Walkers Cay to Grand Cay

We’ve made it! After a long but very successful crossing, we’re in the Bahamas! We were up before the sun with excitement and were treated to a beautiful sunrise. With the sun up, we could now finally see the beauty that surrounded us. The deep navy blue of the deep waters giving way to the pale turquoise waters of the shallow sandbars. We could see the sea stars and fish below us as if we were in 2 feet of water, not 10 feet. Breathtaking!

So, now what? Well for starters, the Captain has to go ashore and check us all in to the country before any of us (including the dogs) can go ashore. Walkers Cay, a once popular and thriving little island was left desolate after a hurricane a few years ago. They are said to have a customs official there by the now abandoned Walkers Cay Marina. Steve headed in to the marina with all our paperwork. **Here’s a hint we learned from other experienced sailors that we’ll pass on to you. When going to customs in another country, dress and act respectful. It really does “grease the wheels.”

So dressed in his only nice clothes, armed with all our passports, Bahamas import paperwork, dog import licenses and our printed crew sheet for reference, off he went. Thirty minutes later, he returned…with a thumbs down. As Steve was walking around ashore a local, Marvin, came up and asked him if he was looking for customs.”" “Yes sir, I am.” Steve answered. “You’ll want to head over to Grand Cay, mon. No custom official here.” advised Marvin.

What Marvin failed to mention is that they would probably be there at some point but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Back on the boat, Steve replaced his one nice outfit for more appropriate “boat clothes” and together with Jake, they raised the anchors and we were off for Grand Cay. Only about an hour away, which is just enough time for Jake to have his “Titanic” moment on the bow and for Grandma to soak up some sun.

We pulled into Grand Cay and anchored between Little Grand Cay and Rat Cay. Steve donned his “dress clothes” again, and headed into Rosie’s to try once more to clear us into the Bahamas. Rosie, btw, is a he in case you assumed otherwise like we did. Rosie took Steve in his golf cart down to the end of the island where the Customs/Police/City office building is located. About 30 minutes later, Steve returned to Miss Daisy with another thumbs down. Turns out the custom official was…….at Walkers Cay. Yep. . . .well crap. As it turns out, the customs officer goes to Walkers Cay regularly to clear aircraft landing there. The several private islands in the area have helicopters to meet the aircraft that land here to shuttle their passengers to their destinations.

At this point it’s about 10 am March 1st. The dogs, God love them, have been on the boat since 5am the day before. We’ve had success so far, no accidents, no sea sickness with dogs and crew but by this point, we are really pushing our luck. Thankfully, all the dogs are trained to use the stern or the bow to potty if needed. That way it’s easy to wash down if necessary. (It was necessary.)

Fast forward five hours. It’s now 3:00pm and Steve is going to give it another shot. Back in his nice clothes, he gathers all his paperwork, and again, heads to shore. This time he knows where the building is so he heads straight there in the dinghy. 30 minutes later, he returns and ………you guessed it. Another thumbs down! Seriously? At this point disappointment is the prevalent emotion. The Captain however, said “Now worries, mon. I just need to grab something.” Oh, thank goodness. Now we’re getting somewhere. Turns out, if you list your firearm among your possession on your paperwork (and we recommend you do), you also need to bring in your bullets so they can count them. Leave your firearm on the boat though – they don’t want to see that, just the bullets.

Another half hour and we see Steve approaching in the dinghy. Thumbs up! Finally!! Steve takes down the yellow quarantine flag and replaces it with our still crispy new Bahamian courtesy flag while I ready the kids and the dogs. All loaded up, we are in search of a beach to stretch legs and put our feet in the sand. It didn’t take long and we spotted a beautiful strip of white sand. Along the way we spotted 3 giant spotted eagle rays, several sea stars, lots of fish and even a small shark! We hadn’t even beached the dinghy when all the dogs made a leap for shore. We all know what followed, I’ll spare you those details :)

After the beach, we took Miss Daisy into the water dock to fill up the tanks. Our water maker was having issues and we were out. While at the dock, we met a family on a Morgan 41’ OI, just like our old No Mas. They invited Steve to go spearfishing the next day and helped us off the dock so we could go anchor again.

Day 2

Steve headed out with his new friends and the rest of us chilled on Miss Daisy. With a full water tank, we were able to catch up on laundry and showers. Steve came home with fresh lobster, snapper and conch from his fishing trip – yum! He worked on the water maker and our 40 HP outboard. He fixed the water maker, didn’t have the same luck on the outboard. Steve can fix anything. I’ve seen him do it, I know he can. He is one of the greatest mechanic/handyman I’ve ever known. If he can’t fix our outboard, it’s time to look for outside help. Thank goodness we have our little 2hp outboard from the kids dinghy. We dined on the delicious seafood while watching a beautiful sunset and all agreed that tomorrow we would head into shore and locate a mechanic and explore the island.

Day 3

Went to shore to look around. We met Ed, who crowned himself our official tour guide. He was our new best friend. It was about 9am and he was slurring his words a bit – this was going to be a fun day. When I mentioned to him that we were looking for someone who can possibly look at our outboard, he didn’t hesitate to claim that Teddy was the only one we needed to see. “Teddy make everything run, baby.” Well then, Teddy is who we need indeed. Teddy was waist deep in the guts of

a forklift when we approached. He said he’d be happy to have a look see and to give him a little while. We agreed and set off to explore the rest of the island. Along the way we spoke to three schoolgirls who were racing back into school with their hands full of sweets, stopped to say hi to a friendly pot cake (local name for a stray dog) and take some pictures. We stopped at the green house for some Goombay (Bahamian fruit soda) and offered to buy Ed one. He said only kids drink soda – grownups drink liquor. He couldn’t get over the fact that we didn’t drink. “No drink on your boat?” No Ed, only water and lemonade. We did give him a dollar so he could go get a drink and join us in the shade. When we asked him where to get lunch, he didn’t hesitate a minute. “Follow me.” he said with certainty. We followed him into a little yellow house. “Shay!” he shouted. “Shay, where you at?” A young, round, happy woman stepped out to greet us. “Shay, what you cookin’? My friends are hungry.” She smiled and said she had ribs and pork chops with red beans and rice. Well we certainly wasn’t expecting that!

We sat down at her kitchen table and she said she would bring us two of both. Before we knew it, we had 4 heaping plates of steaming deliciousness in front of us. Jake ran back to the green house for

more drinks and we dug in. A huge mound of red beans and rice, the largest pork chop I’ve laid eyes on and warm potato salad. Now, I’ve had my share of homemade potato salad but none even came close to this! Even typing this several days later, I still smile thinking about Ms. Shay’s potato salad.

We boxed up the leftovers (at least half the food we received) and headed back in search of Teddy. Teddy was working in our dinghy when we got there. He said “No problem, I fix your engine right up. About $20 okay?” We only had a $10 in cash on us so Steve asked him if $10 and something in trade would be okay. “$10 is fine, mon.”

$10 and an old extension cord we no longer used later, and our little 40hp Johnson purred better than it ever has before! So if you ever find yourself anywhere around Grand Cay Bahamas and need some engine work, find Teddy. Best $10 we’ve ever spent!

Tomorrow we head to Double breasted Cay.

~Mimzie