Our time in the Bahamas is almost over.......for this year!

Since my last post....we have not done much sailing.....however we did do alot of relaxing

Guy has done some paintings and is thrilled to have accepted  a month long exhibition at the Hummingbird Gallery in Hope Town in the near future. A date is being discussed at present.
The next six pics are some of the pieces he has completed.
'Hope Town' and 'Man o War' Cays are the center of builders of 'The Abaco Dinghy' These dinghies are built of local lumber and no exact plans exist. Each builder uses his own sense of shape and size. They have a very shallow draft and have one sail. Usually between 12 and 14 ft long. It is a treat to see them gather on Sundays in Hope Town for the Sunday dinghy races. They have big following here and are considered pieces of art and history.
As such Guy has painted an Abaco dinghy series.

These paintings are 9 x 11 oil on board. The last two have been commissioned to be done in a larger size and shipped once Guy returns to Vancouver.

While Guy immerses himself in his art, I along with some friends head to the ocean to go "Beaning" I had never heard of this before but since I have found many, I am now the President of our 4 member beaning club! LOL!

Sea-beans (also known as drift seeds) are seeds and fruits that are carried to the ocean, often by freshwater streams and rivers, then drift with the ocean currents and (hopefully!) wash ashore.

These sea-beans don't initially come from the sea and while some are indeed beans, many are not technically beans at all! Some "sea-beans" are technically fruits that contain seeds. Nonetheless, if they drift to and into the oceans and wash ashore, we collectively refer to them as "sea-beans".

These sea-beans come from trees and vines that grow along tropical shores and rain forests all over the world. The seeds or fruits fall from their parent plant into waterways, such as the Amazon River, then drift through inlets to reach the ocean. They travel with ocean currents until they wash up on a beach somewhere, perhaps thousands of miles from their origin. Sea-beans are quite hard and buoyant, which helps them survive their long-distance voyage.

The heart sea bean on the right has been sanded starting with 120 grit and ending with 2000 grit sandpaper to give it this polished look. It is way too time consuming so I will wait till I get myself a dremmel to do the rest.

Sea hearts have a long and colorful history in fact and fiction. Early naturalists thought the unusual heart-shaped seeds came from strange underwater plants whose origin was shrouded in mystery. Christopher Columbus was fascinated with objects that drifted ashore on beaches of the Azores off the coast of Portugal. It is said that a sea heart provided inspiration to Columbus and led him to set forth in search of lands to the west. In fact, the sea heart is called "fava de Colom" or "Columbus bean" by Portuguese residents of the Azores. In Norway, a bitter tea was made from sea hearts to relieve pain during childbirth. In England, sea hearts were used as teething rings and as good luck charms for sailors embarking on a long ocean voyage. If sea hearts could survive a long and perilous journey across the ocean, perhaps they could also protect their owner. Sea hearts were also carried as an amulet to protect the owner from sickness and to ward off evil spirits. Sea hearts commonly wash ashore on islands of the Caribbean, and in Jamaica they are beautifully hand painted and sold as lucky pendants.

On the left is a pic of a hamburger sea bean, "burger", before polishing, a polished hamburger sea bean on the right and my favorite and only one so far is the polished sea bean "purse" at the bottom.

A side view of the sea bean to show the interesting likeness of a hamburger

These sea beans are called "golf balls"or coconut sea beans. When polished (right) they look like burrowed wood....

These are the beans we have polished so far from our collection while listening to good music in the cockpit....

We do spend time wandering around checking things out here and there on Elbow Cay Island in the Abacos

Thought this sign was "different" ?

I captured a little bird on this banana pod while on a walk

These  culry  tail lizards are everywhere.........

We often see turtles  poke their heads out of the water and are in awe when we see them swimming on top of the clear water...

In addition to "sea beaning" I often walk the shore with some friends to collect sea glass.....at low tide.

We were ankle deep in the water one day last week looking for sea glass when we saw this bullshark within a few feet of us....It kept swimming out and then coming back to where we were....needless to say, we made a hasty retreat after taking this pic.....

The Bahamas has many beautiful, colorful flowers in bloom......all the time

One of the few rainy days we have endured since December.......

This pic was taken at the Hope Town Sailing Club Jubilee celebration. This boat was decorated as the "Titanic"and won 1st prize in the boat  parade... The band played as the boat sinks...

Every other Sunday we went out to watch the dinghy races. This is the sun fish category.

Good choice for a boat name.....LOL! An older 40 ft wooden gaff rigged day sailor.

Time has arrived when we have to secure things down below and head north .....

On the way, in the "whale" channel between the sea of Abaco and the Atlantic, we saw this (we think) Humpback whale or maybe a Sperm Whale. Not sure as we didn't see the fluke.  Good thing we didn't hit it!

It was as large as our boat (40 ft) and a spectacular sight!

After our whale excitement, we anchored in Fisher bay on Guana Island for the night in company of  John and Debbie, our friends on S/V Mandalay

We dinghyed ashore to check out the island and scout out a place for lunch....

We followed the signs to a well know restaurant/bar in the Abacos....

This decorated tractor was on the path....

And here it is....the famous Nippers on the beach....Here we had a yummy lobster roll with a cold 'Kalik' beer!

One of many beautiful, calm sunsets......

From left to right...Guy, myself, Julie and Dawson of Sudbury Ontario on s/v Jazzabell, Lee and Randy of Toronto on s/v Silver Maple and Debbie and John of Annapolis on sailing vessel Mandalay. It's time to part ways as we are all headed back to our land lives but we do look forward to seeing our friends again next year to continue sharing fun times,  experiences, beaning, walking and finding sea glass on the ocean shore  and our euchre games.....

We are leaving our vessel Miss Ellie at the Abaco Yacht Services here in the Bahamas  for the summer.  Our Haul out date is the 22nd of April. We will be cleaning, polishing, varnishing, filling tanks and emptying one till then. 
                              It is alot of work...boo hoo!  
 We will fly out from Marsh Harbour to Ontario on the 24th for a few weeks before we fly out to Vancouver. 

As beautiful as this picture of the Bluewater Bridge in our home town of Sarnia is.....we hope the ice is gone by the time we get there!  Thanks Pete for sending it to us!  See you soon!

I hope you enjoyed my blog this year and will return to see what we will do next year........

                              Life is a journey !  Enjoy!

                 Take care.........Guy and Louise   xoxoxo