Island Time!

[Ziggy]

Please do, I will afterwards as well. Don't want to get banned for spamming her thread.... LOL jk

Don't puss out, post up.
See? Like me.

 

[Taboma]

In 68', my buddy and I, both 18YO cruising the Bahamas on a 36' motorsailer towing a 17' Boston Whaler --- yeah, we were having a lot of fun and adventures galore. Not sure how it is now, but then, at 18 we could drink all we wanted
Decided to spend New Years at West End Marina, Grand Bahama, because in those days the Jack Tar resort was the place to celebrate the holidays. Girls Girls Girls
But we were on a quest to find live Conch and everyday we'd head out diving hoping to score. In the marina we were seeing locals bring them in, then hang them by their foot from a rack, eventually the weight of the shell forcing the conch to release and the shell would drop off. Then they'd proceed to pound the living snot out of the meat and we'd be enjoying them in the bar as free conch fritters over drinks. Back then, they were as common as peanuts are here.
Wonder if they still serve them ???
We never got up early enough to follow them out, but eventually one guy gave us some half-ass directions on the opposite side of the island, on the flats, where we hadn't looked. That day once we entered the water I thought we'd found conch heaven, hundreds of conch shells lay before us. Finally, we'd found the Holy Conch Grail --- ummmmm, no, we'd found the graveyard, searched all afternoon, not a live one to be found.
Chatting it up later in the bar with a different local we recounted the story, he just started laughing his ass off.
"Ya mon", he went on, "we dump them there for the tourists who go out on the snorkel boats, they be happy to find a nice shell and tip us good mon". Well, we'd been duped, our stay was over and we never found one live conch --- but sure had fun regardless And the girls, oh my the girls

The BVI was wonderful and sailing island to island a grand experience, but the Bahamas was ocean heaven here on earth

 

[rivermobster]

Super busy doing nothing and chilling today [emoji267] More later. [emoji16]

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Just awesome.

 

[Deja_Vu]

Here’s a couple of good ones from Treasure Cay.

Palapa time

Marina view from our condo

Chillin under the Umbrella

Powder white sand castle

 

[DaytonaBabe]

Holy crap....That does NOT suck!!

How's that sand dollar? That's some shit you see at a decorations store for sale LOL

Came home with 12 just like it (TSA broke 5 of them. Ugh). I've never been on a beach where you can just walk and pick up starfish and sand dollars. The starfish was still alive, so he was returned to the water where he proceeded to bury himself in the sand right before our eyes. So cool.

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[DaytonaBabe]

Ok so the big question for me... BVI vs. Abacos? Similarities? Differences? Which one do you like more?

OK Mel
Now that you have been to BVI and the Bahamas, which would you prefer to do again 1st?
We are planning for next year and I may have to get a jump start on you and James instead of being the Copy Cat!!!
LOL

So I've spent some time thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that they are just too hard to compare. Pardon the following ramble, just some random thoughts...

I LOVED the Abacos. I've never been on a beach so beautiful. "The point" in Treasure Cay (TC) took my breath away and I'm fairly certain that that is what Heaven looks like. The beach our condo was on was gorgeous and was basically our own private beach. There were several days that only two people walked by all day. BVI is beautiful, but the beach on TC was incredible. Because the Sea of Abaco is so very shallow, there are places that are absolutely florescent blue - amazing to see all the different shades of blue while underway which was different than BVI where the gorgeous blues are typically close to shore. This, of course, presents an issue if you wanted to bareboat charter in the Abacos - I would get a day captain to move the boat. Personally, I think having a home base house/condo and a rental boat is the way to do the Abacos.


I prefer the hilly/mountainous terrain of the islands of BVI. The Abacos are FLAT, and therefore it makes it a bit more tricky to identify your destination in the distance as you are driving the boat.


The town of TC offers a number of restaurants and bars. We all enjoyed the awesome frozen cocktails at Coco Beach Bar and Bahama Beach Club. The food at both of these places was really good, but nothing spectacular. We weren't impressed at all with the food at Spinnaker's or the Tipsy Seagull. We heard mixed reviews about the other restaurants, so we opted to pass. As we do with our BVI trips, we took an AO cooler stuffed with the following from Costco: filet mignon (2 dinners), bacon, turkey and ham lunchmeat, cheese, salami, sausages, etc. This saved a TON of money, especially considering that the food in the grocery store is very expensive. More expensive than BVI. The selection in the TC grocery store was way better than I had anticipated - they have everything you could need/want. Beer and wine were way more expensive than BVI too. $58 for 24 Budlights and $48 for 24 Sands Light. The local beers are good - I prefered Kalik Light, but Sands Light was good as well.

