Gringos in the TCI Photo Blog

[La Gringa]

Thats awesome!!
Quite an original way of having a Christmas tree!!

I love IT!!

The alternatives are to spend a fortune on a tree that is half dead already when it gets here in November, spend a fortune on something that you can later plant and have to tend for the next twenty years.... or make a day of it... the sons thought it was awesome!

[FishBlueWater]

Yeah I know what you mean, I spent Christmas in the Keys a few times with my parents and remember them having to drive all over the place looking for a tree and when they finally found one it had about 4 branches on it and 2 of the 4 were dead. Nothing like the trees we get up in jersey.

[Down Under]

Gringo I have had a few dogs over the years, one Lab cross got terribly seasick just just lay on the floor & let it go.Thank goodness it was a fibreglass,easy to wash out.Now have a small dog female mixed ancestry loves the boat,tries to kill anybody near the boat on the water & not afraid of thunderstorms or lighting How do you get on when out on the water if the mean beast has to go I don't go to sea very often now mainly estuary & drop her off every hour or so,seems to work OK.

Cheers Down Under

[Legal Limit 2]

Gringo, I don't have the time at the moment, but I built a home on Pine Cay in the early 80's. the name of the house was "Seascape". We have lot's to talk about. I spent 15 years of my younger years fishing for shark at night off the aquarium, drinking Becks in a clear bottle, Swimming with JoJo, Playing Basketball at the airport hangar, having late night golf cart races on the island, and just enjoying the most beautiful place on this planet. I envy you. Let's stay in touch. I used to run to Provo at night to Club Med to have some fun in a 12 foot zodiac. I had the area wired for navigation back then. No lights, moon light is best. My house is to the right of your photo with he barge coming into toward the marina.

Wishing I was there, John Healey

[La Gringa]

Gringo, I don't have the time at the moment, but I built a home on Pine Cay in the early 80's. the name of the house was "Seascape". We have lot's to talk about. I spent 15 years of my younger years fishing for shark at night off the aquarium, drinking Becks in a clear bottle, Swimming with JoJo, Playing Basketball at the airport hangar, having late night golf cart races on the island, and just enjoying the most beautiful place on this planet. I envy you. Let's stay in touch. I used to run to Provo at night to Club Med to have some fun in a 12 foot zodiac. I had the area wired for navigation back then. No lights, moon light is best. My house is to the right of your photo with he barge coming into toward the marina.

Wishing I was there, John Healey

Not much has changed on Pine Cay but you won't recognize Provo!!!

[Legal Limit 2]

I am sure I would not recognize Provo, Was dirt roads. Yellow bird still around? Who is in charge of the Club now? Have you met Hope Smith? She knows my family very well. I can't believe JoJo is still around. The Club Med really abused that dolphin with tourism. Swam together at the inner buoy heading out the reef cut. Like to play with the mooring chain. Ahh the memories.

[Gringo]

Hello John,
Sure we know Hope Smith. And Willy. the Oaks. Foxes are good friends. Deeds is still around. whole bunch of long time homeowners. Only a few new ones.

You MUST know Marou, we almost bought her house from her, before deciding to build our own. What am I saying, you have to know Marou, thats a given. And Shaeffers. Whom we have stayed with on Salt Cay. The PCHA is probably going to buy Gaynors place from them. All the Kriebles are still here.
You probably know LaGringas folks, who completed Casurinas in 91. Sounds about right time wise.

After a couple disastrous years ( management wise) trying to subcontract running of the club, the PCHA has gone back to running it themselves and Bev and Wally Plancha have returned. What a place. Pine Cay hasnt really changed much in the five years I have been involved with it, although some slow rate of change is inevitable. Some new families, and a third generation of descendents now kicking sand in the pool.

There are literally dozens of fresh photos of PC and the Meridian Club, marina and staff, sprinkled though our blog. If you click on the Pine Cay topic listing, it should give you a list of posts.

How interesting to meet you here. .

[La Gringa]

Gringo, I don't have the time at the moment, but I built a home on Pine Cay in the early 80's. the name of the house was "Seascape".

