Congratulations!!!!!

My brother, Bill Taylor, finished the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tn today.

First place in his age category.

Salute!!!!

Little Harbor

If you come to the Abacos you must experience Little Harbor and Pete's Pub.
I won't go into the history or details of the place but you can click on the link above and find out all there is to know about Pete and his slice of paradise at Little Harbor.

Everyone has a Pete's story which usually has something to do with drinking Blasters. If they can remember it.
Our story goes back to the late 80's or early 90's (blasters were involved so I'm not sure Karen!)
We had anchored out with our friends Karen and Dick on their boat "Beyond the Wind" in Little Harbor. In those days Pete's was kind of a cross between a biker bar, pirate's haven, and an artist's venue. Lots of very colorful characters to say the least... Pete being one of them.
I had absorbed enough Blasters to get out my guitar and was doing my old folk singer gig. (which I still remembered in those days)
You'll have to use your imagination to appreciate the rest of the story.
The sun was already in the Sea of Abaco and giving off a nice warm light when I notice two sailboats ghost into the harbor. I'm singin an old John Prine tune as I eye the silhouette of three or four dingies full of folks coming off the sailboats and rowing toward shore. I'm thinkin... Great! Bigger party! The dingies land and still with the light in my eyes I see a figure walking toward the bar then a kid appears and asks the bartender in a nasally prepubescent little voice, "Excuse me sir. Do you sell fruit juice?". The whole place erupts in laughter and scares the poor kid to death. That's when we all look around and realize we have been invaded by Boy Scouts. Must have been 30 of them and they were staking out tents to camp out all night.
Well... Even though we were all pirates, sailors, and general nairdowells we didn't want to corrupt the youth of America with our brand of having fun. So we loaded up our dingies and headed back out to our boats to continue on with our mild form of debauchery.
Could have been a great night but turned into a funny story instead.

You would have never seen this sign in the old days.

Pete's has changed a lot since those days. Much more family friendly now and honestly... the food is way better. But gone is the 151 rum in the Blasters and the characters have lost their color.

Pete has a way of positioning things around that creates the ambiance of a shipwrecked pirate's lair/artist's loft. The flotsam and jetsam is either strategically placed or naturally slung around by the last hurricane but however it gets there it works nicely.
More Little Harbor pics here.

Happy days!!

Dinkin down to Pete's

This day was perfect. Just enough wind to keep us cool but not too much to make anything more that a ripple on the Sea of Abaco. On the way down to Pete's Pub we stopped at a few remote beaches so Mel could do a little shelling.
This beach held a lot of shells. Mel is the sheller not me. I take odd pictures of little things that make people say, "what was he thinkin". But if you look at the photos maybe you can see what I do. Or maybe not. I did grow up in the 60's Some have asked why we don't have more pics of people. The way we see it is if you don't know the folks in the photos what fun is that. And we are sure you're all tired of seeing us all the time.
Maybe more dogs would be good.
Oh well... On to Pete's Pub

Inside looking out

Looking through an opening of the lighthouse.

Entrance to Hope Town Harbor and the Sea of Abaco

Hope Town Harbor... A bird's eye view
The channel into Hope Town Harbor.

Mel with the Sea of Abaco in the background.

Just one of the many good anchorages out from Elbow Cay.

Today the wind is perfect so who knows what we will get into.

Happy Days!!

Hope Town Lighthouse and harbor

Hope Town Lighthouse

It's a beautiful old lighthouse. Built in 1863 much to the dismay of the local islanders who were wreckers by trade. If you want to know more click the link above. It is very interesting.

View of the inside of the lighthouse

Dingy night

We dinked over to the Abaco Inn last night for dinner with our friends Ron and Nancy from Duet. Dinner was great, company was better... Rack of Lamb, good wine, and lobster. After dinner Ron and Nancy left for their boat, we walked down to the dock only to discover our dingy was missing.
There was a fellow on the dock named David who was talking on a handheld radio. He walked over and asked if we had lost a dingy. Of course we said yes and how did he know. He gave us some vague story about a drunk guy and our dingy that we still do not understand. But the bottom line was our dink was gone and some drunk guy took it. David was talking to BASRA (Bahamian Coast Guard) on the radio and I overheard stuff like bleeding badly, Tahiti beach, and we're trying to get him back on the boat. We obviously thought the worst. But after about an hour BASRA delivered our dink back to us. It was unharmed except for being rather bloody and about half tank of fuel gone. So all's well that ends well I guess.
We still don't know exactly what happened but will investigate when David (Abaco Inn Manager) returns tomorrow. He was definiately withholding some information for some reason.
Note to self... Never leave the keys in your dingy... not even in the Abacos.