I do prefer the less-developed feel of the BVI. I like the rustic BVI beach bars and restaurants, and the places in the Abacos are very cool, but are more developed. Not sure if that makes sense ...


I feel like the people of the BVI are more friendly. That's not to say that the Bahamian people weren't nice, because they absolutely were, but there was a noticeable difference.

The Abacos has power issues. We were lucky to not have any issues at all until two days before we left. One morning the power went off at 6:45am and didn't come back on until 2:30pmish? It didn't stop us from having fun and we just went about our day as usual, but it wasn't a good feeling to wonder if we were going to have A/C that night, as last summer they lost power for several consecutive days. It went off again the next morning around 4:30am for about an hour. We were all well aware that this was a possibility going into this trip, so it wasn't a big deal, but when we go back I'll be looking closer at rentals with backup generators (common).

Lesson learned, when planning travel, I'll never overnight in Nassau again. So unsafe and a total dump, IMO. Not a fan at all.

Concluding this ramble now... The Abacos and the BVI are just very different places, so it's impossible to pick. We will definitely be going back to the Abacos without a doubt. I also can't wait to get back to the BVI.

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[Deja_Vu]

Glad you had a great trip and safe return.

Its weird when a storm rolls through and the power goes out and then you begin to hear a succession of generators firing up.
Next thing you know the sun is out, power back on and it feels like paradise again.
We never really lost power for more than an hour or two when we were there, lucky break I guess.

The sea of Abaco is so amazing.
That's how I found TC. I was using Google Earth and looked for the bluest water I could find.
Next time we will have to visit some of the outer Cays

One of these days we will have to visit BVI.

 

[Instigator]

So I've spent some time thinking about this and I've come to the conclusion that they are just too hard to compare. Pardon the following ramble, just some random thoughts...

I LOVED the Abacos. I've never been on a beach so beautiful. "The point" in Treasure Cay (TC) took my breath away and I'm fairly certain that that is what Heaven looks like. The beach our condo was on was gorgeous and was basically our own private beach. There were several days that only two people walked by all day. BVI is beautiful, but the beach on TC was incredible. Because the Sea of Abaco is so very shallow, there are places that are absolutely florescent blue - amazing to see all the different shades of blue while underway which was different than BVI where the gorgeous blues are typically close to shore. This, of course, presents an issue if you wanted to bareboat charter in the Abacos - I would get a day captain to move the boat. Personally, I think having a home base house/condo and a rental boat is the way to do the Abacos.


I prefer the hilly/mountainous terrain of the islands of BVI. The Abacos are FLAT, and therefore it makes it a bit more tricky to identify your destination in the distance as you are driving the boat.


The town of TC offers a number of restaurants and bars. We all enjoyed the awesome frozen cocktails at Coco Beach Bar and Bahama Beach Club. The food at both of these places was really good, but nothing spectacular. We weren't impressed at all with the food at Spinnaker's or the Tipsy Seagull. We heard mixed reviews about the other restaurants, so we opted to pass. As we do with our BVI trips, we took an AO cooler stuffed with the following from Costco: filet mignon (2 dinners), bacon, turkey and ham lunchmeat, cheese, salami, sausages, etc. This saved a TON of money, especially considering that the food in the grocery store is very expensive. More expensive than BVI. The selection in the TC grocery store was way better than I had anticipated - they have everything you could need/want. Beer and wine were way more expensive than BVI too. $58 for 24 Budlights and $48 for 24 Sands Light. The local beers are good - I prefered Kalik Light, but Sands Light was good as well.

I do prefer the less-developed feel of the BVI. I like the rustic BVI beach bars and restaurants, and the places in the Abacos are very cool, but are more developed. Not sure if that makes sense ...


I feel like the people of the BVI are more friendly. That's not to say that the Bahamian people weren't nice, because they absolutely were, but there was a noticeable difference.

The Abacos has power issues. We were lucky to not have any issues at all until two days before we left. One morning the power went off at 6:45am and didn't come back on until 2:30pmish? It didn't stop us from having fun and we just went about our day as usual, but it wasn't a good feeling to wonder if we were going to have A/C that night, as last summer they lost power for several consecutive days. It went off again the next morning around 4:30am for about an hour. We were all well aware that this was a possibility going into this trip, so it wasn't a big deal, but when we go back I'll be looking closer at rentals with backup generators (common).

