So our sail to Chub Cay, Bahamas was fun (and typical). Wind at twice the forecasted speed (revenge of Clint Parkhurst, weather router for the trashing we gave him two blog posts ago?) and big waves. We averaged almost 7 knots, which is fast for a boat although comparable to the speed a sugared up kid can achieve on a skateboard in his driveway.
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| Need some tile? The half built clubhouse here with pallets of tile sitting outside |
Gone are our 26 restaurants from Paradise Island. In fact, just about everything is gone. Chub Cay looks like a ghost town, mainly because it is. Some banks and developers got the idea around 2006 to develop a large marina and 50 or so cute million dollar houses catering to wealthy individuals who can fly their private planes to a private island and sportfish on their private boats (I am sure it seemed like a good idea at the time). Then came the crash and construction stopped (suddenly, it looks like). A lot of things half built and abandoned. Typical of what we have seen across the entire Bahamas and Caribbean for that matter......about 300% of the tourist infrastructure required for the number of people actually traveling.
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| Ghost office - rotten wood on an unfinished building |
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| Million dollar house with views of concrete foundation of unfinished house - aren't you glad you didn't buy here? |
We're taking today off to walk around and do nothing before tomorrow's sail to Bimini. Not sure how that's different than when we sail (and also do nothing).
We met some nice American cruisers last night at the restaurant (as the only two guests it would have been awkward not to talk). The guy ended up having six kids (he's cruising with one) and being a construction magnate. He's going to cruise all over the Bahamas although he doesn't seem to know much about his boat (three weeks old) or how to fix it............it's already broken, by the way. Think the other 5 kids will be adjudicating the will in a couple of months.
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| Is there a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow? |
