Saturday, March 29, 2025
We normally put our dinghy up in inclement weather because a plethora of things could go wrong. Since our dinghy was light weight, it could easily flip in the bigger, choppy waves. Lines could fray or loosen, and then the dinghy could float away. Or, the waves could push the dinghy up against Kosmos, causing damage to the dinghy and/or to Kosmos. This week, there had been at least seven announcements on the radio that dinghies had blown away. Some were recovered by fellow cruisers or locals; some were just gone.
Today’s forecast was still very windy with a chance of scattered showers. But we were so tired of being uncomfortable onboard that we decided it was worth the risk to get the dinghy down. When we went out on the deck, we were surprised at how salty it was. Our guess was the waves have stirred up a lot of salty moisture that has settled onboard.
Getting the dinghy down in the heavy winds used to be tough when it was only Eric and Christi. But now that Keith is a full fledged crew member, having his third set of hands makes it relatively easy, even in the wind.
We decided to try a new place for lunch, called The Coconut Club, located a little farther north up Stocking Island in an area called Monument (red dot on the map below). The ratings all said it had a great ambience, but the food was expensive and mediocre, and the service was slow. Truth be told, every place we’d eaten at in the Bahamas has been expensive with slow service, and, while the food at most of the places has been good, we hadn’t had anything fantastic as of yet. We figured it was worth a try.
We were delighted to see that our friends from Baja, Oceananigans, were anchored near the restaurant. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped by and asked if they want to join us. They said they had guests coming and the majority of the crew needed to stay onboard to get the boat ready for guests, but one of the crew Ryan, would come with the two younger kids.
As promised, the ambience of the restaurant was fabulous. It was a large covered deck, cheerfully decorated with bright colors. The kitchen and bathrooms were inside trailers parked around the perimeter of the deck. There were lounge chairs out for the patrons.
There were also some water toys.
And lots of games onshore: foosball, chess, checkers, corn hole, archery, etc. It was the kind of place where people could happily spend the entire day.
Eric and Christi had a great time catching up with Ryan on everything that had happened over the last two years since we’d last seen them. Keith had a great time playing games with the kids.
But in terms of food…. we’ve hit a new low. The tacos were tiny — two bites. The fish tacos cost $12.15 each and the lobster taco cost $16.15 (with the tax and mandatory gratuity that was added to the bill). The chicken quesadilla was $29.70 and the coleslaw was $12.15. And, while the food wasn’t bad, it was mediocre at best.
The Coconut Club wins for the most expensive restaurant we’ve ever eaten at in terms of price relative to portion size. Up until now, the winner was Majago in the Costa Baja Resort. But at least the Majago tacos were gourmet quality and tasted great.
After lunch, we headed to Chat N Chill beach so Eric and Keith could play D&D while Christi visited with the other parents. There were a lot of very large rays along the shore, hanging out and letting people pet them. In fact, when no one was petting them, they’d move closer to nearby people as if asking to be pet.
Still hungry, we ordered burgers at Chat N Chill. We hadn’t eaten there before because the reviews were bad. Like the food at The Coconut Club, the burgers at Chat N Chill were mediocre at best. But, they were inexpensive (relative to Bahama prices), so we felt like they were good value for the money.
We noticed that someone was working at the conch salad shack (it usually looked closed), so we got a conch salad from there.
It was essentially ceviche, with two kinds of bell peppers, onion, tomato, and a whole conch chopped up into tiny pieces, with lemon and orange juices squeezed on top. It was good. We feel like of everything we’ve eaten in the Bahamas, this conch salad was the best overall value for the money when you account for quality, flavor and portion size.
Sadly, it started pouring after we’d been there only an hour, so Eric abruptly halted the D & D game and we headed back to Kosmos for the night. Here was the sun just as it was about to dip below the cloud, which blocked the rest of the sunset.
