BAHAMAS - ANDROS ISLAND

 

Circled in red is Andros Island, which is really three large islands/cays and a bunch of smaller ones all separated by tidal creeks. The red dots are where we have anchored so far and the red "X" is where we are now, on the southwest side of Lee Stocking Cay in the Exuma Island chain. 

Like the Bimini and Berry Islands, Andros is another one of the Bahamas' 13 districts/states. At 104 miles long by 40 miles wide at its widest point, it is larger than all of the other Bahamian islands and cays combined. Along the east side of Andros is the world's third longest reef. It is 140 miles long and borders the west edge of the 6,600' deep Tongue of the Ocean, which is just a mile offshore in some places. West, northwest and south of Andros is the Great Bahama Bank. Andros is the sixth largest island in the Caribbean, 153rd in the world and has a population of around 8,000 who primarily live in a thin strip along the east coast. There is only one settlement on the entire west coast, while the remainder of the island is national park or simply undeveloped. The red "1" is where we were anchored for the first part of this blog and the red "2" is where we were moored for the second. This aerial photo is from pinterest.com. 

Like the other Bahamian island chains, after the Lucayan people were enslaved/removed from Andros by the Spanish and following 130 years of being uninhabited, Loyalists fleeing the United States during and after the American Revolution settled on Andros. They often brought their slaves with them. In addition, Andros was the destination of many families who were squeezed out of the British Honduras (now Belize) logwood industry following the relocation of Mosquito Coast settlers there in 1787. And between 1807 and 1865 Black Seminoles, as well as escaped and freed slaves from the US also settled on Andros.

Andros is home to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), which is operated by the U.S. Navy. It is used to conduct special operations training and sonar and submarine research in the Tongue of the Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard also runs rescue and drug interdiction operations from AUTEC.

The Bahamian tourism industry markets Andros as the least-explored island in the Bahamas. It is considered the bonefish capital of the world. Andros also offers other flats fishing, deep sea fishing, diving, ecotourism and relaxation. It has four airports with multiple daily flights to and from Nassau, which is capital of and the largest city in the Bahamas.

The anchorage at Morgan's Bluff was our first destination after leaving the Berry Islands. Very few tourists, and particularly cruisers, visit Andros. As far as the latter goes, compared to the other islands there are few reviews and what there are, aren't very positive. 

Though the abandoned boats aren't necessarily very attractive, I think they're much more interesting than the beautiful sand beaches on the other side of the bay.

Here the dinghy looks like it's almost floating on air. The water is seems crystal clear, but, everyone told us just wait until we see the water in the Exuma's.

For all but the last two days of the 10 we were anchored, it is was really pretty calm.

On the east side of the bay is a large wharf where heavy equipment and construction materials are unloaded and loaded.

Inside the bay is a narrow channel that leads to this totally protected little harbor. It's full of smaller boats, with most looking like like they've been there for awhile and don't plan on going anywhere soon.

Besides the little Harbor Master's office, the only buildings adjacent to the harbor is a storage building, a bar and these food/vendor stands. The stands are specifically for the sailing regattas that Morgan's Bluff hosts. 

These regattas are a big deal with almost every larger than average size settlement throughout the Bahamas hosting them. But because of Covid, there hasn't been any for over a year. This is the distinctly Bahamian boat that's used. The photo is from Wooden Boat Magazine, which brings up a point. With ALL of the photos and information out there about everyplace and everything, there's no reason why a person couldn't write a blog about his "around the world adventure" without ever leaving the house. Just saying.

The blue building is the bar. The shorter part to the right is a porch that has chain link fencing over the windows. When you're in there it feels like the inside of what a UFC fight might be like. The boat with the light blue trim is a fishing boat with a crew of four. They tied up at that spot the day after we anchored in the bay, to have their refrigeration system repaired. They were still there waiting for the repair when we left 10 days later. 

A block form the marina is an Esso gas station/very poorly stocked convenience store. We asked the cashier if there was a car rental place on the island. She had us call her friend, who rented us her personal car for $55/day. No forms, no insurance, no checking driver's licenses, etc. The car was a Nissan Cube. They look like the name implies. Not only were all the written instructions in Japanese, but so was the voice that went into a long explanation about something, every time I turned the ignition on. Plus, like Britain, they drive on the wrong side of the road. And with the steering wheel on the right, I can't tell you how many times I turned on the wipers when I meant to turn on a turn signal. Of course I also drove in the wrong lane a few times.

