Page 182 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2024 LIMA

a public dock to hike to one of the Ba‐
hamas’ many lovely beaches. On the way,
we encountered a chap named Albury, who
came from a family of boat builders. He
told us his people had been in the Bahamas
since the mid-1600s.
“The standard story is that we all de‐
scended from ‘Loyalists’ who came here
after the American Revolution because we
sided with the British,” he said. “But my an‐
cestors had already been here for six gen‐
erations.”
On our way to a crescent beach cov‐
ered with soft, white sand, we passed a
small cemetery where a good number of
the graves were Alburys.
We swam and floated on the Atlantic
side of the cay, where Burns said he’d once
practiced hunting submarines during his
Navy days, in waters that he called “ridicu‐
lously” deep. According to NASA, the basin
to the east of the Bahamas falls off to
depths of more than 13,000 feet.
During the next five days, we sailed
from harbor to harbor. One of our stops
was Elbow Cay, home to a tall (and still
working), red and white Elbow Reef light‐
house that we were able to climb. It offered
wonderful views of the surrounding waters
and countryside.

182 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2024