Another beautiful day in West End. There is still quite a strong breeze, but it is sunny and 78 degrees. Several boats pulled out of the marina this morning and left to cross to Florida. They were facing 6-9 foot seas and we wished them luck and off they went. 2-4 foot seas were plenty for me on the way over and don’t choose to experience more, especially if we don’t have to. One couple told me they would email me and let me know that they made it safely.
Andy discovered that one of our gallons of motor oil had sprung a leak in the engine room, so he spent most of the morning cleaning that up. Fortunately he found it before it had pumped overboard and into the water. Quite a messy job, but he is done and now taking his Captain’s siesta.
Brad, Patti and I rode our bikes into West End again today, about four miles away. We stopped at the two little “grocery” stores along the roadside, but came out empty handed. We then went to the “liquor” store a bit further down the road. Brad bought beer at $2.45 a can and club soda at $1.25 a can. Definitely something you don’t have to want to purchase much of around here.
On our way back we stopped and took pictures of some of the local sites. This is a very poor area but everyone is so friendly and happy. A fisherman walking along the street stopped us and asked us if we wanted to buy any lobster. He pulled them out of his bag and they were still alive. He would have sold us 12 for $30 but we had no way to get them back and still all have quite a few in our freezers.
The photo below is of their nicest pub in West End called The Star.
The next picture is of their seaside bar across the street. It even has ocean side seating.
Another stop showed the continuous piles of conch shells along the roadway. Guess they gave up on trying to put the shells in the bucket a long time ago.
Across the street from that is this building adorned with cleaned conch shells. Not sure what is supposed to go into that bucket…hungry dogs????
After we got back, Patti and I decided to try and clean the conch shells we had gathered yesterday. Several people on the dock got into the act. It will not be a quick project as you scrape, soak in bleach water, dry for a couple of days and scrape again.
Dinner tonight will be up at the resort restaurant, Fishbone Folley’s, located right off the stern of our boat.
Sunset at dinner. Another beautiful day in the Bahamas!
The Great Loop 