Again, the cemeteries have some of the best views.

I had never heard of the batik method of printing on fabric before. The Androsia Batik Factory was founded on Andros in 1973. Their vibrantly colored fabrics have become part of the national dress and identity of the Bahamas. Plus they ship their printed fabrics all over the world.

Stamps are carved out of wood or dense foam, dipped in wax and then pressed onto white fabric. Then they gently dye the fabric with a bright color. The dye of course colors everything except where the wax is, which remains white. Those are all stamps hanging on the walls.

Before stamping the cloth, they lay out the design they want below the glass on this light table using cut out copies of stamps. Then they lay the uncolored fabric over the glass and stamp a way.

Here's a close up of some stamps.

They do the dying, using all natural dyes, in these old bath tubs .

 i

There's lots of sewing involved too, on very old but good machines.

Delana bought a table cloth for the boat from their store.

Guess what the hot seller is.

When asking the Esso people about a rental car, we also asked where we could have our propane tanks filled. They told us that if we see a propane truck while driving around, to just wave it down. The first day we didn't run across one. And seeing how we were getting low on propane, which we/Delana use for cooking, baking and grilling, the next day we asked if there was a more reliable way to find the propane truck. No less than four people helped us. One of them ended up calling the propane guy and gave us directions on where to find him.

All of the main islands of the Bahamas have blue holes, but Andros has the world's largest collection, with 178 on land and at least 50 in the sea. According to Wikipedia, "A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef)". Horizontal cave passages can go for several miles and be 10 to hundreds of feet deep. Jacques Cousteau visited Andros Island in 1970 to explore and film the blue holes. The blue holes have also been featured in National Geographic several times. We didn't meet one local who would swim in a blue hole because of the creatures that may live in them.

During our first day with the car we were told about the settlement of Red Bays, how it is known for wood carvings/basket weaving and that a man who lives there has some of his work in the Smithsonian. So the next day, at the end of a HELLACIOUS road we found Red Bays, which is the only settlement on the east side of the island. Beginning in 1821 when the US acquired Florida from Spain, Black Seminoles, free blacks and escaped slaves fled across the Gulf Stream, some in only canoes, and established Red Bays. They brought with them the Black Seminole style of carving and basket weaving, which is a cottage industry in the settlement today.

We actually found the house of the man who has his work in the Smithsonian. He was home, but never came outside, though his wife and son did. She showed us how she makes baskets, even water tight ones. It's really amazing, takes a LOT of time and requires very strong/tough hands/fingers. When we commented on how bad the road was, she said one of her car tires was ruined and that she needed to sell two baskets in order to afford a new tire. That's not the reason, but we ended up buying the basket that's on the table, just to the right of her left upper arm.  

Andros has greater botanical diversity than any of the other islands in the Bahamas. It includes hardwoods, pineyards, scrub, saltwater marsh, rocky and sandy beaches, palm savannas and mangroves. In the 1950s through '70s the Owens Lumber Company clear cut much of the indigenous pines that grew on North Andros, so what's there today are over-crowded forests of mainly young trees. 

More than 50 species of wild orchids live in the subtropical forests and swamps of Andros. So do most of the 225 bird species in the Bahamas, including some only found on Andros, as well as other rare and endangered species. Organizations have been created to ensure the ecological preservation of the island, along with several National Parks and Marine Protected Areas.

That night we stopped into see if the blue bar had internet. It did. Beers were $4, which isn't bad, but rum and Cokes were $8 for a smallish glass. I think it's the Coke that makes them expensive.

Mother/daughter bar tenders.

When I asked the Esso gang about getting my bike rewelded, they suggested having the Mennonites do it. In the early 1980's several families of Mennonites moved from Pennsylvania to Andros. As families come and go it sounds like there's generally around 80 - 90 Mennonites living on Andros, including a dozen or so from Jamaica. The Mennonites run a commercial farm that grows all sorts of fruits and vegetables. They also have bee hives, as well as operate auto repair, welding and carpentry shops. 

When I dropped my bike off at the welder's I was invited to attend that Sunday's service. I accepted immediately. When I told Delana and our friends who sailed down from the Berry Islands when we did, they all wanted to go. We were picked up Sunday morning by Bill and his wife, who were on a mission trip from Pennsylvania. The church is a simple one story metal building, though all the pews were made in their carpentry shop using local woods. The men/boys wore white shirts with dark pants and sat on the right side of the sanctuary, while the women/girls wore Little House on the Prairie type clothing/hair styles and sat on the left side of the aisle.

