Abaco and Little Harbour

Well its been a long time since I've written. I'm in Little harbour, Abaco Bahamas which is one of the best places I have ever stumbled upon. I left Tyler in Freeport were he was catching the ferry from freeport to ft lauderdale for the pirate amputee camp that he leads. I made a promise to be there a month later to help him and Kayne with the event. I forged on alone through the north of Grandbahama around west end and entered into the sea of Abaco. There was no wind for two days as I travelled from west end but once I hit Little Abaco cay the wind caught the sails and Alamar did a steady 6 knots to Green turtle Cay. There I met a family travelling to Costa rica that just got to the Bahamas. I had the privilege of providing them with there first Caribbean meal of fried hogfish and lobster and taught the crew member one board how to use the Hawaiian sling. He ended up spearing 2 lobster. The next day I went down to Pineapples and met 50 cent and Tony who are local fishermen I had the chance to go diving with them and spear some 50 lobster and get a couple hundred conch. I love going out with the locals and getting the true experiences by the people who are from these beautiful islands. After a few days in Green Turtle I went on the outside whale cut to Great Guana cay were the world famous Nippers bar and grill resides. I threw down the hook in the harbour and went ashore to find a few guys from Florida sitting around the quiet nippers bar on a Friday afternoon. Ian his girlfriend, Mike and Cory. After a few beers at the bar we got to talking and they invited me over for a midnight barbecue were we made some rib-eye steaks that mike brought over from the states we spent the rest of the night talking shit by the dock. I ended up chillen with them for a few days while they were here. Then I set sail for marsh harbour were Ariel would be flying into to see me. I met Ariel when I was in Jacksonville sailing the boat down. We hit it off and had promises of meeting again in the islands. When she landed I was so happy to see her here and be able to adventure this new set of islands we had never been to. After I showed her Green Turtle and Guana were Ariel shot her first fish then we charted into new territory south east to Man-o-war, Hopetown, Lubbers Quarters, and of course the amazing Little harbour. Man-o-war was a bore probably because of its dry island roots, me and ariel went ashore to find the whole town in church on a Saturday night and a sign over the dock posted NO BOOZE ALOUD! So the next morning we set sail to Hopetown and went up to firefly which is a great bar on the water overlooking a amazing sunset. We went and saw the famous 200 year old lighthouse and dived all around the island. We took a awesome bike ride one day the whole stretch of the island to Tahiti beach were we speared a few lobster we had made up for dinner. We also ran into the best weed so far on the trip in Hopetown which of course made the trip a hole lot better. We herd about this place south of Hopetown called little harbour that was a off the grid town that was centered around a bar called Pete's pub. They also told us that it was the off season and the pub would be closed till november third. Ariel and I talked about heading that way even through there might be nothing and decide to stock up the boat and just go and see whats down there.

We sailed into little harbour on a Tuesday evening. The sail was great all downwind and when we reached the harbour huge cliffs hung to starboard 100 feet tall with big Atlantic swells crashing into the rocks blowing water spots 100 feet in the air. We sailed pass the breathtaking sight into a sleepy sandy harbour with 4 boats moored out and the most sea turtles I have ever seen. Every time a turtle goes down from taking a breath another comes up to grab one! Several open caves lined one side of the harbour and a the other side was a beautiful sandy beach with a dock on one side with a pub in the middle built out of diftwood. We threw the hook out and took the dingy to shore were we saw no one only a bunch of deserted houses and a deserted bar. A dog came out when we walked to the beach on the other side to check the view. Ariel and I decided to follow the dog and see if she might lead us to some people. About a hour later we followed the dog to a beach were we met Susie and her daughter who were collecting shells on the beach. They told us that everyone in the town was travelling and there were only like 15 people there at the time. So we headed back to the boat were we made some Lobster Pizza with some crawfish we caught earlier. Bahamians call lobster crawfish. Right before the pizza was done I herd someone shouting on a boat next to us. I came up to find a old man on a old fishing skiff with a bag of stone crabs in his had that he said “You know what time it is?” I replied “What time is it” he replied “ITS STONE CRAB TIME MY NAME IS CHARLIE!” we laughed and introduced ourselves and he gave us a few claws to go with our dinner and invited us to Steve and Amanda's party in town that he was invited to.