Dingy day

The winds died down a little yesterday so we decided to take the dink out and explore a little. We went down past TillooCay and onto Tilloo bank. There were bright red Starfish everywhere dotting the shallow turquoise waters which made for a beautiful visual but not much of a photograph. Somethings are better to imagine or remember I suppose.

If I ever win the lottery.

We have seen this place for years and always loved it. It is now for sale.

I think I saw 6.5 million... Mel says she saw 8.5 million

Really doesn't matter does it.

Coral bones.... Beach rocks

While the little guy was going crazy we noticed these small fields of dead coral that have been washed up on the beach. We thought they made for some nice closeups. So we did a few.

For a few more click here

Happy days!!

Beach Dog

We braved the winds, carted up to the top of the dune, and took a walk on the beach.

The Atlantic side of White Sound.

It was near high tide and not much beach out but the breaking waves were great.

Radar loves the beach but he knows that if he gets wet he will get a bath when we're back on the boat.

He's smart that way and most times he doesn't go for the water unless we throw a stick.

But he loves to run and chase birds. He truly goes nuts on the beach.

As you can see...

But this day he could no longer resist the urge to jump in and finally does.

So it's bath time.

Mad dog on the beach

Elbow Cay sunrise

Woke up early this morning to this sunrise. Beautiful.
Thinkin about Chicken Souse for some reason....
Happy days!!

Sea Spray Saturday Night

Turns out Junior (the Harbor Master) is a drummer... and a good one. This is his band "The Islanders" . Chad is the singer, Rodney is the bass player, and they have two quitar players but we didn't meet them.
They are not just another island band. They play all types of music and they do it well.
We still like their Reggae stuff best. But the crowd likes the Buffett tunes.
Like we need to be reminded "It's five o'clock somewhere" and I "blew out my flip flop"
Oh well... it was a really fun night. It was cool out so Sadie joined us and she was the Belle of the ball. Everybody had to pet Sadie.
Our friends on "Rockin Robin" were there. We have ran into them ever since West End.

Radar lunch

Radar takes us to lunch in Hopetown.
He has become quite a little celebrity here on Elbow Cay. As we walk into Harbor's Edge for lunch we overhear people whisper his name. Some folks even asked to take his picture.

It's hard out here for a pup!

He is a good little guy in a restaurant. Just give him a french fry ever so often and he stays still.

On the way back to Seaspray we stopped at On Da Beach and had a Margarita. (Not Radar, he just had ice... He likes to fight when he drinks Tequila)

On Da Beach is a cool little bar, which of course is on the beach. They have a Sunday Special that they claim is the cure for the common hangover.

Chicken Souse

Happy days!!

Hope Town Harbor

When we dinked into Hope Town Harbor we followed our freinds on "City Slickers" through the channel. Once we were inside we also saw that our friends Ron and Nancy on "Duet" were moored there.

This is nice shot of their boat.

Elbow Cay

We rented a golf cart yesterday and rode around the island for a while.

We wanted to go to Tahiti Beach and let Radar run around but it was very crowded. Wasn't low tide yet so not much beach out anyway.






We carted over to the Abaco Inn and saw how flat the seas were. So we opted to take advantage of a good day on the water.
We went back to the boat, hopped in the dingy, and went to Cracker P's for lunch.
It was such a nice day out that we ran across the Sea of Abaco to Hope Town. We did the usual things. Went to Capt. Jacks for a cold Kalik, Vernon's Grocery to pick up some of his famous pie and homemade bread, and saw a few of our cruising friends from Marsh Harbour.











We dinked back home then later carted back to Hope Town for dinner at Harbours Edge.
Rack of Lamb! mmmmm (you were right Jim)

Happy days!!