The service was two hours long with the first hour being Bible study. It appeared that only the men could participate in the discussions. The second hour was a pretty traditional service, though the singing was amazing. The entire congregation sang in a cappella four part harmony. It's something they work on from a young age. Afterwards we spent quite a bit of time asking questions about their life style and answering questions about living on a boat. We learned that Mennonites are Anabaptists and strong pacifists. Anabaptists believe that baptismal candidates must be old enough to be able to make a confession of faith that is freely chosen, so they don't recognition the baptism of infants. There are over two million Anabaptists worldwide, including Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and some other groups. Everyone was very nice. I wish I had taken more photos.

Bill and his wife invited us for lunch after church, but we had a boat renaming ceremony to attend. This boat was the one being renamed. It's owned by the couple we met in Guatemala and who sailed down from the Berry Islands with us.

They followed the boat renaming procedure to a tee, including pouring very expensive champagne into the water as offerings to each of the four winds, as well as Neptune. Luckily there was a little left over for us witnesses. We were joined by a young couple from the only other boat to come ashore the 10 days we were there. 

The next day we went looking for Captain Henry Morgan's cave full of treasure. Unfortunately someone beat us to it. Morgan's Bluff, as well as Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, are named after the famous pirate. During the late 1600's and early 1700's, various pirate groups were based out of Andros Island. In 1713 the Bahama Islands were even declared a Pirate's Republic. It is said that the Andros settlement of Small Hope Bay was so named because Morgan claimed there would be "small hope" of anybody finding the treasure he had hidden there.

That night we had a fire on the beach. The young couple sang folk songs.

Delana took this nice photo of the sunset. With strong north winds in the forecast, the next day the two other boats left for an anchorage on the other side of Nassau. 

But since my bike wasn't welded yet and we had some more looking around to do, we made arrangements with the Harbor Master to tie up to the recently vacated, and only available dock in the harbor.

The Esso people helped us find a ride to pick up my bike, as well as to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from the Mennonites. Bill even had them save some strawberries for us. Andros is the only place in the Bahamas with enough soil and fresh water to support any significant agriculture. Most of the produce gets shipped to Nassau. Plus it wasn't long ago that Andros also provided Nassau with five million gallons of fresh water a day via barges from Morgan's Bluff.

Before we moved to the dock this boat and its tender anchored in the bay.

It turned out that both boats were FULL of conch, so they spent the next day, which was when the winds came, transferring conch from the boat in the bay,  

to a waiting pickup inside the harbor

                                        

and then into crates for shipment to Nassau. I asked if we could buy a couple conch. We could, but no less than five. The price was $10 for five, which wasn't bad, but they were pretty small and I didn't feel like cleaning five conch.

That night we were woken up around 1:00 AM by the weekly "mail boat" bringing supplies to the island.

Mail boat day is a big deal. The normally dead harbor has all sorts of activity as the shipment is sorted and individuals, families and businesses come to get what ever they ordered, which can include anything

from building supplies, used pool tables and furniture,

to food.

There isn't a lot of space in the harbor when the mailboat is there. That's Starship docked to the right of it.

Once the boat is emptied, sea food, fruits, vegetables and passengers are loaded for the trip back to Nassau.

As you can see there isn't a lot of extra room for the mail boat to get through the channel.

The day before leaving Morgan's Bluff Delana made and delivered chocolate chip cookies to the Harbor Master, the crew of the fishing boat that was still waiting to have their refrigeration fixed, as well as to the guys that hangs out around the Esso station. They were all very friendly, helpful and happy.

The night before leaving we went to the bar for some good internet. We just sat down when the lights went out. No one said a word. They just pulled out their phones and turned the flashlight apps on.

It wasn't long before the power was back on.

Even though we have a 12V reverse osmosis water maker that can run off our batteries/solar panels, when it's sunny that is, it only makes 7 gallons an hour. So when the tank gets really low and there's a relatively easy place to get water I'll do that. In this case the Harbor Master let me fill jugs with water from a spigot at one of the docks. Even at that, it takes a while to fill an 80 gallon tank using four 5 gallon jugs. By the way, Andros has plenty of water so they don't charge for it. Since then, when water is available, which isn't often, the price has been 40 to 50 cents a gallon.

