John and Trish Go to Ocean Reef

We had a tornado....actually 2 tornadoes on the day that Paul and Sharon left. We didn't know the damage until after they left. We were on the boat at the time and it felt like a Big Blow but not Tornadoes. A plastic kayak flew at the boat and bent the steel stanchion and broke the wood toe rail but no one was hurt. This is a picture of our destroyed Tennis courts. The wind pushed the fence right down on the court. You could walk right over the fence.

This is another view of the flattened fence that went around the Tennis courts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avQgoTtmMKA check on this site to see videos of the Tornadoes and a news report. Three young men died at Freeport Harbour when the cranes fell into the ocean there. A lot of damage was done at the golf course, the roof ripped off of an apartment building there and trees were split and pulled up.

This is what is left of the little Conch Hut on Island Seas Beach...all the furniture blew away and part of the building was gone. He didn't open back up, unfortunately.

Blacked-headed Gull on the beach....taking flight.

The Beaches are awesome....I can't stop taking pictures of them. This is the beach in front of Bikini Bottoms, I love the ripples in the sand.

Hank and Diane's catamaran at Ocean Reef, "Adanac". Ning Ning and Robert with the five little dogs live on their boat to the right. Robert is an Oceanographer and works at the Dolphin Experience. Ning Ning is a very clever woman, oceanographer as well and very creative. She knits and crotchets and sells her projects from her website.

We're out kayaking again. We kayak on the canal and the ocean too....on calm days....even if it's calm it's always rough where the canal meets the ocean and the waves come over the front and I'm soaked. Sometimes we kayak to the beach by Island Seas and pull the kayak up on the shore and walk to a little hut further down, now that the Conch Hut is gone, and share a meal of fish and rice and peas, corn on the cob, coleslaw and Sands beer. A meal on the town.


It's Easter weekend and we're having a potluck at Ester's. I got this idea from an email that Ev sent me.

Easter Potluck at Esters. This is Dick and Deb, Hank, Diane, Leslie and his wife, Tom, etc.

Hazel with her new beautiful ring. They are further south now...not sure where...maybe Georgetown.

Santy and Bob toasting Easter.

Irene with her Easter chocolates that Diane Easter Bunny, gave everyone. Diane really knows how to keep us together and happy.

Sharon and Larry. They were on a boat beside us for quite awhile and then they sailed away with Barry and DeeDee to the Abacos.

Sandlings walking along the beech. They are very camouflaged. They were so cute.

Paul snorkeling. The canal is a great place to snorkel. We have Blue Tangs, Parrot Fish, Lion Fish, Yellow Snapper, Damsel, Sergent Majors, and lots of baby fish.

Me on the Beach.

Trish looking at a snail in a puddle of water on the beach.

John found a conch.

A sand dollar....Trish made this into a necklace.

A shell with a hermit crab inside.

John's enjoying his holiday.

Lots of little tiny shells with hermit crabs inside.

John, Trish and Marion....at Monday night's party, Bahamian Night. The yellow ticket is for food and the pink one is for Bahama Mama's. The tickets are free. We get 2 pink tickets.

Hibiscus.

What a handsome couple.

More Hibiscus.

And more Hibiscus.

Black headed Gulls on the beach.

John on the beach.

What a beautiful beach....lots of quiet space on the beaches.

I don't read as much or as fast as Anthony....he averages about 3 books a week. This is one book I read. I enjoyed it.

Groupers is the restaurant in Ocean Reef.

A Poinciana Tree. The blossoms are amazing.

We're back at Garden of the Groves....I love this place.

Bougainvillea and garden statues. What a beautiful garden. Before the Hurricane in 2004 this Garden was twice the size.

This is the plaque in front of the wooded carvings of the women. It says, "Inspired by the informidable spirit of the Grand Bahamas Community, this work celebrates the graceful images of the Original Bahamians, possibly the Siboney Indians....4,000 years ago....Caribbean, Bahamians and Indians from South America came together on these islands about the time of Jesus Christ. These peoples became the Lucayan Indians....who were here when the Spanish arrived in 1492.
The spirit of these peoples have bowed respectfully to the gale force winds and are now transformed into graceful stance akin to Ariel of William Shakespear's "The Tempest". A classical welcome to this space.

The camera does not do these statues justice. They are amazing to see in real life.

