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