Several bights with Jonesville toward the west and Calabash, a couple of miles to the east, are linked with canals. This distance can be covered quickly in the dinghy, while up on plane, much of the way. While in Jonesville, we went to Calabash Bight to specifically visit Turtlegrass, a new marina. Mark and Lori have built a marina (for long-term storage) and their home at a beautiful location overlooking Calabash Bight. They are building a cafe, but are currently giving priority to finishing their house. Without the cafe, they are not really set up to handle cruisers. They invited us into their home, and we also discovered that Mark produces pineapple wine commercially. We sampled some, and it was quite good, so we bought a couple of bottles. We left with plans to return next season once the cafe was complete and open for business.
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Camp Calabash Gang
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After leaving Jonesville, we went back to French Cay Harbor to provision and to catch up with friends. One evening, a group of us were discussing a way to watch March Madness NCAA Basketball, when John and Beth (Up Jinks) suggested that maybe Mark and Lori at Turtlegrass would let us watch there. The next morning, six boats were leaving French Cay Harbor together, headed ultimately to Calabash. Ariel and Mobetah already had plans to go to Jonesville, so we stopped there overnight before continuing on to Calabash Bight. Terry and Sandy on Gambit were already in Jonesville, having just returned from Guanaja, and so we wanted to see them at least one more time. As it turned out, the whole gang that went on to Calabash came to Hole in the Wall in Jonesville later in the day, so we were all together, including Terry and Sandy and some of the expats we know in Jonesville. Terry and Sandy had to get to French Cay Harbor to meet friends flying in, but we convinced them to come to Calabash for at least one night to spend an evening with all of us at Turtlegrass. So on Thursday, Gambit, Mobetah, and Ariel joined our small fleet anchored and moored just off Turtlegrass. We planned a potluck dinner with each boat to bring their own meat to grill. Mark and Lori opened their home to us and set up two large flat-screen televisions for the games. It became clear that neither of them was very much into basketball, but neither was at least half the group.
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Mark and Lori with Maggie hanging with Mark
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Mark and Lori's home
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Little did we know that this was the beginning of what was to be known as Camp Calabash. We began doing everything as a group. The next day, Gambit left, and most of us went to Pukies for lunch. On Saturday, we again planned to watch the games at Mark and Lori's. We were trying to be less of a burden, so we planned snacks only, but we were all outfoxed by Lori, who prepared a fabulous spaghetti dinner with homemade meat sauce. Mark called the Reef House and made plans for Sunday dinner for all of us. The Reef House is a dive operation that serves family family-style dinner after the dive boat returns. They will accept additional guests if they are notified in advance. It was a really fun time at a great location with superb food.
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| Reef House clockwise from front - Beth, Marilyn, Leeanne (standing), Greg, David (standing), John, Bill, Pat |
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Reef House
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Camp Calabash continued with a Mexican Train dominoes tournament on Monday. On Tuesday, our last full day at Calabash, we planned a shrimp boil to be held in the uncompleted and not open for business Turtle Cafe. Mobetah has the propane burner, and Ariel has the large pot, and together, shrimp boils are our specialty. We were all feeling extremely indebted to Mark and Lori, having opened their home to us and helped us in so many ways. Bill from Mobetah came in Tuesday morning with printed plans for a picnic table and then convinced Mark to let us build it with some of his spare lumber. A few of us spent the next few hours constructing what turned out to be a very well-made and sturdy table, completing it just in time for the shrimp boil. Lori brought down strings of white lights that they had planned to put up around the perimeter of the cafe, so we installed those. Bill and Pat from Mobetah had gathered all the ingredients for the shrimp boil, and when it was time, Norm from Ariel did the cooking. We essentially opened Turtlegrass Cafe well ahead of the expected grand opening date. The shrimp boil turned out well, and it was followed up with an excellent dessert made by Leeanne from Live Sea Lee. Beth from Up Jinks led a little Kum Ba Ya and broke up Camp Calabash later that evening.
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| seated - John, Tom, Yvonne |
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| Yvonne, David, Lisa, Doug |
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| Mark, Lori, Leeanne, Pat, John |
