When its calm its surreal 

Blackpoint and Little Bay

Thursday 23rd January 2020

By mid afternoon after the blow passed we decided to head over to our next stunning beach, Blackpoint, it had turned into a beautiful still afternoon so it was an easy motor around the point only 10 minutes around the corner.

Arriving late in the afternoon we went ashore and had a walk around the even smaller (than Staniel Cay) village and stopped at Lorraine's Restaurant for dinner.  Originally we were meant to meet a group of friends here for Christmas Lunch, so we are a bit late, the other friends didn't make it in time either. 

Along with the crews from Yellowbird, Seamlessly and Doriana we sat down for delicious  

Bahamian meals some of us had Conch a local delicacy that tastes like calamari, burgers and ribs were also on the menu. Lorraine's mother makes coconut bread that we had heard so much about, so we all placed an order for pick up the next morning.

Loraine and I, so very welcoming and delicious food 

As we had ordered the coconut bread we had to go ashore and word had it that the laundromat at Blackpoint is the best one in the Bahamas, with a dingy dock for extremely easy access.  While the washing was on we wandered down the road and picked up the eagerly anticipated coconut bread. I think Lorraine owns the laundry too, she has built quite an empire for her community.

Everyone loved their coconut bread it is a sweet bread with a swirl of freshly grated coconut and sugar through the middle, Lorraine also told Craig to try it as French toast.

T

The coconut bread made into French toast was delicious 

Craig cooked up a beautiful conch meal for everyone 

As we were waiting on our laundry, there was a local cleaning his latest catch of Conch, the shells are absolutely stunning with a deep pink centre, but the ugly snail like mollusk is gross.











We were able to buy some for $3 a piece, each couple bought a couple, we then went searching the local food shop for the ingredients for Conch salad - conch, green pepper, cucumber, tomato, chilli, lime and lemon juice with a dash of orange juice added at the end.  The lime and lemon juice are used to tenderise the conch, that night Craig made a big bowl of Conch salad and a conch and ginger stir fry for everyone onboard Adriana.

Such a nice way to end the day 

Blackpoint harbour was a bit busy so the next day we moved around the corner to Little Bay it turned out to be a beautiful still day and we swam off the boat then headed to the beach while the others went for a snorkel to try and catch something for dinner, I had a practice snorkel in the shallows then went for an explorational walk.  The Exuma Sound side with its rugged ocean beaches was only a short walk but I was a bit hesitant walking on my own through the scrub, keeping an eye out for spiders, lizards and scorpions.  The guys snorkelling saw lots of little colourful fish but nothing big enough to spear for dinner.

I'm getting braver, I hold on just incase there is a strong current 

Our fishing line got wrapped around our propeller OOPS

The water is so clear you can see the anchor, that's about 5 feet down 

As it was so lovely here in this crescent shaped bay, we all decided that we were not ready to join the bustle of Georgetown, we had heard there could be up to 200 boats anchored there. So we decided to just hang around for a couple of more days,  there is another weather front coming and Little Bay was as good a place as any to ride it out.

Little Bay, Exumas 

The Sand Castle Only one of 2 properties on the horizon

The next day we decided to walk the supposedly half hour path back into Blackpoint, Jack and Kyra joined Craig and I, we got slightly lost and ended up taking the long way around

walking around the airport, passing through some very interesting landscapes, we actually walked through an abandoned marina site it looked like the project had been started in the 80's then maybe it went broke Craig's theory was that it had something to do with the drug runners and once they were arrested the project had to stop, anyway there was a lot of road and canal infrastructure in place and so many diggers and excavators and trucks left to just rust away it was really sad.

Its just scrubby bushland 

The storm was building on the horizon

We passed so many of these waterholes, we didn't try to find out if they were fresh or salt water

Along the way we had fun raiding the coconut trees, sending Jack up the trees but at one point Craig had Kyra standing on his shoulders so she could reach the coconuts and knock them to the ground, we collected 8 coconuts to drink with our new found favourite tipple Gin and Coconut water. We stashed the coconuts along the trail to be collected on our return.

Our walk brought us out to the Emerald Point Bar so of course we had to stop for refreshments, we tried calling Seamlessly to come and join us and maybe pick us up in their dingy but with no luck, as it turned out we were only a short walk to Lorraine's then we knew where we were, the walk back was only half as long and much much easier. When we did get back to the beach a few other boats had arrived and everyone was on the beach chatting with a nice fire burning to keep away the mosquitos and no see ums.

The coconuts turned out to be really messy to open on the boat 

Seamlessly pulled out all the toys 

We had enjoyed our stop at Emerald Point bar and Leanne and Kevin felt they had missed out so we decided to take the dinghies and motor back there. After a refreshing ale we walked into the village and ordered more coconut bread (it was that good). 

The winds were due to pick up late in the afternoon and overnight so we scurried home to shelter.  

The next day the sea state was really choppy and it felt almost life threatening getting in and out of the dingy but we had ordered coconut bread so we had to walk into the village to pick it up. It was so rough that Jack stayed onboard Yellowbird as he was worried her anchor would move and we had our hand held radios he could contact us if Adriana or Seamlessly got into trouble.  But it was calm onshore and we enjoyed stretching our legs walking back into town the easy way this time.

Getting from the beach to Adriana we had to punch through the surf that was breaking onshore then risk life and limb jumping back onboard, the seas were so choppy. The bad weather had descended.

There was good Wi-Fi reception so we hunkered down, we had a rocky night and all the next day, once it had passed we were ready to move on to Georgetown. The meeting place for cruisers in The Bahamas.