May 17th to 19th Conception Island to Calabash Bay

 May 16^th Addendum – We had a lovely surprise last night on Starlet, Southern Star and L’Adagio were invited over to Starlet for drinks. Laust brought 2 bottles of Moet to celebrate Robbie and my 10 year anniversary of our first date! It was sooooo nice – thank you Laust! The only thing missing was Monika! It was nice to be with our Nordhavn friends again, another benefit of these boats everyone is so friendly and there’s always lots to chat about having a similar boat. (Well same make, different size – same same but different as they say in Asia)

May 17^th Conception Island was a beautiful spot to wake up to after our late entrance last night. Perfect white sandy beach, amazingly turquoise clear water and no buildings! It’s a National Park and absolutely stunning. Brad, Kristie and Robbie jumped onto Starlet to go around the bottom of the island for a dive. Laust and Hans followed them around in their duck. (You can’t really call it a duck, it is a beautiful tender with its own AIS and very luxurious)

This gave me a bit of time to clean the boat and catch up on laundry. It wasn’t long and they were all back. Everyone was a bit disheartened as there was an incident which ended up in damage to Lausts tender. He was trying to assist them to grab the mooring which had a too short rope, and Starlet’s bow and anchor crashed down on the tender. Laust saw it coming a split second earlier and was able to stop it hitting Hans or himself. It could have ended up so badly but thankfully only the tender was hit and although that’s very disappointing, it is repairable. Laust caught the whole incident on his Go Pro, and watching it later made me feel sick, they were extremely lucky it did not hit either of them on the head.

We had some lunch and I took the Kayak into the beach and Robbie joined me with the duck and we had a big walk. The beach is just perfect, as is the water. A beautiful swimming temperature and the clarity is so good you can see every shell and anything at all in the water. We were surprised at the lack of fish and wildlife for a National Park. There were large signs stating that you should take nothing from the land or sea, and if you are caught you are liable for fines and confiscation of your boat. Don’t think we would risk that!

We had a quiet afternoon, Brad and Kristie took the Kayak and went for a snorkel at the drop off and Robbie went over to L’Adagio. Jennifer came and picked me up and we had a girly catch up chat on Starlet.

 Laust invited us all for sundowners on the aft deck of L’Adagio which was very pleasant. We missed Monika, unfortunately, she is back in Denmark working. (which she loves – she has an amazing job of National PR manager for Lufthansa Airlines in Denmark)

May 18^th We departed Conception Island at 9.30am for Calabash Bay on the tip of Long Island. We had a pleasant passage and the boys trawled lures all the way with no luck. Jennifer caught a beautiful big Mahi Mahi.

Calabash Bay is just as beautiful as Conception Island, except there is a resort at one end and about 10 houses scattered along the bay. It is one of the few places that we have seen in the world that I could live.

 

We all went for Dinner at the resort restaurant. It was nice to get dressed and have a meal out, it’s been a while. The restaurant is in a very nice setting and has a fly screen covered patio, which we discovered was much needed.

We met a lovely couple Mary and Rick, an American couple from Arizona, who have a house on the beach here but Live 8 months of the year in Arizona. They were very friendly and invited us all over for cocktails tomorrow night.

We also met the captain and guests off a Cat name Hayfu II that was anchored just off the resort. They were also extremely friendly and invited us all over for a drink after dinner.

The meal was very good, Robbie and I shared 3 appetiser’s Conch Fritters, Coconut Shrimp (almost as good as Tracey Graces!) and Grouper Fingers. They were all superb.

We stopped by for a guided tour of Hayfu II, which was very luxurious and beautiful. So much room! We didn’t stay long as they were leaving early in the morning for Georgetown.

We invited everyone back to southern star for drinks. We had Bob Marley playing and we got out the Bob Marley hat. It was a lot of fun.(maybe too much?)

 

May 19^th Everyone had a very slow morning. Kristie and Brad cooked Bacon and Egg Muffins and hash browns on the Bar B Q – perfect hangover food! We had a lazy morning swimming and resting we were going to try and do a photo shoot of the 3 boats but it started raining and the light was not good. We had also planned to have a Volleyball match with the crew from all 3 boats and Brad even brought the volleyball from the resort shop last night.

Robbie had a play with the drone.

Around 4pm the rain stopped and we all headed off in the ducks. Mark and Jennifer picked up Mary and Rick. We headed around the tip of the island to explore the caves. There are short limestone cliffs with interesting geological layering, again crystal clear water and we could clearly see the rocks, reef and even a sting ray! It is also the home of the Christopher Columbus monument, he only visited 3 Bahamian Islands, Rum Cay, Conception Island and their ship the Santa Maria hit the reef on the end of Long Island, they managed to get her off and they then visited Calabash Bay for some months to undertake repairs.

Some of us snorkelled, and some of us sat and relaxed in the boats. We went right into some of the caves, one of which had a cool hole in the top with plants hanging down. The boy’s snorkelled and found 2 Lobsters, and big limestone slabs of rock sitting on the bottom.

After half an hour or so exploring the caves we entered the creek and slowly as it was very shallow followed it around. Another mangrove area with very clear water and white sandy bottom. On the way back Kristie and Brad ditched the ride with us for the opportunity to ride in L’Adagio’s tender for a possible 40 knots, of which they got to 37. They loved the speedy ride!

It was quite late by the time we headed to Mary and Ricks for sundowners. The house is set quite close to the perfect white sandy beach, but separated by a natural layer of rock steps. There is a large Gazebo overlooking the beach and a wooden pathway up to the house.

The house is stunningly beautiful and Mary has a large collection of shells, starfish, sea biscuits and beach treasures, including a large Turtle Head skeleton. As Jennifer said the house looks like something out of House and Garden, airy, calm and very inviting.

As the Bahamas is in a Hurricane Zone the house is very well built and in the last Hurricane they only had one damaged roof tile on the Gazebo.

We all thoroughly enjoyed being in a house again (can’t remember the last time I was in a house – probably our last trip home to Australia a year ago) We enjoyed watching the sunset over the water from land, all looking to hopefully see a “greenflash” but there were a few clouds on the horizon which prevented it.

We sadly said farewell and hopefully we will meet again. Back to the boat for an early night for us.