Back to Manjack, remember Manjack? The little harbor with just a couple of houses that we were nearly forced to stay at before we got in to Green Turtle Cay. Well today Paul announced “I’d be fine if we stayed here a month”. Actually we’ve been here 3 days already and no one seems to feel the need to rush anywhere else.

It’s really a little slice of paradise, and it’s in the Bahamas! It has a lovely little harbor which seems comfortable enough in most weather. It has multiple beaches, which are all seemingly fantastically amazing. There are more white sandy beaches covered in wonderful sea creatures and littered with discarded shells within a 10 minute dinghy ride of here than there are in the state of Maine, sorry Maine!

Day before yesterday we walked to “Ocean Beach” on the other side of the island. We found it completely deserted, not a person anywhere. Yesterday we dinghied around and checked out the mangrove swamps, here the ocean almost divides the island through the middle. We also went back to the closest beach and met the entire population of the cove, one couple and a single guy.

Leslie and Bill are super and very generous with their time and island. They have gone to great lengths to cut back the dense foliage on the island and create paths from one side to the other. Leslie was also kind enough to show me her extensive gardens and then we went up to the house for a “limeade” with lilicoi. It was such a treat! Boyd talked to John, the only other inhabitant of the island and said he seems in total sync with Leslie and Bill. What a really nice place to live. Leslie and Bill have been here for 18 years.

Today we decided to try to “live off the land” a bit as we still haven’t gone fishing I did manage to talk Paul and Boyd into helping me look for some lobsters. Apparently they are all around down here and as long as you don’t scuba dive for them it’s okay. Since we don’t have scuba equipment that’s fine with me.

We went to the south end of the island through the cut to the mangroves and anchored the dinghy just off shore. It was a somewhat protected area that was only between 2 and 6 ft deep. Bill and Leslie, while not giving up any “secret spot” were kind enough to point us in the right direction.

We all got out the snorkeling gear and looked around. It was awesome and the kids loved it. No lobsters even showed though and while we saw some rather delishious looking fish (they nearly all look good enough to eat to me) we aren’t allowed to spearfish and we didn’t have any poles with us so we started home empty handed.

Nicole and I convinced Boyd to pull over to check out another beautiful sandy beach before we made it back to Passages and we must have spent 3 or 4 hours there picking up star fish, conch and sea biscuits. In the end we came home with 2 conch big enough to eat and a shell that’s huge (someone else dined on that one). What a fun filled, exhausting day it was.

Boyd cleaned the conch while I determined the best potential cooking options based on our current larder. Eventually, once Boyd managed to get the buggers out of the shell I prepared it. We had a Conch Fritter feast. Boyd, who must have been a bit discussed at the idea of eating the rather large slimy snail like creatures was amazed at how good dinner was. Everyone ate their fill and I was happy, not as happy as if I’d had lobsters to prepare, but really it was cool to find our own dinner.

Not that any of you out there have any extra conch that needs eating but just because you might be interested here’s a recipe of how I prepared the conch. Most of you know that Boyd is gluten intolerant so the flour I used is Gluten Free. It was, delicious, amazingly so if you’d have seen what they looked like before I cooked them.

I’m attaching the photos from the last several days just because “you’ve got to see this place to believe it”!