Saturday, December 31, 2011

Crooked Island, Bahamas - Part 1

We landed on Crocked Island having cleared customs easily in Exuma. Here is the runway with the Crooked Island Lodge adjacent.

The Trimbles organized an amazing day of fishing and boating with local captain, Robby and fisherman, Jean.

Here is Robby in the boat with Will and me.

Pink flamingos in their natural habitat. I had never seen that before - so pretty!
Perry, Bill, Will and Barton dove for 12 huge conch for lunch. Billy is holding up a conch here.

Will, Bart and Jean speared 20 spiny lobsters that were very cute - almost the size of large prawn. They had also caught about 8 red snappers before Billy and I touched down. We were well on our way to a magnificent seafood feast!

Jean with the snapper.

Will, Perry, Bill and me watching the fire.

Perry and the boys had built this shelter, just in case of rain.

Billy and Bill on the beach.

Jean, deep into conch ceviche preparations. He shucked the meat from the conch and chopped it finely, adding an chopped onion, green pepper, banana pepper, juice from a sour lime, juice from some navel oranges, and special spices (salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin).



After fileting the fish and marinating them in seawater and spices, Robby wrapped the fish filets with sliced onion, green peppers, the special spice and a little butter. Each formed an individual packet for the grill. The spiny lobster tail was wrapped in the same way with butter and a little sea water. Robby was careful not to cook the lobster too long.


Robby manning the grill with the fruits of his labor below. Between the ceviche, spiny lobster with melted butter, and snapper, I don't know what was better. We barely needed the potato salad or cookies, but we ate them all!


Bart & Will on the boat.
Back at the marina blasted into the coral.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Nassau

Pulling into Nassau we went straight to Odyssey Aviation. They run a great FBO and could not have been more helpful with customs assistance and general help.
Then we were off to Indigo for lunch. Below is an interesting bread they made with maraschino cherries. With all the tea bread that I have made in my lifetime, I had yet to sample a soft cherry bread...not too bad.

I moved on to the blackened salmon that had a pineapple & black bean salsa, not shown here. Billy had a grilled mahi mahi with a pineapple beurre blanc. Both were cooked well.

Unfortunately it was overcast, so I failed to get a shot of any beaches. But, we did have a pleasant excursion to Nassau!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Chub Cay

Chub Cay is a wonderful day trip. So easy to get from the airport to the Chub Cay club where we had the pool and the beach almost to ourselves.
Lunch started with warm corn bread.
I had the chef's salad and Billy had the fish and chips...I stole some of the chips.
Below is the beach. As you can see, we had it to ourselves.

Who can resist a runway shot!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Harbor Island, Bahamas

Yesterday seemed like the perfect day to visit Harbor Island. Sunny and in the 80s, Harbor Island is just an hour long flight from West Palm Beach. The only hitch was Boxing Day.

Unfortunately, there were no golf carts to be rented on a holiday, and the stores were all closed. But we still had a festive lunch at Sip Sip, overlooking the gorgeous sand beach.

Here are Sip Sip's daily specials.

The lobster and artichoke dip on freshly baked pita bread was sublime.

Billy had the grouper sandwich which was delicious on their fresh bread. My arugula salad was good - a bit too much salad dressing.

All in all a wonderful day trip. I am looking forward to going back!