Before leaving Morgan's Bluff for Mangrove Cay we asked several people on North Andros what they knew about South Andros or Mangrove Cay. Even though they're so close, no one we talked to had ever been to either place. The same goes for the people on Mangrove Cay and South Andros, no one we talked to there had been to North Andros, or really any of other parts of the Bahamas other than Nassau. 

Right before sunset on January 29th we left Morgan's Bluff (red "1") for a nice overnight motor/sail to Lisbon Creek on Mangrove Cay (red "2"). Seeing how everything is so close where we are now in the Exuma's, we haven't done an overnight sail since.

We first had to go through an opening in the reef and then a VERY narrow channel to get to the creek.

The most recent information we had about this anchorage was from 2013. It said that between the very strong current and the bottom being just a few inches of sand over rock, that this was a very difficult place to anchor. On top of that, since 2013 there were now moorings with local boats taking up much of the river, so the potential area to anchor was really small. However, after several attempts we thought the anchor was set. This is the view up river. 

This is down river. And yes, it's really this color.

After sailing all night and thinking we were well anchored, we laid down to rest but were soon woken by voices. Some guys were running down the creek bank to tell us our anchor had dragged. Luckily the hulls hit sand before the VERY rocky shore line.

The dizzying yellow track shows how we spent the next five hours, including many attempts to get an anchor to hold, three hours grounded on a sand bar waiting for high tide and several tries at picking up a mooring ball. With the very strong currents and not a lot of room to maneuver it was a real struggle. 

But just when we were running out of both daylight and options, a guy on shore said he'd go get his boat to help. He was there within 10 minutes and even had a little kid on-board. Delana was able to pass him our mooring bridle. It wasn't easy but he was then able to attach the bridle to the mooring ball pennant. We thanked the guy profusely and said we wanted to meet him, but it was getting dark so he just shouted "You're safe now." and took off. We then added a third line and pulled it in as tight as we could. Besides the wicked current, the problem was that the pennant was just too short to attach from on the boat. If this hadn't worked I'm not sure what we would have done, probably tried tying up to one of the bigger fishing boats we saw docked as we entered the river.

Once on the ball, here's what our track looked like over the next week. Quite a difference. However, the ball was just attached to an engine block and that was with a pretty well worn rope, so I really wasn't sure if it could hold us in such fast currents. Between the strong switching currents and questionable mooring gear, neither of us slept very well that week.

So after a long 24 hours, we went to sleep that night to a beautiful full moon, which by the way, just makes the tides/currents worse.

We woke up the next morning to our new "neighborhood", as well as to church music. I had Googled "churches near me" but hadn't come up with any close by. However, we were definitely hearing music and singing. So I threw my church clothes on, which are my only pair of long pants (nice jeans) and a long sleeved button down blue shirt. Then I dinghyed to shore and discovered that the Creation Outreach Center, at least that's what was on the front of the pulpit, was holding services in a portion of the blue building. I probably missed the first 20 minutes or so, but the service went on for another hour and a half so I didn't feel cheated. The portion of the service I was there for, included Bible readings, singing, one member of the congregation asking certain others for forgiveness, personal stories of miracles (one woman had survived two sunken boats, as well as a boat explosion), members prostrate on the floor and others wailing. Unfortunately I left the boat in such a hurry I forgot my phone, so no photos. Though different than what I'm used to, there's no questioning they're faith. But the most amazing thing, is that the man who helped with the mooring ball the night before, was the Pastor, Pastor Robinson. During the night he said he had a vision that I would be there, so wasn't at all surprised to see me. We talked some, I thanked him again for his help and asked if he knew anyone who could show us around Mangrove Cay. He volunteered his wife to pick us up the next day. Since then I've tried Googling Creation Outreach Center, but haven't had any luck. However, Pastor Robinson told me it's a non-denominational form of Christianity that emphasizes work of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and modern-day miracles as an everyday part of a believer's life. 

On the way back to the dinghy I took this photo of our new "neighborhood". Kemp, who let us use his mooring ball and really kept an eye on us/the boat the whole time we were there, lives in the boat with the barrels on it. A few days after this photo was taken, he was able to raise the partially submerged boat. However, it sounded like it would cost too much to repair so he said he was just going to get it out of his way by leaving it on some sandbar at high tide. 

Lenora, the Pastor's wife, picked us up the next day. Because she knows everyone on the Cay, it seemed like we soon did too. Lenora is a lot of fun and she and Delana really hit it off. The Cay's population is around 800 and it only has about 10 miles of roads.

The Catholic Church and cemetery from the 1800's.

The old pier.

