Day #237 – West End, Bahamas

Spent our time this morning getting caught up.  Each marina seems to be different when it comes to water and electricity usage and price.  Some charge per kilowatt and gallon, others charge a flat fee.  Here at Old Bahama Bay they charge a flat fee daily for water and  electricity and knowing that we were coming back decided to put off laundry, etc. until we arrived here.  Paying per usage can really add up if you aren’t careful.  In Green Turtle Andy washed the boat and our water charge was $16.00.

The seas are predicted to be 6-9 feet today so we are definitely staying put.  Not sure tomorrow is going to be any better.  Since we are not in a hurry, we will wait it our here until the seas and winds calm down.  It looks like Monday or Tuesday of next week may be the window.

The resort has loaner bikes and Andy and I reserved some for this afternoon.  Patti and Brad have their own.  So we rode into West End a couple of miles away.  We were looking for conch shells to take home.  There is a big conch fishing industry here and shells are cast off and plentiful along the roads.

We were lucky enough to stop just as a fishing boat came in.  They said they had lots of conch, lobster and hog fish.  We watched them clean out the conch and they saved a few shells for us.  They take a small hatchet and crack a slit in the back of the shell to release the muscle and then slip the conch out.  For as tasty as conch is, they sure are ugly.  We loaded up our backpacks and rode back to the marina.

I washed the shells and will let them sit in the sun for a couple of days.  After that I will soak them in a bleach/water solution for a couple of days.  Last time I did that, they came out beautifully.  Hope I am as lucky this time.  They sure do STINK now!

Two other boats here in the marina belong to people from Michigan, one from Monroe, one from Grand Rapids.  Small world and guess no one wants to stay in Michigan for the ocld winters.