Elbow Cay to Little Harbour, Great Abaco, Abaco Islands, Bahamas
KORKZcrew is the blue dot on the map
Today we left the marina and took KORKZcrew for an overnight trip to Little Harbour and Pete’s Pub. Nice to see the sun as it's been consistently overcast and windy since our arrival on Sunday. I took advantage of today's nice weather with some pics and a quick 360 from our slip at the Hope Town Inn & Marina before we headed south.
Ron had made some additional KORKZ for Sabrina, the restaurant manager at Firefly, and since the resort has a decent-sized dock and is situated along our route to Little Harbour, we decided to make a quick delivery stop. We just nosed KORKZcrew up to their dock, and Greta hopped off and took the KORKZ up to Firefly's office. How's THAT for some serious KORKZ Kustomer Service?! 😜
Here's a visual to help illustrate our route today, from the marina to Firefly, and from the marina to Little Harbour.
Little Harbour is the southernmost safe harbor in the Sea of Abacos, and while it's part of the island of Great Abacos, it's still incredibly isolated and wasn't connected to Marsh Harbour by road until 1987. Until that time, they had to have all of their food, water, supplies, and mail delivered by boat. The story of how Pete's Pub came to be is an interesting one in and of itself. Pete is the son of Ran Johnston, who taught art at Smith College, and at 47, decided to escape "the megamachine of society", moving his wife and four kids to Little Harbour in the early 1950's specifically because "there were no roads, electricity, edible vegetation or even fresh water. Only the mosquitos were plentiful." They lived between a 47' boat and a cave in this protected harbor for over 3 years, eventually building several structures including their home, Pete's Pub, a sculpture studio, and the first and only Art Foundry in the Bahamas. Ran passed away in 1992, when his son Pete took over the foundry and continued his dad's legacy. Now both of Pete's sons continue the family tradition of bronze casting, and all of them help run the pub and gallery.
See if you can find Steve under Greta's arm ❤️
Once we reached Little Harbour, Greta helped me snag a mooring ball, where it’s $30 to spend the night, and you just pay at the bar at Pete's Pub. Some anchorages provide mooring balls to control where boats can and cannot park. It's also nice piece of mind to tie up to the mooring ball rather than worry whether or not your anchor is going to hold in an unfamiliar area.
Greta used the boat hook to snag the metal eyelet on the mooring ball. Then we threaded a line through the eyelet that we connected to two different cleats on the bow of KORKZcrew. That way the tension is dispersed across two cleats instead of just one. But the truly correct way to tie up to a mooring ball is to use two separate lines, one attached to each cleat, with each line running through the eyelet and back to its respective cleat. We are only here for one night, and it's a very calm and protected harbor, which is why we chose to "cheat" the system.
We took the dinghy to shore and got an awesome isolated table perched on the hill overlooking the rest of this super low-key pub, whose floor is the sand on which the structure is built. This was our third trip to Pete's, having visited in 2007 and 2015 with the Reddins, and it was great to see how well the buildings and harbor itself had weathered Dorian.
From 2015:
Pete's Pub is known for the tshirts that hang from its rafters, stapled by patrons to any and every available spot, representing different countries, cities, points of view, or boats of origin. Ron decided to take one of his old KORKZcrew shirts to add to the mix. He mistakenly took one of Greta’s, who recognized it because hers has blue paint stains on it, but only after he’d already written on it in black marker. Oops. Guess Greta gets to swipe one of his shirts now!
Lunch was incredible, especially considering how remote this location is. Skeet and I had the garlic tuna gyro, and Ron and Greta had grilled lobster tacos. Sides of peas and rice, and corn salad, and all of it to die for!! We put an exclamation point on lunch with the ceremonial stapling of the KORKZcrew shirt. Greta's KORKZcrew shirt that is 😑, but still, it's kind of fun that it's so customary to hang your shirt, they keep a staple gun at the bar for your use.
Ron sold 25 KORKZ to the gift shop / art gallery here, and they were so pleased when he delivered the finished product today. They’ll make the perfect stocking stuffers. Fingers crossed they'll sell well. It was fun to see them displayed as ornaments on the tiny Christmas tree at the checkout counter, which interestingly is made from the boat that was once used to deliver food and water to Little Harbour.
This is a screenshot I took from their webpage, but you can see the boat in the background that's been repurposed as a display and sales counter.
We returned to KORKZcrew for a nice afternoon swim, and enjoyed a great day of remarkably good weather for the first time since we’ve been here. Had fun digging up the 2015 pictures I shared earlier and sending them to Whitney and the Reddins. It feels weird being here without them. We hung out on the bow for a long time, listened to music, and just . . . floated. Never underestimate the power of floating. I just *love it*, and pinch myself on a daily basis. Pulled a spaghetti casserole out of the freezer for an effortless dinner and watched lots of good tv, while our inflatable Christmas tree and projected lights brought the tacky to Little Harbour for the evening. Lucky them it's only for one night. 😜
2.25 hours underway; 14.5 nautical miles traveled
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