Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for once again sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in Meander‘s wake! For more of this excellent photography, type Allard in our Homepage search window for letters from previous cruises.

Hello everyone – After our 2022 cruise to the
Bahamas, we decided to downsize a bit; a smaller
boat would make it easier to find transient space in
marinas as we cruise, and a newer, smaller boat
would also lessen some of the maintenance. Our
existing boat was a 34 year old 65’ Tollycraft, one of
the best boats we have ever owned. She sold very
quickly, and then our search began. We did not find a
replacement until early summer of 2023, so we
missed the opportunity to visit the Bahamas last year.
We have a number of new readers who have just
joined us in receiving this letter, so we hope that those
of you who have been regulars will understand that
we will cover some of the basics.

This is the new Meander: she is a 47’ Grand Banks.
For those familiar with boats who recognize the
Grand Banks name, the company has built thousands
of boats over the years; for a long time their boats
were displacement boats, meaning that they cruised
at about 7-9 knots, or approximately 10 mph. Grand
Banks then hired the noted naval architectural firm of
Sparkman and Stephens to redesign the hull, allowing
it to achieve higher speeds – and to plane – which
means instead of pushing through waster, the boat
would rise up and ride on top of the the water.

The Grand Banks we found is a 2009 model, with twin
500HP Cummins diesel engines. She has bow and
stern thrusters, a fly-bridge, stabilizers, a generator,
and a watermaker – for making drinkable fresh water
from salt water – important in the Bahamas. During sea
trials, she topped out at 24 knots, or a bit over 27
mph. She will also cruise comfortably at 9 knots, at
significant savings in fuel costs. We’ll mostly cruise at
a slower speed, especially with diesel fuel in the
Bahamas over $6.00 a gallon.

The new Meander – a 47’ Grand Banks Heritage EU.

We departed for Bahama this year from the east coast
of Florida, around the N.Palm Beach area. The
crossing to our first stop in the Bahamas (Port
Lucaya) is around 78 nautical miles. It takes the
better part of a day to make this open ocean passage,
and if you don’t watch the weather carefully, it can be
a nasty, rough passage. This year there were weather
fronts continually, bringing high winds, so we had to
wait about 2 weeks for a decent weather-window. We
made the first two thirds of the crossing at a leisurely
8-9 knots, but for the last portion we “opened her up”
and ran at 16-17 knots, as shown above. Quite an
exhilarating run, especially since at this speed the
engines drank 40 gallons per hour. Since we had a

second day of calm weather, we departed Port
Lucaya the next morning to make a second long
crossing to the Berry Islands.

A view off the stern of our boat, on the trip from
Lucaya. During such an open water ocean crossing,
you have to continually contend with huge ships;
avoiding them is important. This one was headed
right towards us, but then changed course to pass to
our stern, He was correctly following the international
rule for such situations, since we were crossing in
front of him from his starboard (right) side.
Regardless of the “rules” we always keep out of their
way. Some of the largest such ships can take several

miles to even stop.

The beauty of the Bahamas is unmatched – waters
which we have often described as “gin clear”, and
spectacular beaches with magical colors. Our regular
readers know that what we most love about the
Bahamas is the people; they are warm, friendly, of
great humor and just delightful. They operate at a
different pace and newcomers take a while to adjust.
Very little is urgent in the Bahamas.

Our first layover is in the Berry islands, one of favorite
places in all the Bahamas. This is the Beach Club, on
the north shore of Great Harbour Cay, overlooking
one of the best beaches anywhere. We’ve spent
many an afternoon at this place, having a wonderful
lunch of cracked conch and some cold Bahamian
brewed Kalik beer.

This is Clinique, with her magnificent smile, who has
been our waitress at the Beach Club over many
years. She proudly showed us a picture of her lovely
daughter Chastinique. Such beautiful names.

Even Paradise has its flaws. Unfortunately for the
several hundred people who live on this small, remote
island, they have been enduring “road torture” for over
a year. Based on numerous trips to this island, we
have seen that the roads are always filled with
potholes which can break car axles and throw bikers
to the ground. Over a year ago, the government
undertook a major program to repave all of the roads
on Great Harbour Cay. A contractor arrived, and
stripped the asphalt from almost all of the roads,
leaving an ever worse condition than they started
with. In the above photo part of the road has been
stripped (the light color at the top of the photo), and
you can see the huge pothole in the foreground, in the

yet unstripped road. While you can’t see it in this
photo, there are even more potholes in the stripped
roads, and they are much more difficult to see as you
approach them. The local people are incredibly
frustrated. Several reasons have been given for the
incredible delay, but it is accepted as a normal
expectation for the workings of the Bahamian
government, with its lack of concern for the well-being
of the Bahamian small “out islands”. There are just not
enough votes on this island.