Thanks to the outgoing tides, these outhouses get flushed twice a day.

One of Lenora's many friends started this bone fishing resort. Everything about it is perfect.

Here Lenora and Delana are picking pigeon peas. We also tasted dilly fruit and were shown various bush medicines.

This is Lenora and Pastor Robinson's back yard, which is right on the ocean. The low gray structure is a crab pen. Immediately following the spring rains there are tens of thousands of land crabs walking all over the place so a lot of homes have pens in their back yards to keep the crabs while they fatten them up with mangos, papayas, etc.. After six weeks or so the crabs are sold and shipped to Nassau. I imagine with a diet of mangos and papayas, they taste pretty good.

This is the rest of the the Robinson's backyard.

The three of us met Pastor Robinson for lunch at a beach side restaurant. Along with cracked conch, rice with beans and plantains, we were talked into ordering Vita Malt, a Bahamian thing. Neither of us are big fans.

The conch came from just off the restaurant's pier and were as fresh as you can get.

On our drive back to the boat, we saw these guys cleaning sponges. From 1841-1938 Greek spongers immigrated to Andros for the rich sponge fishing on the Great Bahama Bank off Andros' west coast. For a period of years Andros sponging was the Bahamas' largest industry, but in the 1930's the sponges were wiped out by Red Tide. The sponging industry died, and the spongers left the island for Key West and Tarpon Springs, Florida. 

I've really been surprised by how cool it is. No wonder according to some, the Bahamas' high season really doesn't begin until April. We've primarily experienced temps with highs in the upper 70's and lows in the low 70's. I know that doesn't sound cold, but with the wind it kind of is, at least after spending so much time in Central America. It is good sleeping weather though. While in Lisbon Creek we were told they had a record low one night. On the boat is was 51.2 degrees outside the cabin and 51.6 inside.

One calm day we decided to dinghy up Lisbon Creek, around this large cay, down another tidal creek and back up Lisbon to the boat. It's about a 10 mile trip.

A few miles up the Creek is this large boat in just a couple feet of water. It was evidently pushed here by a storm.

The Bahamian islands and cays are composed of limestone that has eroded to create VERY uneven VERY sharp surfaces. It almost looks volcanic. The rock is often exposed, especially on the shorelines. Inland, thousands of years of decaying plant material has created a soil of sorts that has collected in the holes/depressions and allows a surprisingly large amount of very tough prickly vegetation to grow.

As we returned to Starship we saw that a large fishing boat had arrived while we were gone. One of its fisherman had just anchored one of the little boats that the big one tows, so we picked him up in our dinghy and brought him to shore. He said they had been fishing near Cuba and had been gone for about 20 days, including two days to get there and two to get back. Commercial fishing remains a mainstay of the island's economy. Conch, lobster, snapper and grouper are all commercially harvested for sale locally and in Nassau's fish markets. Also found in Andros' waters, but not sold in Nassau's fish markets, are both Humpback and Pilot whales, as well as four different species of sea turtles. 

Between the world's third largest barrier reef; the 6,600 foot deep Tongue of the Ocean; mangrove swamps; tidal pools and estuaries; inland and ocean blue holes; shallow sand and mud flats; and huge freshwater aquifers, Andros' combination of ecosystems provide breeding and growing habitats for a wide variety of marine life, and actually may be unique on Earth 

This is one of the boats the mother ships tows to the fishing grounds. Under the console is an air compressor that's hooked up to the yellow hose that the divers use when harvesting conch, catching lobster and spearing fish,. Sometimes they're a 100 feet deep. It's dangerous work.

You don't see this every day, a pig in a cage on a dock. 

One evening we had Lenora and Pastor Robinson out to the boat to give them some school supplies to donate, as well as to thank them for helping us get moored and for showing us around the Cay. Besides being Pastor, Robinson also manages the Cay's Utilities Department and is President of the Mangrove Cay Council, though Lenora says this is his last term. It so happens that their two sons live in the Georgetown area, where we plan to sail to on Sunday, so we may see them there. 

When the current isn't raging Lisbon Creek is a peaceful place.

After our anchoring ordeal we decided to take the ferry, instead of Starship, to South Andros. 

The passengers were mostly women going to work, plus a few men, a young boy, as well as some water bottles and propane tanks to be filled. The free ferry leaves Lisbon Creek for its 20 minute journey in the morning at 8:00 and returns that afternoon at 5:00. When we got to South Andros our rental car was waiting for us at the ferry landing. And again, no paperwork.

