I realized a few days ago that my baby is a teenager.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been writing about Abaco for 13 years. And even harder to believe that it all started with a little house on Green Turtle Cay.
Once Upon a Time, There Was a Little House by the Ferry
Back in 2012, Tom and I bought my great-grandparents’ house on Green Turtle Cay and named it Fish Hooks.
We had family scattered all over – Nassau, Long Island, Spanish Wells, England and more – and we wanted a way to keep everyone up to date on what was happening with our little house and our life on Green Turtle Cay.
In 2013, I started writing a small blog called Little House by the Ferry.
My first posts were decidedly personal. I wrote about the strange things we discovered in our attic. I researched our family history and genealogy. And I shared a series of photo and video updates as we went about the restoration.
Over time, though, something interesting happened.
People I’d never met began reaching out to ask me questions about Green Turtle Cay.
Where should they stay? What was there to do? What was the history of this place? What was happening in the community?
And so I started writing about more than just Fish Hooks Cottage. I created a Green Turtle Cay visitor’s guide and began covering the broader community: its history, its people, its celebrations and, eventually, its challenges as well.
One of the greatest joys of those early years was meeting people on the cay who said, “I learned about Green Turtle Cay through a website called Little House by the Ferry.”
It’s Something I Have to Do
Funny thing is, when I started writing that little blog in 2013, I had absolutely no idea what it would become. Early on, I remember saying to Tom, “I don’t know where this is going, but I feel like it’s something I have to do.”
At the time, I couldn’t have imagined that a little blog about my ancestral home would eventually become Abaco Sun, or that the audience we were quietly building would one day matter in ways I could never have anticipated.
Then Came Dorian
In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian changed the landscape of Abaco – literally and figuratively.
The Abaconian, Abaco’s longtime newspaper, was destroyed. Abaco Life magazine did not return. And suddenly, I realized that our little website could serve a much bigger purpose.
We had an online platform. We had an audience. And we had the ability to share information quickly.
We began using Little House by the Ferry to let folks outside of Abaco know where and what sort of help was needed, and how they could donate, volunteer or otherwise support Abaco’s recovery.
To keep local residents informed and to celebrate as businesses reopened, we launched the Abaco Business Directory. The first iteration was one modest page. Today, I’m thrilled to say that there are hundreds of thriving businesses listed in our directory.
During the pandemic, we provided regular COVID updates, to ensure people knew what was required to travel to Abaco, and to help Abaconians as they continued their rebuilding.
We also created a Post-Dorian Visitor’s Guide. The southern end of Abaco was virtually untouched by the storm, and people wanted to come back and support Abaco by injecting vital tourist dollars into the economy. The first visitor’s guide was designed to let them know which communities and resorts were ready and able to welcome them.
Ultimately, since we were now focused on all of Abaco, from Crown Haven to Sandy Point, we renamed the website Abaco Sun.
From a Website to a Magazine — and Back Again
In 2022, we took another big step and launched Abaco Sun magazine. For two and a half years, we published a print magazine dedicated entirely to Abaco. It was a wonderful experience and Tom and I are incredibly proud of what we created.
As many of you know, the magazine is currently on hiatus as I dedicate time to helping several family members with health issues, though I haven’t ruled out bringing it back in some form when time allows.
For now, though, I’m excited to be able to put more of my energy into the website.
After all, the web offers some pretty compelling advantages. There’s less administration involved, allowing me more bandwidth to actually research stories, conduct interviews and write about Abaco.
The website is free and accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. There’s no limit to how many people it can reach.
New information can be published within minutes, rather than waiting months for the next issue to go to press. Stories can be updated as things change, and we can include links, maps, videos and other resources.
AbacoSun.com By the Numbers
Over 13 years, this website has grown far beyond what I ever imagined that little blog would become. Here are some of the numbers that amaze me most.
217
Of the 237 countries and territories listed in the CIA World Fact Book, AbacoSun.com has had readers from 217 of them. As you’d expect, we have plenty of readers in The Bahamas, the United States, Canada and Europe. But we also regularly see visitors from places I never imagined would be part of our audience when I sat down to write that first blog post in 2013.
11,200
The greatest number of page views in one day was 11,200, on November 2, 2019, shortly after I posted a television news story Tom did from Marsh Harbour.
104,000
That was the number of page views we had in September 2019, our busiest month ever.
9,000
That’s our current average number of page views each month. It’s a pretty remarkable journey for a little blog that started because I wanted to tell my family what was happening at an old house on Green Turtle Cay.
But perhaps the number that amazes me most is…
1,790,092
That’s the number of page views we’ve had since we launched this site. Nearly 1.8 million times, someone, somewhere in the world, has visited this site to read something about Abaco.
What’s Next?
One of the things we’ve loved most about Abaco Sun has been helping people discover Abaco. And in the year ahead, we’re going to take that idea much further.
We’re bringing AbacoForum.com and AbacoEscape.com and their resources into the Abaco Sun family. We’re working on new guides and expanding our business directory. And we’re publishing more stories, more history and more practical information for people who live in Abaco, own homes here, or are planning to visit.
We’re also developing some new features and resources that I’m particularly excited about. I’ll share more details about these soon.
Ultimately, our goal is simple: to make AbacoSun.com an even better place to discover, explore and experience Abaco, Bahamas.
Deepest thanks to everyone who has read, shared, commented, emailed, advertised, contributed, offered encouragement or simply stopped by to see what’s happening in Abaco over the past 13 years.
You’ve helped turn a small blog about a little house into something much bigger than we ever imagined.
There are still countless Abaco stories to tell. So, here’s to the teen years!