Reflections.

Me and George, a Timeshare friend from Ocean Reef.

Me and Jan, also a Timeshare friend from Ocean Reef.

Erica the birdwatcher teacher from Garden of the Groves suggested this book for birdwatching in the Bahamas. She's giving a course in birdwatching next fall which I hope to take. I got to go birdwatching once with Erica and the other bird watchers. It was amazing.... I added 26 new species to my life list.

This is a history of the Bahamas. I bought it from Garden of the Groves and I just finished it. It is a novel written with the names of the people and historical events woven into a story. I loved it.

I'm trying to learn the plants, birds, fish, ocean creatures and corals of the Bahamas, as well as getting to know the people. It's a GREAT place...I love it.

Boaters Are Starting to Head North

Look at this great spray.

The winds get really strong here and rip out trees bytheir roots. This is Paul walking down the beach.

This is Margaret and woman I befriended the first couple of weeks here. She was selling peanuts out in front of City Market and I was pretty sure she was blind so I went up to her and introduced myself and we have seen each other every week since. I go to her house near downtown Freeport and sometimes we do some Brailling and sometimes we just sit and talk. I usually head out every Tuesday afternoon on my bike to go and visit her. Her son, Jeremy, who is 14 has been at home a couple of times too. She's a great lady and I really enjoy her company.

Margaret and me.

It's Tuesday night and we're at Karaoke. I still can't believe I'm singing Karaoke. I have my 4 favourite songs that are in my range: These Boots are Made for Walking, You're so Vain, Delta Dawn and The Hammer Song. It's a lot of fun and a lot of the boaters, participate, well maybe only Hank, Diane, Anthony and I and then there are all the Timeshare people. Charles is in charge of this too. He is fabulous.

It's more fun singing with your friends....these are Timeshare women enjoying Karaoke with us.

Look at this great paint job on the side of Sarah Jones' boat, "Exodus". She painted it free hand....amazing.

Ohhhhh, this is one of our boat dogs, Suki. She lives on a boat with Robert and Ning Ning and her little husband, Elvis, and her children, Jimmy, Carlos and Freckles. They are long haired Chiwawas....so cute.

Scot, Sarah's crew has arrived from Florida so they are on their way to Georgetown. Sarah is leaving....oh man...she has been here since October so she has been here longer that us. We're going to miss her. We had some great sails and great parties on her boat with Corruption Tours. Now it will only be emails.

Usually a number of the boaters get up in the morning to see other boaters off. So here we are watching and helping Sarah and Scot let go of the lines for the last time at Ocean Reef.

There they are going around the corner in the canal.......byeeeeeee.....safe journey.

Sometimes if there are enough boaters that want to go to the grocery store at the same time we rent a taxi/van and all go at once. That's what we did this day. This is Sawyers. It's a great store for frozen Grouper...the best fish ever. They have most things too. All the stores have a bit different stuff and don't have some stuff....I don't think there is Papaya juice anywhere on the island. No coffeemate at Tompsons and no lettuce or celery sometimes. The prices are different at each store too.

Here we are with all our provisions. John and Karen on the left are from Brockville but they are on their boat at Ocean Reef. They have gone back now. Then Cheryl, her and Ken have gone back to the States, then Ed and he just took his boat home last week and Andy and Isabella who live in Peterborough and have taken their boat back to the States too. I think they are sailing all the way back to Ontario. Everybody is leaving.

This is Mike and Carolyn's boat "Navigator X" and they are on their way home too.

We're all on the dock, seeing them off....safe journey.

Captain Anthony Gifford at Ocean Reef.

This is Hank and Diane's beautiful boat, "Adanac". Hank build it in 7 years. What an awesome boat....so beautiful.

And it's US again.

Ken and Cheryl are leaving too in this picture. Boo hoo all the boaters are leaving us.

There they go. We slipped into their dock after they left because they had a better TV connection for cable. Life is rough you know..... :)

The boat behind them is the Scuba Diving boat. That's the one I take out when I go diving with Fred and Melinda. They are awesome people....very hard workers and excellent people to have taking care of you when you're diving.

This is Stevie, another boat dog from another boat but I can't remember the name of his boat.

This is Bob from "Sea Ya" he also has "Suzy" on board with him a little terrier.