After dinner we got dressed and made our way towards the only lights on the hill. We walked up the stairs to a deck were we were greeted by 30 or some people from Marsh harbour, Cherokee, and little harbour. We were greeted with open arms and given drinks. The party was on a deck overlooking the harbour. They were cooking up a storm, on the grill wild pork tenderloin, jerk chicken, and lots of conch salad. We began to meet a assortment of characters. We first met Steve and Amanda who were the host of the party they are a young couple that lives here taking people out on dive tours. We met welle who was playing a conch horn dancing all about doing his drunkin konfoo dance when we walked up. Then Tony who is a middleage guy that retired from a job in Michigan bought a catamaran and shortly later sailed it down to the Bahamas were as he says he sailed into little harbour and never left. This place seems to have that pull. I could definatly live in this paradise but the farming lacks compared to central or south America. Then we met rolly who is quite the character, he is from boston. Herd he escaped the mafia to live a simple life in little harbour but thats only rumour. He is a giant of a man with a handlebar moustache with tons of jokes to keep you laughing all night. Then we met katlen, Adam, and Carly who have been cruising abaco all summer. Katlen is a solo sailer. She's a kind of mermaid with a super independent aspect about her. I admire her courage to be a pretty girl sailing all by herself killing it diving and living off the sea. She met Adam and Carly cruising. Adam and Carly are my age they own a trawler type boat. They're from Stuart but spent much of there time when they were kids cruising the Bahamas. They are very cool people we ended up chillen with them quite a lot smoking joints having a few drinks watching the sun go down on either of our boats. Then we formally met the person who invited us Charlie. Charlie is a real conchy joe he lives completely off the sea. He has a little camp on a beach on a island near little harbour. It ain’t much just a couple tables, fire pit, and a hammock. I really couldn't believe people are still doing it like that out here. He is also one of the nicest people I have ever met. That night we made plans to go diving with him and katlen in the morning and go check out the area! We finished the night passing joints around the whole party and being wild till late. I almost fell off the dingy when we rowed back to Alamar!

The next morning we woke up and met Charlie up at the dock grabbed Katlen and headed out. Charlie I guessed stayed up all night, he was still drunk and he had a 3 ft pufferfish in the bow that he said he was going to dry it out, stick a light bulb in it and make a lantern! The first place we went to was charlie's camp and checked out the beach on the ocean side as charlie made his lantern. Then we went diving at one reef followed by charlie trying to find some liquor at other camps on the shore. We found some rum and shortly later picked up a few conch and drove down to the blue holes in the bite. We raced through 2 ft of water at full speed with green turtles soaring like dolphins under the bow. When we got to the blue hole we shot a few crawfish and a big spider crab. We spent the rest of the day on the dock cleaning fish and hanging out with a few people that came out from the town. The locals told us the history of this place. In 1950 pete's father bought a boat and sailed down here in hopes of finding a place to set up his foundry and make a self sufficient paradise. Well he found it right here in little harbour. He set up his foundry and raised a family. He spent his life making many sculptures for the bahamaiian government and internationally abroad. His son opened a bar right next to the foundry on the beach that soon became famous. Its a great bar there is no floor only sand from the beach with a open air kitchen and a crows nest on top to make it resemble a ship I guess. We made conch salad smoked some joints and talked till the sun went down on that dock.

The next day me and Ariel woke up and went to the two caves that are on one side of the harbour. There was tons of bats in one of them and big cathedral like ceilings with stalactites. The cave went deep with tunnels that led to other rooms. Then we decided to go to the long dock 5 miles away in a old fishing village called Cherokee. Ariel got on my handle bars and we managed to bike 5 miles to the town down the dirt road. A very sleepy town welcomed us, nothing was open at all. We asked a old man were the long dock was? He told us to go up the road and turn left. When we made that left the dock came into view. Its a beautiful site and I have no idea why. Its just a long dock, but the tranquillity in the surroundings of the dock amazed me. We walked down the 200 year old 770 ft dock passing over conch in a foot of water below us. We chilled there for a while and then started biking back until a man named Douglas saw us on the road and ask us if we need a ride. He was a cool guy that ran a lobster boat for a living and it turned out I knew his son Kyle up in marsh harbour. Ariel and I hung out and dove the next couple days in little harbour then headed up to marsh harbour to pick up my parents from the airport and head to hope town. They rented a house in hope town and we took them to firefly then we sailed to great guana to go to nippers and eat lunch. Then I took them out diving for a bit and ariel and I got some counch. They had such a good time and couldn't understand there was this nice of a place so close to florida. They left on a Monday morning and we headed to marsh harbour to anchor up alamar in front of my friends dock and head back to the states to help out with tyler and kayne's pirate camp. Me and ariel took a bunch of ferries to fort lauderdale and headed to Tampa.

