No pun intended!
We made "reservations" for dinner the next night at Petes Pub. I say "reservations" loosely, since basically they just need to know if anyone will be eating because all the seafood is caught fresh on the reef the day of the meal.
Before supper we decided to walk over the dune behind the pub and visit the ocean-side beach. It was pretty rocky, but a great spot for the kids to look for shells, coral and hermit crabs. At one point we saw the fins of a shark about 50' from shore. I pointed them out and everyone was watching for it, when suddenly a big wave came ashore and through the wave you could see the shark swimming! It was an amazing sight (it was a small shark, probably 4'-5'), but seeing it so clearly as the wave crested above it was amazing.
As you can see from the pics, it doesn't get much more real than Petes. A sand "floor", an old boat for the bar and drinks from a cooler of ice. Little Harbour is "off the grid", all power is solar, hence the coolers full of ice. We are here in the middle of the off-season, a time that the staff here obviously enjoys. In another month the fish (wahoo, Mahi Mahi) start running and the place will be over run with large sportfishers from Florida.
The night of our dinner we had the place entirely to ourselves. While the staff played dominoes at the bar, we had a feast of fresh grouper, snapper and spiny lobster. The kids played ring toss (a brass ring on a length of string that you swing and try to catch on a hook), while the adults enjoyed a few cold Kaliks and rum punches.
At one point before supper we noticed a shell slowly moving across the "floor". It was a large hermit crab that, according to the staff, don't care much for the water. We foolishly pointed him back towards the beach, but soon enough he was heading back our way. Who would have thought??The kids eventually wandered over to the bar to watch the dominoes, and before long Freya was sitting on the bartenders lap and all the kids were playing along! All of the staff were local Bahamians who spoke in a dialect unique to this area. It's a tough accent to describe, a mix of Cajun and Australian, sort of, kind of, but not really. Let's just call it Cherokee Sound Bahamian.
One of the traditions at Petes Pub is that boat crews and visitors leave behind a T-shirts, signed and stapled to the pub's ceiling. Here is our contribution, hopefully hanging there for many years to come.
Back to Hope Town that night for a quiet night in the harbour.
The next morning we were off again to, you guessed, Tahiti Beach. This was to be our last day of having fun as the charter of "Island Girl"was coming to an end. We left "Charlotte-Ann" in Hope Town and headed off. We had yet to do any kitebaording, but Alan and Colin had experimented with wakeboarding behind the big cat, so we tied a rope off the boom and got in the water. It was fun, but very tiring as the boat was only making around 7.5kts, enough speed to just barely get you planing on my 6' directional kiteboard. Not fast, but lots of torque!!
Later that day the winds came up, and although not the best direction for kiteboarding, it was fine for us since we had the dinghy for a chase boat. And of course, more than 2000 miles after leaving Ontario, all my kite gear was back on "Charlotte-Ann" in Hope Town!!! No fear, Alan and Colin had their gear, so along with my directional and Alan's twin tip, we all got about an hour or so on the water.
Yup, that was FUN!!!
So back again to Hope Town where we went to the fish "guy" and got a bunch of fresh grouper and snapper.
After a bit of "goofy time", our very tired group of kids went to bed. We had a good time enjoying our last night together. Nope, not real, just henna. An inside joke because last summer Lisa got a real tattoo with both the kids names (but not mine). "They will always be my kids, but you as my husband, well ....???". Thanks!
So everyone has now left and it's just the four of us again. It was a real bummer being on the boat on Monday. It was grey and windy, we were in Marsh Harbour (yuck), and had gotten so used to spending our days with those guys.
We made some great memories, I think it will be a very long time before any of us has such a good time again (well, hopefully not too long!).
That's about all for now. Not sure where next, just watching the wind.
Take care,
Mark, Lisa, Delaney and Mitchell.