Hi John,

This isn't the greatest photo - we were experimenting with an aerial setup using a helium balloon (from a 17' Montauk!!).

Sorry it's blurry - but here's your Seascape!

[Gringo]

try running a remote control camera from a six foot helium balloon from here:

Lets just say wind is a factor on platform motion...

(I couldnt let this thread continue without a tropical image...after all)

[Gringo]

(Okay Legal Limit 2, I copied this from the blog for you, save you some hassle trying to find it on your own

I have mentioned that we spend a lot of our time out on Pine Cay. Its an 800 acre island between Water Cay and Ft. George Cay, and it is owned by about 35 families who have vacation homes there. This makes it, technically, a privately owned island. My in-laws built a house on it sixteen years ago, and the family and family friends come down for winter vacations from November until about April, although some of the homeowners also come down in the summer when its almost deserted, and very very peaceful.

Some of the homes are available for rentals, and there is also a very small, all inclusive hotel called the Meridian Club. Pine Cay was my first exposure to the TCI, and I liked it from the beginning. The staff on the island have become personal friends over the years. I would say that other than the staff themselves, we probably spend more time on that island than anyone else. Certainly more than any of the other 'expatriates'. Many of the pix I have posted were taken on Pine Cay. The beautiful beach, the Aquarium, and the little marina where we changed the gear oil are all on Pine Cay.

The Meridian Club is not your typical resort hotel. It is small, secluded, and friendly. Most of the staff have made their working careers out of taking care of the Club and the owners homes and boats, and many have been there for ten years or more. It has some of the best beaches in the world, and you have seen what they and the water are like.

This is the entrance to the Meridian Club, what you see after the managers pick you up at the little airstrip coming in:


Through the small lobby and you are at the pool. Outside bar to the right, and another inside bar upstairs. Dining room on the right.


Through the outside dining and cocktail area and pool, the beach is right there;


Looking along the beach from one of the guest room porches. They are all ground floor, with outside showers, sitting areas, etc. Very laid back;


That's probably our favorite table there in the far right corner, out of the flow, great place to watch sunsets with sundowners;


A couple chairs in one of the guest rooms;

(when La Gringa found out that these chairs were available for sale as part of Meridian Club room renovations, she bought 4 of them for our new house. Not a bad deal for a hundred bucks, I think. They will go well with the pieces of the bar at Gilleys we pried loose prior to its demolition)


The Meridian Club was built by the homeowners mostly to help defray the costs of having a restaurant, pool, and club on the island. Its a great place for privacy from the typical tourist mob over at the Provo resorts, and gets the celebrity guests from time to time. La Gringa got into a little conversation just last season with Ashley Judd, for example, because her dogs and ours were mixing it up at poolside. It all worked out. We tend to keep track of past managers and people we have met here. Jim and Sharon left and now run Windmills on Salt Cay. Jeff is now working the Pink Sands on Harbour Island, Bahamas. Friendships made in remote areas tend to be remembered.

The MC is pretty tame, not catering to the college crowd too much. While shoes are optional in the dining room, dogs are no longer welcome poolside. I am sure it had something to do with a certain African Lionhound peeing on a sunbather, and I am ashamed to admit me and my little dog were thrown out last year...but well-behaved dogs are still welcome on the island.

I probably shouldn't say much about someone throwing the socialite guest in her designer gown into the pool last summer while the Saturday night band was playing....so I wont. Boy, did THAT produce a stink..

We spend a huge part of the summer on Pine Cay, sometimes weeks at a stretch. We boat to Provo for groceries and supplies, and to take care of mundane business like paying bills, checking in on our house, etc. I have been doing a lot of the maintenance on the family house on Pine Cay the past two years, which saves a lot of money. I am also a bit more meticulous about modifications and repairs than some. If you want to live in the tropics, you really do need to be equal parts handyman and mechanic. Either that or be willing to accept the results of what you can hire in. Sometimes its good, sometimes its not. Its always expensive, though.