Fireworks over White Sound

Don't know who was responsible for the fireworks but we really did appreciate the show. It was fantastic!!
As we were kicking back and watching TV we heard some loud bangs then looked out the window to see this.
If you want to see more pics you can click here . They came out really weird because of the lens I was using. I think they are very interesting.

(I later found out they were part of a wedding celebration at the Abaco Inn)

Happy Birthday Karen

Melonie and Radar on the hill overlooking the Garbonzo Reef.
The Sea Oats have really made a comeback since we were here last. Amazing what a year without a hurricane can do for the vegetation.

Garbonzo Reef

We made it to SeaSpray yesterday. Elbow Cay ,our favorite cay, has a whole different feel than Green Turtle or Marsh Harbour. It's very quiet and at night you can hear the ocean roaring. There are few cars. Most folks ride around on bikes or golf carts.
The dogs have two nice beaches within walking distance to run around on. One on the ocean and one on the Sea of Abaco. Both are beautiful.
We have been here many times and We always love it.

We walked over to Garbonzo Reef this morning and watched this fellow surfing. I am told it's one of the best places to surf in this part of the world.
Quite famous amongst the surfer types.
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Wipeout!!

(Great lens Ole)

Puppy party

Radar and Sadie invited a guest over this morning. A local Potcake pup came over and played a while. Very sweet girl.

One last Marsh Harbour sunset

Just couldn't resist.

On to Elbow Cay

Last night in Marsh Harbour

We had a nice time with the folks on the dock last night. We played Abaco Trivia. Which sounds kinda corny but it turned out to be fun. John from "Slainte" put together all the questions and answers. Entry fee was a bottle of beer per person or a bottle of wine for a couple. The winning team picked a bottle each of whatever they wanted as a prize. We won a bottle of Kalik... We didn't win.

It was fun hangin out with everyone and making new friends. That's one of the nice things this lifestyle offers. We will see some of these folks many times while we are cruising around. We sat with a couple we met in Key West 3 years ago. Skip and Terry onboard "Sea Eagle"

Happy days!!

Fellow Arkies

This is Jordan. He belongs to a couple from Marianna, Arkansas. Dodd and Becca Dagget. Not many of us folks from Arkansas are out cruising around in these waters. They live about 10 miles from my hometown

We first met the Daggets about 4 years ago. It was their first cruise. Since then they have become very salty.

Our neighbors at Harbour View

We say goodbye to our neighbors Jim, Judy, and their guests.
They are the owners of a beautiful sailing catamaran name "Valiant Lady".

Obviously I have some time on my hands

The wind is still howling which has kept us in the boat today.

But it did give me a chance to Google Earth a map. Someone asked for it a while back and we do aim to please. Hmmmm.

Blow the man down

Blowin, Blowin, Blowin!!!

Front came through last night and man was it blowing. I heard on the net this morning someone at Guana Cay clocked over 70 knots of wind at some point.

We stayed up till the brunt of it went through which was about 11:30 eastern. Then went to bed hoping we would not be awakened during the night by the sound of a sailboat bangin against our hull. Nothing has happened so far but it's still gusting 25 to 30 and mashing our beam up against dock.

But there is this one old abandoned sailboat at anchor that is worrying the crap out of me. His stern seems to be inching closer all the time.

Oh well, it wouldn't be the Abacos without a blow.

Happy days!! (we hope)

(Thanks to Knotty Dog for the pic on the right)

Maggie of Duet

Looking very regal and protective, Maggie lies on the bow of Duet and catches a few rays.

We went to happy hour on Lee Ann's and Mark's boat "City Slickers" and had a really nice time. Pretty much the whole dock was there and a good time was had by all.

It's a very nice dock we're on. After the party was over some sportfish guys gave us a couple of pounds of fresh Tuna.
Happy days!!

Double Vision

Woke up this morning and this is what I saw out back. It was another 57 Nordhavn. "Total Return" Nice shot of two 57 Nordhavns tied up together.
I had actually met the owners Russ and Molly last fall at our marina at Pickwick. They were doing the Great Loop.
They have had a great cruise. Exumas, Cat Island, Eleuthera, and now the Abacos.