It’s a bit grey this morning after a really beautiful day yesterday. Our pale skin welcomes the break from the sun, but as I’m always cold, I’ll be a wimp and say that it’s a wee bit chilly. After a lovely breakfast with our friends overlooking the harbor yesterday morning, we sailed up to Fisher’s Bay on Great Guana Cay, where we met our friends for a Sunday Funday day ashore. The Sunday scene at the infamous Nippers is always a treat for people-watching, and yesterday was no exception. One swift pass-through of the cranked music, the leopard print suits, and the free-flowing Nippers’ punch had us thinking that the energy level was somewhere beyond our group’s vibe, however, so we headed down to the beach and had a relaxing swim instead. That strengthened our resolve for coping with the volume of the music (how old ARE we?!), so we tried again and tucked into one of Nippers’ pools for a bit to check the scene once more. For my Dirtbagger’s Guide to Bahamian Pools Used in Lieu of Showering, I’m sad to report that theirs was saltwater. The hunt for the elusive freshwater pool commenced.
Runabouts and boats with more horses than good looks flock to Guana in great numbers every Sunday, coming from Baker’s Bay (same island, but farther north), Hope Town and Treasure Cay. Fisher’s Bay and its landing spot, a beach bar called Grabbers, host the incomers with their bank-side docks. Over the years Grabbers itself has grown into a destination, likely to keep everyone from just using them only as a dockage space in order to get to Nippers on the ocean side. Music, games, a pool (freshwater! freezing!), a beach, decent food… the very stuff that Sunday Funday is made of.
While there never feels to be enough time with dear friends, we had to take advantage of today’s mild weather for, you guessed it… crossing the Whale. This passage is starting to feel like the bane of the Abaco cruiser’s existence, and yet, if we want to ever leave Green Turtle, it’s a necessary challenge to conquer. I’m writing as we motor sail through it, so this time it’s an easy trip, thankfully.
We have a few more days of this cruise of ours, and somehow I’m not as melancholy about it as I thought I’d be. This is potentially our last full family cruise aboard Chickadee (Lily’s new locale for the next years in California won’t make it super easy for her to join in), but having come down twice already this year has made me realize that we’re quite sold on this way of travel and entertainment. (Of course we are…my logical brain was a few steps behind my emotional one.) Whether it’s here on Chickadee or in the South Pacific on… ‘new Chickadee’?, we’ll find ways to sail with our girls, their friends, our friends, new friends.. whether we have gaps or shift changes or college-funding taking precedence, we’re in it for the long haul no matter what, which is remarkably comforting. No finality to this trip, just the continued hunt for fun adventure and of course, freshwater pools.
