Friday, April 4, continued — A little bit north of where we were anchored was a line of small bungalows along the shore. We were told that they were restaurants, and most were only open for dinner. One of the cruisers went to check, and was told that the restaurants opened at 1730. Just about all the families agreed to meet onshore for dinner. At 1730, we were the first in a long line of dinghies that pulled up onshore.

However, there was only one restaurant open, a sandwich shop that looked like it was open all day. The sandwich shop was overwhelmed by the number of people and simply could not serve everyone.

Those who couldn’t get food waited for more restaurants to open. The kids played and the parents talked.

Around 1830, someone announced a restaurant had opened. Those of us still waiting swarmed it. They quickly became overwhelmed, too. We’d learned our lesson. We continued to wait until the rest of the restaurants opened, then we all dispersed to different places so that no one restaurant was overwhelmed. Eric, Christi and Keith wound up at a place called Anniboo’s.

Our food was good and the prices were great — less than half of what we’d been paying in the George Town area. Anniboo’s was the new winner for best value for the money in the Bahamas, and by far.

After dinner, Christi went back to Kosmos to go to bed. Keith went to a boat to watch a movie. Eric went to a different boat to discuss logistics of where to move next. It was a very late night for the men. Sunrise on Saturday:

The first thing we did was go to a bakery called Olive’s. We dinghied over to the place we’d landed at yesterday to go to the Hermitage. From there, it was a short walk on a road that headed inland.

Olive’s had more selection than Alnor’s. They had loaves of plain white bread (along with the coconut bread). They also had some treats that Alnor’s hadn’t had: pineapple upside down cake, guava duff, and a flaked coconut dessert that we couldn’t remember the name of.

The guava duff was a white jellyroll cake with a guava jelly, topped with whipped cream. The coconut dessert was basically just flaked coconut held together with a sugary syrup. It was very sweet. 

In the early afternoon, Christi hitched a ride with Brenda and her husband, Ben to the grocery store. We dinghied to a point a little north of the line of restaurants, then walked about a mile to a grocery store. We passed a few small commercial buildings and a church, but most of the lots had houses on them. Most of the homes were small, and none were the glitzy high dollar places that we’d seen in George Town.

Some of the houses were well cared for; some had a lot of deferred maintenance. Something that piqued Christi’s interest was that almost every home had a tiny structure on their lot, either in front of or next to the house. Most of these structures looked abandoned — some were long abandoned; some were let go more recently. We only saw one that appeared to be actively utilized. Christi wondered what they were. Since almost all the houses had them, they’d clearly been important way back when. They seemed too big to be outhouses — plus, who would put outhouses in the front yard near the road? Were they old-school kitchens?

In the afternoon, Eric and Keith played D & D on one of the other boats. We’d enjoyed our meal at Anniboo’s so much that we decided to go back there again for dinner. Some of the other families joined us onshore. Here were the kids playing on the beach at sunset while we waited for our food.

We hadn’t gotten mixed drinks on Friday, but we did on Saturday, and man, were they strong! Definitely good value for the money on the drinks, too. Since we had to get up early the next morning, we went straight back to Kosmos after dinner.