We spent a few days at the Highbourn Cay Marina in the north part of the Exuma Island chain. The winds were fierce, as were the waves. We were warned that the weather in the Bahamas in December sucks. Those warners were right.
Highbourne Cay Marina is a beautiful, but very exclusive and expensive island resort. They have eight homes on the island that are rented by the week, and there are little gazebos all over the island to enjoy the views. No one lives there except the 44 people who work at the resort. Watch out for the sticker shock at the restaurant where an order of shrimp and grits is $53. But I guess if you’re Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, who I understand we just missed by a few weeks, it doesn’t really matter.
We borrowed bicycles and rode the island against the wind, uphill, both way, in the blazing heat. (The only thing missing was the snow.) Wait, it was windy, and there were hills, but the temperature was beautiful. We found hidden gems of secluded beaches and nature trails everywhere. I guess if you have to be stuck somewhere for four nights, it might as well be somewhere in paradise.
And here is another first world problem. We were running out of propane, so we decided to BBQ steaks on the grill for dinner. The island has little grills all over for your grilling enjoyment. But, and this is a big but, a micro bag of charcoal at the marina store is $11. Yes, 11$!!! And it wasn’t big enough to cook anything. You had to buy two!
Jeff decided to ride a bike around the island, gathering leftover charcoal briquettes from the various grills rather than drop anymore dough here. In the end, we found enough. And after a wonderful steak dinner, we were ready to review the bill for the last four days. $1600 – Ugh!!!
Thank goodness the weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow. Nassau – here we come!
December 2019