The pirate camp was great we took all the ambutie kids out sailing in clearwater beach. We had water gun fights between the hobycats and sponsored bbq waiting at the sailing club everyday. It was a amazing site seeing these kids so happy not worrying about there appearances or there difficulties. They all jumped off the boats in the inter coastal and tried to swim down other boats. It was a great afternoon. We had a big pirate party at a fancy restaurant’s outside terrace and all the kids had a lot of fun dancing around. Even the adults had a good time getting down to the music. Some guy at the bar at the end of the night that we were talking to even flipped the whole party's bill for the charity he wanted to remain anonymous. After pirate camp we stopped in brooksville to chill with ariels mom on her farm. Then headed to ocala to visit her dad. We then went up to jacksonville to visit my brother Chris and my friends. We partied a whole lot and drove back down to miami with a hang over. I worked for a week in miami trimming trees and painting a house then I bought a 25 horse Johnson for smoovie and headed back out that weekend by myself. Tyler and Kayne had the opportunity to be flown out to the U.K. to chill with woody work and backpack europe. So they took off till Christmas. So Ariel made plans to come back out a few weeks later and sail with me down to exuma were I would leave alamar on anchor and we would head back to the states for my parents Christmas eve party. My brother Michael and my cousins husband sixto came out the weekend after I got back . I took them to guana for nippers on halloween. We had a good time and dove in the morning before heading to little harbour to make the opening of petes pub. My batteries finally took a crap on me in guana and we couldn't start the motor. We sailed the entire way down despite having no wind and passing storms. It was a long day but we made it. Once in little harbour we went up to petes pub had lunch and me and micheal went out diving as sixto relaxed at the bar. He had enough with the boat. They left Monday morning and I decided to chill there till ariel came the following week and get to know the locals and see what I could get into. I ended up building a tong and groove roof in exchange for some bad ass 6volt batteries. I built it with the local carpenters they use mitchell and angus. They're cheroke boys hunting and fishing runs through there viens. They eat everything on the island. Make bonefish meatloaf, chub sauce,grilled pigeon, turtle steaks and even eat parrot fish. They are partners in spear fishing and crawfishing for petes pub and building all the new buildings that go up. They also smoke more weed then I have ever seen anybody smoke. There is always a blunt in angus's mouth and Mitchel is always telling some crazy ass story. We hit it off and for the next week we built the roof went out diving and killed over a 100 pounds of fish and hooked 40 lbs of lobster tail from there traps. I also dove the deepest I ever dove with them off crossing rocks. I dove 60 feet and speared a hogfish. They really wanted to take me to go get a turtle from back in the creek. The bahamas put a ban on killing turtles a few years ago but since then the population has come back in the millions. The local counchy joes still get them occasionally they probably feel its there right. They say its delicious but I think I'm going to pass.

On thursday Nov. 14^th ariel came into marsh harbour. Me and Angus went and picked her up. Ariel and I have been fixing up alamar getting her and smoovie ready for the passage to Eluthra. I just got the new batteries in and figured out I have a bad alternator to. We had dinner a few times up at the bar and went out diving in the bite. We spent the night on lynard key and flipped smoovie over to bottom paint her. Today we headed to hopetown because a friend of mine there has a spare 100 amp alternator he's willing to sell me. Once I get that installed we are headed to eluthra to see spanish wells and the pink sand beaches then onto exuma! I am so blessed to be were I'm at today I don't have much but I have all I need. I've been thinking a lot recently and my heart has made me change course instead of sailing to dominican republic to peurto rico then onto the lee ward islands. Im going to change course, first to cuba then to jamaica then west to mexico and south to the panama canal. The pacific is calling my name with its beautiful surf and exotic culture. I love the bahamas and the carribiean but I think by heading west I am really go to be living the life I want to live. Discovering new things, learning a new language, seeing ancient pyramids and cenotes, and imersing my self in the yucatan and south american cultures. I am also dreaming a lot latley about the farm I want to start and figure sooner is better! So until next time peace my friends!