This is the view from the ferry of where Starship is moored in Lisbon Creek.

All of Andros has tons of old ruins in the bush. If this hadn't been cleared you'd never know they were there. Apparently a lot of land on Andros is available to Bahamian Citizens at little to no cost as long as they clear the land, build on it and/or farm it and fill out the necessary paperwork.

South Andros has miles of beautiful beaches.

As I mentioned previously, the Bahamas in a very religious country. South Andros even offers a Holy Land Experience. 

We just drove through, but were told the tour was actually pretty good.

So far we hadn't seen near as many dogs in the Bahamas as Central America, but both Mangrove Cay and South Andros had a bunch.

These boats are anchored over a blue hole, but can only come or go when the 3' tide is high.

We've seen a lot of wrecked cars and trucks. Plus, there's hardly a running one that isn't dented. Maybe they buy them pre-damaged from insurance companies in the US.

Of course these long one way bridges could account for a few dents.

And then there are the roads. For the most part they're narrow but not bad. However, just when you let your guard down, the road will become absolutely FULL of serious pot holes. 

A guy in Lisbon Creek told us to check out his fiancée's family's restaurant.

Delana ordered the last fried snapper and I had cracked lobster. Both were good, and with the sides there was plenty to bring back for dinner.

This was the menu. As long as you're not in a touristy place, eating out is pretty reasonable. However, anything you buy in a grocery store can often be two to three times what you'd pay in the States. Plus the choices are pretty limited. As a matter of fact, we've spoken with some locals who go to Florida to do their serious/high volume shopping and then have what they buy shipped home. The savings more than pays for the transportation and shipping costs. With that said, the local economy really needs help, so it's a convenient excuse for us to eat out, rent cars and buy more than we normally would.

It's hard to tell, but in this photo are two good size holes in the rock. They're called banana holes because in the bottom of these holes is about the only places where there is enough soil and moisture to grow a banana tree.  

And then some banana holes become junk holes.

I took this photo just to show you how rocky it is.

We saw a lot of ruins and there's no telling how many more there are in the bush.

This one had four vultures on it.

South Andros has blue holes too.

Just a cool looking bark.

We stopped at this bar on our way back to the ferry. A few fisherman from the boat that just docked at Lisbon Creek were there. One showed us several beautiful pink conch pearls he had found and the owner of the restaurant showed us how he cleans and prepares conch. There was also a debate about why the bigger fishing boats go so far off shore for conch, lobster and fish now.

This is the waiting room for the ferry. Everyone was into their smart phones.

The ferry arrives.

Unloads passengers.

And we head back to Lisbon Creek with full water bottles, propane tanks and few new faces.

The little girl's name is Italy. She's the niece of Theresa, the lady who owns the restaurant in the background. Theresa made us some bread and Delana made Theresa some chocolate chip cookies. In the process, we got to know Italy and gave her some stickers, coloring books and markers to share with her siblings. The boy on the right is Italy's little brother, Tristan. Since we were leaving the next day we said our goodbyes to everyone. As we were walking away, Tristan yelled, "Bye white people". 

The day before we left Lisbon Creek, some guys started unloading sponges on the shore next to us.

At this point they don't look like anything you'd want to scrub your body with. Here they're being sorted by size and put on strings of 10. Next they lay them out in the sun for 2-3 days to die. Then they wash and beat them multiple times so they're clean enough to sell. They're biggest customers are the Greeks, who'll pay as little as 65 cents per sponge, depending on the size. Kemp, the guy whose mooring we used, was about to take himself and two buddies out sponging south of Andros for a couple weeks. Between the three of them, he thought they'd probably end up bringing back 30,000 sponges. Hard to believe. However, these guys had just gone out locally for a couple hours and had nearly 200.

This one is huge.

We bought six wool sponges (the ones at the bottom of the photo) and eight grass sponges (the ones at the top). After Delana cleaned these, soaked them in a very diluted acid and then rinsed, they look and feel like proper sponges.

As we left Lisbon Creek on February 2nd the "mailboat" had just unloaded the week's supplies. After leaving every place we've been, we ask ourselves could we live there. Although this isn't that place, if I HAD to choose between Andros, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Isla Mujeras, Andros may be my first choice. The primarily reasons are that we speak the same language, people are REALLY friendly, it's not far from the US and it's a pretty big island.

Can you guess what this is? I bet Al can. More about it next time.

Also next time. They're right, the water in the Exuma's really is amazing.