LITTLE HARBOR CAY – FLO’S CONCH SHACK – January 17, 2019
Next on Boat Monkey’s itinerary after Devils Cay was a quick little trip south to Little Harbor Cay. This island is also part of the Berry chain and lay just about 12 miles away. We were sad to leave but eager to explore more islands. We had never been to Eluethera and that was to be our next major stop. First however, we had read about a little bar and restaurant called Flo’s in Little Harbor Cay which was supposed to have good food and cold beer in one of the most isolated spots you can imagine. While the namesake “Flo” has apparently passed away, the Darville family continues the tradition. We called the day before to make sure they would be open and willing to host us for lunch. (This has become a good practice before getting your hopes up for some of the more isolated businesses you read about in the guides…they are not always still in business or open.)

Dinghy Dock at Flo’s (on hill in background).

Mr. Darville answered the phone and assured us he would be there and to show up for lunch around 1pm. We arrived at the anchorage around 10am after a short sail down from Devils Cay. Along with our friends on SV Holiday, we had the place to ourselves. Around 1230, we headed up to Flo’s. The huge conch mounds along the shoreline next to the well-kept docks announced that this place had been around for many decades. The family has a little compound up on the hillside and the restaurant/bar building was a quaint screened in affair with a great little bar and a gorgeous view of the nearby islands.

Conch Mounds

There were a couple younger guys who had jet skied across the inner sand flats about 20 miles from a yacht to have lunch and a few beers there. They left soon after we arrived to head back. The proprietor came out and asked if we wanted conch fritters…we said yes. I think that was about the extent of the words he spoke to us from that point forward. He was not very social. However, we also got him to get us some cold Kaliks and he disappeared into the kitchen. After he brought the (delicious) conch fritters, he disappeared again. We never did see a menu or get told what was available, but about 10 minutes later he reappeared with several family style platters of fresh fried fish, cracked conch, homemade peas and rice, homemade cole slaw, and some more Kaliks…and promptly fled to the back again without a word.

The Bar at Flo’s

While the service experience left a bit to be desired, the food was absolutely great and the beer was cold. The view was impressive too. After we had chilled a while, a group on a little sport fishing boat came in and filled the place up. It was time for us pay our tab and leave the place to this new group. We stapled our boat card to the wall with all the dollar bills and stuck a “One Human Family” sticker on the beer cooler. I tracked Mr. Darville back in the kitchen and asked him what we owed him. I told him the origin of the sticker and how it was the motto of our island home in Key West. That finally broke him and he flashed a genuine smile and gave a chuckle. He thanked us for coming in and we took the last of our beers outside to sit down by the dock for a bit.

Boat Monkey surveys the dock from the well-used cutting board.

As we headed back to the boat to prepare for our next long passage across the Northeast Providence Channel, we wished we could stay longer as this looked like it would be another fun area to explore a bit. However, the weather was going to be fair to get across the 60+ miles of deep water to Eleuthera and we were excited to visit a new place. If the weather had been different, we likely would have had to head to Nassau and skip Eleuthera on this round. While 60 miles may not seem like too much, this channel has some of the deepest areas in the entire Atlantic Ocean at over 12,000ft deep! It is important to properly prepare for these deep water crossings. When winds are greater than forecast, or from a different direction, it can really make things uncomfortable or even unsafe. Our experience thus far has taught us not to trust wind forecasts and models very much!

Until next time!

Next stop was the fishing village of Spanish Wells in North Eleuthera! More posts coming soon! With love from Todd and Celia, currently anchored in Rock Sound, South Eluethera.

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