Sunday Afternoon

We took an early morning beach walk at low tide, stopping to examine the occasional tidal pool when we got to the rocks.

Just a lazy afternoon watching the boats arrive from the mainland. The weather calmed down yesterday and by 2:00 pm the crossing boats started to arrive. The dead give-a-ways are the stern mounted American or Canadian flags and the required yellow quarantine flag attached to a mast stay. The significance of the yellow is to acknowledge the ship has not cleared customs upon entering the country and only the captain may step ashore to clear crew and boat.

A couple examples:

Heavy weather

The past couple days have been cloudy and windy; however, checking the weather report at home showed huge downpours, high winds and a few tornadoes. Combine that with Freeport temperatures 10 to 15 degrees higher than home makes us happy to be here.

 The seriousness of the coming weather was heralded by the commercial fishing boats coming into the bay and the lack of pleasure boat traffic leaving the bay. Even the ferry quit running yesterday afternoon. I am glad we were not waiting at ferry dock on the other side of the bay.

After a couple bus rides to the grocery store we were feeling fairly confident about getting around, then a bus we were on took off down a different road. We looked at each other and shrugged since we had already discussed just riding the bus to look around as we have done in several countries. A few blocks later the bus dropped off a woman at an intersection and returned to the regular route. The next deviation from the route caused us to question another passenger on how the system worked. You get on at bus stop, tell the driver your destination and if it is not far off the route and you have spoken politely he will take you there.

 From our patio, palms bowing to the wind.

Looking south down the channel with rough seas breaking on red channel marker.

Freeport, Grand Bahamas

We have once again escaped the cold climes of Florida and headed south. It is about 10 degrees warmer which makes De Anne 100% happier. 

We have a nice little corner unit, ground floor condo at the end of Bell Channel. 

Last night the lack of food drove us out into the streets. Lucky for us a cab driver with a few folks already aboard stopped and asked us if we wanted to go to the fish fry. We had heard about the famous Wednesday fish fry on the beach, so needed little encouragement. I hate fish, but because ribs and chicken were offered too I was inclined to board the cab. The beach huts reminded us of Ecuador. The  food and music was good and the entertainment was watching an elderly man fry fish in a huge cast iron pot over a wood fire.

We solved the food crisis today with a ferry ride, walk and a bus ride. The buses here are vans with "public transportation" written on the side. When you get in you hand the driver $1.25 and tell him where you want to get off. Island food is expensive! A Whole Foods in the USA would be cheaper. As an example - a one pound box of Meullers pasta is $3.29. This may be an excellent time to start a diet. At least rum is cheap.

De Anne on the porch at happy hour.

Our porch view.