Great Guana Cay - Home of Nippers and Grabbers

Anchors up today a little before 10:30 and we were on our way. The planned destination was Great Guana Cay, but first with a side trip to Fowl Cay. Fowl Cay has a large reef on the ocean side with mooring balls to connect your dinghy while snorkeling. We anchored off the small beach on the Sea of Abaco side and Michael and Jana took snorkeling gear and headed for the mooring balls. They reported the snorkeling as excellent. We decided the water was a bit too cold for us and just used the “look bucket”. After everyone was finished with their explorations and a quick lunch, we raised anchor and headed to Great Guana Cay, arriving around 3:00.

Gerry took advantage of the calm, clear water and got out the Brownie’s Hookah and dove on the boat. It was starting to get lots of ugly growth on the bottom and he was pretty sure the zinc needed to be replaced. After a couple of hours he decided the cleaning was “good enough” and he had installed the new zinc.

We settled in for the evening and enjoyed a great show, compliments of Mother Nature. We had a beautiful sunset, followed by a brilliant moonrise – supposedly the brightest in the past 18 years. We had perfect weather and decided there could be no better place to watch this phenomenon than on our boat.

On Sunday we headed into town and went to the weekly pig roast at Nippers. With spring break in progress, the place was pretty entertaining – lots of people watching – and the guys seemed not to mind at all. We had their pig roast buffet, nothing special, but okay. After that we walked the beach and found a few places with a fair amount of sea glass. At one of the spots, we watched the waves roll in bringing in some nice pieces of sea glass. Linda even found a sea bean to add to her collection.

After our beach walk we ended up at Grabbers for a drink or two and, once again, did a bit of people watching as some of the crowd from Nippers had ended up at Grabbers. We had to wait for the tide to come in, as our dinghies were aground. Finally around 5:30, we could see they were floating so the guys walked them into the beach. We had a quick happy hour with Michael and Jana and Bill and Gail on Monk’s Vineyard. Gerry made a batch of Goombay Smashes and we listened to the new Barefoot Man CD we’d bought at Nippers.

We had a light dinner and decided to turn in early --- but our plans soon changed. Check in for our next blog to find out what happened.

We enjoyed the sunrise anchored off Man-O-War

We made a stop at Fowl Cay for some exploration of the reefs

Monk's Vineyard at anchor in the beautiful water

Michael practices his Cobra (Yoga) pose before
heading out for some snorkeling (or maybe he was
just trying to secure the dinghy)



The surface of Fowl Cay was very ragged.  Here you can
see some of the sharp peaks and in the background is
Michael and Jana heading out to snorkel.



Even with the jagged coral surface, plant life was growing

We passed from Scotland Cay to Great Guana Cay.
Here you can see the very small cut separating the two.

We anchored in the lee of Great Guana Cay and then went on
a quick dinghy ride.  Here is a view of Grabbers Restaurant
at Guana Beach Sunset Resort



Many of the houses built
along the shore line were
on rocky cliffs



Another home on the shore line

Extensive docking built into the rocks

This one had steps carved out of the rock leading
down to the water

Later in the afternoon, Gerry got out the
Brownie's Hookah and cleaned the
bottom of the boat and installed a zinc.



A beautiful sunset over calm waters



Sun almost gone



Sun gone



The afterglow following sunset -- making way for the next attraction



--- which was a full moon rising (the brightest in many years)



The moon and its reflection on the water

The next day we went ashore.  Here is Grabbers' Dock.

We walked down the street and headed to Nippers



Unusual signage on the way to Nippers



A burst of color lets you know you've arrived at Nippers



They have 2 swimming pools

... and several decks for dining and dancing

Gerry checking out the view from the top deck



The ocean looking south



The ocean looking north -- we walked this way a mile or two



We found this neat area which proved to be great for
sea glass hunting.  We stood in the shallow pools as
the waves washed in bringing in sea glass.



Gerry taking a break

After our beach walk, we left Nippers and headed for Grabbers.
Here Jana and Tutti are cooling their feet.



The view of the anchorage from Grabbers



We had a most unusual sunset -- a pink sun.
We were soon to find out this may have been a bad omen.
Stay tuned for our next blog update and find out what happened!!