Tag: Eleuthera

Long Island
Eleuthera Long Riders, 2009: John Birtzen, Cecil McCardy Jr., Arrington McCardy, Richard Langworth
Clicking Into High: Arrington McCardy 1947-2011

Clicking Into High: Arrington McCardy 1947-2011

Self-trained, he had unorthodox techniques. On a steep hill, the standard tactic is to shift up two cogs and stand up, adding your body weight to the downstroke, using your arms to wiggle the bike from side to side to help the upstroke. We never saw Arrington stand. Instead he would hunker down in the saddle and simply power his way over the hill. And he always left us in the dust. I was hoping to watch this technique in the White Mountains when he and Hazel were to visit us in New Hampshire.

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Bahamas
Late afternoon from the deck. Leave this? Well, at times you have to shuffle off…
Escape from Paradise: One Couple’s Experience, Bahamas, March 2020

Escape from Paradise: One Couple’s Experience, Bahamas, March 2020

Eleuthera, Bahamas, March 20th

Friends said, “If you expect to leave The Bahamas, do it now.” We thought it best. (I failed at retire­ment and need­ed my library in New Hamp­shire in my work for Hills­dale Col­lege in Michi­gan.) Accord­ing­ly, we changed our flights to Nas­sau and Boston from our usu­al April depar­ture to March 25th.

Jet Blue was in chaos. In my first online chat ses­sion they said the change would cost $472. It’s always a good idea to dis­con­nect and try anoth­er chat link. The sec­ond time it was “no charge”! We always use “Even More Space” (pre­mi­um econ­o­my, ear­ly board­ing), and those seats were wide open.…

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Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (3)

Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (3)

Con­clud­ed from Part 2…

Staniel Cay is an active stopover for sail­ing yachts with an affa­ble yacht club for lunch. We spent an hour mean­der­ing its wind­ing lanes and admir­ing the col­or­ful cot­tages. On the way back we stopped at Com­pass Cay to “swim with the sharks”—big, friend­ly nurse sharks which behave like aquat­ic dogs, nos­ing up to a water-lev­el dock to be fed bits of conch and allow­ing their sand­pa­per backs to be scratched.

These nurs­es are quite dif­fer­ent from your image from “Jaws” (and as vet­er­an Bahami­an divers know, we have noth­ing that threat­en­ing in local waters any­way).…

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Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (2)

Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (2)

Con­tin­ued from Part 1…

Once reached, the gem­stone islets of Exu­ma invite you to mean­der at a delib­er­ate pace in placid, gin-clear waters. There were sail­boats and cruis­ing lots galore along the islets, and you can see why. Sail­ing from one to anoth­er, drop­ping anchor by whim or fan­cy, is an expe­ri­ence that will wash the world away.

Every islet is dif­fer­ent and has its own attrac­tions. At Ward­er­ick Wells Cay is the Exu­ma Cays Nation­al Land and Sea Park—a good first stop after cross­ing over from Eleuthera. A marine fish­ery and native plant pre­serve, it occu­pies 176 acres.…

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Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (1)

Exuma: Jewels in the Sea (1)

EXUMA, BAHAMAS, FEBRUARY 5TH— Get­ting from our home island of Eleuthera to oth­er Bahami­an Fam­i­ly islands is com­pli­cat­ed, usu­al­ly requir­ing air trav­el via Nas­sau. But the near­est of the Exu­ma Cays is only about 40 miles from Cape Eleuthera, or 65 miles from Governor’s Har­bour, and you can do that in under two hours in a fast boat. So off we went from Cupid’s Cay aboard Capt. Paul Petty’s immac­u­late Mar­lin 35 skiff, Mar­ti­nis & Bikinis.

The date was our anniver­sary, so it couldn’t have been bet­ter timed. Paul and his affa­ble mate Dwayne had six pas­sen­gers, includ­ing three res­i­dents of Rain­bow Bay and three Cana­di­an ladies, one of whom orga­nized the expe­di­tion.…

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Arrington McCardy 1947-2011

Arrington McCardy 1947-2011

Self-trained, he had unorthodox techniques. On a steep hill, the standard tactic is to shift up two cogs and stand up, adding your body weight to the downstroke, using your arms to wiggle the bike from side to side to help the upstroke. We never saw Arrington stand. Instead he would hunker down in the saddle and simply power his way over the hill. And he always left us in the dust. I was hoping to watch this technique in the White Mountains when he and Hazel were to visit us in New Hampshire.

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Baths
Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

PoOn the Queen’s High­way a few miles north of Gre­go­ry Town, about 300 yards before the Glass Win­dow bridge, pull off the road across from  a sandy track lead­ing up the hill toward the Atlantic on your right. You can’t miss it: the Min­istry of Tourism has recent­ly erect­ed a mark­er. You’ve arrived at the Queen’s Baths.

Walk up toward the Atlantic as the bush thins out and the sand takes over. Soon the sand thins and you’re walk­ing on bare coral. Watch your step to avoid the uneven sur­face and pock­marked holes. As you approach the ocean, work your way to the left (north), keep­ing Har­bour Island on the hori­zon ahead of you.…

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Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

First pub­lished in The Eleuther­an, Sep­tem­ber 2008; Edwin’s Tur­tle Lake Marine Pre­serve, with a fine new dock and the bot­tle shack restored in Decem­ber 2014.

Edwin’s of old

Three miles south of Governor’s Har­bour, on the right side at the S-bends as the road plunges toward Pal­met­to Point, is a large salt­wa­ter lake. Passers­by who stop to inves­ti­gate will find the remains of a curi­ous shed built of mor­tar and beer bot­tles, the amber, green and clear glass sort­ed by colour, bot­toms fac­ing out. A few yards away, obscured by bush and weath­ered by the years, was a wood­en sign whose words were just legible:

Edwin’s Fish­ing Lake

Estab­lished March 10th 1954

The First Fish­lake of the Bahamas

Over 20,000 fish of 32 vari­eties have

been placed in this lake.…

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