This is Freddy, one of the dockhands at the Great
Harbour Cay marina. He’s excellent at assisting
boats to dock, in tying up the lines and deploying
fenders. He is a genuinely good person, warm and
friendly, but he does have the odd habit of talking to
himself most of the time. That doesn’t interfere,

however, with his excellent work. In defense of
Freddy, with increasing frequency I find that I talk to
myself too. And none of it makes much sense.
Thanks for joining us on this first leg of our cruise.
Warmest regards to you all.
Greg and Barbara
Copyright Greg Allard, 2024

Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for once again sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in Meander‘s wake! For more of this excellent photography, type Allard in our Homepage search window for letters from previous cruises.

BAHAMAS 2024-#2
MAY 8, 2024

Live passionately, even if it kills you, because something is going to kill you anyway. 
-Webb Chiles
———————————————————————————
Hello everyone. 
We left Great Harbour Cay in the Berry islands about a week ago, and after another bumpy, windy, salty
78 mile open-ocean crossing, we arrived at Spanish Wells off the northern end of Eleuthera, in the Far
Bahamas.
Before we visit Spanish Wells with you, there are still several people from Great Harbour whom we would like you to meet.

This six-year-old Bahamian boy, Jamal, was fascinated with our electric bikes, as Barbara explained the
various controls. It was clear that he was sharp: he understood them all right away.

Jamal, and his beautiful proud mother Joelle. All kids, everywhere, love to mug for the camera.

One of our favorite adventures – a dingy expedition to a remote beach. This one is on Cistern Cay, and this place has
some history. In the 1970s & 80s, the Bahamas was a major location for the importation of drugs into the U.S. One of the most notorious traffickers was Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the Medellín Cartel. With the assistance of corrupt Bahamian officials, the Bahamas was positioned perfectly to serve as a drug transfer point; it was close to the U.S., and its huge, often remote, coasts.
Cistern Cay was one of the islands where Lehder’s operation was based; he built a paved runway on the island. There are the remnants of several small planes which crashed into the shallow waters around the cay. Bad pilots, bad planes…. or overloaded? Even today you can explore his once beautiful but now gutted home, just a short distance from our dinghies. Why gutted? All of the sheet rock walls in the house have been torn open by frustrated treasure seekers who thought that those inner walls would hold large quantities of cash and drugs. Were they really “frustrated”? Which of them will ever admit that they found anything?
Today, the U.S. government works closely with the Bahamian officials to continually address the trafficking issues. These days it is not unusual to see a US Coast Guard helicopter pass overhead.

Our long time readers may recognized this gentleman. He is Tramico “Mico” Evans, who lives on Great Harbour and
works at the marina. We have known him for years. His personality is as bright as his smile. But on this trip, we realized that we did not know much about him. So we asked him.
Mico is 37 years old, the youngest of ten children. Born in Nassau, he was raised on the remote island of Andros. His
father cheated on his mother, so to get away from him she took her children, for the summers, to Great Harbor where she had been raised. He has multiple relatives on Great Harbour because of his mother’s connection with the cay. His oldest brother was a police officer in Nassau; when he died, he left his pension to his mother. One of his brothers had a somewhat yellow complexion, which Mico said was “like a ripe mango”; his brother was forever called the “Yellow Man.” Only five of his mother’s ten children (by two different men she never married) are still living.

This is Sand Dollar beach at Shark Creek. At low tide you can walk out far from shore, and with a sharp eye, you can
collect dozens of sand dollars – which are a species of flat, burrowing sea urchin. We don’t collect the live ones,
which are a darkish color, but we do prize the skeleton of the dead ones, which are mostly about three inches
across, have turned white, and have a fascinating pattern in their shell.

Some sand dollars collected a week ago. The five large holes are used to ingest food, and they also allow the urchin to
propel itself across the bottom. When they no longer living and look like these, they are quite fragile.

