Conch Salad Lesson

We left Biscayne Bay at 5:00 am on the morning of Friday, March 13.  Our first few minutes in the channel told us that this trip might be a little rougher than expected.  The forecast was for 2 foot waves, but I think someone forgot to include the exponent!  We told ourselves that things would probably calm down once we got into deeper water...these large waves were probably just getting piled up in the shallow water on the shelf.  Nope...we watched the depth drop from 12 feet to 60 ft...is it getting better...no, to 150 ft to 700 ft to 1000+ and still the waves were sending us into the air one moment and crashing back down the next.  I was the unlucky person with first helm duty on this morning, and I quickly realized that my strong constitution against seasickness did not hold true in the dark!  I had a glimpse of this fact in September when we ran in rough seas for 100 miles from Long Island to Barnegat.  I was doing fine all day, but when it got dark I was not feeling well.  If I can see the waves coming I am alright, but when they are hitting in the dark I’m not so good. Anyway, I was determined to complete my 3.5 hour shift without waking Keith so I was SUPER happy when the sun arrived around 7:00 am

Sunrise in the ocean...thank goodness!  Once the sun was up I felt much better, and at shift change at 8:30 I was happy to go back to bed.  I think we have discovered the secret to making a 7 hour rough crossing much more bearable, sleep for 3.5 of those hours👍

When we arrived in Bimini, around 12:30, we were required to fly a yellow quarantine flag until we cleared customs and immigration.  Once we were cleared we replaced the yellow flag with the courtesy flag for the Bahamas. The check in process was not quite what I expected, particularly with the health situation currently unfolding.  A few weeks ago while researching the documentation needed to enter the Bahamas I downloaded the paperwork from their website.  If I had seen some of these questions 6 months ago I would have thought their entry application to be slightly outdated (it still seems a little outdated), but now I see how this line of questioning makes perfect sense.

This is an actual screenshot of the questions.  What is really interesting is that when we checked in we were told this page wasn’t needed, and in fact we were not asked any questions about health concerns.  The only question she asked was if we brought enough food with us to sustain ourselves through the whole 7 week visit, which we actually did! All along I was concerned that they might confiscate and destroy my supply of fruits and veggies, but no they didn’t even ask if we had fresh fruits and vegetables onboard.

We passed these gentlemen while walking through town to get a Bahamas SIM card for our phone.

We took a day off to explore and have a little fun. The water is so beautiful and clear.

On Sunday we left Bimini for a 75 mile trip to Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands.  I am not sure if this is a normal occurrence, or if this sighting has something to do with the virus, but we passed this cruise ship anchored 20 miles from the nearest land.  We didn’t see very many people on board, but we have no idea why they were anchored there.

We anchored on the west side of the island to have protection from strong easterly winds forecasted for the next few days.  We took the Whaler to explore and were very surprised by the channel leading to the harbor.  From a distance you can’t see this channel at all, it was blasted through the rock making this straight, clean cut.

The western side of the island has walls of rock that have been weathered and eroded into a shelf that hangs out over the water in many places.  The rock looks volcanic in origin and the erosion process has left very sharp edges.

We did find a small strip of beach to visit.  The eastern side of the island has miles of beautiful beaches that we will visit.

We hiked to an abandoned golf course/club house, which was built with big plans to create a hideaway for the privileged few back in the 1960’s.  A guy named Lou Chesler got screwed over by some gangsters who he was supposed to partner with to build casinos in Grand Bahama, so he bought this island in 1966 to build his own retreat.  They built a golf course, club house, airport, channel to open harbor, marina, 49 homes, and marina condos (with infrastructure water, power...etc.).  Their business plan was to sell the homes, condos, and building lots to the ‘rich and famous’.  The golf course hosted a tournament in 1969 as a grand opening to showcase the amenities. Sales were low and the venture was faltering, then on July 10, 1973 the Bahamian people won independence from British control and immediately discouraged foreign investment, which put the ‘final nail in the coffin’.  Developers tried to sell the property, but were unsuccessful.  (If you are interested in reading more of the history (from sponge fishermen in the 1920s to drug runners in the 1970s) go to 

https://www.greatharbourcaymarina.com/  click on the hamburger and select the history link.

The village hosted a Halloween party here, and it appears that someone might use this as a party spot.

While walking around the village we discovered Brown’s Garden. I have never really tried conch, and was curious to taste this creature.  Conch salad is probably the most ‘extreme’ recipe for a novice like me, because it is prepared by pulling the animal out of it’s shell, cleaning it off, chopping it up, adding onions, peppers, and tomatoes, and drenching the whole concoction in lime juice. No flame required!  I was worried, but willing to try.

Ronnie Brown was the perfect person to give me my first conch salad lesson! We walked down to the water where he pulled up a string of conch (tied together so they can’t escape).  He picked one and used a rock hammer to knock a hole in the shell then slid a knife in the whole to cut the muscle.  That is the only way you can get the conch out of the shell.

While Ronnie was cleaning the conch, one of his conch suppliers pulled up and offloaded 28 conch.

Back at the prep table Ronnie is ready to assemble the conch salad. That white blob next to the cleaver is the conch.

After a lot of chopping the final touch is plenty of fresh squeezed lime juice.  It was wonderful!  There was actually such a strong onion taste that I couldn’t tell if the conch had any flavor at all.  It just tasted like a salty salsa.

I ended my last blog post by saying “ Life is great...we are soooo lucky”.  At that time I didn’t realize just how lucky.  Things have happened quickly (for everyone) over the  past few days, and we just learned that the Bahamas will be going on lockdown as of tonight Thursday, March 19.  This means that no businesses (on our island we were told this included the grocery store, but the ‘official’ statement excludes grocery and pharmacy) will be open, people should not walk around town or congregate.  Grocery stores carry very little stock on these small islands, and everyone is concerned about the ability to resupply.  We have decided to find an unpopulated island to anchor behind and stay put for now.  We are soooo lucky because we have enough food onboard to last us for 3+ months (or 6-9 months if we dig into the emergency rations and dehydrated foods).  I am assembling my hydroponic garden tomorrow, and Keith and I will now add fishing and diving for conch and lobster to our weekly routine.  If we get proficient at those endeavors, and since our water maker does not need fossil fuel to run, we 

could conceivable be self sustaining indefinitely.  I know that we are luckier than most, and I hope that everyone has made adequate preparations to ensure comfort and health through this crazy time.