Greetings from Casuarina Point in Abaco, Bahamas. For those of you who are not already aware, Abaco Palms Properties currently consists of two luxury homes located on Casuarina Point on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. It is a family run operation which began 20 years ago when my father Gary was invited on a fishing trip and was introduced to the community of Casuarina Point. At the time, the only option was a pothole-filled, hour-long trek down a dirt road from Marsh Harbour to make it the 16 miles to Casuarina Point from the airport. On arriving, my dad took one look at the sand flats outside of the rented fishing cottage and he knew he had found a special place. By the time he left, he had negotiated a deal with a local resident to buy the property that the original Abaco Palms house currently sits on, and made the promise to bring my mother and there three sons to experience the wonders of Casuarina.
Two years later we made our first family trip to Casuarina, staying with Rex and Judy Albury, and we knew that this was going to become our family hideaway. By then, there was a paved road to Casuarina from the airport making the 16 mile journey more efficient, but its charms remained intact. As hard as it is to believe, at that time there was no television and only one telephone on all of Casuarina Point, a princess phone located in a phone booth by the volunteer fire station. A far cry from the wifi internet connection that I am currently writing this to you from. As an aside, we are currently staying in Abaco Palms and I am writing this to you on my laptop, next to my lovely wife on a gorgeous and breezy June day. The tide is coming in and we will be taking the boat to Schooner Bay to meet the rest of the family for lunch. Our current view is as below. Life is good.
In 2004, my youngest brother Stephen was close to graduating high school and my mother was looking for her next project. She knew it was time to convince my dad to build at Casuarina. Those of you that have built a house before know how trying of a process it can be. Well, my mother was about to embark on the task of building a four bed four bath luxury home on an island where absolutely everything–from nails to beds to food–must be imported. Not to mention the sheer geographical distance meant that she was going to have to organize it from over a thousand miles away. Those of you that have met or dealt with my mother Kathy know that she is both a perfectionist and likely the most organized person you will ever meet. If there was anyone built for the task she is it, and she continually works to improve the houses and the overall experience for the renters that she invites into her homes.
After the success of renting Abaco Palms and the many happy renters thanking her for introducing them to the wonders of Casuarina Point in style, we encouraged her to expand and she undertook the task of building a second home, Kokomo, named after one of her favorite Beach Boys songs. Kokomo is a two bed two bath home, with the same luxury amenities of Abaco Palms, just a few houses West of Abaco Palms. In early 2013, we will be adding a three bed, three and a half bath home to the Abaco Palms Properties offerings, name yet to be determined (though suggestions welcome!). It is a home that my wife Laura and I will own, and I will write another blog post at some point in the future about the transformation of our home!
The purpose of this blog is to allow both ourselves and our renters a place to catalog our unique experiences while in Casuarina. Whether it be spear fishing on the reefs just offshore on one of our sixteen-foot Carolina skiffs, exploring one of the many blue holes, catching dinner, or taking a sunset cruise to Little Bay, there is so much that each of us comes away with from every visit. We invite all of our renters to post about their experiences and share them with past a future visitors in order to hopefully enhance everyone’s Casuarina experience.
Most of all, we in the Heacock family want to thank you for being a part of the Casuarina Point community and hope that you find it to be as special a place for you as it is for us!