In the next Newsletter we will show you Spanish Wells, north of Eleuthera, where we are right now. We will also be
doing one more profile from an individual from Great Harbour, a famous, legendary Bahamian, with an international reputation.
Warmest regards to you all.
Barbara and Greg
Copyright Greg Allard, 2024

Our sincerest thanks to Greg and Barbara Allard for once again sharing their thoughts and beautiful photography from their Bahamas cruises. These photos and descriptions will have you aching to follow in Meander‘s wake! For more of this excellent photography, type Allard in our Homepage search window for letters from previous cruises.

Bahamas – 
2024 – #3 May 21, 2024

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet
riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to
men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” –

Ecclesiastes 9:11

This is Percy Darville, the legendary bone fishing guide who lives on
Great Harbour Cay. We have known him for over a decade. He has an
international reputation as one of the most respected and successful
bonefishing guides anywhere.

A bonefish is a relatively small fish, and adults reach maturity usually
around 17” and generally grow to no more than 30” in length. It is a fierce
fighter, inhabits very shallow coastal waters and is considered one of the
most sought-after game fish which are caught with fly or light fishing
tackle. It is a catch-and-release fish, which means they are generally not
eaten…likely because the flesh is…. boney.

Percy has said: “I’ve fish Presidents, Movie stars, Writers, Golfers
and many many others.”

Jack Nicklaus used to be a regular visitor to Great Harbour, arriving
on his large Westport yacht, named Bear, which carried four small
shoal (shallow) draft bonefishing boats – named Cub 1, Cub 2, Cub
3 and Cub 4 on its upper deck. Percy was Jack’s regular trusted
guide.

Percy on the bonefishing flats, with what is likely a trophy sized fish. This
photo is from Percy’s website

Ten years ago at Great Harbour, while I was talking with Percy, he asked
if we would like some fresh conch (already removed from the shell – a
tedious process.) I said yes, and the next day he showed up at our boat
with a bagful. I intended to pay for them, and asked him what he wanted.
He said “nothing.” I said: “Percy – this is your business and I want to pay
for them.” He said “No, I won’t take any money” and walked away.

Spanish Wells’ north shore. To give you an idea of the scale of this beach, look for the three people farther down on the beach.

Spanish Wells is a separate cay on the north of
Eleuthera, a number of miles from Harbour Island. It
is one-half mile wide and two miles long, with about
1,800 people living there year-round.

Spanish Wells and Man-O-War cay in the Abacos
are the two main cays where the population is largely
of white Bahamians. The locals speak with a curious
lilting British accent overlaid with Bahamian
elements. The majority of people on Spanish Wells
earn their living from fishing for crawfish, the spiney Caribbean lobsters – the ones without the
big claws of the New England lobster.
The photo below is of sunset at Spanish Wells.

You can see two of the big lobster boats in the distance. 
Those boats are currently in port, being refitted and
made-ready for when the lobster season opens on
August 1 st . Cruising recreational boats in this
harbour (such as ours) represent a clear minority.

That’s why we like Spanish Wells – it’s an authentic
Bahamian place.

The other target of the fishing industry on
Spanish Wells is the conch. These conch
(above) are being held temporarily in a
sunken boat and a makeshift pen. The tide is
now out, so they are uncovered, but they will
be covered with seawater again as the tide
returns. This way they are kept fresh for
market. They have a beautiful shell with
prized meat inside. After the meat is removed, it is tenderized by pounding with a
mallet, then breaded and deep fried. Similar
to fried calamari, but the flavor is far
superior. Yummy.

We took a small ferry over to Eleuthera, rented a car with our friends Jim
and Ellen, and toured the island as far south as Governor’s Harbour.
We stopped in Gregory Town at our favorite shop, which specializes in
baskets made on the remote island of Andros –whose residents are famous
for creating the highest quality and most beautiful examples of Bahamian
basketmaking.

While at the little shop, we met these two delightful local women (above).
The one on the right is Amanda, who works in the shop. The woman on
the left is Shurlunda, who proudly described herself as the “Postmistress”
of the tiny post office next door.

Some of you surely will remember Kathy; years ago her husband became
fatally ill, and wanted her to have a way to earn a living after he passed.
He set her up in a small home with a bakery. We hadn’t been to her shop
in five years (since we were last in Spanish Wells), so we were thrilled to
see her again. One of her specialties is “Johnny cakes”, which Americans
would recognize as similar to an English muffin, however it is a bit denser
and more flavorful. Bahamians put jam on it, or a slice of cheese. 

Warmest regards – Greg and Barbara

Click here for New Bahamas Guide Scores on a Triple – Peter Swanson