Willard Albury

We’ve learned that cruising is much more rewarding when we slow down and not try to rush from place to place. That is especially true when it comes to meeting some of the amazing people who live here. When you get to know them, they have great stories and are generous in sharing them and teaching us about the islands.

On Man-o-War, we’ve had the privilege to meet and spend some time with Willard Albury. Man-o-War is known as the Boat Building Capital of the Bahamas and Albury Brothers is the boat building family on the island. Willard is the grandfather who led the switch from wood to fiberglass. They’re amazing boats, sold here and in Florida. Check out AlburyBrothers.com for more info.

 

Anyway, he and a young man named Zach were working on rebuilding an old Hobie cat when we walked by and stopped to chat. We remarked that our first boat was a Hobie 16 and that led to a much longer conversation about how the boat was supposed to be rigged. We ended up spending a few hours over several days helping them raise the mast, figure out the rig and the various missing parts. After scrounging a new boom from “the weeds over in Marsh Harbour,” they got it together successfully and delivered it to the owner over on Elbow Cay on Sunday.

Yesterday we stopped by Willard’s shop to hear how the sail across went – it was not without some fun as the wind and chop picked up during the trip. After laughing together about the adventure, he asked us if we wanted some conch as he had just stopped out on the flats (“over by Johnie Cay”) to get some. Turns out he gets conch all the time, but never dives. He just idles along in his boat until he sees a likely spot and then uses a look-bucket (glass bottomed) to find the conch. Then he uses a long pole with hooks to reach in and pull them up.

So he pulled up a stringer full of conch from the pier and showed us how to get them out of the shell, how to clean them and the variety of ways locals prepare them.

 

 

So last night we had cracked conch for dinner! And, no, it doesn’t taste like chicken. It tastes like conch. It was great.

By the way, Willard’s boat is named “Our Boat,” which makes all the sense in the world when you realize it’s an Albury 23 and it literally is his family’s design.

 

But if not…