Fresh Creek & Andros Town, Andros

Super rolly night! Thank goodness we all had some melatonin or Dramamine to help us. I did not sleep straight through. You know how you have those dreams as you're drifting off to sleep and you jerk yourself awake because you're falling off a cliff? That kept happening to me, but I was for real slanted and kept having to rebalance myself.

Ben got up with Moose and pulled the anchor. He told me to go back to sleep, so I gladly did!

As we pulled into Andros Town, Andros, it had just about been a 7 hour day. This town is so cute. This isn't a beach area, but more like a little canal. Ben got us a night on the government dock on the north side, so technically we stayed in Fresh Creek, Andros. They charged us $6.85. For the NIGHT! Usually we are charged per foot. Wow, what a deal.

There is a little sheltered area right off the wall of the dock. Today is Sunday, so a lot of people were gathered here hanging out, coming and going. Once we were tied up, Ben asked them for some recommendations for dinner. He always says the locals are the ones who know where it's at.

The boys and Roo went to stock up on some more Goombay Punch and ginger beer for the last time, to last us through the end of our trip.

We walked over the one-lane bridge to Andros Town to go to Five Brothers for dinner. They had great music. It was hot. They moved their plug-in fan and pointed it directly at us in our little shaded patio table area. It helped keep us cooler and kept the [biting] flies away! A kitty joined us at our little patio.

On our walk back, we took a photo at the Andros Crab and hopped on the boat for the night. Tomorrow we will head to the Androsia Batik Factory. We are hoping to get a tour and make our own batik fabric, but couldn't get ahold of anyone there. They open at 9 or 9:30- we saw both posted.

We woke up and walked over the bridge to Andros Town. There was some debating between me and Ben and what we were told or saw about where the factory was, so we went into the Tourist Office to confirm. (I was right, BTW.)

As we were walking up the street, we saw a large group of people getting a tour, so we joined in. Turns out they were all together, so I'm sure the 5 of us stuck out like a sore thumb. It's all good, we got the tour we wanted!

There were several rooms to the factory and each room was a step in the process. The first room was full of all of their foam stamps, ladies cutting out new stamps with x-acto knives, and a few long tables set up for wax stamping. The next room was where they dye the fabric, with various bathtub looking things. I LOVED the dyed pallets on the floor. Finally, the sewing room. This is where all of the batik was hung up or laid out to be turned into something besides fabric!

The tour ended in a gift shop full of batik- sold by the yard, and made into anything you can imagine: bags, scrunchies, shirts, dresses, sarongs, pillow cases, cloth napkins and place settings, onesies, bow ties... it was all there! It is so vibrant and beautiful all together. We got 4 pillow cases, a zip duffle bag, a shirt for Moose, and a dress for Roo- all in different colors and designs. 

We did not get to take a class and make our own. None of us asked about doing so. It was super hot and we found several things we liked that were pre-made. It meant we could still use the rest of today to get to our next location, one step closer to home.

On our walk back, a nice lady and her daughter were walking back to her office and chatted with us a bit. Ben told her that we have been all over the Bahamas and that the people in Andros have been the nicest yet. She said she likes to help people so that when she needs help, they'd be there to help her.

We walked back over the bridge into Fresh Creek and got ready to depart. We traveled for 5 hours and ended up in Morgan's Bluff, Andros.

After we anchored, Moose started fishing. We heard thunder and he helped me close up the cockpit before the storm. Turns out the storm was just threatening us. It never even rained here. Ben reopened the cockpit and grilled some cheeseburgers for dinner.

Green Cay

We had a 47 mile crossing to Green Cay. It is an isolated and uninhabited island right at the eastern edge of the Tongue of the Ocean. It is a halfway point between the Exumas and Andros, making it a perfect stop- turning what could've been a really long day into two more manageable ones.

Moose was trolling on the way there. He had a few bites and only wound up reeling one to the boat- a 3 foot baracuda. Bear had the fishing net and the two of them worked together to bring it up. It took a few tries, but they got it. The timing was awful and we were a half mile from anchoring so Ben couldn't help unhook it until it was too late. BUT when they put it back in, a small shark ate it almost instantly. You're welcome. (Moose said it was another baracuda, but it looked like a shark to me and Ben.)

Got anchored. We have to deal with quite a bit of rolling waves, but we anticipated this being the case. It is better than another 40-something miles into the night

Black Point

Had 1-2 footers on the bow, so it wasn't too bad. 19 knots of wind added a little chop to it. Short travel day to Black Point. Got to drop off trash, buy some dish soap, and check out Little Bay Beach in Issac Bay. We thought it was Love Beach and realized we were off by a little due to continuing on to get to a good place to anchor. We need (want!) to anchor in smooth water, not in choppy water.

It worked out okay because this beach was a zero entry beach and had a long, shelf-like shore that was so shallow. Roo and I looked for shells. Moose and Bear used the casting net and a fishing pole. Ben floated and hung out. The kids caught a few fish to use for bait, but nothing bigger.

There was a baby lemon shark that was swimming along the shore. Moose kept trying to catch it, but he scared it with all of his splashing, causing it to swim off every time.

When we were ready to leave, Roo and I got in the tender. Moose and Bear swam back to the boat. Ben pulled us in the tender. He could stand the whole time! He used this opportunity to check on the props and noticed they were, surprisingly, still painted from May!

