Baking in the Bay

June 27-29, 2010

The Treasure Chest Keeps Growing

Actually a moderate breeze has helped stave off the oppressing heat that we had been having down in White Sound. We've moved farther north to a place called Baker's Bay, which occupies the northern end of Guana Cay. I've only had to spritz a couple of times. Wayne made some of his delicious English muffins, thus the title.

Baker's Bay has had quite a history. Having a huge, beautiful beach on its western, protected side, a cruise ship company bought most of the property in the 1980s to use as one of its out island adventure stops. To the chagrin of the environmentalists, the government (for the benefit of local jobs) permitted the cruise line to do some extensive dredging, creating a deepwater channel in from the ocean cut and a turning basin large enough to accommodate the cruise ships. So much dredging had to be done on the sea bottom such that there was enough fill material to create a fairly good sized island that now has its own growth of permanent vegetation. Well, even the cruise line with all its money couldn't deal with King Neptune when it came to Whale Cay Passage, the only entry point into the Bay. When the King is kicking up the seas from the north and east, huge swells are created that prohibit even the largest of ships from transiting in or out of Whale Cay Passage. Even cruisers like us have to worry about the passage conditions, and we can be forced into staying north or south of Whale Cay if the weather is bad. So, the cruise ships had so much trouble using Baker's Bay as a stop, they abandoned their land and sea facilities and went on to ravage other small Bahamian islands that had more reliable access. Of course, the new facilities were all created in the name of “jobs for Bahamians” too. There are no palm tree huggers in the Bahamian government!

So, after about 10 years of remaining idle, someone else came up with a new business idea for Baker's Bay (more jobs for Bahamians!). In order to top the environmental plundering undertaken by the cruise line, the new business plan would include three very controversial projects: dredging another mile long deepwater channel from the old cruise line turning basin all the way to shore, where a huge marina facility would be blasted and dug right out of the island (where no inland water existed); removing the native vegetation and constructing a golf course; and developing the rest of the land for various types of private residences. Palm tree huggers from near and afar came out in droves to fight the permitting, but to no avail, the Baker's Bay Golf and Ocean Club project was approved and opened for business in 2009. We took a dinghy tour of the marina basin. The dockage is extensive, but mostly empty, and there are only a handful of homes built The bar and restaurant are open, but are somewhat remote to make their use just a day stop (Cracker P's is more our speed!). We are deriving some benefit: their WiFi is unsecured, so if a cruiser has a powerful enough antenna, like we have, you can pick up their signal at anchor. It will be very interesting to see how this facility weathers these tough economic times.

Our $50 Million Neighbor

Gallant Lady is the 168' ship in this photo. The “small” boat tied alongside her is 65' long and is her day boat, used for daily island hopping, like going to buy bread or key lime pies from the locals or schmoozing with commoners at Cracker P's. There is a sportfishing boat, about the same size as the day boat, that is anchored nearby. In addition, tied up at the Baker's Bay marina dock, is her reef fishing boat. Times must be tough though, because Gallant Lady is for sale. That figure doesn't include those big toys I've mentioned, but then again, everything is negotiable. I wonder how those people feel having to share the same sea vistas with Ghetto Lady, duh, I mean FLUKE!

(For those of you not familiar with Gallant Lady this is the 8th one, all built by Feadship for Jim Moran who is now deceased. He made his money as the distributor for all Toyotas in the Southeast US.)

On the Other Side of the Channel

Andrea Cay is on the same side of the channel as we are, opposite that of Gallant Lady. In 2007, Andrea Cay was for sale for $14 million. She's only 108' long, so what do you expect?!!Despite her price and size, we saw that she can run aground as easily as we can since when she came into anchor, on a falling tide, she ran aground right behind us and had to wait for the tide to change and rise before moving out farther and re-anchoring.

Eddie and I took a “cruise” in the dinghy out to that spoil island I mentioned at the beginning of this post, about a mile from where we're anchored. Eddie was trying to be nice to me all day so that I would fix taco salad for dinner, as we had managed to buy a head of lettuce. Thus, he agreed to go to the spoil island for a shelling session. Winds were blowing 10-15 KTS, so it was kind of a wet ride over the open water. We've stopped there in the past, and have gotten some good finds. We're always on the lookout for interesting pieces of driftwood, but Eddie happened upon a drift tree that he just couldn't pass up. I had to admit, it had a lot of possibilities as a nice piece of yard art, but since it was bigger than the dinghy I asked Eddie if he had thought what “Dad” would say if we took it back to FLUKE. We discussed that, and how we would get in on the dinghy. Then, we had to walk all the way back to the other side of the island, take the dinghy through the windward waters off the island, and find a safe landing place where we could haul the tree aboard the dinghy. This is what Wayne saw when we were headed back to FLUKE.

Dinghy Jousting?

Now, the tree is strapped securely to the upper aft deck. I just hope that we're not boarded by Bahamian or U.S. officials who may say we are in some violation for carrying this tree trunk back to the states.

Contrary to the norm, our social calendar is filled for the end of the week. On Thursday we are going to a pot luck dinner at Pirates Cove, a bit farther south on Guana. On Friday, we are going to the Stranded Naked party, a.k.a. Cheeseburgers in Paradise, on Fiddle Cay (we will have to move north and transit Whale Cay Passage). Then, on Saturday, we will be going to the Regatta Time in Abaco party on Green Turtle Cay. Life can be so stressful here in these little out islands! However, Eddie never lets the stress get to him.

Wishing Upon a Star

A comment on comments.
We enjoy reading the comments some of you leave on the blog. Just one thing, if you don't sign it we have no idea who left it. But is it nice to know that people do read and enjoy it.