Another cold front...

...is on its way through the Bahamas, bringing in cooler and cloudy weather. But least it's warmer than Florida, which is in the low 50s today and enduring pouring rain!! And poor Ron is feeling like he's got a cold front blasting through his head today, after the revelry at Gusty's last night, so he was moving a bit ...slowly... today! We managed to get a bike ride in at noon, and after touring the residential neighborhoods south of Dunmore Town, we headed north and wound up down on Bay Street with its numerous straw market booths, conch shacks and take-away food stands.

We'd heard from our new friends Kelly and Kim that Harryo's has very good food, but that the best conch salad on the island is at the Queen Conch. So....off we went to sample the fare! We've had conch salad many times before, and when it's fresh, it is delicious!! The Queen Conch was an adorable little building, very pink and cute, with conch shells embedded in the walls by the chairs. We met the proprietress, LeVaughn, who chatted with us as she made the salad right in front of us...it doesn't get any fresher than this!! She said her husband gathers the conchs every day; we noted their little "conch pen" in the shallow waters directly behind the shack, keeping the conch alive and well so that the conch is always fresh. She takes your orders ahead of time and each batch is made specifically to your stated preference of spiciness. The Queen did not disappoint, as it was delicious salad!

Levaughn, the proprietress, the Queen Conch!

Ron ready to sample the freshly made conch salad.

Note the conch shells decorating the front wall!

The little "conch pen"

In the afternoon, when the weather turned nasty with high winds and rain, we went down to The Island Spa, where we pampered ourselves a bit. I got a long overdue manicure and pedicure, while Ron got a full hour massage. The owner, Karen Catalyn, was Ron's masseuse, and he said she was one of the best he's ever experienced, which is saying something! My manicurist was a young lady from Grand Bahama, who was here helping out; she was lovely to chat with and it was interesting hearing her perspective on being on one of the smaller islands: "This is real 'island life' here, especially with the golf carts!"

It was a bit daunting getting off and on the boat; with the winds whipping out of the WNW, the boat is being pushed away from its finger pier quite a bit. Despite tightening the lines, there was a good 3' gap between the pier and the boat. It wasn't too hard to jump off, as the pier was a bit lower than boat, but climbing back up was more of a challenge! Now, we're bouncing about in the slip as the wind and waves are hitting the starboard quarter pretty nastily. Kind of amazing that the harbor here can kick up so much, but, we are exposed to the northwest here, that's for certain. Kind of glad we took the slip though, since I'd hate to be stressing about the anchor dragging in these winds!!