West End

After checking in with customs at West End, we spent our first week in the Bahamas at Old Bahama Bay. Jacob needed to get back to work and there are no secure anchorages within 25 miles so we bit the bullet and stayed in the marina. It’s a notoriously expensive marina, but knowing that we would probably be there a week I asked if they could give us a weekly rate, and she cut me a deal. Instead of $3 a foot plus $25 a day for electric plus metered water, she charged us $1.50 a foot and waived the water and power fee. I guess it never hurts to ask!

Our first morning at the marina a local fisherman came by and offered to sell me some fresh lobster tails. I bought 4 for $20, which my dad thinks was a little steep. I probably need to work on my bargaining skills! Then again, I did get us a steal on the marina…

Later that day Ice Floe pulled in with George, Susan, and Chaze the big yellow Lab aboard. They spent the week in the slip next to us and Audrey, Loey, and Chaze spent many quality hours on the finger pier between Lark and Ice Floe.

We went to town one afternoon and had lunch and a stop at the local grocery and post office. It is such a different experience than going anywhere in the states. West End is a tiny town and the grocery was about the size of our garage in Nederland. Fresh produce was in VERY short supply. I think I was expecting to see at least lots of tropical fruit, but there wasn’t any. I did buy a head of broccoli, and it was $5 for one. That night I was very insistent that everyone eat all of their greens! Not only are they pricey, but they are rare!

We had a nice visit on Friday from Ft. Pierce friends on 3 different boats who are all over here now too. They are staying at a marina in Freport and rented a car to drive around the island of Grand Bahama for the day and visited us! It was so fun to see them!