Progress at Walker’s stalled, but not the vision
By Lucy Chabot Reed Some things even a global pandemic can’t stop. Slow down, sure, but not stop. And when you combine the money of a multi-millionaire with the heart of a kid, joy is just bound to be the result. In 2018, yacht owner Carl Allen bought Walker’s Cay, the northernmost island in the Bahamas. An American by birth, the island and its people are the stuff of his childhood. “I’m 56 and I’ve been going there since I was 12,” he said. “When I was a kid, it was a magnificent place. In those days, it was just a hotel and restaurant, nothing fancy, but a gateway to the Bahamas where you could clear in and out. My stepdad was in love with the Abacos 68 FALL/WINTER 2020
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and Eleuthera, so we got to see Walker’s coming and going. We’d always head south, but I loved it. I always thought, ‘Why would you ever leave Walker’s’?” Abandoned and desolate for the previous 15 years, Allen has set out to revive it. He’s got a dream of Walker’s hosting fishing tournaments again, of bringing families together, of welcoming wedding parties, and of being the stuff of dreams for a new generation of kids. But life these days has presented plenty of challenges. “I have a glorious plan for bringing her back, but I didn’t have a clue what we were in for,” he said. Though he didn’t want to elaborate – he only graciously called it “red tape” – think government regulations, bureaucracy, permits and
permissions, all on island time. That was the first year. “Then Dorian hit and that set us back a full year,” he said, referring to the Category 5 hurricane that ran over the northern Bahamas, blurring Walker’s original May 2021 completion date. “Then here comes a pandemic, not once but twice. That’s put us back indefinitely.” Well, not exactly indefinitely, even though it’s hard to see the finish line. About 80% of the marina is done, he said. But those final 100 yards will take some time. “We used to have 40-50 workers on property; now we have 5,” he said in late August. When Hurricane Dorian came through the Abacos at Marsh Harbour
on Sept. 1, 2019, everything stopped. Though Walker’s was spared the worst of the storm, the island where those workers lived was upended. So Allen diverted his gaze and his resources to Little Grand Cay, resupplying the island, restoring power and water, and then rebuilding the majority of homes. “When we were hit by Dorian, everything was devastated,” Allen said. Four days after the storm – the soonest they were able – he set the captain and crew of his shadow boat, the 183-foot (55m) M/V Axis, to work transporting as much aid as it could carry. Eleven times. “It took us two months to deliver everything: generators, roofing, food, but we had the platform,” he said. “The