Lesson learned, when planning travel, I'll never overnight in Nassau again. So unsafe and a total dump, IMO. Not a fan at all.

Concluding this ramble now... The Abacos and the BVI are just very different places, so it's impossible to pick. We will definitely be going back to the Abacos without a doubt. I also can't wait to get back to the BVI.

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Thanks for taking us all along on another EPIC trip with you guys.
I also want to thank you for sharing your Pictures, comments and thoughts as they were EXACTLY the comments I was looking for.
They were pretty much what I expected. From what you posted would you say that Abacos is a little less expensive or about the same as the BVI for say 2 couples? I realize that the Abacos would be a Condo/Villa and a Day boat rental versus a Bareboat Charter but I think you get what I am asking. At this point we are looking at the Abacos just to see the beaches and do more adventuring like Boating and Snorkeling rather than Bar hoping in the BVI like we did on our last trip.
After that, we are hoping that Belize will soon offer Bare Power Cats and that would be our next trip. If not, Back to the BVI baby.
One Love!

Thanks again. Your the best!!

 

[Backlash]

The trip we took to TC was amazing and we were there for 2 weeks. It was the most amazing vacation I've ever had!! I knew things were costly in the islands because almost everything has to be shipped in. When you're figuring out your budget and how much to spend, double your food cost estimate and you'll be close.

In DB's adventure, they went to the local snack shacks and you heard it from her......the food was "OK." Shes right. That "OK" food still costs a lot more than we are used to paying here in the US. Since we were there for a few weeks, we wanted to venture out and try some of the better quality restaurants and the food was noticeably better. With that comes the higher prices.

If we ate out each meal, I think we ended up spending about $25-30 for a light breakfast, $50-75 for a decent lunch and over $100 for dinner. This was for 2 people who had the trip of a lifetime! Again, this wasn't for PB&J sammiches folks. We splurged. Hahaaa!

Just increase your food costs and if you know that in advance, you wont be shocked.

Car rentals in TC are costly and so are the golf cart rentals. I think we paid about $400 for the golf cart we rented. That was for a week or so. If you wanted to get away from the marina and venture out a little bit, I'd recommend it. They do have taxis that you can use too, but we didn't really find it necessary.

 

[rivermobster]

Such great stories. Thank you all!!!!

 

[Backlash]

Another side note.... Flights from L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale can be found cheap. Ft. Lauderdale to Treasure Cay, not so much. Hahahaa! The airfair for the 45 minute hop to the islands will set you back further than from L.A. to Florida. It is still less expensive flying to the Bahams from Ft. Lauderdale than it is elsewhere. Tampa, Miami and Orlando were all a lot more expensive. Just a little more info. for you.

And the Treasure Cay airport.....wow. When we flew back home, they had 5 people working.

 

[Instigator]

Another side note.... Flights from L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale can be found cheap. Ft. Lauderdale to Treasure Cay, not so much. Hahahaa! The airfair for the 45 minute hop to the islands will set you back further than from L.A. to Florida. It is still less expensive flying to the Bahams from Ft. Lauderdale than it is elsewhere. Tampa, Miami and Orlando were all a lot more expensive. Just a little more info. for you.

And the Treasure Cay airport.....wow. When we flew back home, they had 5 people working.

Thanks for the info. That is what we have found out from Phoenix as well.
And you flight out of Treasure Island sounds like ours into Beef Island.

 

[Deja_Vu]

Another side note.... Flights from L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale can be found cheap. Ft. Lauderdale to Treasure Cay, not so much. Hahahaa! The airfair for the 45 minute hop to the islands will set you back further than from L.A. to Florida. It is still less expensive flying to the Bahams from Ft. Lauderdale than it is elsewhere. Tampa, Miami and Orlando were all a lot more expensive. Just a little more info. for you.

And the Treasure Cay airport.....wow. When we flew back home, they had 5 people working.

We flew BahamasAir into Marsh Harbour and took a cab to TC. Was a little less money. Cab ride was about 50 minutes and I think it was $80 with tip.

We reserved a golf cart from Cash's carts for the week. I recommend getting one so you can tour around TC.
We shopped at the local store on TC and cooked meals at the condo during the week and ate out on the weekends.
Groceries seemed about on par with Hawaii, except no Costco lol.

 

[sirbob]

Be careful where you pick up those conks!!


Woman sentenced to jail for taking 40 queen conchs in the Florida Keys

https://dailym.ai/2O2V2kn