Sunset on our last night in the Bahamas
We went to shore with our friend Holt on our last night in the Bahamas before our departure for the 4 day ocean passage back to NC. After wandering around the charming settlement, buying some souvenirs, stopping at a bakery (of course) to buy coconut bread, stopping at Blue Bee's Bar (pic below), we ended up at Sundowners, a watering hole/restaurant right on the shore and not far from our boats. It was a perfect place to watch our last Bahamas sunset and enjoy a Bahamas lobster quesadilla. The crowd grew thicker as the evening progressed. The variety of people who congregate in these little places is always interesting and includes cruisers, local residents, serious deep-sea fishermen, young adults on the prowl for attractive members of the opposite sex, and always a few really drunk people who probably don’t know who they are or why they are there.
A stop in New Plymouth on Green Turtle Cay wouldn't be complete without a stop at Blue Bee's Bar, home of the original Goombay Smash, a rum drink found all over the Bahamas. Miss Bee has retired, but her granddaughters carry on the tradition of serving up the delightful concoction. The recipe is a well kept secret, but we think we learned most of the ingredients!
It's not all beauty in the Bahamas.There are piles of empty conch shells everywhere. The animal is removed from these gorgeous Queen Conch shells and used to make conch salad (like cerviche), conch fritters, conch bites....The shells are discarded in large piles. They do make great conch horns for blowing at sunset, but mostly they go to waste.
We ended up talking to a New Zealander, now Canadian whom everyone calls “Kiwi” rather than his real name. He is another sailor so we naturally talked boats but also ranged to relationships, global politics and a few other areas. We talked at length about how dirty boats get in spite of the fact that many hours are spent cleaning and polishing. Mary Beth became very excited and animated at this point and went into great detail about how often she has to vacuum our boat. She noted that it would be much easier if boats could have a central vacuum system like at home rather than dragging around this little pitiful canister vacuum. Kiwi, it turned out was also passionate about vacuums so he and MB did a deep dive on vacuuming. I nodded off.
Kiwi casually mentioned that he had a company that manufactures central vacuums and he has developed a central vacuum for RVs and boats! This woke even me up, especially since I could not imagine how this was possible. MB and I did our tag-team engineering nerd questions about how he managed this – how do you mount it, where do you store the hose, how much power does it take, how does it get wired into the battery bank,... As we learned more and more details we became more and more interested in getting one for our boat! A few minutes later Kiwi said “Just stop by my boat tonight on your way back to yours I’ll give you one”. We assumed he meant that he would sell us one, but no – he actually was going to give us one. The only conditions were that we install and use it and that we tell other boaters about it.
We now have a large cardboard box on our boat containing what is branded a “BillyVac”. When we did indeed stop at his boat later that evening (and of course were invited onboard for more conversation and beverages), we learned the origin of the name for the central vacuum system. Apparently like everyone calls this man “Kiwi”, he calls everyone “Billy” (because he can’t remember names); hence Billy Vac was born! We look forward toe installing it in our boat later this summer and giving Kiwi some feedback. And MB looks forward to vacuuming with it!
For the entrepreneurs among you, he is looking for a company or person who is experienced with successfully taking products like this to a broader market. They have sold quite a few, but to take it to the next level requires someone committed to this aspect of new product marketing. If you have done this in a relevant area or know of someone who has experience taking innovative products “mainstream” contact us and we can put you in touch with Kiwi. And we will even let you try out the vacuum in our boat!
One of the things we enjoy about cruising is the spontaneity. We have met so many interesting people from all over the world. For some reason when you are cruising, it seems like people are more approachable. Or maybe we venture outside our comfortable box more often and start conversations with strangers because that is the accepted and expected norm here. These interactions with both cruisers and the people who call the Bahamas home have blessed us and broadened us.
Thanks for Reading!
David and Mary Beth