Friday morning we got up and had a very leisurely morning. Our dock neighbors Jim and Abbey introduced themselves and invited us over for Happy Hour and then to take the dinghy’s to the best dive bar in the Bahamas called the $2 Bar. Well heck how could we possibly pass that up. It’s right in my wheel house.
Sue and I did a bike ride over to Lucaya Straw Market to see what was going on. We quickly got the sense that things were at a standstill as it did not look like much new development had taken place in many years. After we walked around we got back on the bikes and headed back to the boat for some pool time for Sue. I on the other hand had something else in mind which involved a 10 mile bike round trip bike ride.
The Bahamas are the only place near the US where you can still buy a new 15hp 2 stroke outboard Yahama. Crazy enough it is the only thing we found that was cheaper here than in the states. So I found the Yahama Dealership and three hours we hand a new motor for our dinghy. We went over to dock neighbors boat and had a drink with a few other people and then headed off to Williams Town to the $2 Bar. Dive bar it was. Beer wasn’t $2 but is was only $3 and that’s a bargain here. The place was hopping. The locals were playing Dominos.
Now when Bahamians play Dominos and they play their tile they smartly slap it down on the table making a loud clap noise. We all got hungry so we walked down the street to the Conch Salad Bar. The portions were ginormous. Nobody finished there dinner. It was a very fun evening.
We were supposed to be crossing back to Florida on Saturday but the weather window never opened. In fact later on Saturday we saw somebody com in on a small boat. They looked like they had saw a ghost. Their report was that it was 6-8’ seas. No thank you. We rented a car for the day and poked around the island.
We made our way to the Lucayan National Park where there is a couple of inland caves that connect underwater to the ocean. This is also where they filmed three episodes of Pirates of the Caribbean just a bit north of Gold Rock Beach. The beach there was definitely something out of a movie.We had dinner at the Stoned Crab which was a great experience both from a dining and atmosphere standpoint.
Sunday we enjoyed hanging around the marina and did a bit more bike riding. While we were hanging on the boat a white haired English accent gentleman came up and said hi. Turns out he was one of the pirates in the movie they filmed there and acted right beside Jonny Depth.
He was quite the story teller. When it was all said and done he invited us to join him and a number of other folks from the marina to have a bite to eat and listen to some music at Fly Fish. Turns out the owner is also the executive chef and musician. The restaurant was perfectly situated on the harbor in Port Lucaya. The guy I sat neat to, Tom turns out was also a pirate in the movies. There was actually about 150 people from the island that had some roll in the movie.
Still pretty cool. Well Tom has lived in Freeport for almost 40 years now. He was a wealth of information on what was going on with Grand Bahama Island. Everywhere you go you see massive areas where the land was developed but never built on. Miles and miles of bulkheaded dug canals with not a single home on them. The long and short of it as I am told, the Bahamian government made a deal with the devil aka the Chinese who bought the port here. Well things did not go as planned and the Bahamian government wants them out. So basically the government is not investing any money on infrastructure or improvements. Case in point the airport. It was heavily damaged in hurricane Dorian. They have not completely repaired it so it is now can only accept small commuter planes. Really crazy.
Anyhow our evening at Fly Fish was filled with great conversation, good music and tasty food. We met so many nice and interesting people most of whom are either full time at the marina or are there quite often. As I was keeping an eye on the Neptune’s window I finally saw an opening coming Tuesday. So our plan was to head to an anchorage near West End Bahamas.
Grotto that connects to the ocean at Lucayan National Park
Gold Rock Beach where some of the scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed
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