major conch harvesters. We came upon a Bahamian who was knocking the conchs out of their shells next to a mountain of the shiny pink spirals.

In somewhat of a contrast to the rest of the town, the Mary Madeline Church was beautifully maintained and obviously important to the local people. The cornerstone marker said that the AMDG church was consecrated in 1893 and rebuilt in Jun of 1970. We also passed a well kept health clinic on the road from the resort.

Completing our 8 mile bike ride back at the marina we were amazed by the huge strangler tree we found. It looked like a group of trees, but they were all interconnected by common branches even though they had many trunks and roof systems.

After lunch on board The Next Thirty Years we moved the boat to the fuel dock to buy diesel and check out. The very pleasant Dock Master commented on the large fishing boat next to us last night that had already left and returned because it was so rough. However our course out of the marina was north of the island by the Mangrove Key and we hoped it would be better reaching our destination for tonight - the Great Sale Key. We passed a couple of cruisers who were returning to West End and traveling the reverse of our path.

We are now flying the Bahamas courtesy flag; red in three corners and their country flag in the fourth. When we reached the Great Sale Key, there were already 4 boats anchored out. The wind is still high and we know that the tide will surge in and out while we are here, so we dropped two anchors off the bow; one to hold against the wind and one to hold as the tide shifts. Unfortunately, the protection is on three sides opened to the southwest – which happens to be where the wind is coming from. We had a welcoming committee of two sea gulls who perched on our dinghy for a while. They and called to us for a while and are obviously used to people feeding them.

So we are safe for the night, but we will not sleep well with all the rocking. We will move early tomorrow morning.