Life in the Islands

Life in the Islands

I have had someone write me and ask me the cost of living here in the Bahamas.

Time has been tough of local economy so everyone is eager to negotiate. You could stay in a marina (like we are) for a month, for about $500. If you plan to do so, we suggest you “shop around” and ask for deals. You do pay for power (per KW) and you also pay for water.  We are paying per month ($50) but some places even a shower can cost you as much as $4.00 per shower!! So again, shop around.

We stocked up on food before we left Florida. We bought canned veggies and fruit because we were told, rightly so, that those items are very expensive here AND they are!! You could pay $2.00 for a tomato, $4.00 for an avocado, $6.00 for lettuce….you get the picture?

But it is not all gloom and doom….for some reason butter, milk, bread, eggs and cheese are cheaper here (or on par with US prices) Chicken is less expensive than beef and fish is free if you can get itJ

Beer is expensive but Rum is cheap….

Almost everything is imported so it stands to reason that most everything is more expensive here….but as the sign says: Paradise ain’t cheap!

We had had hectic social life since we joined back up with friends from our homeport SV Ishmael and SV Last Waltz. We have also met some more great people and endured our share of hangovers.

Some local news to share:

1.      A 38 foot power boat sunk last week making the Whale Cay Passage. Everyone was rescued by other boaters and a dive shop.

(Remember I wrote about Whale Cay Passage? Just a few days ago a large power boat was coming through the passage when a hog line got caught in its props (An hog line, I am told, it about a thick as a man’s arm) The skipper, not realising a line was wrapped around his props, tried to restart his engines and the thick lines pulled the prop shaft supports right out of the boat leaving two big holes.….eye witnesses claim the boat was underwater in 3 mins but other people say it was more like 15 mins. Still, it is a very scary thing to happen to anyone. No one was hurt but the boat is sunk and in 40 feet of water.)

2.      For the past several days every morning they have had a BOLO (be on lookout) on the Cruisers Net. The situation was that they asked boaters to be on the lookout and report any findings on a 24 foot center council rental boat that was rented by a couple staying at the Great Abaco Beach Resort. It seems they and the boat had disappeared and they found all their belongings in their room. Yesterday they found the 24 foot boat in Florida. Speculation is that they rented the boat and had engine problems and ended up drifting to Florida over a 5 or 6 day period. We are still waiting for final details. Other sources claim the engine was removed off the boat and the people in question are still MIA…Rumours abound!
3. Last week at night a 40 foot boat with 80 Haitians aboard hit a reef trying to make it thru Tilloo Cut near Little Harbor. They all jumped into the water and attempted to make it ashore. Some made it, some were pulled out of the water by other boats, several drowned and some others made it ashore and disappeared and are roaming around Great Abaco Island, Elbow Cay near Hope Town etc. Of the 80 aboard only 57 have been accounted for. The big boat was towing a smaller boat, the smugglers apparently made off in the smaller, faster boat leaving the Haitians to fend for themselves.

(THANK YOU KATHY, MV GREEN DOOR FOR THE WRITE UP WHCH I JUST TWEAKED A LITTLE FOR MY BLOG)

On the lighter side; every Sunday Nippers Bar on Great Guana Cay has a pig roast. A whole bunch of us went there for the weekend. I was still dealing with a hangover from Friday night so I felt somewhat fragile but a good time was had by all. We snorkeled and I spotted a HUGE lobster, Gary spotted a shark (he says it was BIG) and Karl (SV Ishmael) spotted two Moray Eels. The fish we saw were incredible, somewhat like you would find in a fish tank back home, very exotic and all colours of the rainbow.

Gary also picked up a conch shell and has fixed it for blowing….he has been practicing and it is driving me crazy!!!!

Life is good in the Islands, the weather has been nice and warm during the days but cool enough to sleep comfortably at night. We have had very little rain, just a few sprinkles, mostly at night. We love the relaxing days where there is nothing that HAS to be done all though they are few and far between. Just yesterday Gary spent the whole day rebuilding the lower end of our outboard for the dingy and today we had to hang around the dock waiting for Andrew, an extremely bright young man who figured out our generator problem in about 5 seconds! Last night we enjoyed an Italian Pot luck dinner here at the marina and got to meet even more new interesting characters.

There always seems to be something going on somewhere and as nice as it is to get out and socialize it is just as nice to just chill on the boat at anchor or at the dock. Life is great and we truly appreciate it.

…………….to be continued