This anchorage was a bit rollier than we anticipated, but we made it work.

Little Pipe Cay

Many boats were gone by the time we left our mooring ball. We are headed to Little Pipe Cay for low tide, to enjoy another well-loved sand bar. We have never been there, so we are excited to see how it compares to those at Warderick Wells and Man-o-War Cay.

As we got closer to the anchorage, we saw about 10 tenders beached on the sand bar, and it was still 3 hours until low tide! Clearly this is a very popular destination.

We got into the tender and wanted to take it around to see our surroundings, but I said we should go to the sand bar first. We can explore at any tide.

Ben found us our own sand bar so we didn't have to hang with 10+ other tenders. The kids immediately started looking for treasures to keep because this is not part of the Land and Sea Park.

Moose started digging waterways. Bear, Roo, and I grabbed the conchs that were underwater and now exposed. We wanted to have another conchregation and see what happened. We walked around to collect some conchs. Roo and I found a PURPLE conch that was pretty young, so we left it where it was. I didn't have my phone with me. I was bummed I couldn't take a picture of it. I had never seen a purple one before. Roo and I thought it was beautiful!

We had about 10 conchs, of all different sizes and ages, in a circle facing each other. Their eyes came out and one of the oldest ones pushed its way through the circle and down into the water. It did not want any part of our shenanigans.

A couple from France came to chat with us as they were walking back to their tender and while we were talking, most of the conchs went on their way. The people from France had collected several conchs and were looking for a few more, but weren't sure any from our conchregation were large enough.

They offered to give us some of the conchs to eat, but we said we don't have things to prepare them with on board. We did ask how they harvested them and they so kindly showed us right there on the beach. They said they like to pull them out on the sand to help with cleaning the slime off the meat. Once out of the shell, they had to cut off the intestines, eyes, and mouth before peeling off the harder parts by the foot. It seemed like a lot of work for a little bit of meat. I was having a hard time trying to figure out the top from the bottom- it all looked like a blob to me.

The man handed Ben the chisel and knife to have him learn how to get one out. This couple bought their boat 3 months ago in Martinique and haven't caught any fish! They were going to cook 2 of the conchs for dinner tonight and then freeze the rest for their journey to Cuba.

We didn't make it out to explore on the tender and have some more time before we have to move onto another island group, so we will stay another night and explore a bit tomorrow before the sand bars pop up.

The current right off our bow is crazy!! Watching it puts me in a trance. It is just so cool! The water is exceptionally clear in this spot. We can see our anchor, even with that current right here!

After a peaceful sleep, the girls didn't want to go explore, so Moose took Ben and me on a trip around the cays in this area. Lots of private resorts and beaches. Nothing too exciting to see, so we didn't get out of the tender. We could see it was trash burning day over at Staniel Cay. The current through to the Exuma Sound was entertaining, and even had a natural coral rock breakwater in one area. We cruised around and headed back to the boat.

Checked out the sand bars with the girls. Didn't want to go to the exact same place as yesterday, so we went a different way and landed in a new spot. We weren't there very long when the girls and I wanted to move. We didn’t see any conchs for a conchregation and there were no shells or sand dollars in the area we were sifting. This was the area that 10+ boats were beached yesterday, so it probably gets picked through often.

We went to another area, closer to the mangroves. Moose got out his casting net and started throwing it. When the girls jumped out, they both squealed about the feeling of the sand in their toes. When I jumped out, I realized why. It felt very squishy and thick- almost like cement. It was very odd. We walked through it, saw a stingray, and made it to the sand bar.

The coolest thing about the sand bars is looking out and seeing how flat it is, with all these pools of water draining, and every now and then spotting an isolated pointy conch. We knew we were going to hold another conchregation, so we set off to collect them. The first one I saw, I sent Roo to get. It turned out to not only not be a conch, but it was a gorgeous shell AND no one was home! It is the most beautiful find- a male King Triton Conch.

We collected a few other conchs (one was an empty one that was a meal for another animal at some point), shells, and sand dollars and moved to the water to set them up in a circle. This circle was in water a little deeper than the last 2, so it was harder to see them clearly. We started with 14 of them. One turned around and left right away. Another one went to the middle of the circle and around, greeting everyone. After a little while, more conchs had left. When there were only 6 left, we decided to try to swim across to the other sand bar. The current was moving quickly in the channel, but we made it!

Roo and I went for a walk around this sand bar. She really wanted to find some big sand dollars on her own. Bear and I had both found a few each.

We found the purple conch from yesterday and took some pictures of it today. Then we brought it and a young pretty pink one to the water by the private beach by our boat so no one would kill them. This seems to be a popular place, not only for sand bars, but for harvesting conchs- both days people here were doing so.

I thanked Ben for letting us take the baby conchs somewhere that wasn't the sand bar or the channel here. I didn't want them to climb the hill to the sand bar and be seen again. Then, of course, I worried about dropping them into the deeper water rather than placing them on the sand and figured they preferred to be in deep water rather than dead from someone harvesting them right away, even though they were not big enough. I did some research and found out when they're really young, they live in 12+ foot deep water anyway. If Queen Conchs are interesting to you as well, I recently came across a partnership between FAU and Eleuthera that studies and breeds conchs, since they are a threatened and overfished species. We have learned so much about them. Check it out!

Moose ended the night doing his favorite thing... fishing.